Knowledge Base

Known video-related issues with Halo: Combat Evolved

Article ID: 829478

Article Last Modified on 11/14/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Halo: Combat Evolved for PC

SUMMARY

This article describes the known video-related issues that may occur when you play Microsoft Halo: Combat Evolved.

MORE INFORMATION

General Troubleshooting Information

If you want to see better graphics in Halo: Combat Evolved, you may have to update your video card driver from the card manufacturer. Video card drivers are pieces of software that tell Microsoft Windows how your video card functions. When you have configuration problems with a game and the game display, your best option is to upgrade your video card drivers to the most recent version.

For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your video card, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and software vendor contact information, A-K

60781 Hardware and software vendor contact information, L-P

60782 Hardware and software vendor contact information, Q-Z

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

To see if certain video driver updates are available, visit the following Microsoft Windows Update Web site:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

When you try to modify the Video Setup options, some or all the following settings may be dimmed:

Shadows
Decals
Specular Lighting

To modify the Video Setup options, click Settings on the Main menu, and then click Video Setup.

This issue may occur if one or more of the following conditions are true:

You are playing Halo while you are running your computer in Safe Mode.
Your computer uses a fixed function video card.
Your CPU speed is less than or is equal to 1 gigahertz (GHz).
Your system memory is less than or is equal to 128 megabytes (MB).
Your video memory is less than or is equal to 32 MB.

Specific Hardware Issues

When you use the zoom feature on any weapon, you will receive a blank (gray or black) screen in the middle. This issue may occur because of outdated video card drivers. To resolve this issue, download and install the latest video card drivers. To do this, visit the following ATI or NVIDIA Web site:

http://www.amd.com/

http://www.nvidia.com

ATI Radeon 9000 and 9200

When you start, play, or exit Halo: Combat Evolved on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, the computer may automatically restart. You may also receive the following Stop error message:

Stop : 0XXXXXXXXX (0Xc0000005, 0Xxxxxxxxx, 0Xxxxxxxxx, 0X00000000) ati3d2ag.dll BFA86515 base at BFA17000, date stamp 3f7a342b

ATI video card drivers may cause this issue. To resolve this issue, remove the existing drivers from “Add or Remove Programs” in Control Panel, and then install an ATI Catalyst 3.0 driver. To do this, visit the following ATI Web site:

http://ati.amd.com/support/products/radeonwinxppreviousdrivers.html

Windows XP restarts your computer and you do not receive an error message. To receive an error message, see the following Microsoft Knowledge base article:

315192 Windows unexpectedly restarts or you receive a Stop error when you play or start Microsoft games

ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128

You may experience inconsistent graphic performance with textures if you set the Mipmap Detail Level in the ATI Direct3D Control Panel to any setting except High Quality.

ATI Radeon 9600 with 256 MB of Memory

Under certain circumstances after the Intro Movies, you may see a black or blank screen instead of the menu. We suggest that you update to the latest drivers. If this does not resolve the issue you may have to adjust the AGP Aperture size in your computer BIOS. An AGP aperture of 128 MB has been reported as addressing this issue. For information about how to adjust the AGP aperture size, contact the manufacturer of your computer or your motherboard.

For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your computer or your motherboard, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and software vendor contact information, A-K

60781 Hardware and software vendor contact information, L-P

60782 Hardware and software vendor contact information, Q-Z

NVIDIA

When you try to play Halo in any one of the Full-Screen antialiasing (FSAA) modes, you may experience difficulties. To resolve this issue, download and install the most recent drivers for this video card. If this does not resolve the issue, turn off the FSAA feature. To download the latest NVIDIA drivers, visit the following NVIDIA Web site:

http://www.nvidia.com

VIA Motherboard Chipsets

If you have a VIA brand motherboard, you may experience graphical and performance issues during game play. To resolve this issue, update to the latest 4-in-1 motherboard chipset drivers. To download the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers, visit the following Via Web site:

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=300

To determine whether your motherboard based on VIA chipset, see the "More Information" section in the following Microsoft KB article:

274629 Games: Hangs or slow performance on AMD system with VIA chipset

Supported Video Cards

Halo requires a minimum of 32 megabytes (MB) of video memory and a chipset that supports Hardware Transform and Lighting. When a card is classified as supported it means that Halo will work with that card and that you may contact Microsoft Product Support to resolve any Halo issues that you are having with that card.

