Problem loading Source games in general. Help?

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

Okay so this kinda has nothing to do with Black Mesa but at the same time it does. I haven’t been able to start this game since its initial download and I’ve spent about nine or so hours installing, uninstalling, and reinstalling BMS today. Every time I attempt to start it I get a “Preparing to Launch Black Mesa…” message, the cursor spins a little and then nothing happens.

At first I thought it was something wrong with the mod in and of itself. Out of curiosity however, I checked to see if it was really the mod and not my system. Turns out none of my source engine games will get past the “Preparing to load _______…” command box. Now after scouring both the Steam, Windows 7, and other forums I really cannot find anything to help my case. So, in essence, what do I do next? Do I reinstall steam altogether? Should I delete some obscurely named executable/registry key/.ini etc. What do I do next?

Edit: Also I realize that it launches hl2.exe*32 briefly as a process but shuts it down less than 2 seconds later. Could this be because I’m running this on a 64 bit system?

#2

I’ve been having the exact same problem for the past 5 hours. :*( Quite frustrating, I agree.

I’m running windowsx64, 570m with up to date drivers. I tried doing a complete uninstall of all of my steam games and the steam client followed by a reinstall of steam, then source sdk 2007 and black mesa source. Problem persisted. Rewipe, fresh install of steam and Half life 2 and it won’t boot. I’m assuming that reinstalling black mesa source will result in the same error so I’m not going to waste my time banging my head on a wall.

If anyone figures anything out with this I’d love to hear about it. Thanks in advance

#3

Same problem, It says Loading… then says not responding…
I’m on W7 x64

#4

Guys try this out, go to Black Mesa in the library, right click it, click on properties then click on ‘Set Launch Options’ in the text field put in this EXACTLY:

-dxlevel 9.0

It might work now…

#5

No dice. Still not loading.

#6

Yeah, it didn’t work for me either. :frowning:

#7

I could not launch the game until i put that into my launch options but now when i get in game my graphics are really broken

https://imgur.com/a/ZAXY6

Does anyone know a fix for this? i have already tried reinstalling black mesa and Source SDK base 2007. Its really unplayable i cannot go into the water without my hole screen going black and purple checkered please help.

#8

I have broken graphics too, take a look at this:
https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=13342

Also are you using W7 x64? It seems like Black Mesa cant play with W7 x64

#9

Aw man, it’s w7 x64’s problem? Lame. I don’t know this modding team at all, but they seem very committed. Chances of a patch? Or should I just give up and and install xp on another machine?

#10

hm, well I think it is W7 x64 but I have quite a few having problems with the game using W7 x64.

#11

Reinstalling Source SDK 2007, Black Mesa, as well as several gigabytes of game data. Here goes nothing.

EDIT: Well that didn’t work. Maybe I wasn’t meant to play Black Mesa. Or have fun in general :[.

#12

Well after wiping out several months of data for a single third party mod, I find that there’s nothing I can really do about this issue but install it on a different machine.

If an admin can close this thread, I’d greatly appreciate it. Good Night.

#13

Have you tried disabling your firewall and/or torrent client?

#14

Not that I’m not open to trying that, but how would it help? (I rarely use my torrent client; that shouldn’t be a factor.)

#15

I’m using W7 x64. It’s not the problem.

#16

Games never open for me when utorrent is running, even if steam is already loaded up (maybe it’s because of shared ports, I don’t really know).

Also W7 x64 is not the problem.

#17

Am running W7 64 and have been having problems with steam games. As others have said, steam runs, maybe shows an advert and then nothing else happens. This first happened with Portal 2 and now with Black Mesa (BM) but I found a solution.
If you try to run the game exe in the steam folder it reports a bad dll “windows/system32/ avifil32.dl”. Mine is 106KB. My Son has W7 32 90KB and BM works there. So I dropped his dll next to the game exe in my steam folder and it worked.
The idea here is that when an exe loads a dll it looks for it first (if a path is not included in the call) in the exe folder then in the system/registered paths. So the dll is only used for the specific game that needs it and not the whole system.
I have no idea what’s causing this problem but this worked for me. BM exe is called hl2.exe and is located in “Steam folder”\SteamApps"Your Steam ID"\source sdk base 2007.

#18

That sounds like a good idea Shepters, but how would I go about getting that dll? I don’t have access to another computer where I am, much less your son’s :wink:

#19

Sorry, can’t help you there. Obviously there are copyright issues. Even an XP Version would probably work since this is a Windows DLL. I bought both OSs so I may be safe. Maybe you can find something useful on the web.

#20

You should be able to find an old (but legal) version here:
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/939130
I wouldn’t install it. Just extract all the files and get the dll you need. The commands (I didn’t try them) should be something like:

expand -F:* update.msu C:\<target_dir>
cd <target_dir>
expand -F:* update.cab C:\<target_dir>

But on second thought, since you’re trying to replace a dll to handle .avi files… Did you try the “-novid” option?

Also, did you try starting the “Source SDK 2007 Base” video stress? (in Steam, Library->Tools->Source SDK 2007 Base->Play Game.) Does it work?

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.