Posted by: Roger
Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 25/11/2007 13:54
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.
Posted by: tman
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 25/11/2007 14:48
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.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 25/11/2007 16:21
And, as a workaround, rewind to a point earlier in the game and play forward from there. See if that gets around the crash.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 25/11/2007 20:25
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...
Posted by: tman
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 25/11/2007 20:32
I tried it on 32 bit Vista with nVidia.
Posted by: frog51
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 26/11/2007 09:05
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.
Posted by: AndrewT
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 26/11/2007 19:11
It appeared to work for me. I bashed my way through the spiders web in that cavern and saved the game just outside.
Posted by: AndrewT
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 26/11/2007 22:24
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?
Posted by: AndrewT
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 26/11/2007 22:38
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?
Posted by: frog51
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 27/11/2007 10:04
Just for info I have a Radeon 1300 card and mine works - is this only happening with Nvidia cards?
Posted by: tman
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 27/11/2007 10:43
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS SLI + Windows Vista Business + latest drivers.
Posted by: Schido
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 27/11/2007 15:23
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
Posted by: drakino
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 27/11/2007 16:08
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.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 27/11/2007 19:42
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."
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 28/11/2007 14:27
Did you ever send them that savegame file? Do you think this fix is a direct result of your bug report? If so: Cool. :-)
Posted by: drakino
Re: Half Life 2: Episode 2: Crash - 28/11/2007 15:06
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.