#304340 - 25/11/2007 13:54
Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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I just got around to finishing HL2:EP1 last weekend, and settled down to finish EP2 this weekend. Unfortunately, the game keeps crashing at a particular point.
I don't think there's any spoilers here, so I won't bother hiding this:
I've just been through the Antlion Guard's lair and I've just dropped back down into the mine area. As I go along the corridor, I get a little way from the dead medic, and the game crashes. It does this consistently.
I've updated my video drivers (nVidia GeForce 7900 GS), I've installed the relevant hotfixes (938194, 938979 and 940105), and I deleted and re-downloaded the local game content and cache files.
However, when I reload the save game and attempt to go down the corridor, it still crashes.
The rest of the game works fine, no video corruption, no crashes (although I did manage to crash EP1 by confusing the Antlion Guard in the loading bay...).
Has anyone seen this before?
I've got a support call raised with Valve, but I'm not holding my breath that I'll get anything other than scripted responses...
Also, and I don't know how possible this is:
1. Can someone check my save file (attached) to see if it works OK on their copy of HL2:EP2? I don't think that Valve-Anti-Cheat (VAC) will care, since it's a local game.
2. If it works, can someone walk me into the next room and then send me the savegame back again, so I can carry on?
Thanks.
Attachments
306042-hl2-ep2-roger-quick01.zip (86 downloads)
_________________________
-- roger
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#304341 - 25/11/2007 14:48
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Your save game crashes here as well. I've no idea if its your save game or the actual game as I've not started Ep2 yet.
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#304342 - 25/11/2007 16:20
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: tman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
Your save game crashes here as well. I've no idea if its your save game or the actual game as I've not started Ep2 yet.
Wow, since you both can repro it with a very specific savegame file, you should send that thing to the Valve guys. They'll want that.
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#304343 - 25/11/2007 16:21
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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And, as a workaround, rewind to a point earlier in the game and play forward from there. See if that gets around the crash.
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#304344 - 25/11/2007 17:27
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
Quote:
Your save game crashes here as well. I've no idea if its your save game or the actual game as I've not started Ep2 yet.
Wow, since you both can repro it with a very specific savegame file, you should send that thing to the Valve guys. They'll want that.
Will do. Can you confirm that you've successfully played past that point?
_________________________
-- roger
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#304345 - 25/11/2007 20:25
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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I haven't tried your savegame file, but I played all the way through all the Half Life games without the kind of repeatable crash you describe. I've had intermittent non-repeatable crashes due to video card driver bugs, and I've heard of people having crashes due to corrupted GCF files, but the kind of crash you're talking about is new to me. You could also try the Steam forums. But there's a lot of noise there. It is, after all, the place that required someone to invent the posting and you video...
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#304346 - 25/11/2007 20:32
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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I tried it on 32 bit Vista with nVidia.
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#304347 - 25/11/2007 21:05
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
(although I did manage to crash EP1 by confusing the Antlion Guard in the loading bay...)
Thought I might explain this...
Spoiler:
Va Rc1, gurer'f n ovg jurer lbh naq Nylk pbzr npebff fbzr pbzovar fbyqvref svtugvat na nagyvba thneq. Gur gjb bs lbh pbzr bhg nobir n ybnqvat qbpx; lbh whzc qbja (juvpu xvpxf bss gur tnzr frpgvba) naq Nylk fgnlf hc ba gur onypbal.
Orvat gbb ynml gb svtug gur nagyvba thneq, V svtherq gung V'q trg Nylk gb qb vg (fur frrzf gb unir vasvavgr nzzb), fb V whzcrq qbja, gevttrevat gur frdhrapr, naq gura fgnpxrq hc fbzr pengrf naq pyvzorq onpx hc gb gur onypbal gb jnvg.
Nf fbba nf gur nagyvba thneq svavfurf bss gur fbyqvref naq pbzrf vagb gur ybnqvat onl gb svaq lbh, gur tnzr penfurf.
Rirel gvzr.
_________________________
-- roger
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#304348 - 26/11/2007 09:05
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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I have got past that so I thought I'd go back to some save games to see if I could replicate the issue. It works fine here. I won't now get a chance to run your savegame until I get home tomorrow night, but I'll give it a shot.
_________________________
Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#304349 - 26/11/2007 19:11
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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old hand
Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
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It appeared to work for me. I bashed my way through the spiders web in that cavern and saved the game just outside.
Attachments
306103-newquick01.zip (118 downloads)
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#304350 - 26/11/2007 22:16
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: AndrewT]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
It appeared to work for me. I bashed my way through the spiders web in that cavern and saved the game just outside.
Odd. What OS and video card are you using?
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#304351 - 26/11/2007 22:24
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: tman]
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old hand
Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
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XP Home SP2 and Radeon X300 (8.421.0.0 28/09/2007).
I'm not 100% sure that I understood Roger's initial post correctly in terms of where it hangs on that level. Have I definitely gone past the point where it hung for you too?
