Game crash after a few minutes of play

[Pooka]

So after playing the game for about 5-10 minutes it just crashes. no real error message or anything. I have Vista so it gives me the little "Program has encountered a problem, windows is looking for a solution" message, but that's it.

Any help?

 

here are my settings:

 

Video mode: 1280 x 1024 (60Hz)

Aspect Ratio: Auto

Texture Quality: High

Reflection Resolution: Low

Water Quality: Medium

Shadow Quality: Medium

Render Quality: Medium

View Distance: 11

Detail Distance: 50

Vehicle Density: 70

Shadow Density: 10

Definition: Off

Vsinc: Off

 

Resource Usage: 627/1005 MB

 

The crashing seems to go away if i set the texture quality to medium and i can set everything else to almost highest, but at medium textures this game is just bleh. And I use the nasty blur effect in the game because the aliasing and shadows are just way too ugly without it. Besides, I'm pretty sure my PC should be able to handle a game like this maxed out. Also if i do set the settings lower and actually manage to play the game for a while, then after maybe 30 min if I go the the menu I get the RESC10 error. Basically so far i have not been able to run this crash free. Lowering settings just seems to delay the crashes but never fixes them.

 

Here's my PC spec:

 

Asus P6T Deluxe mobo

Nvidia GTX280

Intel Core i7 920 @2.67GHz

6Gb Ram

Vista 64 Home Premium

Latest Nvidia drivers

 

Game is running the 1.0.2.0 patch.

I heard there are some problems with the .2 patch so would i be better off running the previous .1 patch?

 

I got this PC just a little while ago so i haven't gotten to try too many games on it yet but it ran Far Cry 2 fully maxed out and i can't get that game to lag even if i tried to, and it looks alot better than this so what gives?

I have read of people with Core2 Quads and GeForce 9s running this game all maxed out with no stability or performance problems (even seen videos) So is there something I'm missing here?

Edited February 7, 2009 by Pooka

[thales100]

 

I have read of people with Core2 Quads and GeForce 9s running this game all maxed out with no stability or performance problems (even seen videos) So is there something I'm missing here?

Yes, i have played GTA 4 for over 80 hours without any crash (rig in my sig). I play it all maxed HIGH - VERY HIGH - VERY HIGH - VERY HIGH - HIGHEST - 100 - 100 - 16 - ON - ON, at 1680 x 1050. You should be able to play it all maxed too.

Patch 2 should be fine, im using it too.

Its really weird to have RESC10 crash running this game at 1280 x 1024 with your GFX settings, using a 1 Gb VRAM high end card such as the GTX 280.

Can you post a benchmark result running at a higher res than 1280 x 1024 ? Like your monitor native res, if not 1280 x 1024 should be ok, so we can CPU, RAM and VRAM usage and the FPS you get.

Edited February 7, 2009 by thales100

[Godfat][er]

 

Yes, i have played GTA 4 for over 80 hours without any crash (rig in my sig). I play it all maxed HIGH - VERY HIGH - VERY HIGH - VERY HIGH - HIGHEST - 100 - 100 - 16 - ON - ON, at 1680 x 1050. You should be able to play it all maxed too.

Patch 2 should be fine, im using it too.

Its really weird to have RESC10 crash running this game at 1280 x 1024 with your GFX settings, using a 1 Gb VRAM high end card such as the GTX 280.

Can you post a benchmark result running at a higher res than 1280 x 1024 ? Like your monitor native res, if not 1280 x 1024 should be ok, so we can CPU, RAM and VRAM usage and the FPS you get. colgate.gif

 

Hmmm.............Thats crazy.

You must be one of the lucky ones.

Mine crashes every time I play.

Whether its in 5 minutes or 15 minutes. Its inevitable.

I tried numerous things, and nothing works.

The ONLY other option now is what for another patch from Rockstar.

[Pooka]

I'm guessing 1280x1024 would be my native since it's as high as my monitor goes.

And no luck on the benchmark, the game crashes as soon as it loads. Again, if i drop the texture to medium i can probably get the benchmark to work.

 

Edit:

 

Heres a benchmark with the textures at medium and everything else the same as my first post.

 

Average FPS: 51.18

CPU Usage: 32%

System memory Usage: 46%

Video memory Usage: 39%

 

oh and with the textures down to medium my resource usage is 320/1005MB So i could definately bring all the other stuff to almost max.

Still couldn't get the benchmark to work with high textures.

