Possible Fix for HL2 Sound Loop Crash

By 12Iceman
in PC Gaming

 Share

Recommended Posts

Mentor

12Iceman

Posted
Posted (edited)

I decided to take a break from CS:S and loaded up HL2 and every time i tried to play after about 5-15 minutes the game would freeze and the last sound played would loop over and over. I had to CTRL-ALT-DEL and end the hl2.exe process in order to get back to desktop.

I searched google (didn't find anything that was usefull) and consulted the valve support article My games crash with sound looping over and over, usually no error messages which recommended I update all the drivers on my system (pretty much the we don't have a clue so try this approach). So I did what the article recommended, I upgraded my motherboard drivers (to nForce UDP 5.10), audio drivers (nForce Audio Driver 4.62) and video drives (Catalyst 5.10). I also fiddled with a bunch of cvars I found on google that were supposed to help (like -heapsize xxx), but no luck. The game still crashed.

Finally, I thought about why the game worked on my laptop (mobile 9700) and not my desktop (9600XT) and thought maybe since i was using the omega drivers on my laptop and the ati ones on my desktop that maybe the omega drivers somehow fixed the problem.

I remembered that I saw that the Omega Drivers defaulted to fast writes off and the ati ones defaulted to fast writes on, so I gave it a shot and turned off fast writes, and sure enough now my game works.

So to fix the problem, right click on desktop, go to properties, settings, advanced, SMARTGART, and set Fast Writes to off. Reboot, and now instead of the game freezing, the game will just slow down every once in a while for a few seconds and then speed back up again.

I can now play at 1280x1024 at max settings (but with AA and AF off) and get around 60 FPS average. This may not work for everyone, but so far it has seemed to fix my problem.

Edited by 12Iceman
Mentor

12Iceman

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

The game would freeze and the sound would just continue loop over and over again. I usually ended the process after waiting a couple minutes for the game to come back, but the one time i let it just sit there, it eventually crashed to desktop with a "Memory cannot be read" error.

Edit: The setting might be in a different spot if you are using the Catalyst Control Center, I was using the Control Panel. Just poke around the CCC and hopefully there will be a FASTGART option in their somewhere. It might also be possible to disable fast writes in your motherboard's bios.

Edited by 12Iceman
Grand Master

ozgeek

Posted
Posted

I have been having this problem which is why I am replacing my ****ty ATI Radoen X300 with a nVidia 7800GT.

With the X300, I would be playing ANY game, yes ANY game, and it would at random freeze and the sound loops and then my screen would change to blank and then scrambled and then back to the game, but the pc is frozen forcing me to restart the computer.

I know why: atimag.dll has ended up in an infinite loop and wants me to install new drivers which I have many times after un-installing the old drivers well enough. I went back to the drivers that came with the card. Still the same.

I can't disable Fast Writes because this card is PCI-E based. Fast Writes is for AGP cards. I searched all over the internet and the fixes always point to AGP cards and not PCI-E card which I have.

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Apple introduces macOS Tahoe with a new Phone app, revamped Spotlight, and more

      By derekaw · Posted

      I'm running OS 26 on all my devices; it's nice. The windows on iPad is a great move.
    • How to watch Apple's WWDC 2025 event online happening from June 9 to 13

      By Yonah · Posted

      Neowin does not have that problem.
    • YouTube comments are not displaying correctly for some users

      By John K · Posted

      That newest first/top comments first issue has been around for years. Only ever encountered it on videos that were slightly edgy, so to speak.
    • How to watch Apple's WWDC 2025 event online happening from June 9 to 13

      By +MrElectrifyer · Posted

      That was a great presentation. Loved everything about the Aero Glass design upgrade, and how they're even making it easy for devs to create stunning app icons that fit in with the design with a new Icon Composer app. Very well executed Apple 👏🏽 Unfortunately though, they only took a mere baby step with iPadOS bringing aincient resizable windows to iPadOS, still no way to run full-fledged macOS apps on it. So, it's still a no go for me, and I simply can't settle for ANY mono device again having experienced the Surface Pro line...
    • Windows 11 finally gets redesigned Start menu and more in builds 26200.5641 and 26120.4250

