ComputerBB

Posted: **December 30th, 2004, 9:38 am**

A resolution to this problem can be found here:
http://www.computerbb.org/post-8891.html#8891

-ccb056 (Forum Administrator)

Every time I start up Half-Life 2 and click to start a new game and load the first mission; the loading screen will come up, the screen will go blank and "Half Life 2" text fades in, and then I get this error message: "The instruction '0x241f7c37' reference memory at '0x0106f5c0.' The memory could not be 'read'. Click 'OK' to terminate program." I have looked around for a solution, and have found many people with the same problem, but nobody with a solution. It seems odd to me that nobody is doing anything about this (seemingly) widespread problem.

For me, the problem is limited to Half-Life 2 only, and no other applications or games are affected. Even the Half-Life 2: Deathmatch game and Counter-Strike Source work fine. I have found a little information on the related "stutter-bug" sound issue on the STEAM website, but not enough to help. As suggested in another thread from a different forum, I changed the way HL2 opens. Nothing has worked. I found one person who fixed his problem by swapping his RAM into different slots; but I know for a fact that this isn't my problem. (If I switch them back to the way I had them before, my computer will randomly reboot itself)

I have tried updating my graphics card drivers, and changing all settings in the game to the lowest level. Some people in other forums suggest that it may be an issue with a low-end graphics card. I don't have the best (Radeon 9600XT) but I have ruled this out as the cause because I can run HL2: DM seamlessly on a mix of medium and high graphics settings.

Heres a list of other forum posts with similar issues:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic18030.html
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic16997.html
http://pcpitstop.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=76153
http://www.3dgameman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31720

There are more, just google it...or if you're too lazy click here:
I am Lazy

And a list of my computer's specifications:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
ASUS Radeon 9600XT 128MB
1GB(2x512) Kingston Hyper-X Dual channel RAM
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard
Thermaltake Purepower 420W PSU
Onboard Nvidia nForce audio
Running Windows XP SP2 (not for much longer if I keep getting these stupid problems)

Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy post, and hopefully with your help we can sort this out. If you have a similar issue please post your specific problem (and error message) along with your system specs; so we can pinpoint the cause of this problem.

Thanks again for your help in solving this problem. The reward to whoever finds the solution: My (and I'm sure many others') continual gratitude for saving HL2 for us; and a Gmail account, if there's anyone left who doesn't already have one.

Posted: **December 30th, 2004, 5:05 pm**

google for "memtest86", put it on a floppy and run the full diagnostic, tell us if it finds any problems with your ram

Posted: **December 30th, 2004, 6:19 pm**

I still have to fix that floppy drive lol...so much computer fixing, so little time.

Posted: **December 30th, 2004, 8:42 pm**

I haven't gotten the memtest86 thing done yet; but I found an article on this problem: here
It still didn't work for me, but it might help someone else. The only thing I didn't try yet is step 15 on the page linked above. I guess there must be something wrong with my memory setup or something. Is it just dusty or what?

Posted: **February 7th, 2005, 5:57 pm**

[quote="ccb056"]google for "memtest86", put it on a floppy and run the full diagnostic, tell us if it finds any problems with your ram[/quote] I have this same problem and have run memtest86. There were no errors found. My system is not overclocked. Every time I destroy the helicopter at the dam I get this error: The instruction at "0x241f94b7" referenced memory at "0x0106f5c0". The memory could not be "read". I have been able to work around this problem by just not destroying the helicopter, but as you can imagine this is very difficult to do without getting killed. I have also tryed running the lowest graphics settings and reinstalling from steam. I have updates all drivers. I have also tryed several command parameters at startup to no avail. I do not encounter this error with any other game. My system specs areas follows: Processor: AMD XP 2600+ RAM: 2*512MB Kingston ValueRAM Mobo: ECS N2U400-A <- NForce 2 chipset VidCrd: NVidia Geforce 6600 GT AGP OS: WinXP SP 2

