Black Mesa is not working

Black Mesa Archive Help!
#1

hello everyone
I have a huge problem and found no solution for it yet, even though I’ve searched for it everywhere.

I’ve installed Steam and SDK 2007 for the sole purpose of playing BMS, done everything as I should but I get “hl2.exe has stopped working” error everytime I start the game from Steam.

I have Win7 64bit and systems specs are up to date.

I really want to play this game and it’s such a drag that it’s not working.

I’ve tried to fix the cache in Steam that some users on this forum suggested, but when I click Properties don’t even have the Folders tab in the window, so that option is not available to me. I reinstalled everything several times but no luck.

Just one of those days I guess…:fffuuu:

#2

Have you read these three threads, before posting this one?:

  1. “BEFORE YOU POST”

  2. “How to report an issue”

  3. “[FAQ] Semi-complete Black Mesa FAQ - READ FIRST” - refer to Q5 and Q16 in lexa2’s posts.

EDIT (06:46): Link fail on my part… They should be working properly now. Sorry about that.

#3

Thanks for the tip. I checked the links and followed the instructions about using different startup options (windowed, custom resolution, dxlevel), and nothing helps. I checked the steam folder for any minidumps but there aren’t any. Also, I don’t have any other HL games installed to see if the problem occurs for all “hl2.exe” games.

hl2.exe just wont start.

#4

Open the taskmanager (hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc on your keyboard) and see if “Black Mesa” or “hl2.exe” is not responding; if it ‘vanishes’, as soon as you try to start the game or if it still persists in the manager as a task (maybe even with a constantly rising number below the RAM-Usage column (in the “Processes” tab)).

Report back with what you see.

#5

hl2.exe shows up the Task Manager, but it vanished as soon as I click Close the Program (it uses up to about 19K of memory which I think is normal), the number is not rising.

There is an error report provided by Windows and it says shaderapidx9.dll is the faulty file. I have tried to rename the file in order to bypass it, but the system does not allow me to rename it, even if I try to change the file’s permissions.

#6

update:
I’ve bypassed the shaderapidx9.dll file but the problem persists.

#7

You’ve bypassed it?

How so?

When it crashes, which file does it report an error for?

I’ve been working on an instructional post, until I saw that “shaderapidx9.dll” doesn’t seem to be the issue anymore…

If it is an issue still, however, try this:

#8

By bypassing I meant permissions for a file in C:\Windows\Sys\WOW64\wbem. It is another file I mixed up with by following other instructions to fix the problem. It was a mistake on my part, sorry about that :slight_smile:

I checked the shaderapidx9.dll with MD5 and the checksum matched.

This is what the minidump says for hl2.exe though:

#9

What are your specs?

#10

Just to clarify on the subject matter:

Have you actually tried to “Verify the Steam Cache Files” for “Black Mesa” or “Source SDK Base 2007”?

The latter would be correct, since Black Mesa’s files can’t be verified, directly (until it is released on Greenlight, however).

Other than that, it seems that “Exception Code: c0000005” or “Exception Code: 0XC0000005” is translated in to “The thread tried to read from or write to a virtual address it does not have the appropriate access.”, which appears in almost every Minidump I’ve looked at, for the past week.

It could be that VS 2012 just has not as many 'translations’ (from “0X???” to “Text”) for said Exception Codes or that many users actually have a similiar problem.

If the issue persists and you know how to use them, you could try to test your Memory (RAM) with one of the ‘memory testing’ tools.

While ‘googleing’ through several Forums last night, I had found that in at least one of two (1/2) cases certain RAM-Sticks were damaged and the user had to replace them, in order to play the game.

Let’s hope you don’t have to bother with those things. :frowning:

#11

I tried verifying both, but as you said, only SDK had this function.

I play Civilization V on full quality with directx11 and it works pretty ok. I have Intel i7 870 on an Intel board and a Asus GeForce GTS450. I have only 4GB of 1333MHz RAM that I plan to upgrade to 8GB when sufficient funds will come available. It’s odd that RAM would cause such problems, but if you say the exception lies in addressing the virtual space that could mean something. I do have system settings to have virtual memory on a non-system drive but that caused no problems so far.

I guess I’ll never know eh. Until I upgrade the RAM… and postpone playing Black Mesa for another chunk of indefinite time…:[

#12

Problems with assigning, reading or writing to or from memory does not necessarily mean the issue’s origin is the memory itself, it could also be a problem with the way the engine (or certain assets of it) handle different tasks on different hardware and software configurations.

Which is the reason why crash dump reports are so (relatively) important for sorting out (or isolating) certain parts and then trying to adapt the (apparently) ‘faulty’ module’s (or file’s) coding / structure to it, to potentially cover an even higher variety of configurations.

It seems that we have to wait for an update, which hopefully fixes the memory addressing problems and such.

Correct me if I am wrong or you know better, as always. :slight_smile:

#13

I couldn’t resist the urge so I went on youtube and watched some of the playthroughs. I must say the team did a marvelous job and I hope they find enough time and will to fix things. Until then I will further restrain myself from watching playthroughs and instead work on my patience :slight_smile:

Thank you very much for your help. You’re welcome to come up with any other solutions in the time being or ask for more detail to help you make the patch (if you’re one of the team members).

Cheers

#14

Are you still able to launch the SDK itself? Go into tools and launch the source sdk 2007, put it all max and if you get around 30fps means your Nvidia card is not properly activated for HL2.exe, IIRC in the Nvidia control panel, you have to browse to Source SDK 2007 folder and add HL2.exe to be used with the High Performance Nvidia card instead of crappy intel.

#15

When I launch SDK I get the same error (hl2.exe has stopped working) with the same ‘faulty module’ (shaderapidx9.dll).

#16

Haha, being a member of the team would be wishful thinking… I’m just a random person trying to help as best as I can.

And according to my knowledge in any required spectrum, which is needed for a valid proposal, I’d be one of the last ones to pick, when it comes to high quality work.

I’m still in the early hours of learning how the SDK works, in all its ups and downs, ecetera.

Other than the few maps I’ve made with the original (old) Hammer Editor; I never made a ‘real’ map or prefab with the new one (Source SDK).

I’d like to, but I don’t have any valid ideas (valid according to my ‘standards’)… - maybe some day.

Enough about this, I hope you’ll find a solution for your problem, so you can then finally enjoy the game yourself. (Don’t worry, I know very well how not being able to play the game can be like…) :slight_smile:

#17
  1. Gain ownership of C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64\WBEM\FASTPROX.DLL and assign yourself Full control of the file if necessary.
  2. Rename FASTPROX.DLL at this location to FASTPROX.DLLOLD
  3. Reboot
#18

I stumbled upon this before and it didn’t work.

#19

Try updating graphics card drivers
https://www.geforce.com/drivers

#20

Seen these?

https://www.dll-error-fixes.com/fix-shaderapidx9dll-faulting-module-error/
https://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1100021
https://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2766644

Also saw where switching to 1280x1024 solved the problem for two others.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.