GTA 4 Freeze on PC

[Crouton70]

I was hitting temps of 72, took the fan off and cleaned all the thermal paste from the fan and cpu then re-applied. Now idles at 42 and only goes up to 51, still stutters after 2 minutes or so.

[Subversion1337]

I was hitting temps of 72, took the fan off and cleaned all the thermal paste from the fan and cpu then re-applied. Now idles at 42 and only goes up to 51, still stutters after 2 minutes or so.

perhaps you could try this toubleshoot http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=390498&st=40#

[Crouton70]

I've tried all those already. The command lines, memturbo, ATI tray tools, RivaTuner, downclocking, etc. Every time I thought I had it, the stutter would kick in. Once went a whole 6 minutes, thought I had it licked, but nope. Refuses to run smooth like it used to, and I guess the only thing I changed was the monitor. Got rid of my old CRT and bought a 22" LCD, but on the CRT I was gaming at 1600 x 1200 and now it's 1680 x 1050. I dunno, has me stumped. I uninstalled GTAIV in frustration, now re-playing San Andreas instead. WTG, Rockstar.

[logitechdog]

If it was happening before ignore, or your trying to go overboard on the gfx settings, but since you uninstalled it

====================================

 

this start happening after you got the monitor?

 

what lcd is it?

 

"did you uninstall your crt software, and install the lcd one

 

"and what cable are you using...

 

"refresh rate at 60hz if its a dvi, unless you did not get a default cable with it.... or you got it in the analog socket.. as it will be running off the "RAMDAC"

 

"res of your monitor is the same as the gaming res

 

"got v-sync on

 

as if it did start after the monitor that would be left out information...

 

or maybe you should just close each eye and see if it happens on both eyes?

 

 

[Gryet]

Hi all.

 

I'm on the freeze team too - maybe with some new info!?

 

Been playing for 40 hours (or something) without any problems at all. Now the game freezes at random intervals.

 

My PC is just fine: all updated, fine temp and everything.

 

I an unsure of this is a GTA thing or a Vista thing. So do any of you "freezers" run XP on a decent machine?

[Crouton70]

Uhm...Logitechdog, close each eye, what the heck does that mean? Something that starts out at 37 fps and then suddenly knocks down to 6 fps in under 2 minutes wouldn't have anything to do with my eyes. LOL I gamed at 1600 x 1200, 100 Hz refresh rate. Now I'm at 1680 x 1050 @ 60 Hz. Do you think that in my case, the lcd is suspect? I highly doubt that, but I'll try re-hooking the old CRT up again just for laughs and see what happens.

I'm running my monitor off of one of my dual dvi's. I had to have a dvi to vga adapter just to use the CRT with this card, actually.

[logitechdog]

well you did not say you where getting fps loss to "6 fps"... and that would not happen with a monitor change... so you must of been leaving other stuff out... I was just going on the info you gave...

 

eye test is just to see if its you going from a crt to a lcd... as only the weak eye would display it

 

 

I just did a re-install of windows, was working great before the install. I went from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium, hated it, did a format and re-installed XP Pro. It worked fine on the old XP install, same with Vista. Once I did a clean install, bam. Around 6.9 fps, if it doesn't crash and freeze after the first minute or so. I've tried all the fixes mentioned, still nothing working. Still runs great on my laptop , even though I can only run it at 800 x 600 so it looks kinda crappy. Shame the game is so buggy, it's loads of fun.

 

just read past the rest of the posts you did... if it happened after your reinstall maybe you need to wipe it again and reinstall it, or could be the gfx drivers

Edited March 12, 2009 by logitechdog

[Crouton70]

Ok, from the top then. Here's everything I'VE tried so far. My desktop specs:

 

Windows XP Professional, SP3

AMD Athlon X2 6400, stock

4 Gb of ram, DDR2 running at 800 MHz (dual-channel enabled)

Sapphire Radeon HD4670 512 Mb dual dvi, running 9.1 drivers

250 gig hard drive, 59% free space

GTA IV with patch 1.0.2.0

 

Installed the game on windows XP, SP3, in late December, patched to 1.0.1.0. Ran it at 1600 x 1200, 75 MHz refresh rate. NO problems. Played the game to 58% completion.