It's starting to look like i may have to put this game on the shelf to collect dust until i get me one of those "Future Computers" Rockstar is talking about. Let's just hope R* learned from this and the PC release of the Lost and Damned or the next GTA doesn't have these problems.

Edited February 7, 2009 by Pooka

[Defuser]

Have you tried disabling clip capture? Under Vista 64, that seems to be the cause of most crashes. Damn you, Rockstar!

[Pooka]

Have you tried disabling clip capture? Under Vista 64, that seems to be the cause of most crashes. Damn you, Rockstar!

Yep I disabled that when i first found it.

I figured with the computer having to run the game AND record it at the same time, that may be a bit of a problem since it's having a hard time just running it.

[FakeJ66]

add this to your commandlines:

 

-memrestrict 1029145600 -novblank -minspecaudio -availablevidmem 1.0 -percentvidmem 1.0 -windowed -width=1024 -height=768 -DX9

 

"-windowed" is very important!!

[thales100]

[er' date=Feb 7 2009, 01:54] Mine crashes every time I play.

Whether its in 5 minutes or 15 minutes. Its inevitable.

I tried numerous things, and nothing works.

The ONLY other option now is what for another patch from Rockstar.

Is your CPU overclocked ? I had a BurnIn passed oc once (10 consecutive tests, 100% load to both CPU and RAM), but kept crashing like you describe, tried everything you can imagine, just to find out later my oc wasnt GTA 4 stable, so i worked a bit on voltages and no more crashes after 80 hours of gameplay.

 

[thales100]

It's starting to look like i may have to put this game on the shelf to collect dust until i get me one of those "Future Computers" Rockstar is talking about.

This isnt necessary, your rig is more than enough to run this game at highest GFX settings, can you post a dxdiag in this thread ? Is your PC new ?

 

 

 

[Defuser]

I can tell you that these problems manifest themselves at both stock and overclocked settings. No amount of tweaking will undo the fact that this game is incredibly unstable upon certain configurations. There are problems with the game. Outside of changing your hardware or downgrading to a different OS, there's not much you can do - much is unsupported. I had many, many problems until I changed my hardware configuration, proving to my satisfaction that there were certain things about my previous system that GTA simply did not like. It was not a problem with my setup, or the installation of any software. It was simply how the game interacted with those components. There are bugs and they cause crashes.

 

Pooka, don't waste your time trying to satisfy the people in this forum. By all means, try and solve your problems as far as your patience will let you, but you can sink hours and hours into trying to get this game to work. If every other program runs without issue on your system, then for the sake of your sanity I suggest you do put the game aside until Rockstar manages to release a product that doesn't require such gargantuan effort to get running to an acceptable standard.

 

The game is fantastic, and now that I have managed to get it running flawlessly, it's a work of art. BUT, and I must stress this, NO GAME IS WORTH THIS MUCH TROUBLE.

[thales100]

Pooka, don't waste your time trying to satisfy the people in this forum.

Thats a pathetic advice m8, dont think there is anybody here looking for "satisfaction",but we try to help ppl wtih problems to run this game. His rig is more than enough to run this game at highest GFX settings without any crashes.

[Defuser]

Do you think that there are any problems with this game, Thales?

[thales100]

 

Do you think that there are any problems with this game, Thales?

No, no problems with the game imo - when 95% of ppl can run it and you cant, its time to admit it maybe your fault.

 

 

[Defuser]

I think 95% is a gross over estimation, but there are never going to be any concrete figures on what the amount really is so that's essentially irrelevant. The satisfaction I referred to is an attempt to satisfy yourself that there are no problems with the game by trying desperately to discern the problem with the player's computer - when there is none other than the fact that they are unlucky in that their computer is unsupported by the game. This isn't true 100% of the time, of course, because the way some people's hardware is set up is to blame in some cases, and can be rectified. However, to suggest that this is always the case is an over-simplification of the matter.

 

I also know that the game simply would not run for any stretch of time without the RESC10 error with clip capture enabled while I used a HD4870X2. That problem has since disappeared now that I have switched to a 295GTX. Ergo, it's a problem with how the game interacts with a HD4870X2 on Vista 64. You can believe me when I say that I tried absolutely everything to get it running for any stretch of time - it didn't happen. The only solution? Switching to some hardware/software supported by the game. There are a tremendous amount of variables involved, but changing this single one helped. Therefore, I can isolate the problem.

