Hello! Really long time ago (like 2 years ago) I was playing TF2 a lot. Then I updated my video card drivers and the game never worked again. At every start it works for 3-4 seconds and then "HL2 stopped responding" error appears. Back then I spent more then 4 months in talking to both Steam and Nvidia support, also made a topic in the official forums, but without any result (they both were blaming the other side). I gave up untill 2-3 days ago wgen I noticed that there is a new driver update for my video card and decided to try again. This time the whole screen was flickering, but only on the main menu. It self fixed somehow, but after I applied some changes to the settings (I think only changed the resolution) it crashed again with the same error. I am really desperate and hope that somebody can help me with any advice!

This is my PC specs if they matter:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU: AMD AthlonX2 @2.00GHz
Video: Nvidia GeForce 9400M 256MB
RAM: 4GB DDR2 333MHz

Here is what I tried so far:

  • Clear reinstall of TF2 and Steam (also with turneed off cloud)
  • Turning off Steam Cloud
  • Using fps cfg tweak
  • Updated all drivers
  • Clear reinstall of the video drivers
  • Deleting clientregistry and checking the files
  • Defragmenting, scanning for viruses and malware/adware, full cleaning with ADC
  • Checking the temperatures (all seem normal)
  • Full cleaning of the whole PC and changing the thermal paste
  • Checking the power supply and battery (both work fine)
  • Contacting TF2 and NVidia support (absolutely no help)
12 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

Buy new video card that is kinda old ....

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Its integrated to the laptop's mainboard, but still good enough to run the game.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

tf2 runs on my crappy 10 year old videocard. Your argument is invalid

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 11 months ago.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

My graphics card is a Geforce 6600 and I can still run TF2 no problems.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

And you two are unaware 6600 and 8600 are better than 9400? Not to mention all 3 being horribly obsolete about in every category?

Seriously, stop using archaeological digs from last century, today card dozen times more powerful costs pennies.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

You hardware is shit

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Team Fortress 2 Recommended System Requirements
CPU: 2.4 GHz Processor
RAM: 512 MB
Graphics Card: DirectX 9 capable graphics card 256 MB

hardware is good enough to run tf2.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Doesn't mean it will work well.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Reccimended means it should run WELL. Know the facts...

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Source engine has been updated weekly, and with each update it gets more laggy. These reqs are for vanilla tf2.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Yup. Also, his graphic card is office model, good for movies, certainly not current games.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

You guys are a good help....
Try removing steam cloud from tf2 then uninstall and reinstall making sure that steam cloud is off..
Worked for a few people..its the settings stored on the cloud.not working with all the new updates
Hope this helps you

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

This didn't help. There was some improvement, I even managed to connect to a server, but for like 1 second.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

what games can you play well on your computer, if we can find out what you can do than maybe their will be a clue on why you cant play tf2

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I don't play many video intensive games as the video card is bad and I get low fps with most modern titles. With many tweaks I can (could) play TF2 with 70-80 fps.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

do your other games work fine

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Yes, I don't have any problems with any other game.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

i'd reinstall tf2, i never updated my graphics driver for my 9800 gt, usually when you do updates older games don't work as well but newer games work better

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

There is an utility that helps to uninstall the video driver for a clean installation. Did you try it? Then just install the old video driver, you can find it at the Nvidia website, archive download section.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

That was one of the Nvidia support advices that didn't help. Also since then I changed the drivers again.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

download the old driver that you used before.

Or if you have a backup checkpoint then you can try system restore

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

With the old one I have lower fps on every other game and even some crashes.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 11 months ago.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Yes, I did all that. I don't have any program that changes the video settings except the Nvidia control panel.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 11 months ago.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Just did it without any result. I also tryed with disabled overlay, but that didn't help either.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 11 months ago.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Tryed them all.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Try uninstalling your TF2 and deleting your .gcf files and reinstall.
Also is this the only Source game it happens to?

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I did what you suggested, but without result. Yes, this is the only Source game that I have problem with.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Did you turn the device on and off?

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Many times.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

try using chris configs

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I do and it helped a bit, but the random crashes still happen.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

If I'm not wrong, you don't want rollback to a previous video driver version and you already have verified that would fix the problem, right? So you can be almost sure it's actually a driver bug or a Team Fortress 2 (or Source related) bug. What you should do is to find the instructions to filing a bug report.

Can you post a screenshot of the crash?

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I spend months in talking to both the TF2 and Nvidia support (as I said already). Yes, I can post a screenshot, but I am using Bulgarian translation on my Windows, so I don't see how it can help. The exact error is: "hl2.exe has stopped working" and there is a green bar at the bottom with message Windows is checking for solutions to this problem.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

They don't help until they think that isn't a their own fault. It's hard and even I don't believe it, but if you installed the newer driver and TF2 was crashing, then installed the older driver and it was working correctly, and finally installed again the newer one as you like the performance gains, I can see only a few of possibilities:

  • You made a mistake in installing/uninstalling the not working driver
  • It's a regression in the NVidia driver
  • It's a bug in TF2
  • A bug elsewhere

Latest drivers aren't always the best driver for old graphic chipsets, try to find a good version for your system. You can try more different driver versions, if version X was working and X+10 not, try X+4 and X+8 versions... Then keep trying with NVidia support, including this information.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

buy a new laptop.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Very funny... I spent 1320 hours (says Steam) on this game and on this machine.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

i did the same. until with graphics on medium-high and dx9. now with all the items and effects, i got 30fps using a fps config on dx8.

so he's right, u need a new pc

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

The problem is not in the fps, but in the random crashes. While ingame I have good enough fps to play good, but my problem are the crashes that don't allow me to play more than like 10-15mins max.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Probably the video card is failing, so you will either need to replace it or get a new rig. Also, 9400 series isn't made for gaming (doesn't mean it won't run games, it's just not optimized for them).

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

TF2 runs with between 35-85 fps at the moment and I have no problems with any other game or application.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Is that with the FPS unthrottled? What are the temperatures like, I'm inclined to say it's the video card throttling itself to death from the heat.
Run HWMonitor or CPU-z the next time you load it up, or use nvidia's built-in monitor (I think they have one) if you haven't already.

A clean install of the drivers never hurts, either.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Its with all settings for max fps. It shows 65C for CPU, 62C for Video card and 35C for Harddisk.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Question: Have you tried using a FPS config?

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Yes and it helped a bit as I said earlier, but the crashes still occur.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Source and TF2 have been getting increasingly buggy over the last 2 years, before TF2 would start in 5 seconds, now it starts in 5 seconds then when I get to the menu I hear the in-game start-up music looping endlessly for 15 seconds (like a broken record). I wish valve didn't go crazy with their updates since many of the updates don't do jack for the game instead they increase the amount of bugs.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Tried updating your drivers?

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

All are updated.

12 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Closed 12 years ago by xYorYx.