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#304352 - 26/11/2007 22:25
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: AndrewT]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
I'm not 100% sure that I understood Roger's initial post correctly in terms of where it hangs on that level. Have I definitely gone past the point where it hung for you too?
I went down the tunnel and it crashed to desktop. I couldn't go the other direction as there was a mound of rocks in the way.
Maybe its a nVidia thing?
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#304353 - 26/11/2007 22:38
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: tman]
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old hand
Registered: 16/02/2002
Posts: 867
Loc: Oxford, UK
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For the record, other than playtesting Roger's savegame, my HL2 EP2 install had never been launched before.
I wonder if something bad is getting cached? I know Roger mentioned clearing the game cache but perhaps something gets missed or is in a non-obvious place?
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#304354 - 27/11/2007 06:17
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: AndrewT]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
For the record, other than playtesting Roger's savegame, my HL2 EP2 install had never been launched before.
Ditto
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#304355 - 27/11/2007 09:42
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: AndrewT]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
It appeared to work for me. I bashed my way through the spiders web in that cavern and saved the game just outside.
Very odd. I walk towards the web, and when I get near to the dead medic slumped against the left-hand wall, it crashes. I'll try your saved game to see if that works.
Maybe the cavern's too big or something? I've got an nVidia GeForce 7900GS, latest drivers, Windows Vista Ultimate, all relevant hotfixes.
_________________________
-- roger
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#304356 - 27/11/2007 10:04
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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Just for info I have a Radeon 1300 card and mine works - is this only happening with Nvidia cards?
_________________________
Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#304357 - 27/11/2007 10:43
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS SLI + Windows Vista Business + latest drivers.
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#304358 - 27/11/2007 13:50
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
I've got an nVidia GeForce 7900GS, latest drivers, Windows Vista Ultimate, all relevant hotfixes.
Including these? http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_vista_hotfixes.html
Some of the hotfixes linked off that page aren't sent down via Windows Update. Half Life 2 is listed as one of the games that could have crashing problems under Vista.
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#304360 - 27/11/2007 15:23
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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enthusiast
Registered: 29/03/2005
Posts: 364
Loc: Probably lost somewhere in Wal...
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I tried your savegame and it works here, Ati card. Here's the savegame a few steps further. Sorry for the couple of healthpoints, but there was a headcrab around the corner  Edit: More info. XP Pro 32bits, Amd X64, Ati X800XT
Edited by Schido (27/11/2007 16:34)
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Empeg Mk1 #00177, 2.00 final, hijack 4.76
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#304361 - 27/11/2007 16:08
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Just to toss another sample in:
Vista 64, NVidia 7900 GT, 163.69 drivers. No crash issues with the save game, loaded it and proceeded into the next area with no issues.
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#304362 - 27/11/2007 19:42
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Ummmmmm.... "Source Patch [November 26, 2007, 8:51 pm ET] Steam News has word that a new update for the Source engine is now automatically available, addressing a Half-Life 2: Episode Two issue that could crash the game: "Fixed a crash in Half-Life 2: Episode Two when exiting This Vortal Coil."
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#304363 - 28/11/2007 07:28
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
"Source Patch [November 26, 2007, 8:51 pm ET]
Just got this in email from Steam Support:
Quote:
This crash has been fixed. Please restart Steam and launch HL2:EP2 to download this update
I've not tried it yet, but that's good response time from the Valve guys.
_________________________
-- roger
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#304364 - 28/11/2007 14:27
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Did you ever send them that savegame file? Do you think this fix is a direct result of your bug report? If so: Cool. :-)
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#304365 - 28/11/2007 14:52
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
Did you ever send them that savegame file?
No. I didn't get around to it. If it's fixed, then it might not be the savegame.
Quote:
Do you think this fix is a direct result of your bug report? If so: Cool. :-)
I'd like to think so; that'd be cool. I did send them the relevant Windows Event Log entries, which means that they should have been able to pick up the crash dumps that I submitted to Microsoft.
_________________________
-- roger
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#304366 - 28/11/2007 15:06
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Valve does a lot of data mining on their own, and I wouldn't be surprised if Steam was sending them a crash dump directly, possibly with the last actions you were doing and the most recent save game. If multiple people were hitting it, the crash probably was at the top of a report, and above the "flakey machine or other unfixable by us problem" threshold. I used to do similar checks on crash dumps for the live game I worked on, as it is one of the best ways to ensure that the bugs being fixed are the ones directly impacting a lot of customers. http://steampowered.com/status/ep2/ep2_stats.php has the info they make public, including maps of each levels with data on where people are dying.
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#304367 - 28/11/2007 15:17
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
including maps of each levels with data on where people are dying.
OK. Own up. Who managed to die on the first level, standing by the pond? IIRC, there's nothing dangerous there. Did they drown?
_________________________
-- roger
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