 

I detailed the differences between the two cards in another thread but the most noticeable was not just the lack of crashes but the fact that when rendering a video with a 4870X2, it ends up at half the frame rate of the 295 - for no reason other than the fact that they are different cards. It's this sort of bizarre difference that makes it not that much of a leap of faith to understand that the game interacts with different hardware in different ways depending on what it detects.

 

Like I said, I can run the game - flawlessly. But I have seen what a difference something so arbitrary can make to the game - something that the player simply cannot be faulted for. In my opinion, you are entirely mistaken Thales.

[Pooka]

 

add this to your commandlines:

 

-memrestrict 1029145600 -novblank -minspecaudio -availablevidmem 1.0 -percentvidmem 1.0 -windowed -width=1024 -height=768 -DX9

 

"-windowed" is very important!!

 

Although I heard that the command line thing doesn't do anything, I'm willing to try anything once. I know I have to make a shortcut to the game but which field in the properties do i put the commands?

 

 

This isnt necessary, your rig is more than enough to run this game at highest GFX settings, can you post a dxdiag in this thread ? Is your PC new ?

 

 

Here you go, I'll give the system and display windows just in case you need em. I bought and built this PC less than a month ago, January 20-something-ish.

 

System:

 

 

Display:

 

[Godfat][er]

 

Although I heard that the command line thing doesn't do anything, I'm willing to try anything once. I know I have to make a shortcut to the game but which field in the properties do i put the commands?

You no longer have to create a shortcut to add command lines.

Simply create a .txt file called commandline.

In that file add all the command lines you wish.

Something that looks like this.

 

-memrestrict 314572800

-novblank

-percentvidmem 1.0

-norestrictions

-availablevidmem 2.0

 

Save the commandline.txt file to your Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV directory.

Thats all.

Enjoy.

[thales100]

[er' date=Feb 8 2009, 05:13] Save the commandline.txt file to your Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV directory.

Thats all.

Enjoy.

Yes, let us know if the commandline.txt helped you.

[Pooka]

Wow I think i got it.

I tried the commands Fake J66 posted exactly the way he posted them. It worked for a while. I played for an hour, and no crash. The windowed mode was getting annoying though. So i took out -windowed, the -height and -width things. Still worked. Then I took out -minspecaudio, and tried to raise the graphics a bit and that killed it. As soon as the game would load, It would crash to an RT10 error.

 

So I then tried Godfat][er's commands and brought the settings to

 

1280X1024 60Hz

Auto

High

Medium

Medium

Very High

Highest

60

80

100

14

Off

Off

 

1113/2010Mb

 

So for it has worked perfectly for 1 hour. I won't mess with the commands anymore since they seem to work, now it's just a matter of raising the settings bit by bit and see how far I can push this. I'll post a benchmark in a while.

[thales100]

So for it has worked perfectly for 1 hour. I won't mess with the commands anymore since they seem to work, now it's just a matter of raising the settings bit by bit and see how far I can push this. I'll post a benchmark in a while.

Great news, so Fake isnt that fake.

[Zinthar]

[er' date=Feb 8 2009, 05:13]

Although I heard that the command line thing doesn't do anything, I'm willing to try anything once. I know I have to make a shortcut to the game but which field in the properties do i put the commands?

You no longer have to create a shortcut to add command lines.

Simply create a .txt file called commandline.

In that file add all the command lines you wish.

Something that looks like this.

 

-memrestrict 314572800

-novblank

-percentvidmem 1.0

-norestrictions

-availablevidmem 2.0

 

Save the commandline.txt file to your Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV directory.

Thats all.

Enjoy.

 

 

I also have the CTD problem, and I tried this exact commandline (and a number of others), and it didn't help. I'll copy over a detailed description of my problem from another thread (unlike the OP, I have it with an ATI card):

 

I also have this Crash to Desktop issue. Note that this is not the out of VRAM error, it's just a CTD. The game is fine for anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, but inevitably crashes, and it only happens while loading a cut scene, coming back to the game from a cut scene, or when completing a mission (I hold my breath every time one of these things happens). So the game is somewhat playable, but it's incredibly annoying to have it crash right as it would be auto-saving from a completed mission.