Posted: **March 29th, 2005, 5:49 am**

My message is very similar and reads: The instruction at "0x241f9467" referrenced memory at "0x01080cc0" The memory could not be "read". My computer specs are as follows: AMD Athlon processor 2800 Radeon 9800 pro XP home Realtek 97AC audio 512 ddr ram ABIT QTES motherboard These are fairly good if I'm not mistaken and thus I shouldn't be experiencing the problem; any help to this problem, like liquid said would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou

Posted: **April 6th, 2005, 7:12 pm**

I have the exact same error mesage but it hapens with Warcraft 3, Reing of Caos and Frozen Throne. I haven't tried Half Life 2, but I have played Doom3, Prince of Persia Sands of Time, World of Warcraft, and they work just fine; what I'm getting at is that so far... Warcraft 3 is the only aplication that is giving me a hard time. I ran the Norton Systemworks check, to see if there's some problem with reg's or something, nothing came up. I then thought it might be a driver thing, so I instaled all the latest drivers for my video card and Directx but it didn't help. After that I searched the internet and found solutions on other forums, from there I tried LSP_fix and a bunch of other stuff from other forums... I even replaced the install shield engine (hope springs eternal), nothing has seemed to work... I just can't think of anything else... My comp is a AMD 64 3000+, a e-Ge-Force 5700 LE, 512 DDR Ram, MSI K8N Neo platinum and 120Gigs Hard drive. If someone has a solution Please help me out... Thanx

Posted: **April 9th, 2005, 5:13 am**

I've been trying to figure this one out for months, to no success. I have checked everything. MY drivers are up to date, my memory is working fine (Checked with memtest86), I tried swapping out my memory sticks; and I have done everything that the "techs" for VU told me to do. Nothing has worked. Nothing. If you have this problem, here is some advice. Do NOT go to VU for tech support. They really seem to know nothing at all; and i doubt that most all of them i spoke with even had a clue what my problem was. If you do want to know what they have to sya, I will save you some time. They will first tell you to clean boot and try to run the game. That will not work. They will then tell you to turn all settings in the game to as low as they go. That will not work. THen, they will tell you to adjust your hardware accelleration settings. Guess what, that won't work either. They will then realize that you are actually smarter than they are, and they will try to pass you off to another tech, or onto this link: Link (The link won't help you either.) Your best bet is to come here, or some other forum, and get help from people who know what they're doing, and actually help people because they want to, not because they get paid for it. I have lost all faith in VU, since they seem to have no inclination whatsoever to even think of trying to maybe make a half assed attempt at pretending they care. Congrats, you now have a $60 box with a pretty picture on it. I hate VU, and I hate the whole damn system! One last thing. Do not get mad at yourself, or even at your computer for this problem. It isn't your fault. VU is responsible for it, and they should take action to fix it. It is sickening how many people have this problem and aren't getting any help at all from VU. You are not alone. I hope Vivendi knows how many future customers they are really losing because of this problem.

Posted: **April 18th, 2005, 3:22 am**

Liquidman wrote:I've been trying to figure this one out for months, to no success. I have checked everything. MY drivers are up to date, my memory is working fine (Checked with memtest86), I tried swapping out my memory sticks; and I have done everything that the "techs" for VU told me to do. Nothing has worked. Nothing. If you have this problem, here is some advice. Do NOT go to VU for tech support. They really seem to know nothing at all; and i doubt that most all of them i spoke with even had a clue what my problem was. If you do want to know what they have to sya, I will save you some time. They will first tell you to clean boot and try to run the game. That will not work. They will then tell you to turn all settings in the game to as low as they go. That will not work. THen, they will tell you to adjust your hardware accelleration settings. Guess what, that won't work either. They will then realize that you are actually smarter than they are, and they will try to pass you off to another tech, or onto this link: Link (The link won't help you either.) Your best bet is to come here, or some other forum, and get help from people who know what they're doing, and actually help people because they want to, not because they get paid for it. I have lost all faith in VU, since they seem to have no inclination whatsoever to even think of trying to maybe make a half assed attempt at pretending they care. Congrats, you now have a $60 box with a pretty picture on it. I hate VU, and I hate the whole damn system! One last thing. Do not get mad at yourself, or even at your computer for this problem. It isn't your fault. VU is responsible for it, and they should take action to fix it. It is sickening how many people have this problem and aren't getting any help at all from VU. You are not alone. I hope Vivendi knows how many future customers they are really losing because of this problem.