The following cards were known to work with Halo and were therefore classified as supported at the time that Halo was shipped:

ATI Radeon Mobility 7500
Mobility VE
Radeon Mobility VE
Radeon Mobility 9000
Radeon
Radeon FireGL
Radeon 7500
Radeon 7000 VE
Radeon 8500
Radeon 8500 DV
Radeon 9000
Radeon 9200
Radeon 9200 PRO
Radeon 9500
Radeon 9500 PRO
Radeon 9600
Radeon 9600 PRO
Radeon 9700
Radeon 9800 PRO
Matrox Fusion G800
Parhelia 128
nVidia GeForce 256
GeForce 256 DDR
GeForce 256 Ultra
GeForce 256 Quadro
GeForce2 MX
GeForce2 MX DDR
GeForce2 Go
GeForce2 Quadro
GeForce2
GeForce2 Ti
GeForce2 Ultra
GeForce2 Quadro
GeForce3
GeForce3 Ti200
GeForce3 Ti500
GeForce3 Quadro
GeForce4 Ti4600
GeForce4 Ti4400
GeForce4 Ti4200-8x
GeForce4 Ti4800
GeForce4 Ti4800SE
GeForce4 MX 420
GeForce4 MX 440
GeForce4 MX 440SE
GeForce4 MX 460
GeForce4 Go 420
GeForce4 Go 440
GeForce4 MX 448 Go
GeForce4 Go 4200
GeForce4 Quadro4
GeForce4 Quadro 200
GeForce4 Quadro 280
GeForce4 Quadro 380
GeForce4 Quadro 550
GeForce4 Quadro 580
GeForce4 Quadro 700
GeForce4 Quadro 750
GeForce4 Quadro 780
GeForce4 Quadro 900
GeForce4 Quadro 980
GeForce FX 5200
GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
GeForce FX 5200SE
GeForce FX 5600
GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
GeForce FX 5600SE
GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
GeForce FX 5800
GeForce FX Go5600
GeForce FX Go5200
GeForce FX 5900
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
GeForce FX 5900SE
GeForce Quadro FX 500
GeForce Quadro FX 1000
GeForce Quadro FX 2000
GeForce FX Quadro 3000
GeForce FX Quadro Go700
nForce
nForce2

Unsupported Video Cards

Halo requires a minimum of 32 MB of video memory and a chipset that supports Hardware Transform and Lighting. There are some cards and chipsets that may meet this requirement but are still unsupported because there is a lack of driver support by the manufacturer or because the manufacturer is out of business and is no longer supporting their former products. When a card is classified as unsupported, it means that while Halo may work with that card, you may experience issues that range from minor graphics issues to system level issues such as error messages, blue screens, failure to run the game, or system reboots. Microsoft Product Support will not be able to help you in resolving any Halo issues that you are having if you try to play with unsupported hardware. When you have an unsupported card in your computer, you will see an error message that is similar to one or more of the following error messages in the following table. Note that these dialog boxes are permanently dismissible and will not prevent you from trying to run the game.

If you choose not to see the error message again, the information will be stored in your registry as a Binary Value under the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Halo

Each error message is tied to your video or sound card regardless if it is a sound or a video card specific issue. This means that the Binary Value will be named something that is similar to the following: nVidia GeForce3 (0x0200):147. The data in this value is a ‘y’ followed by 0 or 1 depending on if you choose to show the dialog box again and if you click Continue or Continue in Safe Mode. The following table contains possible video-related alerts that you may see in this dialog box, a probable cause, and the official Microsoft recommendation. The Microsoft recommendation is based on the supposition that the error message is correct for your situation.

