HL2 Stuttering

[sjracer]

Ok, so I know the drill, HL2 has an old stuttering problem, but here is the deal. Since the Steam update HL2 stutters on both my main system and my Alienware Laptop. Main system used to run it smooth as silk. Laptop is new. Main system is running 6800gt, laptop running 6800 go Ultra. It is really aggrivating. Steam has a post about it, but no dice. I have tried different drivers and no improvement. Anyone have suggestions??

Thanks,
SJRACER

 

[ThePerson98]

Probably a copyrighted ValvE messed up update...Just be happy you aren't me..
One of the updates made it so I couldn't play HL2 for months. It would completely lock up.

 

[sjracer]

That really stinks. I know the feeling though. I can barely play it. It annoys me so bad I cant stand it. I was just checking to see if anyone else had the problem and what if anything can fix it.

SJRACER

 

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

what if anything can fix it.

SJRACER

ATI

 

[ThreeOnTheTree]

I didn't know that NV cards were that much different on HL2. That's pretty bad though, and you would hope that Valve would be smarter about their steam rollouts.

 

[sjracer]

Yea yea yea, I have a friend who swears by ATI. Me personally, I cant stand ATI. Bad juju for me. We both noticed though. HL2 plays better with ATI, Doom3 plays better with NVIDIA. Just the way the games are designed I guess. Still ****s though. Hopefully Valve will fix this crap with the next steam update.

SJRACER

 

[equinoxe3d]

Don't worry, HL2 stutters as well on ATi hardware too. Didn't play HL2 recently, just tried Lost Coast, ran decently for me but the stuttering in HL2 might be due to the update that occured at the same time Lost Coast went out.

 

[ThreeOnTheTree]

HL2 seems fine to me. Maybe Valve doesn't like Intel either...

 

[sjracer]

Ok, As far as Intel vs AMD, my Main system is an Athlon 64 3500 and my Laptop is a Pentium 4 3.4ghz (800fsb) So given that they both stutter, I dont think a processor is the difference.

However, I do have more info. I ran my defrag this morning and it kept locking up, then the D drive would dissapear. Strange. So I had to reboot to get it back. Then I ran my defrag again (I use O&O Defrag) and it was locking up on the Valve folder on a specific file. I tried it two or three times. Finally I tried running the Error Checking on the disk and that locked up. So I booted in safe mode, same deal. So I booted back up and uninstalled HL2, Steam and every remnance of Valve, then ran RegScrubXP, then re-ran defrag, and no problems. Running the Error Check on that drive now and it is already past where it locked up. So I can only deduce that my system doesnt like valve. Or perhaps if I reinstall it will work. I had originally installed it on my D drive of the laptop, then uninstalled and reinstalled on the C drive. Same results, but as I looked at the D drive, there was still stuff there in the Valve folder as if it had teh full install still. Strange. I know this is a long post, but I wanted to share that. By the way, in both the defrag and Error checking I could here the drive making a noise, as if it were trying to get past a bad block or somthing. That was at the moment it was locking up. Now it works great.I did a basic defrag, and then I will do the full name defrag.


SJRACER

 

[ThreeOnTheTree]

Weird.

 

[sjracer]

Yea, I thought it was weird too. I did finish all my scans with no errors. I ran a full name defrag, tested several games, no problems at all. I would love to know why the defrag locked up on the steam folder, but no biggie. Perhaps one of these days I will try HL2 again. I am a little upset with Valve/Steam right now. Oh well. Anyway all is normal now, except I dont have HL2 installed anymore.

SJRACER

 

[MuFu]

Might want to try this:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=353850&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

...or is that the post you mentioned?

I had the stutter when I first installed HL2 but an update fixed it.

 

[sjracer]

MuFu,
Thanks. I am re-installing HL2 and going to try the fix for it if it still stutters for me. I will post and let you all know. Seems that most are getting it fixed with this tweak. I have high hopes now. These posts are all from after the September update.


SJRACER

 

[sjracer]

MuFu,
YOU ROCK!!! I had not found that post. It works like a champ. I had to read through 21 pages, and have to load the sound files at the begining of each level but WOW. It is playable again. Thanks for the link.


SJRACER

 

[MuFu]

No probs. To be honest I still have the occasional glitch so might give those suggestions a try too.

So was preloading the sounds the main fix for you?

 

[ThreeOnTheTree]

Now that you mention it, I did have sound issues with HL2 a while back. However, it only seems to do it when running 4.1. If I use 2.1, the problem goes away. I just thought it was my old SBlive! dragging me down.

 

[sjracer]

Yes, preloading the sounds is what fixed it. I still have the occasional glitch, but it runs smooth as silk for the most part now. I have to bring up the consol and load the sounds at the begining of each chapter, but that is a minor annoyance at best. I am thrilled to death because I can play the game again. Thanks again!!


SJRACER

 

[F_A_L_C_O_N]

Interestingly enaugh from what I read 7800GT works great with HL2 and X1800XL manifests very noticable shimmering. Latter really doesnt look like much of the card for the money when compared to 7800GT.

 

[krupted]

7800gt runs hl2 around 100fps max everything 1280x1024 with a 3800+x2. it will drop down to 40 sometimes, but thats rare and doesnt effect performance. sometimes it reaches 170.

at that resolution and full eye candy, the game looks simply spectacular. first few times ive played it ive been killed jsut looking around at the walls and stuff