Holland 1st MRB

Damn good job guys. Prouder and prouder to be part of such an awesome unit, by the day.

The alt-tabbing is, as I thought, really an issue with the source engine itself. It can be worked around with multiple different solutions, but all will require a little compromise. Try to avoid alt-tabbing as much as possible, and use the steam overlay where possible. The integrated web browser is a nice tool. If that really isn't an option, and you know you will be needing to alt-tab (ie, for talking to friends outside of steam, etc), than try the following; You can also run the game in "fake fullscreen" mode, essentially by right clicking on the game in your steam library, and clicking properties. Click "Set Launch Options...", and then type the following into the box. -w reswidth -h resheight -windowed -noborder Replace the "reswidth" with your resolutions width, and "resheight" with the height respectively. This should not have any major effect on the performance of the game, so long as you have a powerful enough rig to render the game, and whatever else may be running in the background with it all at once. As for the second issue, through a little research, I have come up with two viable solutions. The first, and most prevalent one is the "slow query check". What this refers to, is when the server is attempting to connect two people at the exact same time, when only one slot is available. The solution; retry. Not likely to happen often. The second, and what feels like it will be the most likely problem, is your DirectX setting ingame. Lower it. Many, many people who report this problem with DOD:S specifically, also claim that it is fixed entirely when using anything lower than DX9, whereas the problem occurs at DX9 or higher. Try changing your settings to run the game on DX8.

Happy to hear the problem was resolved. Thank you to all of those who have put their time into sorting out this issue. Ticket resolved.

The purpose of this office is to fix the problems posted, not make people realize what they have is "good enough". Unfortunately we need a little more information to work off of. As well, as seen in Parker's recent ticket, it could be an issue with your graphics card or the associated driver itself. When I get onto my home PC, I will do some research on the issue to see if I can come up with anything related. Please keep us posted.

Happy Memorial Day to all of our American comrades.

How did the drivers work out for you?

Any updates on the situation? Is this still an ongoing problem?

Civ 5 is much of the same thing. If you are going to start a game, it will generally be an all-day kind of thing, if you are interested in the higher techs.

Congrats! Very exciting time!

We be moving up!

Are the fans on the card working properly? You should be able to see them spinning if you take the side off your case. Have you made any attempt to overclock your hardware in the past? If so, attempt to underclock your PC, using essentially the same method and see if there is any difference. When you load a 3D game, what specifically crashes? The system? The program? Your display? Double check the graphics settings for your card, and be sure there is nothing strange going on there. As usual, if there is an option you do not fully understand, google the name of it before you change it. NVIDIA graphics settings are usually accessed through right clicking on your desktop, and clicking the NVIDIA Control Panel option. Once all the above has been looked into, and with nothing improving, then my conclusion; What this sounds like to me, is a PSU (Power Supply) that is failing to send enough power to the graphics card in order to run properly. This would typically cause the card to work fine for basic things, but the moment you attempt to do something more graphics intensive (3D games), you may get a black screen, computer freezing, crashing, etc. which would be caused by a power supply that is insufficient for the needs of your components. You will need to purchase a new power supply for your computer. Something that more appropriately matches the needs of your components. Off hand, I do not know of an exact wattage you should be looking for in a power source, though it will need to be higher than your current setup. Perhaps some of our other members will be better informed than I am about the required wattage for your components.

It better be. Want to hear the golden pipes again.

Sum it all up in a timeline marked by these faces;

Happy Birthday Engle!

It is absolutely acceptable to use the office you work in. You could alt-tab out of the game, instead of the windows key (In my situation, it behaves differently). Is the problem resolved, or still ongoing?

I myself have had the problem of the game freezing permanently after hitting start. For me, it would only happen when I was on Garry's Mod, while in a server, and even then it was off and on. Be sure you are operating your task manager out of the "processes" tab, and not the "applications" tab. I am unsure if you have been doing this already. That is the kind of information I wish people would include in tickets more often. From that, I would suggest a number of things to you. 1)As it is a good idea to try the simplest solution first, clean out your computer. Be sure that the airflow is not being obstructed in anyway, blow out any dust. 2)Go through your currently active services. This can be done quickly via the MSConfig tool. To access it, simply go to your start menu, and click run. Type msconfig into the box, and click OK. Go to the "Services" tab, and uncheck anything that is not necessary. If you do not know what something does, google it. 3)Take a look through all of your startup processes. Anything that starts up by default when you log into your computer. When I am checking my startups, I generally make sure that the "Startup" folder is completely empty. Then, go to the msconfig tool I showed you above, and go to the "Startup" tab. Uncheck anything that does not need to be started up by default. As usual, if you do not know what a process is, then google it. Note, that disabling it from the startup tab will not disable the program. It will only stop it from starting up along with you logging in. 4)Go to start, control panel. Click "Uninstall a program". This will bring up a list of all currently installed softwares on your computer. It is a good idea to clean this out once in a while, of anything that you are no longer planning on using, as over time, it tends to get clogged with failed installations, old software, etc. That should be a decent start on the problem. Please respond, confirming that these steps have been looked into. As for the windows key, the Source Engine and Microsoft tend to have a slight disagreement over the use of that key. I personally have mine disabled, as I have no real use for it. The problem, I believe, is with the source engine itself. Just avoid pressing the windows key.

Did you make any changes to the the settings in DOD:S, any new configs, etc. Double check through the graphics settings for your card. Make sure everything you want is enabled, and that you don't want is disabled. If you are unsure of what an option does, just google it. As for the sending info part, does it freeze there? On most computers, the source engine will freeze up, and occasionally be flagged as unresponsive while loading, but picks itself back up after about anywhere from 10-60 seconds (this can be longer, depending on the situation). Is just the game frozen, or your entire computer? If possible, go to the task manager, processes, and click hl2.exe Give all of the information found in the columns beside hl2.exe

Great job Bryant. Topic Resolved

Happy Birthday guys!

I am speechless. Fantastic job on the video guys, and all the people who had input into it!

Oh dear god! So it is possible?

Happy Birthday.

Very nice vid Maines! Kicking some serious ass I see.

Happy Birthday you two!

Good to hear the problem was resolved. If it begins to occur again in the future, feel free to post another ticket.