Problem:
Just bought Halo today, installed it, and it crashed randomly during gameplay (sometimes right after the initial calibration, but usually at a random time while playing the first level before you get to the general (or whoever he is =P).
So, downloaded and istalled the patch (1.02 i believe), same problem.
Uninstalled, reinstalled the game and patch, same problem.
Downloaded Catalyst 3.9 and latest nForce drivers and got the same problem.
I even disabled onboard sound and popped in my old GameTheatreXP, and had the same problem.

System Specs:
AthlonXP 3200+
ABIT NF7-S
ATI Radeon All in Wonder 9800 Pro
1024 MB OCZ EL-DDR PC3200
2 x 120GB Maxtor SATA HDDs in RAID 0

PLEEEASE HELP ! !

thanks

Any problems in DirectX? (DXDIAG)
Have you tried switched video cards?

there are no problems in DXDIAG

i should have mentioned this earlier, but when it crashes i get "Halo has encountered a problem and needs to close..... " the good old error screen that wants you to send microsoft an error report.

i do not have another vid card to try either. temps are fine (~45 full load for CPU, ~40 for system).
i disabled AGP fastwrites as suggested on teh ATi site, same problem and left all other eye-candy settings in the drivers for the vid card to default.

my mobo is a rev. 2.0 with BIOS v6.0
i am nervous to flash my bios since i have never dont this before.

my other DX9 games (enter the matrix, and occasionally splinter cell) crash randomly as well. my dx7 and 8 games never crash.

could this be something caused by an older version of the BIOS? i doubt my card is defective since everything else works perfectly, and there does not seem to be a problem with the DirectX installation.

does anyone have experiences using ABIT's FlashMenu to flash the BIOS? every run into any problems? I'd rather not fry the BIOS and have to buy another board ;)

almost forgot, windows is running with minimal software and services (followed microsoft kbase)
and the game is running in safe mode

I pretty much have the exact same system except the RAM. I'm using Corsair XMS. You might want to try running a memory diagnostic. I had problems with games and apps that required more memory. My problem was in the upper memory range and never showed up until it was accessed. When I RMA'd the stick, the replacement fixed the problem. http://www.memtest86.com/

-good luck
btw - halo online multiplayer kicks *ss
-blade

i downloaded memtest86 v3.0 ISO and ran the diagnostic from a cd-r. after 2 passes it did not find any errors.
Good suggestion blade, i think we're gettin closer here.
i'm starting to think that the BIOS flash would be a good idea, ATi even suggests that on their support pages for the other problems with halo (the night vision goggles thing, etc). any opinions?

I agree, online Halo kicks ass!! I havn't even thought of playing bf1942 since buying halo, that says a lot.

A lot of people have had this problem, and have supposedly solved it by installing Catalyst 3.7 drivers.

Try those and see if it works before you touch the BIOS. If they don't work, try 3.8. Try different drivers.

Thanks for your suggestion Matt, I tried catalyst 3.7, and it seemed to work fine. all of a sudden it crashed and is doing exactly what it was doing before. I tried catalyst drivers from 3.4 all the way to 3.9 and nothing has changed. I even tried 4 or 5 different versions of nForce drivers to no avail. trying 3 different sound cards has not made a difference either (onboard sound storm, gametheatrexp and SB Live 5.1 Plat).
I'm thinking that i should try flashing my BIOS next, but does anyone have any other suggestions first? Also, I should be fine using ABIT's FlashMenu for the flash right?

thanks everyone

okay im having pretty much the same problem as him.

just got a new pc a few days ago.
none of my games work

il-2 : dosent boot up
op. flash - sometimes it boots up but then CTD
moh and soldier of fortune 1 & 2 - sometimes it crashes at the menu (only SOF) does this if it does get to the game, it will either crash after a few seconds of play or even sometimes a few minutes.

AMD xp-2800
512mb ram
Powercolour radeon 9200 SE 128mb
catylyst 3.9 (tried other drivers they dont work)
Asrock k7s8x motherboard with sis 746FX chipset
american megatrends 1.90bios for said mother board
ac 97 sound
direct x 9 (tried all tests they work fine)
windows xp (origianl not patched or sp1-ed)
if you need anything else ill give em to ya