Problems with Half-Life 2, ugh! Help :)

[Hadanar 0]

Hey all,

 

Ok I got a serious problem with Half-Life 2. Here's what happens:

 

I load the game up, alls good. Start up a new game, the introductory (in-game graphics) cutscene starts. It runs fine, but then the sound starts to repeat itself and the game freezes. These 2 things happen simultaneously. This continues for about 2/3 seconds, and then the game resumes. From then on, it occurs at random intervals. I've gone online to the sierra tech support, and done everything they've suggested (e.g. opening dxdiag or msconfig and playing around with sound acceleration settings, checking its all enabled, or unchecking the 'Load startup items' box in the config ulitites. Or turning off my secondary sound source - basically small things that usually never work! )

 

Now I think that its probably something to do with my sound card. I have a Realtek AC'97 Audio card. I've looked online, and I've noticed that sh*t loadsa people are having trouble with them. I downloaded the latest drivers for it (ALC650 Audio CODECs Driver v A3.74). I noticed that there was an earlier version (v A3.69) that dealt with sound problems regarding HL2 .. am I right in assuming that a more up-to-date version (like the one I got) would contain whatever an earlier version had? Or should I get v A3.69 aswell? Here is some of the other specs of my comp:

 

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (939), Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 motherboard, Seagate 200GB SATA Hard Disk, PH 2GB DDR400 RAM, GeForce 6800GT 256MB AGP 8x, and of course my beautiful sound card - realtek AC97 audio

 

I doesn't really sound like a graphics problem, but I don't know. Does anyone have any idea what it might be? Like I said I've done everything that tech support (in sierra anyway) suggest and even after a new sound card driver update, i still have the same problem. I've been playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I & II recently, and both work perfectly. Anyway any help would be so great. Thanks to anyone who replies

 

~ I'm dying to play this game!

[American Zombie 0]

Sierra (Vivendi) forums or Steam forums?

 

The official forums for HL2 and all other Valve games are on Steampowered.

 

Half Life 2 Forum

 

Your problem can also be caused by the display driver.

[jmmijo 1]

See if the tips/tricks that AZ recommended will help resolve this issue. Also be sure to update your motherboard chipset software too, I beleive that's an nVidia nForce motherboard so grab the latest drivers on their website too.

 

Another thing to try, although a more costly option, is to get a third party sound card with a different audio chipset, I myself prefer the Sound Blaster Audigy line, but you can find so many others out there based on Cmedia, Realtek, Analog Devices, etc....

 

Be sure you uninstall the Realtek AC97 drivers first then enter the system BIOS to disable the onboard AC97 and Midi Interface.

 

Just remember that a high-end game like HL2 really eats up the power on a machine, the CPU, GPU, Memory and Sound

[DosFreak 2]

Also try adjusting your video card/sound card latency if needed.

[Hadanar 0]

Thanks a million for the help all. I'll try those options - I think I'll make an attempt at fixing it before buying any new hardware tho....

 

Thanks again