 

In the interests of perhaps aiding Rockstar in their efforts with Patch 3, here are my system specs and a ton of other info:

 

Q6600 @ 3.6 Ghz (Prime 95 stable)

4GB DDR2-1000

DFI Lanparty P35 LT

Sapphire Radeon 4870X2 (stock)

Seasonic S12 650W PSU

Vista Home Premium x64

 

-Steam version of GTA:IV, patched to 1.0.2.0

-Catalyst 9.1 drivers (cleanly installed)

-Catalyst AI set to Standard

-All DirectX & C++ files fully updated (including fix for one of the 2008 C++ files where it copies one of the files to the C: root drive instead of the correct folder)

-System fully defragged with Puran defrag

 

Clip Capture: Off

Resolution: 1680x1050

Textures: High

All Rendering options: Maxed

View: 20

Detail: 50

Traffic: 40

Shadow: 10

Definition: On

VSync: Off

Clip Capture: Off

 

Resoure Usage (I forget exactly), something like 900/1011MB.

 

Most of the time my game is >50 frames per second, with very few slowdowns. In other words, the game is smooth and plays amazingly well, which I should expect since I have a high-end rig. I buy almost all of my games via Steam, and own >20 modern games... all of them play perfectly on my computer, with no crashing (though Oblivion crashes when you exit the game, which is essentially a non-issue, and this is purely a Vista issue with it). I even have older games that supposedly aren't compatible with Vista x64 like KOTOR1 & 2 both working perfectly (I simply installed them with XP SP2 compat mode).

 

I have my fans turned up so that under load my Q6600 maxed at around 60 degrees, and the 4870x2 around 72 degrees -- all well within normal operating temps.

 

In short, GTA:IV is the only program that has ever crashed on my computer more than once. I've done a ton of research into what could be causing this, but can't come up with anything other than patch 2 just won't work with my computer. I've tried virtually every commandline configuration, using medium textures (to reduce VRAM usage to only half of my available VRAM), same issue is present with all of them.

 

My next step is to eliminate Vista x64 as the source by installing XP SP3 to one of my other drives and trying it on there. I'll update this when I get around to doing that. I also could try the Windows 7 beta, but I'm not hopeful of that being a solution since the drivers are fundamentally the same as Vista's.

 

Anyway, Rockstar, you have one of the best games of all time here -- please help us play it. Any other suggestions other than just waiting for the next patch?

 

Crash detailed info:

Problem signature

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: GTAIV.exe

Application Version: 1.0.2.0

Application Timestamp: 494ff743

Fault Module Name: atiumdag.dll

Fault Module Version: 7.14.10.636

Fault Module Timestamp: 496d6d9d

Exception Code: c0000005

Exception Offset: 0004ad03

OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: fd00

Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Additional Information 3: fd00

Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

 

 

Description

Critical runtime problem

 

Problem signature

Problem Event Name: APPLICATION CRASH

System RAM: -11976704

Available RAM: 1102696448

Number of CPUs: 4

Video Card Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.

Video Card Description: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Video Card Driver Version: 7.15.0010.0170

OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3

Locale ID: 1033

[thales100]

Ppl running Vista 64 could check this thread - http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=396950 - this hotfix may help you.

[Zinthar]

Ppl running Vista 64 could check this thread - http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=396950 - this hotfix may help you.

That does seem like it would be an important fix, and I had stumbled upon that a few days ago and tried it. Alas, it didn't fix my CTD issue.

 

I would be interested in seeing if it's helpful to others.

[Defuser]

From my experimentation with my new GTX 295 it seems that there are two kinds of crash related to there being not enough VRAM (the RESC10 error). One results in an error message, the other simply freezes. They occur at two ends of what I found to be the threshold for playing. Too little memory for your settings, and the game will struggle to load textures on time (resulting in LOD anomalies) - however, if this is happening noticeably, your graphics card is staying within it's VRAM limit, or it's memrestriction. By not loading certain aspects of the scenery, it is being throttled.

 

This is a good thing as it means a crash is unlikely. In this case, unless you have lots of VRAM, it is worth considering lowering your settings. On the opposite end of the scale, if you use too much, and you will incur the error message. There's a spot in the middle that people might recognise by everything loading in a scene, but the game stuttering massively. Around here is where you will get the freezes without notification. What you want to do is reach is sweet spot between scenery loading and stuttering, without the freezes or going too far and getting the actual RESC10 error. You are supposed to be able to achieve this through the ingame settings - but they do not, in my tests, govern how much memory the game attempts to use - or rather, restricts itself too. How this all works, according to my tests, is a question of ratios.

 

From my tests, I found that by multiplying my availablevidmem, the amount of memory reported as being over the limit actually increased. At default, it would tell me that around 700MB was too much. At availablevidmem 2.0, it would be 800. The question is, would the sweet spot for being within the memory threshold move with the increase in video memory that is being used?

