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:
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outdated video card drivers.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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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: 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: 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: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: 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: 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
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:
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: 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: 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.