 

Installed Vista Home Premium in January. Installed GTA IV, ran it no problems.

 

HATED Vista, went back to windows XP the end of January. Re-installed GTA IV, game stutters after 2 to 6 minutes of play. Tried un-installing it, patched to 1.0.2.0. Stutters worse. Un-installed, tried stock with no updated patches. Still stutters. Tried using the comandline.txt fixes. Newp. Tried un-installing it, un-installing video card drivers, re-installing to 8.12 drivers and stock GTAIV. Still stutters. Tried patching to 1.0.1.0 with the 8.12 drivers, turning vsync and clip capture off. Still stutters.

Bought an LCD screen, Acer x223w just cuz I could and have been wanting to ditch the old 19" crt anyway. Gaming now at 1680 x 1050 @60 Hz. Just tried patching again to 1.0.2.0, still stutters. I had used ATI tray tools, tried downclocking in 50 MHz increments from the stock 750 down to 500 MHz, would play for almost 7 minutes then the framerate still drops from the 30's to somewhere between 6 and 1 fps. I've even tried putting the CRT back, newp. Still stutters. Checked my cpu temps, and one core was hitting 72 degrees C. Removed the fan, the thermal paste, re-applied fresh Arctic Silver, and put everything back together. Now idles at 42 and gets as hot as 51, game still stutters. Had 2 gigs of ram, added 2 more. Game still stutters.

 

Seeing as this is the ONLY game that I've tried that does this, I'm thinking that even with all the tweaking and goofing around that it's the game, not the machines, that are at fault. I find it VERY odd that on a fresh OS install, the problem pops up whereas before it all worked just peachy. One should be able to pop a game in and have it just plain work. My friend's son got this for his XBox360, and brought the game back twice. Put it in the hard drive and it fixed HIS stuttering problems. I haven't had it freeze yet, but 6 fps is close enough to a freeze for me.

 

I've since uninstalled the game...AGAIN...and am leaving it out until Rockstar finally fixes whatever code is messed up with a patch. Won't hold my breath though.

[Crouton70]

And to add insult to injury, I just installed GTA IV on my Dell XPS M1530 laptop and it plays flawlessly. My laptop specs:

 

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1

Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.1 GHz

3 Gb of ram

320 gig hard drive

nVidia 8600GT mobile 256 mb

Running all latest drivers and game patches.

 

 

It can only play at 800 x 600 and looks awful, but it's smooth as silk. Played for 3 hours without a single hiccup. Clip capture off, vsync on actually. It just works. So for now I'm going to have to be happy with that I guess. Wish I could figure out what changed between the old install of XP on my desktop, and the new fresh install now. Maybe some southbridge driver for the motherboard didn't install properly or something. Driving me nuts.

[Gryet]

I've since uninstalled the game...AGAIN...and am leaving it out until Rockstar finally fixes whatever code is messed up with a patch. Won't hold my breath though.

I gave up too.

 

I've played it for like 50 hours with no problems at all. Then suddently out of nowhere it starts to freeze. Sometimes after 2 minutes, sometimes after 2 hours.

 

I did everything I could think of exept re-installing Windows. I simply refuse re-installing my entire PC just because this game is crappy coded, eventually having to do that after every 50 hours of gameplay. I mean, what kind of solution is that suppose to be?

 

I guess i'll just have to accept the fast that 50 hours is all I got from this game.

Kinda sucks as I spend a little more than $1000 bucks on a new computer, ONLY cuz' my old couldn't run the game.

 

Also kinda makes it stupid to pay for games...

 

[binqasim]

plzz help me

listin man tu drunken camera problem are solved from razor crack

but i have a new problem with ma game gta4 that is

graphicaly not good the buildings roads streets are not clear

that looking just like the player stand on sea running on sea the buildings road not clear game speed going good not low i have using many resolution but same problem atmosphere are not clear

mine pc is

 

Intel Core 2 Due 2.53GHz 3mb cache

nvidia 8500 gt 512 mb DDR2 PCI Express latest driver installed from nvidia web

1.0 GB Ram DDR2

320 Hard Sata 2

xp sp 3 update

[Gryet]

DAMN

 

I formatted my computer a week ago and installed everything again. Been playing since with no problems.

 

But just had an application hang when saving the game.

 

Seems like GTA IV is just not ment to be played.

