Loading Problems @ Startup

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 12:45 pm

right i've had H&D2 since it came when i installed then it was fine ran really well my computers well above the recommended requirements and everything but when i came to play it again the following happened:-

- i installed the game as normal

- then i used autopatcher.exe to update the game

- then i tryed to run the game i get a black box and then the cd sort of stops running and it really juddering with no sound and it only gets as far as the first part of the loading up process the "gathering" screen with thie logo on thats it

and bearing in mind to get to screen you have to wait about 10 mins its reidicious i can't figure out why i doesn't work

i've contacted the company's technical support so hopefuly will be back to me in a few days any ideas guys?

i'm stumpped i'm usely good at making stuff run but this is a mystery because its a wierd problem

Unread post by **Oldih** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:22 pm

I suggest you reinstall the game and DO NOT use the autopatcher.

Autopatcher can cause some graphical problems\issues also, F.E. I had missing textures when I used autopatcher.

Other routines:

What GFX card do you have?

Do you have latest drivers for your GFX card?

Do you have other comp you could test on does it have any problems?

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:52 pm

well i've renistalled twice now but both times i've used the autopatcher.exe

i'll reinstall it again and try without it this time!

also my graphic card is a Nvidia Gefore FX5600 128mb

and i have updated the drivers for it!

when you said GFX? you did mean graphic card didn't yu?

also do i need to donwload opengl 2.0 i had a search for but couldn't find it i think its installed during the game just.

also when i minimise the game when it like freezes at the start when i check on task manager under programs it says "hidden & dangerous 2 zzZZzz"

are all them z's ment to be there also the icon changes so its got the letter "SQ" over the h&d when i minimise it.

Shall i donwload the patch off another site then and install it?

Cinnander · Unread post by **Cinnander** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:00 pm

If the title bar has ZZzzz in it, you have "Suspend when inactive" selected in the config, this means the game doesn't render needlessly when it's not the active program (like if you alt-tab or minimise it).

If you're playing fullscreen and have a personal firewall that gives those "Allow XXX to do YYY" popups, one of these could be popping up and stealing focus (although still behind the game), making the game suspend (zzzzz), which will look like a freeze. Could be either the game connecting to localhost for something, or to gamespy or the Bink video player for the logo/trailer or who knows what.

Also, quick fix to get you past the intro trailers; I seem to recall that if you delete the trailers (they're either AVI or BIK files in the H&D2 dir) the game will skip them if it cant find them... (works on Mafia, at least). Wont fix any technical issues you get but will let you get into the game quicker and such :p

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:04 pm

well when the game loads at the start it judgers and takes like 10mins to load the first part of the game the "gathering" trailer as i started in my first post

i only minimise it because its the only way you can close it

so when it freezes i do minimise it with alt and tab!

wht shall i do then?

i'll check the thing about the firewall but it shouldn't be it hasn't happened with any other games i've got

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:48 pm

i've reinstalled the game with and tryed it with and without the patch
i also didn't use the autopatcher.exe i donwloaded the file from 3dgamers.com

i dont really no what else to do it sort of loads up and then when the first part of the load up starts it just sort of loads in bursts of about e.g.=

loads like 1 second of it then then takes 5- seconds to load the next burst of 1sec lol

its ridiculous

so i dont have a clue wht to do now!

i'll try removing the trailers then from the program files and see if it skips them back ina bout 10

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:24 pm

i removed the intro files for the first trailers and yes it does work it goes straight to the main menu and it allows me to do the training but when i finish the training and i do save and continue it sort of freezes again

its like my computer wont allow it play movies!

these is really wierd the game worked fine before!

the game does run perfectly in the trainning even when its on maximum graphics so i'm not sure whats wrong

at the moment it just looks like it wont allow me to watch trailers!

anyone help? i dont want to have to delete all the trailers to the entire game because trailers are wht make games good. I can view all ingame graphics trailers becuase i can view the training one but thats it

i dont know wht to do

Lars · Unread post by **Lars** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:38 pm

Try it with downloading the radtools http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm . Don?t know if that will help. Is your direct x uptodate?

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:07 pm

yup it defintly is

9.0 c i thinks the latest

-ViTaMiHnM203- · Unread post by **-ViTaMiHnM203-** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 12:48 am

Try uninstalling your drivers, install the 71.84 or 71.89...

The latest drivers from Nvidia dont seem to be tailored towards any card not in the 7 or 6 series...

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:54 am

i rolled back my nvidia driver to the previous one and installed 71.84
and it still didn't work...

then i did the same again and installed 71.89 and when i go to load the game up the black screen comes on for the start of the game and then i get "windows has just recovered from a device failure please restart"

so i'm taking that my graphic card failed with 71.89 driver because after i had that error message the colours go all messed up and back to "8bit" colour and some ridiculously tiny screen when i restart everything fine

anymore ideas?

also when i load the game up i still can see the mouse at times infront of the game when i do alt control delete to see if i've got anything else running i havn't but i have got a firewall and i have disabled it so i dont have a clue

wht shall i do about my drivers now then for my graphic card?

which should i install ?

-ViTaMiHnM203- · Unread post by **-ViTaMiHnM203-** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:01 pm

Keep going up or down the list...

What drivers did you use previously when it worked?

You have obviously changed sumthing on your pc since the last time you played...

Do you know what it could be? Any drivers or programs?

Goto the HD2 folder and run setup.exe, run the game in windowed mode...

oneill2004uk · Unread post by **oneill2004uk** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:07 am

i honestly dont know because its been over year and i've reformatted since then so it could be anything i think tomorw i'll remove loads of stuff and see wht happens i can run half life with max graphics and it runs well smooth so i dont know whts the matter with this

in window mode the game does run slightly quicker at the start it manages to get on to the second logo at the start up but it still loads in jumpin bursts and burst of sound that sound horrible lol

i think its got to be my graphic card drivers can you roll back more than once?

i'l remove some programs change the drivers and have a fiddle hopefully i'll get it to work

-ViTaMiHnM203- · Unread post by **-ViTaMiHnM203-** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:55 am

Get rid of the start up movies, gointo your main HD2 folder, then Gamemovie, take out Logo1, Logo2, Logo3...

You can rollback when ever, just go into your start up; Start/Run/msconfig...

Then check Selective Startup, check everything below it, then on the Startup tab - remember what you have checked; then uncheck everything...

Dont RESTART, uninstall your drivers and restart...

Now install drivers, go back into your start up recheck everything that was and restart...

You do update windows rite?

I think theres an optional update (For XP), that might resolve this issue...

Cinnander · Unread post by **Cinnander** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:19 pm

It might just be your bink player that the game uses for many of the campaign intro videos and occasionally some animated textures (the river texture on the multiplayer bridge map is a bink file)... that seems to be where you get the issues; as you've said, other 3d games run fine (so it can't be your card for example).

In which case the file you're having problems with is called something like bink*.dll (possibly binkw.dll or bink32.dll I can't remember off the top of my head).

You could try replacing this file with one from another game that uses Bink video (save the old one though just in case)

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