      By TarasBuria · Posted

      Windows 11 finally gets redesigned Start menu and more in builds 26200.5641 and 26120.4250 by Taras Buria Apple is not the only company with big software announcements today. Microsoft is dropping two preview builds for Windows 11 users, which introduce major changes to the Start menu. Those in the Dev Channel can download build 26200.5641 (KB5060824) and try the much-improved Start menu and other changes. Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel receive build 26120.4250 with the same changelog. The new Start menu features several changes that make it easier to launch your favorite app. It no longer uses a two-page view, focusing on a single scrollable view instead. At the top, you have your pins, then the Recommended section (you can now turn it off completely), and a list of all apps presented as a grid or categories. Also, the Start menu is now more adaptive, which means users with bigger displays will have a larger Start menu to display more apps (up to eight columns of pinned apps, six recommendations, and four category columns). Finally, it has a new button that lets you expand or collapse the Phone Link pane. By the way, you can check out this article if you want to take a look at other Start menu variants that Microsoft considered when working on the new Start menu. Other changes in build 26200.5641 include the ability to select what widgets appear on the lock screen and the so-called Screen Curtain for Narrator. The latter blacks out the display, keeping the content of the screen available only to those using the Narrator. You can turn on or off the Screen curtain by pressing Caps Lock + Ctrl + C. Also, Narrator now has a new welcome experience that guides users through its features and recent changes. The Settings page is getting two sections fused into one: Searching in Windows and Search Permissions are now just Search in the Privacy & Security section. The gamepad keyboard now has improved navigation and improved focus handling for child keys, flyout menus, word suggestions, language switching, settings, etc. It also works on the lock screen when you have to enter your PIN. Here are other fixes that Microsoft is rolling out gradually to Windows Insiders: [General] This build should fix an underlying issue in the previous flight which was causing input to not work for some Insiders, including when typing into Search, and with the Chinese pinyin IME candidate window, clipboard history, and the emoji panel. [Recall (Preview)] The following fixes are rolling out for Recall on Copilot+ PCs: Fixed an issue causing Recall to crash for some Insiders in the last couple flights. [Taskbar] Fixed an issue where in some cases taskbar icons might appear small even though the setting to show smaller taskbar buttons was configured as “never”. [File Explorer] Fixed an issue where restoring a File Explorer search result from Recall would open File Explorer but not show your search string. [Windowing] Fixed an issue where ALT + Tabbing out of a full screen game could lead to other windows freezing (like Windows Terminal). [Login and lock] Fixed an issue causing the lock screen to crash for some Insiders in the previous flight. [Graphics] Fixed an issue causing some displays to be unexpectedly green after the latest flights. [Settings] Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to the Settings window hanging and no longer responding to input or resizing unless you closed and reopened it. Fixed an issue in System > Display, where if UAC was set to Always Notify and you tried to click the button to do color calibration for your display and cancelled, it would crash Settings. Fixed an issue in System > Display, where a chevron might display for Brightness even if there were no additional settings to display. Fixed an issue where if you changed to a custom mouse cursor in Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch, it could make Settings crash. There is also a single fix that is rolling out to everyone right here, right now: [General] We fixed the issue where you might see severe discoloration when connecting your PC to some older Dolby Vision displays. Here are the known bugs in both Dev and Beta Channels: After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue. [NEW] Some Windows Insiders may experience a rollback trying to install this update with a 0x80070005 in Windows Update. We’re working on a fix for the next flight. [Start menu] The following are known issues for Windows Insiders with the new Start menu: [NEW] Using touch to navigate the new Start menu may not work reliably. For example, it currently does not support the swipe-up gesture. [NEW] Drag and drop capabilities are limited from “All” to “Pinned.” [NEW] In some cases, duplicate entries may appear in folders on the Start menu. [Xbox Controllers] Some Insiders are experiencing an issue where using their Xbox Controller via Bluetooth is causing their PC to bugcheck. Here is how to resolve the issue. Open Device Manager by searching for it via the search box on your taskbar. Once Device Manager is open, click on “View” and then “Devices by Driver”. Find the driver named “oemXXX.inf (XboxGameControllerDriver.inf)” where the “XXX” will be a specific number on your PC. Right-click on that driver and click “Uninstall”. [Click to Do (Preview)] The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Windows Insiders on AMD or Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs may experience long wait times on the first attempt to perform intelligent text actions in Click to Do after a new build or model update. [Improved Windows Search] [REMINDER] For improved Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, it is recommended that you plug in your Copilot+ PC for the initial search indexing to get completed. You can check your search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows. [File Explorer] The following are known issues for AI actions in File Explorer: Narrator scan mode may not work properly in the action result canvas window for the Summarize AI action for Microsoft 365 files when reading bulleted lists. As a workaround, you can use Caps + Right key to navigate. [Widgets] Until we complete support for pinning in the new widgets board experience, pinning reverts you back to the previous experience Note that the Dev build has two more known issues: The option to reset your PC under Settings > System > Recovery will not work on this build. We’re investigating an issue causing a small number of Insiders to experience repeated bugchecks with KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE after upgrading to most current Dev Channel builds. You can find the official announcement for the Dev build here and for the Beta build here.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Rookie
      CHUNWEI went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Enthusiast
      the420kid went up a rank
      Enthusiast
    • Conversation Starter
      NeoToad777 earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • Week One Done
      VicByrd earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      NeoToad777 earned a badge
      Reacting Well

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      486
    2. 2
      +FloatingFatMan
      267
    3. 3
      ATLien_0
      261
    4. 4
      Edouard
      201
    5. 5
      snowy owl
      178
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!