HL2:E1 audio loop crash Thread

I'll get right to the point..

I just bought Half-Life 2: Episode One off steam. Every 10 minutes or so the game will freeze and go into an audio loop which crashes the game (usually I have to restart). Any suggestions? Has this happened to anyone else here?

I also have an unrelated problem with Dark Messiah, but I doubt anyone will have the answer. I can run it perfectly most of the time until it runs into periods of extreme lag that make it almost unplayable. I haven't been able to play it in awhile since I'm stuck in a part with lots of lag. I heard that Dark Messiah has some retarded way of loading all the texture data onto your graphics card, but that's the only "tip" I could find.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: I'm wondering if this will work -

Go back to the Start menu, select Run, and this time type in "dxdiag" in the command line. This opens the DirectX Diagnostics Tool. Go straight to the Sound tab. In the DirectX Features section, there's a sliding option called "Hardware Sound Acceleration Level," and it's probably set to "Full Acceleration." Turn it down all the way to "No Acceleration." Watch, your Half-Life problems are a thing of the past!

Edit 2: Nope. Still crashes, but without an audio loop now. So much fun I'm having with this game.

Edited by (in order): Chunky, Chunky, Chunky, Chunky

Problem: Sound skips or stutters

Question: How can prevent sound from skipping or stuttering when playing Source-engine games?

Answer: Sounds skipping or stuttering periodically may be caused by outdated video drivers, running graphics at detail levels your hardware cannot support, or fragmented cache files.

1.

Please run the Steam Performance Test and correct any issues which it identifies.
Run the Steam Performance Test

Support*
2.

Confirm that your sound and video drivers are updated - see the FAQ linked below for full instructions:
Updating Drivers

Support.steampowered.com
3.
Optimize Video Settings

From the startup splash screen for the game, select "Options" or "Settings" then "Video" and switch to the "Advanced Settings" tab.
* Turn down (or off) anti-aliasing completely - many cards should be defaulting to no AA
* Lower your video resolution one step
* Drop texture level down one setting - this will slightly degrade the visual quality of the textures in the game
* Set the Shadow and Shader Detail to "low"

For full instructions on optimizing video settings, please see the FAQ linked below:
Reset Video Settings and Force a Video Mode

Support.steampowered.com

If you are encountering very long loading times and sound skipping or stuttering, the issue may be related to cache file fragmentation (if your cache files are split up over different locations on your hard drive, loading sounds and maps will take significantly longer than it would if the data were stored in the same place).

Please follow the link below for more information on defragmenting your game's cache files (GCF's):
Defragmenting Game Cache Files

Support.steampowered.com

Edited by: Achil

I had tried all those steps before and still had no luck. Won't matter now since I just ordered a new computer.

ıcant play resident evil 3 on xp can any one help me?