I decided the other day that I ought to try to start my own TeamFortress 2 server. (Actually, I tried long ago, but hoped the problem had been fixed. But it hasn’t.) I want to share the cause of the problem in the hopes of helping others, since Google usually picks these things up.

You spend forever downloading the Half-Life Dedicated Server (HLDS), and excitedly fire it up. It runs through some stuff and seems to be working, but then you get a whole bunch of bizarre errors scrolling by:

Bad data found in model "dispenser_toolbox.dmx" (bad bone weights)
Bad data found in model "dispenser_gib1.smd" (bad bone weights)
Bad data found in model "dispenser_gib2.smd" (bad bone weights)
Bad data found in model "dispenser_gib3.smd" (bad bone weights)
Bad data found in model "dispenser_gib4.smd" (bad bone weights)
Bad data found in model "dispenser_gib5.smd" (bad bone weights)

What’s been surmised is that it’s because your processor doesn’t support SSE2. Bah! There’s no fix, either, other than pleading with Steam to write a version that doesn’t require SSE2, or upgrading your CPU.

It’s clearly time to build a new server and colocate it. 😉