It fails to start and instead restarts my computer. Help please!

Post your system specs, and when exactly does the game freeze up?

Pentium D
1GB RAM
3.0GHz
Nvidia 6600 GT 256MB
Really fast cable
200GB HDD

It restarts my computer when I try to start the program. My other Steam games that came with it, like Half Life 2 Deathmatch begin to load, then fails/restarts it.

Best thing to do would be to re-install all your steam games, sounds like something got corrupted. I take it that you've been able to play your games until recently?

If so you may want to do a virus and spyware scan just to check out your comp.

I agree with Mr. but I would start with the virus/spyware scans. Make sure you have the latest video drivers. Also make sure to close any programs you don't need since they'll just drain resources.

also try reinstalling steam

ive heard of it becoming corrupted before

Best thing to do would be to re-install all your steam games, sounds like something got corrupted. I take it that you've been able to play your games until recently?

If so you may want to do a virus and spyware scan just to check out your comp.

I haven't been able to play them at all. I also already did virus scans, spyware scans, and I re-installed several times. It still doesn't start even if it's the only thing running...that includes background stuff.

Did you purchase the game through steam? I ask because it might appear like its ready to play but might still be downloading content. Also try a fresh install. Uninstall steam and also check the registry to make sure everything is gone.

I bought it from a the box, from a store...and I'll try that fresh install idea.

Wait, how do I check for that other stuff to see if it's gone?

just manually go into or C drive or wherever you installed it and delete any files or folders that are related to source/steam/counter strike/half life.

!!BE CAREFUL WHILE IN THE REGISTORY EDITOR!!

If you go to Start>Run> then type in "regedit" w/o quotes.

Then in HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE under software, you will see a Valve folder.

Make sure that gets removed after you do a normal uninstall from the control panel.

Or a safer way to do this would to be to use a program like Crap Cleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) which will scan through your registry, amongst other things, and highlight orphaned registry keys which you can then delete. If you're not familar with regedit this is probably a much safer option as it allows you to backup your registry and so if things go horribly wrong you can reinstall your registry.

I give up.

dont give up counter strike:source rules. its worth doing all of this to play it.

Now I got a bad driver related message. Apperently that is the problem...