Physical Memory Problem

I recently got a new computer and I am trying to bring back my HL collection set and reactivate Hammer, but when I try to launch Counter Strike or Blue Shift something like this comes up: It was detected that you system has 0.00 K of physical memory Counter Strike (or Blue Shift) requires 16 Mb to play. And closes.

Does anyone have any ideas as to if these games will ever work? And HL and Opposing Force both work fine. Also, this computer has even greater abilities than the old one.

Thanks.

It sounds like you're not using steam.

There was an update that addressed this issue on steam for Vista and 7 64-bit machines. That update will never be released for non-steam versions of Half-Life.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

That update will never be released for non-steam versions of Half-Life.

Unfortunately that is a problem because my HL is not the steam version. And quite honestly I hate steam. I have had a lot of problems with it. Mainly playing games offline and the updates and everything you have to go through. I have slow internet connection and limited bandwidth.

In fact I have been trying to play a game that uses Steam offline since Sunday and still cannot get it to work. I have to update the game first and after an 18 hour download it was finally completed then I tried to play it offline and it said that it is not ready to be played offline. Turns out that the uppdate never even really installed! So now when may bandwidth goes back down (in a 30 days) a will have to try again just for the chance to be able to play it!

Sorry for the rant...just had to get that out!

Well. There's not a lot you can do. Valve isn't supporting Half-Life retail any longer.

I guess your next steps could be to try compatibility modes or switch operating systems.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Necromancer said:
In fact I have been trying to play a game that uses Steam offline since Sunday and still cannot get it to work. I have to update the game first and after an 18 hour download it was finally completed then I tried to play it offline and it said that it is not ready to be played offline. Turns out that the uppdate never even really installed! So now when may bandwidth goes back down (in a 30 days) a will have to try again just for the chance to be able to play it!

After the update finished did you actually launch the game? I have this issue too if I don't let steam
"see" that the game loads and runs, and I went into offline mode, it would say that it needs to DL a patch. I think it has to do with steam not applying the patch fixes till you try to launch the game.

Also after the game has launched for the first time you can right click on the game icon in steam, and go to properties, and under the updates tab you can select "never update this game." Which will do what it says, it will never update after that.

Bear in mind too: you have to let the game run once before you can make any of these changes. Otherwise theres no saying that will happen in offline mode.

Also crono is right, if you want to try running a game written for windows 98, then your going to have to get into some emulation type of thing (VirtualBox is one...). You could try right clicking on the game executable (in the HL game folder) and selecting properties, and on the compatibility tab check the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" then select windows XP, 2000, 98, etc... But theres no guarantee because of memory addressing.

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Posting And You

Steam updating just downloads a cache file. Actually executing the game unpacks this content to the HDD. This is when, for example, the Half-Life directory is created. If THAT isn't there ... then Steam will not allow you to play in offline mode yet ... because you could be doing anything. Like spoofing the game, or getting someone's cache file. It's an authentication step. Offline mode is available after you've ran the game at least once.

You can get cache files from anyone ... so if you know someone who has the game, you can just get their cache file, put it in the steamapps directory (or wherever it's suppose to go, like common) restart steam and run it.

The instructions are pretty clear on how to do this here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I was messing around with counter-strike again just yesterday actually and I found a solution! If you right click on the application and go to the compatibility tab and tell it to run in compaibility mode for windows 7 then it works fine.

Now I'm wondering why I didn't think about that before, it's so simple!

Necromancer said:
I was messing around with counter-strike again just yesterday actually and I found a solution! If you right click on the application and go to the compatibility tab and tell it to run in compaibility mode for windows 7 then it works fine.

Now I'm wondering why I didn't think about that before, it's so simple!

I said that! O.o

OmegaSlayer said:
You could try right clicking on the game executable (in the HL game folder) and selecting properties, and on the compatibility tab check the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" then select windows XP, 2000, 98, etc...

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Posting And You

I am so sorry. I don't know how i missed that! Stuuuuuuuuuuuuupid!

See, Steam isn't so bad after all!

At least since it's been worked on continuously since 2003. I used to hate it back in '04 but now it's really quite nice to have!

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Riven said:
See, Steam isn't so bad after all!

At least since it's been worked on continuously since 2003. I used to hate it back in '04 but now it's really quite nice to have!

I wish my brother would say the same, he still hates it xD

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Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Nibgames

It's like people still being butt-hurt over the Star Wars prequels: get over it.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

You know what the neatest thing is about the Star Wars cry babies? Its amazingly easy to never run into any of them if you try just a tiny bit.

I haven't run into hardly any myself. They have that "I'm a loser" look about them and you just turn a bit to the right or left and they go away..... See, there is a loser over there and none of us can see him. whistles tunelessly

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The best things in life, aren't things.

It's the internet there's no such thing as left or right, it's just one giant pool of ... well, whatever degrading term you want to use.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Well I still do not like Steam. But the most prominent reason though is my bandwidth issue and slow internet compared to in town. I have a 30 day rolling period allowance of gigabytes. So I can't download much, and the updates are very large in order to play those games for Steam even in offline mode.

But you can get those files other-ways, like through an internet cafe. ALSO, the majority of games that are on steam, the retail versions will come with steam codes, and game discs, entirely alleviating the bandwidth issue.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I don't have acess to an internet cafe because I do not have a laptop so I can't take my computer anywhere, also there aren't any close by.

ALSO, the majority of games that are on steam, the retail versions will come with steam codes, and game discs, entirely alleviating the bandwidth issue.

I did not know this. But, don't you still have to update even these games though before offline mode is possible? (I know the ones that I currently bought do)

Updates are small. Even if it's 250MB (which they're not) that's nothing compared to a game that's 15GB.

And you can take a thumb drive with you to the cafe right click on the game once you've logged into your account and click "backup". That's what it's for. You don't have to take your physical machine anywhere.

FYI, an Internet Cafe is a place that offers computers for use, not just some random place that offers free wifi or something. Those are everywhere.

Also ... just to be clear ... you can install a game off the disc in steam after it's installed, right click on it go to the properties and say DON'T UPDATE. Then launch it once, and you will then be able to use it in offline mode.

Frankly, you're making a bunch of excuses about a service you've obviously never really used. I understand the qualms about heavy bandwidth usage, but valve HAS put in place features that alleviate that, to ignore them is just ridiculous.

Again. The games only update if you leave the game marked "Keep Up To Date".

I would also suggest complaining heavily to your ISP and/or Government about the stifling restrictions. You're not going to be able to function much longer in the online world at all if you can't handle larger bandwidth needs.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Also ... just to be clear ... you can install a game off the disc in steam after it's installed, right click on it go to the properties and say DON'T UPDATE. Then launch it once, and you will then be able to use it in offline mode.

Thanks for that. Didn't know about that.

You're not going to be able to function much longer in the online world at all if you can't handle larger bandwidth needs.

I know, this is really a bummer! And to make matters worse in a few months my internet provider is going to increase internet speed, but even further DECREASE the already limited bandwidth usage. So it's going to be even worse. I just checked my usage level and I'm approaching the limit even now at almost 90%. And just to give an idea of the limits of the usage and everyday use I actually consider 250MB to be a lot.

Well I'm going on again - but not about Steam this time though

And also I never even knew about the backup on a thumb drive idea. That could help a lot! Thanks again.