---------------- Interestingly enough, the thing that has "helped", but not fixed the problem completely is to turn up the page file in windows. In XP Pro it is done by going to "system" in control panel >> Advanced Tab >> Performance settings >> Virtual memory >> change >> and "custom" radial button >> make the initial page size the same as the maximum. That helped me get through the chopper blowing up, but if I try to load a game or exit out of HL2/CS Source it still blue screens or crashes. Also, another thing that helped me not blue screen when HL2 crashes is to turn off windows option that reboots if there is an error. "system" in control panel >> Advanced Tab >> start up & recovery>> settings >> uncheck "automatically restart" on system failure. You can see my rig in my signature. To get rid of this error/problems and RUN STABLE & ROCK SOLID I had to clock down my CPU from 400FSB to 333FSB along with changing my memory to 1:1 or 100% frequency. That stablized my system and stopped the reference problem all together. Bummer huh. Who's fault is it? Valve/AMD/Memory/Microsoft? Not sure which it is, but I am sure of one thing after $600.00 and three months of hell, I am leaning towards two things; AMD has flaws/frequency conflict or hardware conflict at the higher settings or maybe it's XP. Go to your AMD website and find out how to clock down your CPU and make sure your memory is at 1:1 or 100% frequency to match the CPU FSB, or you might need to consult your memory support. That will stablize your system and allow you to play HL2/SDK/CS Source with no problems, it did for me. Oh and if you ask why it is partly valve to blame? well I can't really say it is, but this problem seems to be more prevelant with HL2, although I see alot of other posts from people with this issue running other high graphic processor intensive games. On the other hand all of the people I've seen with this issue had AMD. .. Maybe it is that hardware & software are in a sort of quandry in respects to all the new gaming technology/engines and software just can't cope with memory speeds and processor in sink with these kinds of high end calculations going on. One other thing I found after viewing hundreds of posts, there is 3rd party bios out there for most mother boards that are made for overclocking. If you are born to tweak or just have to try one more thing I would suggest you try flashing one of those trusted 3rd party bios (like Trats A7N8X-E Deluxe Trats http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=352326) and don't overclock, just see if the new bios has some setting that can stablize your system and smooth it all out. I did not do this because I'm a puss, or I am just at my ropes end with messing around with this crap. Truth be said, I had a Barton 2500+ XP running pc2100 ram and wanted to step up my system to pc3200 along with 400 FSB so I bought the AMD barton 3200+... That is when all hell broke loose. On another note, the first 3200+ AMD I bought was a fake, I RMA'd it back to EZbuy where I bought it and the next one they sent had all these same issues. After looking on the AMD forums I found "Fake CPU". There are fake CPU's that the board the chip sit's on is tampered with and they counterfit the sticker etc to make it look legit. It will show up in bios as the processor you were supposed to get too, but it's just an overclocked ooold chip. Getting a retail box didn't help much, things are working now with the above windows settings, but not completely, I am still getting blue screens at 400 FSB 100% ram frequency. I am going to keep my machine at 333 FSB and call it a very expensive, exhaustive and frustrating lesson. I think I am going to move over to Intel on my next purchase. If I change my mind because I found the problem was NOT an AMD I'll repost here. I am using this site because it came up first on my google search and I am hoping to help someone out there like me with this elusive problem. Good luck and God bless. PS If you figure anything out, please post here! We got to cover each others backs as consumers. Late