[steiner666]

similar situation here. I beat the game, put over 50 hours into it, and now i'm facing random freezes. Sometimes it just freezes, sometimes theres a sound loop. I had some problems at first, mainly just out of memory errors, which disabling clip-capture fixed.... Then this week I put another 4GB of ram in my system and updated to the 1.03 or whatever... and now i'm getting these freezes. Thought i had it figured out and fixed last night, played for a couple hours w/o issues. Then today it's locked up twice. I've tried lowering my clocks... raising my voltages, lowering my voltaged (thats cpu, ram, notherbridge) temps are all fine when this happens... it's perplexing, to say the least. I guess I'm just glad i was able to beat the game b4 this sh*tstorm of lockups came my way... but I've been trying to do co-op missions with a couple friends recently, and we cant get half way through bomb the base before one of us crashes and drops out.

 

every other game i play on this rig runs perfectly, and any stress/stability test i'm subjected it to has revealed no issues... I've honestly started to consider the possibilty that its a PSU problem.. but this is a new antec 650w psu with plenty of amps across 3 rails... and with this many ppl having the same problem, i'm really starting to do doubt that its anything but a buggy game.

 

i just reinstalled my game and patched it to ver 1.01 (the version i was able to beat the game on w/o problems), i'm gonna play it as much as i can today and see if it still crashes.

 

so, in other words, expect another frustrated post later on in the day

[steiner666]

WTF?!

 

same thing, locks up, only these past couple times its just crashed to the desktop instead of forcing me to reboot. now its sayin i have no available ram...

[TekUK]

Hey all.

 

dude's im not sure if its a problem with GTAIV, GPU or not, i cant seem to work this out my self either.

One thing i can say for sure, Its not a video driver problem. Especially after trying all the ATi drivers i could find, including the nasty warranty breakers.

 

1.0.3.0 just seems to have caused some kind of system memory problem, maybe. or maybe something in between.

Im not an expert, but when it comes to gaming problems i can most of the time diagnose and fix the problem myself.

 

So im running XP 32bit, SP3. From past experience with updating OS's ive noticed that there is just something in a new OS. that allows for certain things to be done better than in your original OS. Tried about 4 different OS's. lol

Now i know you lot probably already knew that, but what im getting at is that i tried GTAIV with Windows 7. and It worked, Perfect.

 

I seen in an earlier post that some one tried GTAIV on their laptop and was gutted that it ran flawlessly on that rather than their home system. I hate when that happens.

 

I just need some one to clarify if this is what i think it is. I mean. to have to change OS's to get a great game like GTAIV to work is MAD.

 

So am i right in thinking that this is more than likely a system memory problem.

im running 2x2gb of OCZ is this what could be causing this problem for me on XP.

Its dual channel. in the right slots. although for some reason they no longer work in their original two slots. Monitor does not come on if they in the original slots???. id rather use XP. for as long as possible, maybe until MS release another super fast OS.

Showing 3.2gb in system info.

 

Using xp for max performance. even with DX10, 10.1 or 11 the games still run better in DX9 under xp. More fluidity. So smooth.

Vista just does not run GTAIV well at all. all those processes. wow no thanks. thought windows 7 would be better. oh no. no way. still the same. well it is beta.

But it ran GTAIV perfect. it just glitches and stutters a little. barely noticeable. like a game being ran on vista does. think its me CPU thats not good with vista. so maybe not many people see that strange game stutter.

 

Anyway. i still now believe that it is or has to be a system memory problem. as changing OS's doesn't really do anything to GPU. or does it. Maybe it was a DX thing that fixed GTAIV. was on DX11 when using windows 7. or is it 10.1, hell i dont know anymore this game giving me a major headache now. lol

 

Hopefully some one comes up with a solution soon. or i spent near 200 pound to play this game for nothing.

Dammit!!! new video card... new ram... new cooler... and all for what?? nothing but freezing gpu's baaa. humbug.

 

BTW, is a 500w PSU, what im using now, ok for 2x HDD's 320gb & 160gb, 2x DVDRW, a 4670 1gb, 2x2gb's of OCZ,

2x 120mm case fans and the E6750. oh and the board of course. on board sound. Just thinking maybe im out of power.

