Stubborn start-up issue?

Yantor

This may or may not actually have to do with the F2P switch or the last major update, but that's when I noticed it.

I run into a problem where TF2 is stubborn to launch, like an old lawn mower that takes several pulls to start. I'll launch TF2 and the small pop-up of "Preparing to launch TF2" will appear, and go away. Then, usually, nothing happens. In Task Manager I see the hl2.exe *32 process appear, but it stops doing anything at around 18,000k of memory (sometimes less). I kill the process and try again. After 4-5 times I can usually get TF2 to launch.

Has anyone else seen this? I've looked around and seem suggestions that it may have to do with high-end graphics cards or something. I've already re-installed TF2 and have used multiple suggested launch options (-window and -safe -safemode), which seem to help, but again, only sometimes.


System Specs:
Windows 7 x64
AMD Phenom II x6 3.2 Ghz quad core
8 gb ram
Nvidia Quadro FX 3800

Starman

Have you tried verifying the integrity of the game files? Right click the game in your game library and click the related option. That solves most issues like this. Good luck!

Yantor

I tried that before I did the re-install.

I'll try it again for thoroughness... file cache verified, abberant behavior persists. I wonder if this is a software conflict against the demos of UDK and Unreal I have (they're the only thing I've installed in the last few months)...

Starman

If the reinstall doesn't work, then I don't know what to do. There are more experienced people here, though, who can probably sort this out.

shwaip

try the

-novid

startup option

Yantor

Some dice. It improves the game actually starting up from 1:5 to about 1:2.

shwaip

so my tf2 never starts super quickly - if i click or do anything before the real menu comes up, then sometimes it errors. if i'm more patient (just waiting), it works 100% of the time