Posted: **April 18th, 2005, 7:19 am**

New news, I just tried turning off the page file all together. Page file is where you system writes on your hard drive. I have a sneaky feeling that my 7200 RPM 8mb cache seagate is too slow to keep up with 400FSB and the low latency my corsair are hitting. That would explain why it works in 333FSB fine. And why I was just able to load, reload exit reload right to the chopper seen over and over with NO issues. Funny thing, valve has HL2 using the page file area to write things like config file, like how you move forward backward etc. I know because I had to re-input them after taking page file off. If this is the issue that is pleagueing so many people I am very pissed to say the least that ALL OF THESE VENDORS DIDN"T FIGURE IT OUT TO BEGIN WITH! If anyone else has this issue and this works for them too, I would be VERY interested to know what hardrive you have, especially speed, make and what if any onboard cache your HD has. I don't think keeping "page file" off is a smart idea. I think alot of programs probably use it so you might have strange things happen over time. But this does help zero in on the problem - ITS THE HARD DRIVE? THink about it, it only makes sense, if you get memory errors, and your memtest is not showing errors it should not be your ram, then there is memory on my video card, then they are using page file on your HD. All those different places to access information in a heavy processor load along with new high performance memory that push the speeds way high, how is a HD (hard drive) going to keep up?

Posted: **April 18th, 2005, 5:38 pm**

dantheman wrote:New news, I just tried turning off the page file all together. Page file is where you system writes on your hard drive. I have a sneaky feeling that my 7200 RPM 8mb cache seagate is too slow to keep up with 400FSB and the low latency my corsair are hitting. That would explain why it works in 333FSB fine. And why I was just able to load, reload exit reload right to the chopper seen over and over with NO issues. Funny thing, valve has HL2 using the page file area to write things like config file, like how you move forward backward etc. I know because I had to re-input them after taking page file off. If this is the issue that is pleagueing so many people I am very pissed to say the least that ALL OF THESE VENDORS DIDN"T FIGURE IT OUT TO BEGIN WITH! If anyone else has this issue and this works for them too, I would be VERY interested to know what hardrive you have, especially speed, make and what if any onboard cache your HD has. I don't think keeping "page file" off is a smart idea. I think alot of programs probably use it so you might have strange things happen over time. But this does help zero in on the problem - ITS THE HARD DRIVE? THink about it, it only makes sense, if you get memory errors, and your memtest is not showing errors it should not be your ram, then there is memory on my video card, then they are using page file on your HD. All those different places to access information in a heavy processor load along with new high performance memory that push the speeds way high, how is a HD (hard drive) going to keep up?

Also have the same hard drive spec and the same problem. Is it a new harddrive that is needed?

Posted: **April 23rd, 2005, 5:49 pm**

It seems to me that the problem is retricted to AMD processors. Maybe its something related something to memory frequency and/or sync. I have been investigating the forums about this problem, prior to purchasing the game and getting disapointed. As my processor is a Pentium Centrino, I'll give it a shot. Nevertheless it is a shame that a product as popular as Half Life 2 has this kind of unsolved bug. VU has the responsability of providing a solution to this problem, after all, many of the people that reported having this problem said that it doesnt happen to any other game. I often hear commentaries aboutpeople that download and play games without paying. That's pretty owful. But, what happens to the people that pay, and can't play? From my point of view, that would be even more serious. I'm willing, as you all were, to do the correct thing: buy the game. In return, it is our right to make use of the product we purchased. We are investing in our entertainment, and not headache. I think, that the people that are experiencing this problem should unite, and make a lot of noise. Build a website or something. There's a word that most companies fear a lot: sue! If we get enough attention, maybe we can push VU to pay a more serious attention to this problem. We don't have to waste our time underclocking and reconfiguring our systems, even because some of us need the computer to work, and cant afford changing the whole system just to play a game. Its just wrong. So you see, i've gathered enough (obvious) arguments to make noise. If any of you has any other point of view, please post it, i would be pleased to read it!