2nd DVDRW dont seem to work anymore, and as i said my RAM no longer works in its original slots, has to go into the other secondary slots. 4 slots in total on mobo. just a thought.

 

Later guys.

 

wonder if R* will fix GTAIV before GTAV comes out. HA

 

 

Edit: Just tried DX10 for Xp, and that didnt work either. not that i was expecting it to. same thing happens everythime.

i drive over the same roads and all is fine for as long as i stay on those roads. as soon as i cross the bridge. ANY. i notice the textures arent loaded fully. and i seem to be around half a foot off the ground lol. then it freezes. with a hard reset.

Damn shame. Guess im gonna av to use W7 again.

 

must be system mem prob?

Edited April 25, 2009 by TekUK

[caker]

i had the problem of the game running smooth then crash after maybe 5-10 mins, then trying different fixes got it running but then every 1-2 mins it would freeze or get a black screen for about 5 seconds.

 

just tried these commandline commands everything seemed to work, was able to play for 1-2hours without problems, gonna try again later and run a benchmark.

-norestriction

-nomemrestrict

-availablevidmem "1.0"

-percentvidmem "100"

 

got it from http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f15/gta4-twe...gta4-pc-195548/

 

i have

e8500

asus eah 4870 512mb

4gb 8500

running on xp sp3, net 3.5, catalyst 9.4, gta1.0.3.0, and i also flashed my motherboard bios.

none of my stuff is oc'd

 

after trying to play again got the resc10 error after about 2hours, i dont think its too bad though before i only had time to do 1 mission at most before it crashed.

Edited April 27, 2009 by caker

[Matt15]

BUMP...!!!

 

These problems are still continuing and R* are still giving victims the run around. When will R* take responsibility for all these PC crashes and address the problem. Its been a long enough wait for these problems to be resolved.

[Bookworm222]

I had purchased the game about a week ago, and like many here, have had frequent freezes. I have a Dell XPS 730 rig, a substantial powerhouse, make sure all my drivers are up to date, and always kept my background tasks to a minimum.

 

Since I have only experienced the game with the 3rd patch, and have not gone through the what many of you have from day one, my hunch tells me that the problem can only be solved by a 4th or later patch from Rockstar. We all want the game to run properly, but knowing my computer as I do, the problem is NOT with our rigs, NOT future video drivers, but up to Rockstar to pinpoint the problem and patch.

 

For what it is worth, Dell has a version 1.06 bios update for the XPS 730 that addresses incorrect memory information in the bios. I applied it today and have played the game for about 2 hours without freezing, never had that much luck before.

 

I'll write back if this manages to stabilize the game, but I still feel it will freeze in the future.

 

Regards.

[refzem]

same problem here. Freezes, completley random. Sometimes within 10 minutes of gaming, sometimes after 1 hour. Most often when inside a car.

[FlyingSaucer]

Hi everyone. Clearly, I've just registered here cuz I can see you all have the same problem as me. I will specify my problem, however.

So, I was a perfectly happy gta player for about a year. No disturbances. Then, out of the blue, sh*t hit the fan. The game started to throw me out to windows after some time of playing, it was after 10 or 30 mins, or sometimes 2 hours. The error poped up saying 'recovery problem'. I reinstalled the game a couple of times, in vain. The problem remained. So, I finally installed a whole new OS on my PC. I switched from XP to Win 7. I installed the drivers and updated the game with all the neccessary patches just to be met with the same trouble. Only this time gta kept freezing after 5 or 10 mins in such a way that all I could do was to reset the computer. Sometimes the game not only froze, but also messed up the screen making it all beige or orange or something like that. I'm lost, completely lost. I've been reading forums in search for an answer and found none. I've also read this whole thread, but nothing helps. What the hell is wrong with this game ?! Or is it my graphics ?

 

Oh, I forgot to add that it freezes mostly when I play multiplayer. When I play single player mode the game runs smoothly for up to 2 or 3 hours.

Any ideas ?

[mkey82]

It sounds like you have overheating problem which over time can cause damage to your hardware, specifically the GPU.

[haints]

Damn thing is freezing on me too now. The screen freezes, then it goes to a black screen with a mouse arrow in the middle. If I hit ESC I can get back to my desktop--any other key and I have to do a hard reset.

 

I hate this. Really, really hate this.