Important! This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before
you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand
how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back
up, restore, and edit the registry, please review the following article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base: 256986 Description
of the Microsoft Windows Registry
When Halo Combat Evolved starts there are a variety of dialogs and errors that you
might see. Each of these dialogs is permanently dismissible and offers to link you
to more information. Generally the errors will look like this:
If you choose not to see this error again, the information will be stored in the
registry as a Binary Value under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Halo
Each error is tied to your video or sound card regardless of whether it is a sound
or video card specific issue. This means that the Binary Value will be named something
like:
NVIDIA GeForce3 (0x0200):147
The data in this value is a 'y' followed by 0 or 1 depending on whether or not you
chose to not show the dialog again and clicked continue or 'continue in safe mode'.
Deleting the entire Binary Value causes the dialog to be displayed again. This way
you can make sure that you have not chosen to ignore any important messages.
The following list contains possible alerts that you may see in this dialog box
and a possible cause, as well as the official Microsoft recommendation. The Microsoft
recommendation is based on the assumption that the error is correct for your situation.
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Your system does not have enough RAM or virtual
memory to run the game... |
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Please close any additional programs that may be running or increase
your virtual memory settings. If you wish to add additional RAM, please contact
your computer manufacturer for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that there is not enough RAM to run properly.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
about adding enough RAM to the computer to meet or exceed Halo's box requirement
of 128 MB.
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We are sorry, but your computer's processor appears
to be running too slow to run the game... |
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If you wish to upgrade your computer, please contact your computer manufacturer
for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer's Processor speed is to slow to run properly.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
about upgrading the computer's processor to meet or exceed Halo's box requirement
of 733 MHz.
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We are sorry, but your computer's video hardware
is below the rec. min. spec for this game... |
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If you wish to upgrade your computer, please contact your computer manufacturer
for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer's video card or chipset hardware is below the minimum
requirements.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
about upgrading the computer's video card or chipset to Halo's minimum box requirement
of a 32 MB chipset with Hardware Transform and Lighting.
Note: There are some video solutions that meet the box requirement
that will still generate this message. This is due to the manufacturer being out
of business, or to poor or no driver support for the features that Halo needs to
run properly. In these cases you will need to consider changing to a supported solution.
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Your computer's video driver was not tested with
this game... |
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A newer version that is compatible may be available. If you wish to update
your drivers, please contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer's video card or chipset driver is below the minimum
requirements.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
or the manufacturer of your video solution for information on updating the drivers.
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Your computer's video driver is known to have
serious issues with the game... |
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A newer version that is compatible may be available. If you wish to update
your drivers, please contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer's video card or chipset driver is known to cause
issues with the game.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
or the manufacturer of your video solution for information on updating your drivers.
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We are sorry, but we have detected that the game
did not exit correctly... |
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We recommend starting the game in safe mode. Safe mode may disable some
advanced features of the game, but may allow you to play the game.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the game crashed, hung or dropped to the desktop the last time
it was run.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: Follow the instructions in Microsoft Knowledgebase
article, 303032: Games: The Game Stops
Responding or Quits Unexpectedly.
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We are sorry, but you need to have DirectX 9.0b
installed to run this program... |
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Please run Halo setup again to install DirectX.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer does not have DirectX 9.0b installed.
You will be offered a link to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx.
Microsoft recommends: Follow the instructions for updating or reinstalling
DirectX from Microsoft Knowledgebase article, 256182: Games Err Msg:
Game Requires DirectX version or Higher.
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We are sorry, but your computer's video hardware
has less than the rec. min. video memory... |
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required for this game. If you wish to upgrade your computer, please
contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer's video card or chipset memory is below the minimum
requirements.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
about upgrading your computer's video card or chipset to Halo's minimum box requirement
of a 32 MB chipset with Hardware Transform and Lighting.
Note: There are some video solutions that meet the box requirement
that will still generate this message. This is due to the manufacturer being out
of business, or to poor or no driver support for the features that Halo needs to
run properly. In these cases That you will need to consider changing to a supported
solution.
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Your computer's hard drive has less than 100MB
of available disk space... |
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You will need to clear space in order to play the game.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer does not have enough free space on their drive to
play the game.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should clear some space on your
hard disk.
To increase the amount of available hard disk space in your computer:
- Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop, then click Empty Recycle Bin, and
then click Yes.
- Back up and then, remove any files on the hard disk that you do not use frequently.
For information about how to back up your files, click Start, and then click Help.
On the Index tab, type "backing" (without the quotation marks), and then double-click
the "Backing up files" or "Backing up files, folders" topic.
-
Delete any unnecessary files on the hard disk. For information about how to delete
files, click Start, and then click Help. On the Index tab, type "deleting" (without
the quotation marks), and then double-click the "Deleting files or folders" or Deleting
files, folders" topic.
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A problem occurred initializing DirectDraw.
Hardware acceleration maybe disabled... |
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Please run DXDIAG.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo could not properly initialize the 2D portion of DirectX (DirectDraw) to display
the game. DirectX may be corrupted or video Hardware acceleration may need to be
increased.
You will be offered a link to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx.
Microsoft recommends: Follow the instructions from 191660 Games:
3D Acceleration Option Is Not Available
or Not Supported by Your.
