Computer 'locks up' when playing Counter Strike: Source.

[Ramza]

For a good two weeks now, I've been playing Counter Strike Source over Steam...

I've had two errors so far- one of them I get from being on certain levels (usually user made). The game will just close itself and give me an error message that is something along the lines of "Insert missing with Directx"... I cant remember the line, but after looking around I found that I just had to update my DirectX9....
I still get the error, but only on levels that are poorly built...



My second- biggest problem- is with the game just locking up on me...
It doesn't happen on smaller levels like Surfs... but with both user made and valve made levels, (usually De_maps) My game will just freeze.

My FPS will drop to zero, my mouse will not operate in game, and if there was a sound playing when my game froze then the sound would be stuck on a loop.

About 50% of the time, I can Alt-Tab out of the game and then right click it on my taskbar to close it. I still get the "Program is not responding" message, and then I can jump right in again...

Other times, The game will freeze and when I try to alt-tab, nothing changes. The sounds will stop (which makes me think that it's actually out of the game) but nothing on my screen changes.

The longest time I've let it sit- to see if it will just work it's way through has been 30 minutes. Nothing changed- and I had to hard reboot my computer...

I know that hard rebooting your tower is bad- and I dont want to have to keep doing that since I've had so much problems with the motherboard dying in the past...

I was just wondering if anyone had this problem, or if anyone knew what I could do to fix this...

My computer:

eMachine T6420
CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3400+

CPU Speed:
2.21 GHz Rated at 3.40 GHz

RAM:
895.4 MB

OS:
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)

Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 *integrated
Video RAM: 512.0 MB
driver version: 6.14.10.9371
DirectX: 9.0c

Sound Card:
Realtek High Definition Audio
driver version: 5.10.0.5152

[Ericwaycotx]

Lock ups are really frustrating. I know, trust me. Especially when it seems to be a random problem. Really, what you have to do is eliminate problems one at a time.

This is what I recommend you try first.

Try checking your invent log. See if Steam/CS is crashing itself, or if another program is crashing and causing the lockup.

Go into msconfig and remove ALL programs from your startup. Make sure that when you start CS that ALL other programs are closed and not running. That way, we can know for sure it's not another program causing the problem. Even close your firewall/Antivirus temporarily.

If that does not solve your problem I'd try just reinstalling CS & steam. Go to add/remove programs and uninstall it. After you are done do a search for "steam" or "counterstrike" and delete all remaining files/folders. Back when I used to play CS I'd have to do this on a regular basis, as CS always seemed to have issues.

Make sure you have the newest and most up-to-date graphics card driver. You can get the newest one from the Emachines website.

If none of the following solutions help, you are most likely looking at a hardware issue. I know for a fact that emachines are known to have powersupply issues, as I've owned several in the past. You can download Sandra to check all of your rail voltages. If are you off by more than 5% then you have a problem.

Keep us posted.

Eric

[Ramza]

I've tried the log and I can tell you right off the bat that the game itself is crashing

Steam has no problems during the problems... It's usually just DX9 or something else...

But I'll take your advice on the updates for my card and reinstalling everything.


I keep thinking that maybe my problem is the fact that my card is integraded...
I'll be back once I update everything

[Ramza]

Ok... strange problem here...

I found a new update for my card...
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_94.24.html

The thing is- I downloaded and installed the driver and I've checked with SRT and my driver numbers are still the same...
I dont know if I have to change it manually but I remember not having to with my last driver update

Still, things seem to run a bit smoother... I havent had any problems with CS:S so far- but I've only tried one map for about 5 minutes...

[pharoah]

being what you have video wise id use the 84.21 drivers another big problem that causes lock ups is heat so try http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...rsviewpro.html post back with your temps,and voltage readouts.