Posted: **April 23rd, 2005, 11:20 pm**

ajburlet wrote:It seems to me that the problem is retricted to AMD processors.

I have a P4 in my desktop and I get the error at the begining of the game as soon as the train is about to stop.

It works fine on my Dell 5150 Laptop but the 60Hz refresh rate makes me dizzy

Posted: **April 26th, 2005, 1:46 am**

ajburlet wrote:It seems to me that the problem is retricted to AMD processors. Maybe its something related something to memory frequency and/or sync. I have been investigating the forums about this problem, prior to purchasing the game and getting disapointed. As my processor is a Pentium Centrino, I'll give it a shot. Nevertheless it is a shame that a product as popular as Half Life 2 has this kind of unsolved bug. VU has the responsability of providing a solution to this problem, after all, many of the people that reported having this problem said that it doesnt happen to any other game. I often hear commentaries aboutpeople that download and play games without paying. That's pretty owful. But, what happens to the people that pay, and can't play? From my point of view, that would be even more serious. I'm willing, as you all were, to do the correct thing: buy the game. In return, it is our right to make use of the product we purchased. We are investing in our entertainment, and not headache. I think, that the people that are experiencing this problem should unite, and make a lot of noise. Build a website or something. There's a word that most companies fear a lot: sue! If we get enough attention, maybe we can push VU to pay a more serious attention to this problem. We don't have to waste our time underclocking and reconfiguring our systems, even because some of us need the computer to work, and cant afford changing the whole system just to play a game. Its just wrong. So you see, i've gathered enough (obvious) arguments to make noise. If any of you has any other point of view, please post it, i would be pleased to read it!

I am runnign the following: INTEL P4 2.8GHZ with HT enabeld. 1gb Corsair cl2.5 pc3200 ram 80gb 7200rpm WDC EIDE drive ATI 9700 PRO 128mb AGP8x Video and I get the the EXACT same thing .. but ONLY in deathmatch, I also play Farcry, Doom3, WOW, and City of Heroes and have NEVER expereinced this problem.. it could be a STEAM ISSUE since I did opt for the online STEAM installation.. however.. it is RANDOM>. some nights it doesnt happen at all, somtimes it happens right away.. I never blue screen, it just crashes the game and I have to go back into steam and log back in to the server... so far I hacve been unsuccessful at nailing down the source.. but I have narrowed it to the STEAM engine and DEATHMATCH... I have uninstalled it and moved it to a second system Barton AMD 2500+ 1gb pc3200 KINGSTON CL3 120gb 7200 SATA hard drive NVIDIA GFORCE 6600 GT AGP BOTH systems run XP Professional SP2 with hotfixes, both systems also have Roxio disk drag, and NAV 2004 pro resident... windows firewall disabled (since I run a netscreen) problem FOLLOWS the move... take it for what its worth.

Posted: **April 26th, 2005, 1:46 pm**

Tribe33 wrote: am runnign the following: INTEL P4 2.8GHZ with HT enabeld. 1gb Corsair cl2.5 pc3200 ram 80gb 7200rpm WDC EIDE drive ATI 9700 PRO 128mb AGP8x Video and I get the the EXACT same thing .. but ONLY in deathmatch, I also play Farcry, Doom3, WOW, and City of Heroes and have NEVER expereinced this problem.. it could be a STEAM ISSUE since I did opt for the online STEAM installation.. however.. it is RANDOM>. some nights it doesnt happen at all, somtimes it happens right away.. I never blue screen, it just crashes the game and I have to go back into steam and log back in to the server...