If this does not resolve the issue then try updating or reinstalling DirectX from
Microsoft Knowledgebase article, 256182: Games Err Msg:
Game Requires DirectX version or Higher.
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A problem occurred initializing Direct3D. Hardware
acceleration maybe disabled... |
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Please run DXDIAG.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo could not properly initialize the 3D portion of DirectX (Direct3D) to display
the game. DirectX may be corrupted or video Hardware Acceleration may need to be
increased.
You will be offered a link to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx.
Microsoft recommends: Follow the instructions from 191660 Games:
3D Acceleration Option Is Not Available
or Not Supported by Your.
If this does not resolve the issue then try updating or reinstalling DirectX from
Microsoft Knowledgebase article, 256182: Games Err Msg:
Game Requires DirectX version or Higher.
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A problem occurred initializing DirectSound. |
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo could not properly initialize the audio processing portion of DirectX (DirectSound)
to start the game. DirectX may be corrupted.
You will be offered a link to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx.
Microsoft recommends: Follow the instructions for updating or reinstalling
DirectX from Microsoft Knowledgebase article, 256182: Games Err Msg:
Game Requires DirectX version or Higher.
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A problem occurred initializing DirectInput. |
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo could not properly initialize the input processing portion of DirectX (DirectInput
- Mice, Keyboards and Game Controllers) to start the game. DirectX may be corrupted.
You will be offered a link to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx.
Microsoft recommends: Follow the instructions for updating or reinstalling
DirectX from Microsoft Knowledgebase article, 256182: Games Err Msg:
Game Requires DirectX version or Higher.
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SHFolder.dll is missing, we recommend you reinstall. |
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the system file SHFolder.dll is missing. This DLL is used to locate
Special Folders such as "My Documents".
You will be offered a link to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=drx.
Microsoft recommends: Uninstall and re-install Halo or update to
the latest version of Internet Explorer.
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Halo PC requires a 32 bit color quality setting
to play in a windowed mode... |
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In Windows, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties to adjust
to this setting.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that you used the unsupported "-window" command line parameter to start
the game but has your desktop set to something less than a 32 bit color depth setting.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: You should increase the color depth of your
video card: To increase the display settings
- Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- Double-click Display.
- Click the Settings tab, and then write down the settings for 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.
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You started the game while holding down the
control key. |
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that you were holding down the Control (Ctrl) key while starting the
game.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: Restart the game without holding down the
Control (Ctrl) key.
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We have detected that one of the Halo PC files
is missing or corrupted... |
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We recommend removing and reinstalling the game.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that one of the files required to play the game is missing from the
installation directory.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: Remove and reinstall the game. Do not choose
to remove the save game files. They are not part of this issue.
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We are sorry but there was a problem accessing
your personal Halo PC files... |
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which are located in your My Documents folder.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that one of the files required to play is missing from the ":\\\My Games\Halo" directory.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: Rename the Halo folder in the My Games directory. This forces Halo to rewrite the default files into that folder.
Then copy the backed-up files to the new folder, one by one, restarting the game between each copy to find the damaged file. When you find a damaged file repeat the process, skipping any files that you previously found to be damaged. This will allow you to recover as many files as possible.
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Halo is not compatible with the anti-aliasing
mode overrides set in the control panel... |
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Please adjust this setting to 'Off' or 'Application Default'.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the computer's display adapter is set to an incompatible Anti-aliasing
mode in the Display settings under Control Panel.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends:
- Open the Display Properties from the Control Panel or click the right-mouse button
on the Desktop and choose Properties.
-
Go to the Settings tab, click Advanced, then find and change your Anti-Aliasing
settings.
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Your computer's sound driver was not tested
with this game... |
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A newer version that is compatible may be available. If you wish to update
your drivers, please contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that an untested sound driver is currently installed for the computer's
sound card.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
or the manufacturer of your sound solution for information about updating your drivers.
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Your computer's sound driver is known to have
serious issues with the game... |
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A newer version that is compatible may be available. If you wish to update
your drivers, please contact your computer manufacturer for any necessary assistance.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that a known bad driver is currently installed for the computer's sound
card.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
or the manufacturer of your sound solution for information about updating your drivers.
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There is a copy of Halo already running on this
machine. |
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that another instance of the game is already running on the computer.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: Check to make sure that no other sessions
of Halo PC appear to be running. If another session of Halo is running, either close
it or open it and play the game. If this does not resolve the issue reboot the computer
and try starting the game again.
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We have detected the video card in your machine
may be a prototype... |
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We recommend using only supported retail video cards to play Halo.
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the video card in the computer may be a pre-release or beta version
of the final hardware.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: That you should contact your system manufacturer
about upgrading the computer's video card or chipset to Halo's minimum box requirement
of a retail 32 MB chipset with Hardware Transform and Lighting.
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Your product key is invalid. We recommend removing
and reinstalling the game. |
CAUSE AND POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Halo detects that the Product Key stored in the registry is missing or damaged.
You will be offered a link to http://www.microsoft.com/games/halo/support.asp.
Microsoft recommends: Remove and reinstall the game. Do not choose
to remove the save game files because they are not part of this issue.
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