 

The point to this is that you want to be able to increase your memrestriction in order to eliminate LOD issues but also stay away from the stuttering. There's a point right in the middle at around 500MB usage that this is possible with my settings, which I'll mention. With my GTX 295, 500MB memrestriction is the sweetspot. In order to move that sweetspot up, I have to use availablevidmem 2.0. This ensures that I can put everything on the highest @ 2048x1536 (including shadows) on my rig and incur no slowdown and no crashes. Let me tell you, the blur effect is a lot more subtle at that resolution and jaggies are barely noticeable. Zooming around the streets on a zombie never looked better! If you're running on lower settings, consider trying something similar but perhaps a little lower.

 

The point is that masses of testing can reap rewards, but only if you're willing to spend at least an hour testing and retesting.

 

For those interested, my commandline in much the same as (Godfat][er's, except with 500MB as the restriction and not 300MB.

 

-memrestrict 524288000

-novblank

-percentvidmem 1.0

-norestrictions

-availablevidmem 2.0

[necramonium]

I got the same thing,the game freezes at cutscenes,the sound still continues but the entire pc is frozen.

[Zinthar]

Defuser,

 

That's very interesting. I'm using a 4870x2, so I'll probably try running your exact command line later.

 

One thing that I noticed is that when not using a command line, if I set textures to High (and view distance to something like 20), I have no LOD issues at all.

 

But, if I set textures to medium (and no matter what view distance is set), the performance is always silky smooth (the game doesn't start with that few seconds of stutter as it loads textures) but has rampant LOD issues.

 

I suspect that when not using command lines, the game handles memory restrictions differently depending on medium vs. high textures, with the LOD issue seemingly more important than the minor difference in the actual quality of the textures.

[Defuser]

I think that the game automatically sets a memory restriction, but that certain cards have issues when attempting to institute it. I originally had a HD4870X2 but could not, for love nor money, manage to get it stable for GTA. At any settings, at any resolution. If you compound the issue with the 9.1 drivers causing random crashes, then you're screwed. Switching to a 295 GTX solved my woes.

 

One thing that I do remember from owning a HD4870X2 was that I could not get it to use more memory to the point where it would stop stuttering DESPITE it having more VRAM available than the 295. At 2048x1536 you'd expect it to perform better than the 295 due to this very advantage. Not so!

 

Increasing memrestict or doubling, even quadrupling the availablevidmem made absolutely zero difference to performance or stability. Everything, I mean every combination I tried, resulted in exactly the same performance and exactly the same instability.

 

If I try to increase my availablevidmem to anything above 1.2 with the 295, but don't use a sensible memrestrict under 700 or so, it will crash before entering the game with a RESC10 error. At amounts around 1, I can get away with anything up to my total amount of VRAM (896) despite only 874 being reported in GTA. If I increase still further, I have to reduce my memrestrict further. Somewhere in the midst of all this is the stability/performance sweet spot I was talking about earlier. The sweetspot moves up, but the usable memrestrict decreases. This is where the idea of ratios being involved comes into play. Why should the game require a lower memrestrict if a higher availablevidmem is specified unless more is being loaded and the memrestrict represents a ratio of that amount? Could it be that different things are being loaded in differing amounts?

 

Whatever the case, I feel as though the reported VRAM limit is nothing other than an arbitrary figure that serves as a representation of how much VRAM loading a higher detail scene would take up. It does nothing to restrict the memory amount, something which (I think) is decided upon by, like you said Zinthar, texture detail (among other things). Why would the memrestricts quoted by Rockstar as a trouble shooting method equate to texture detail if they fall within the total amount specified in the graphics menu?

[Subversion1337]

I get random and too frequent PC freezes requiring restart of system also. Still looking for a fix.

 

Specs:

 

- Intel Core i7 920 CPU

- Gigabyte EX58 UDP4 Motherboard

- 6 Gb of DDR3 1333 MHz RAM

- GeForce 9800 GT

- Windows XP Service Pack 3

- Newly and correctly installed system, latest drivers for everything, latest patches

- 55 fps benchmark

[kitch9]

Ppl running Vista 64 could check this thread - http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=396950 - this hotfix may help you.

Since I've done that I haven't had a CTD once.

 

ATI users running the Catalyst 9.1 might consider going back to the 8.12 hotfix drivers as well. The 9.1's seem to be causing CTD's in a few titles GTA included. They are pretty unstable I've found.