I finally bought the game to see what happens. First, I had to buy the CD-ROM version, I couldnt find the DVD version. When I got home and began to install it, I came across the first problem: the fourth CD had a problem: the installation program couldnt find a damn icon file, because it was actually in the fifth CD! Well, I downloaded the Steam update, and I was able to install it without a problem. After installing it, Steam wouldnt accept my CD-KEY! I called to the tech support, and they told me that the label on the CD case had a number missing. After they provided me with the correct number, I downloaded the HL2 patch and started the game. Was I able to enjoy the game then? NO. Now the "memory problem" showed up. But, after a careful research prior to buying the game, I knew some solutions before throwing my laptop out of the window. I added

Code: Select all

[i]
[/i]+mat_forcehardwaresync 0

And it seems to solve the problem. Still, whenever I try to set advanced video options, the memory problem shows up again. Well, after all these problems I can draw only one conclusion: the game was far from ready to go to the shelves. In my opinion, I think they were pushed to release it before xmas, so they would make more $$$. The CD problem, for instance, is stupid. They really rushed to release the game.

Posted: **April 28th, 2005, 9:15 am**

I had the memory error problem even after playing it the day before (even at 1280 x 1024) and fixed it by doing the following. find your steam directory and look for folder 'steamapps'. In here look for 'half life 2' directory and rename it to 'half life 21'. then run steam and run halflife 2. It should run ok. quit the game. Go to the 'half life 21' folder and copy your saved games into the new 'half life 2' folder. Adrian.

Posted: **May 13th, 2005, 9:25 pm**

Thanks for all of the suggestions; but still none of them work for me. I still urge those who are looking for a fix to try these; because things that seem to work for some people don't work for me. (I know there's a huge conspiracy surrounding me). the +mat_forcehardwaresync 0 seems to work for a lot of people. I gave up actively looking for a solution (frankly I think this should be VU's probem, not mine); but I will definitely post if I come across a solution.

Posted: **June 10th, 2005, 8:59 pm**

Ok. I signed up to this forum for the single reason to thank the poster adeshere. I got the memory problem a couple of days ago, and ive tried EVERYTHING. Upgrading bios, changing drivers, reinstalling hl2, everything. Then i tried adeshere's trick, and it magically worked. Thanks alot, now i can finally REplay halflife 2 on my new 22" monitor =D.

Posted: **June 14th, 2005, 9:12 am**

Liquidman wrote:Thanks for all of the suggestions; but still none of them work for me. I still urge those who are looking for a fix to try these; because things that seem to work for some people don't work for me. (I know there's a huge conspiracy surrounding me). the +mat_forcehardwaresync 0 seems to work for a lot of people. I gave up actively looking for a solution (frankly I think this should be VU's probem, not mine); but I will definitely post if I come across a solution.

It might shock you a bit here. Have you tried another motherboard with the same fsb as the memory and the cpu can handle?? Try it, after all these fuss, I might have solved your problem for good!!

Posted: **August 1st, 2005, 1:19 pm**

i have fix files for hl2 mem read error. [email protected] only 3mb problem is in your windows some dll files are missing thats why it wont work.

Posted: **August 1st, 2005, 1:26 pm**

works fine with my 3200 64bit amb 1gb ddr2 650mhz mem

x800xt 2x120gb 2x160gb maxtor hdd dvd cdrw 8x 54x

Posted: **August 16th, 2005, 8:09 am**

I have fixed this issue for me, which may help someone here. If you use dual channel and get an error, but can run the game fine when it is not in dual channel config, and if you use Corsair memory. Try upping the DDRV from 2.6v - 2.7v. Apparently this works for alot of errors where Corsair memory is running at only 2.6v.

Posted: **August 17th, 2005, 3:59 am**

corpsicle wrote:Ok. I signed up to this forum for the single reason to thank the poster adeshere. I got the memory problem a couple of days ago, and ive tried EVERYTHING. Upgrading bios, changing drivers, reinstalling hl2, everything. Then i tried adeshere's trick, and it magically worked. Thanks alot, now i can finally REplay halflife 2 on my new 22" monitor =D.

AMEN TO THAT, exactly what happened to me, adeshere is THE man, or woman, whatever NICE WORK DUDE

ComputerBB

Half-Life 2 Memory read error

Half-Life 2 Memory read error

I am also having the same problem...

memory read error

not limited to AMD

HAlf life 2 error message