I loathe issues like this. It isn't a critical problem preventing me from playing, but it's a gigantic pain in the **** that i'd like to fix

please note that I use Windows 2000 and not XP

Description of the problem: i'll start up NS in steam by double clicking the Natural Selection (Beta 5) link in play games and wait for it to start. Upon startup (approximately when you'd expect the "Find Servers, Create Game, Friends, etc." menus to pop up, hl.exe crashes and displays an error like this:



upon getting this error I usually click the cancel button before Windows has a chance to make an enormous log (I wouldn't be able to understand ih anyway) and then exits to the desktop as it normally would upon exiting the game.

Frequency of the problem: as far as I know this is a completely random occurance that can happen many times in succession before it "fixes itself" and actually works.

Workarounds: this problem is almost always fixed by running another Steam game, like HL or CS, and then exiting that program and starting NS.

Things I have tried so far: driverheaven.net cleaning, reinstalling NS, reinstalling Steam, reinstalling windows, and probably some more stuff i've forgotten.. all in vain i'm afraid.

I don't believe i've had this problem once in NS 3.0 b4, but i've had it in builds before 3.0 b4 and in 2.1 playtest builds.

computer specifications
critical hardware

- AMD athlon XP 1800+ (1.53 GHz)
- 512MB Corsai 2100 (256 FSB) DDRAM
- MSI KT4V VIA KT4000 based motherboard
- PowerColor ATI Radeon 9000 64MB
- two Western Digital WB800JB 70GB hard drives

- Windows 2000 SP4

sound

- On Board sound - Realtek AC97 Audio
- Logitech Speakers
- Grado Labs SR60 headphones plugged into speakers
- Plantronics headset (worn over grados for the microphone)

graphics

- Acer AcerView 76c @ max 85hz Refresh Rate
- ATI CATALYST v4.9 drivers
- vsync off
- 1024x768 resolution w/ 16bit colors

mouse

- Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical (connected through usb)
- Intellimouse 5.0 drivers (all default settings)
- mouse acceleration "low"

keyboard

- Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro
- Intellitype 5.0 drivers
- using Dvorak keyboard layout (aoeuidhtns-)

the rest probably doesn't matter, please help me out with this problem or reply if you experience the same problem

If you've reinstalled NS, Steam, and Windows all those times, then it almost has to be a hardware problem. I would try upgrading your Motherboard BIOS, that worked for me once in the past.

You can also try scanning for spyware and viruses. Sometimes they can install themselves within minutes of putting a computer on the internet, so they can be a problem even if you reformat.

my via 4in1 drivers are the latest, as with all the other upgradables offered for my motherboard by MSI (its manufacturer)

i've been running numerous programs to defragment and clean up my computer of spyware or anything else that's malicious or unneeded for the past year, and I haven't had any problems with any of these issues

it's my belief that this is actually a software problem, but I still have no idea where to start

If you did all those things you said, then you're right, its a software problem. If you know how to reproduce it, try submitting a bug report in the bug report forum.

I used vguis (commandmenu.txt) in NS for binds and impulses as an alternative to making a script for it

i've decided to stop using vguis and deleted my commandmenu.txt from my NS folder and this seems to have fixed the crashing problem since

thanks for your help

nevermind it still crashes what am I talking about

this sucks