Dialog Box Messages - Cause and Resolution

Dialog Box Message	Cause and Resolution
We are sorry, but your computer's video hardware is below the recommended minimum spec for this game. If you wish to upgrade your computer, please contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary help.	Microsoft recommendation: Contact your system manufacturer about how to upgrade the video card or chipset for your computer to the minimum box requirement of a 32 MB chipset with Hardware Transform and Lighting for Halo. Note There are some video solutions that meet the box requirement that will still generate this error message. This issue occurs because the manufacturer is out of business or does not support the features that Halo must have to run correctly. In these cases you may want to consider changing to a supported solution.
Your computer's video driver was not tested with this game. A newer version that is compatible may be available. If you wish to update your drivers, please contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary help.	Halo detects that the computer’s video card or chipset driver does not meet the minimum requirements. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.aspx Microsoft recommendation: Contact your system manufacturer or the manufacturer of your video solution for information about how to update the drivers.
Your computer's video driver is known to have serious issues with the game. A newer version that is compatible may be available. If you wish to update your drivers, please contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary help.	Halo detects that the computer’s video card or chipset driver is known to cause issues with the game. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.aspx Microsoft recommendation: Contact your system manufacturer or the manufacturer of your video solution for information about how to update your drivers.
We are sorry, but you need to have DirectX 9.0b installed to run this program. Please run Halo setup again to install DirectX.	Halo detects that the computer does not have Microsoft DirectX 9.0b installed. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx Microsoft recommendation: Follow the instructions to update or reinstall DirectX in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article. For additional information about how to update or about how to reinstall DirectX, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 256182 Games: Err Msg: <Game> Requires DirectX <version> or Higher
A problem occurred initializing DirectDraw. Hardware acceleration maybe disabled, please run DXDIAG.	Halo could not correctly initialize the 2D part of DirectX (DirectDraw) to display the game. DirectX may be corrupted or video Hardware acceleration may have to be increased. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx Microsoft recommendation: Follow the instructions in the following article. For more information about DirectX Corruption, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 191660 Games: The DirectDraw option or the Direct3D option is unavailable when you start games for Windows
A problem occurred initializing Direct3D. Hardware acceleration maybe disabled, please run DXDIAG.	Halo could not correctly initialize the 3D part of DirectX (Direct3D) to display the game. DirectX may be corrupted or video Hardware Acceleration may have to be increased. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx Microsoft recommendation: This can occur if you are running a utility that forces your video solution to use a particular update rate when you run DirectX games. Examples of utilities like this would include, but are not limited to, PowerStrip, ReForce, NVTweak, NVHardPage, RivaTuner, and Refresh Force. Try to disable these utilities. For more information about how to disable these utilities see the page where you downloaded them. You may also be able to override these utilities by setting a customer update rate for Halo by using the -vidmode command line parameter. For additional information about command line parameters, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 830487 Halo: Combat Evolved: Target line parameters and troubleshooting shortcuts If you are using Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and your video card has more than 256 megabytes (MB), download and install the latest Halo update. To do this, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.aspx For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 886301 Halo: Combat Evolved: Compatibility fix for Windows XP S and 256 MB video cards If the issue continues to occur after you try the methods that are listed in the "Microsoft's recommendations" section, follow the instructions that are listed in the following Knowledge Base article. For more information about DirectX Corruption, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 191660 Games: The DirectDraw option or the Direct3D option is unavailable when you start games for Windows
Halo requires a 32 bit color quality setting to play in a windowed mode. In Windows, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties to adjust to this setting.	Halo detects that you used the unsupported –window command line parameter to start the game but you have your desktop set to something less than a 32 bit color depth setting. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.aspx Microsoft recommendation: Increase the color depth of your video card. To do this, follow these steps: Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display. Click the Settings tab, and then write down the settings for the Colors and Screen area. In the Colors or Color Palette box, click High Color (32 bit). If you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.
Halo is not compatible with the anti-aliasing mode overrides that are set in the control panel. Adjust this setting to 'Off' or 'Application Default'.	Halo detects that the computer’s graphics adaptor is set to an incompatible antialiasing mode in the Display settings in Control Panel. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.aspx Microsoft recommendation: Turn off the antialiasing feature on your computer.
We have detected the video card in your machine may be a prototype. We recommend using only supported retail video cards to play Halo.	Halo detects that the video card in the computer may be a pre-release or beta version of the final hardware. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.aspx PSS recommendation: Contact your system manufacturer about how to upgrade the computer’s video card or chipset to the minimum box requirement of a retail 32 MB chipset with Hardware Transform and Lighting in Halo.

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.

REFERENCES

You may also be able to override these utilities by setting a customer update rate for Halo by using a Command Line Parameter. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

830487 Halo: Combat Evolved: Target line parameters and troubleshooting shortcuts

Additional query words: display video

Keywords: kbdisplay kbinfo KB829478

Microsoft KB Archive/829478

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