Unable to progress past intro without crashing

[angel]

Hi

I've been trying to play Half-Life: Alyx for a few hours now and invariably crashing in the first level on the balcony. I'm able to get past the loading screen, the intro text, and then wander the balcony for a short while - long enough for it to tell me how to move and quick turn, and for me to pick up and throw around a few items. After this short period, the game will invariably crash, losing audio first and then the visuals freezing about a second after. The game will then crash after a few more seconds. The things that happen when the game crashes vary a bit:

• My computer will shut down entirely at the same time as the game crashes.
  
• Instead of crashing, the game simply freezes entirely, followed by SteamVR displaying a message stating "The Oculus system has lost its connection to the display. Please check your headset's connection and then restart."
  
• On exactly one occasion, the game recovered and unfroze, but then continued without any audio.

I can always start a new save, but the game will crash on the loading screen if I attempt to load from a crashed save.

I play on an HP Omen laptop, the details of which you can find here[support.hp.com]. Here is my VR headset and my computer's specs:

• VR headset: Oculus Rift S
  
• CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H
  
• RAM: 16 GB
  
• GPU: 6 GB GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design
  
• OS: Windows 10 1903
  
• Storage: Game is installed on an HDD, not an SSD

Here are the solutions I've tried so far:

• Double-checking that the DisplayPort connection to my Rift S on both ends is plugged in and not loose, and trying different USB ports on my laptop
  
• It doesn't seem to be performance-related - I'm slightly under minimum requirements for my GPU, but I can manage 80hz during the intro on medium settings
  
• Updating my Nvidia drivers to latest version
  
• Updating my Oculus drivers - I've tried both latest standard and latest beta
  
• Exiting out of all Razer programs before starting the Oculus software and the game
  
• Lowering all graphics settings to minimum
  
• Verifying integrity of game files

I'm not sure what else to try. I suspect that my laptop could be overheating (though monitoring its temperature shows it isn't getting close to the shutdown temp) or that Oculus's software may be busted at the moment.

[-Rabid67-]

Up your virtual memory in windows

[angel]

After trying Rabid's solution and then doing more work and checking my CPU's temperature as I play the game, I think I've come to the conclusion my laptop is just eventually overheating and then powering itself off. Talking to a friend who owns an HP Omen laptop as well and checking the HP forums seems to reaffirm that this laptop just tends to overheat constantly.

[-Rabid67-]

Oh crap sorry to hear that

[KingDeath100]

So I keep getting my game crashing AT the loading screen. I can't even play with the setting or even start a new game. As soon as the menu come up... BOOM instant freezes and I start getting dizzy because of the motion sickness ♥♥♥♥. The only thing effected by that is Steam VR. My computer runs just fine.

PC
VR headset: Valve index
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700k
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: RTX 2080TI
OS: Windows 10
Storage: Samsung 2TB M.2

[Spyder69]

Originally posted by KingDeath100:

So I keep getting my game crashing AT the loading screen. I can't even play with the setting or even start a new game. As soon as the menu come up... BOOM instant freezes and I start getting dizzy because of the motion sickness ♥♥♥♥. The only thing effected by that is Steam VR. My computer runs just fine.

PC
VR headset: Valve index
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700k
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: RTX 2080TI
OS: Windows 10
Storage: Samsung 2TB M.2

I Posted on another thread...exact same thing.

[WILLHOU]

i had the same crash and updating my videocard drivers fixed it

[KingDeath100]

ya I am... re tarted. I did not see the new update for my drivers. I just updated them yesterday for the doom game so I did not think twice about it, lol.

[DEFEATER]

Originally posted by -Rabid67-:

Up your virtual memory in windows

He posted this in my thread as well and this fixed the issue for me, THANK YOU SO MUCH BTW!

[UnderHero5]

First it was crashing after it tells you to press the triggers.... I have the latest gpu drivers. I verified cache. Upped windows page file. Finally I redownloaded the entire game.

Now I press the triggers, hear the Valve music... and stand there... nothing happens. Good ♥♥♥♥.

Edit: After trying everything else, I rolled the latest "game ready" nvidia drivers back to version 442.59 and the games works perfectly now. Just a tip in case anyone else is getting crashing at the very first splash screen of the game. Might work for you too.