Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 Message Board  

You can try running the web install again from here:
Link

and see if it updates/fixes any corrupted files.

You can also run dxdiag.exe and see if it finds any errors/problems.

Damn, apparently there's nothing wrong with the DirectX. I don't know if its within anyone's expertise but would a corrupt installation of a different game affect anything else? as i said, it only started crashing after i had installed half life 2.
I appreciate all the help you've offered me so far, its more than I've gotten from anywhere else.

I wouldn't think so unless the two share the same libraries of some sort. You might try uninstalling and reinstalling Steam and see if that helps.

You might could also use System Restore to go back to before you installed HL2 and see if it runs ok at that point. That would at least rule out a hardware related problem.

Already tired uninstalling and reinstalling steam, to no avail. The system restore however I'll give a go now, I've always been advised never to use system restore, but in times of desperation, desperate actions need to be taken. Fingers crossed...

My system is pretty similar -
Q6600 45nm @ 2.66GHz
4x1GB DDR2 @ 1066MHz
nVidia 9800 GX2

noteable differences -
XP sp3
my nVidia 9800 GX2 is native SLI (on a single card), and I am using a multi-screen setup, so it isnt technically in SLI mode, each core is outputting to a different screen.

I would try turning your SLI settings off as some games have issues with some cards in SLI for no real reason.
If that fails, get XP , Windows 7 is lined up to come out towards the end of this year and is really very nice (im beta testing).

hope this helps out.

System restore failed to work, unfortunate really. its odd, it used to work with SLI, but maybe that'll be worth a try.

I appreciate all these suggestions, one of them will work i'm sure.

Many thanks for all of your advice friends, i turned off SLI and i got further than ever before, hopefully it sustains this.

Out of interest, anyone else running SLI and having problems making it work? i can get it to work without its just its a hassle keep turning it off and on all the time.
Also, I'm not getting the end game achievements, anyone with any help?