Can't find (or bad or corrupted or invalid) background image materials/console/background0.vtf

If you are getting an error about "materials/console/background0#.vtf" then most likely one of your GCF files is corrupted. This is not a shared file, there is a different one for each game type.

Verify Game Cache Files

If the issue persists after verifying cache

If you are unable to verify them, then you'll have to delete and re-download the content. The file you need to delete is typically in c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps and will be named as follows:

• Half-Life 2: "source materials.gcf"
• HL2DM: "half-life 2 deathmatch.gcf"
• CS:S: "counter-strike source shared.gcf"
• HL:Source: "half-life source.gcf"

If deleting the GCF file does not resolve the issue

If deleting the GCF doesn't resolve your problem, then you need to exit Steam and do a search for:

 filesystem_steam.dll

(start > search > for files or folders > all files or folders > all or part of the file name) and delete all instances except the one in the Steam\bin folder (typically c:\program file\valve\steam\bin\filesystem_steam.dll) - if you accidentally delete that file then you'll get an error when you start Steam which may be fixed by deleting your ClientRegistry.blob file and then starting up Steam.

If issue persists after deleting filesystem_steam.dll

Basically if you are at this point, you have external content in places where it shouldn't be. To fix this, you have to go to the folder for the game that you are having problems with and delete the folder.

• HL2: delete "half-life 2" folder
• CS:S: delete "counter-strike source" folder
• HL2DM: delete "half-life 2 deathmatch" folder
• HL:Source: delete "half-life source" folder