Game freezes at first mission's loading screen

[mantis44]

I recently installed GTA III and a couple of things have been irritating me. First and foremost, my main problem is the freezing issue that happens when I drive into the blue circle to do Luigi's first mission, Luigi's Girls. There's no way out of this unless I CTL-ALT-DEL out and end the process. There are some minor issues as well such as the disappearing text at the menu screen and not being able to drive backwards at some parts in Portland. Here's a list of the things I've tried:

 

1. Updated drivers, defragged, cleaned up my computer, etc.

2. Ran the game in XP and Win98 compatibility mode

3. Patched it to 1.1 and then did the same as #2.

4. Set the gta.exe to use only one core of my dual core processor

5. Re-installed the game, but this time in Program Files instead of Program Files (x86)

 

And before I forget, here are my specs:

 

Intel E8400 C2D @3.0GHz

2x 8800GT 512MB (SLI)

4GB PC2 6400 RAM

Vista Home Premium 64-bit

 

I'm thinking it might be the fact that I have a 64 bit version of Vista, but I've heard that other people have played this game with no problems on Vista, so I'm at a loss. Thanks.

[Girish]

Have you purchased the game or downloaded it?

[stef_92]

Have you modded your game? If you haven't so maybe the problem is in some incompatibility with 64 bit vista

[mantis44]

The game is purchased with no mods.

[mantis44]

It seems as if GTA III isn't the only game in the series that doesn't like me. GTA Vice City is also freezing, but this time at the first screen (Marco's Bistro, Liberty City 1986) when I start a new game. I set the cores to one, ran it in compatibility mode for WinXP, but neither yielded any results. Before anyone asks, VC is also a legit copy with no mods. I'm starting to think about dual-booting with XP and trying them both on it.

 

EDIT: Just tried loading a save game after the first mission (which was recommended by someone over at GTAplace.com) but that also didn't work. I got to that same loading screen (generic blue/black picture of the GTA cartoon characters) and it froze there.

Edited August 8, 2008 by mantis44

[Lenin]

I know it's an old topic but i don't see any harm in bumping since i have the solution:

 

Turn on frame limiter.

 

Turning off framelimiter is nothing but trouble..

[mantis44]

I know it's an old topic but i don't see any harm in bumping since i have the solution:

 

Turn on frame limiter.

 

Turning off framelimiter is nothing but trouble..

Haha, sounds good. I've long since uninstalled the game, but I might reinstall next week and try this.

[stef_92]

go to the gta3.exe properties and set the compatibility mode to Windows XP (or Windows 98, it depends on that which of them will work better)

[Kilu]

Just wanted to say thanks. I had the same problem on my newish comp w/ Vista (game freezing at the loading screen for 'Luigis's Girls'), and a quick google search pointed me to these forums. Turning on the frame limiter took care of the problem.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Kilu