GTA IV loading + mutliplayer problems!

[vaexelverkan]

Hello, I've been having some serious problems with the game GTA IV (retail) for PC.

After some searching (mostly found info at GTAForums) and tweaking I kind of think I know what the reason for my problems are.

So, what are my problems then?

Well, mainly, my game sometimes refuses to load. It doesn't get past the character loading screen after you start the game, and seems to never stop loading. This is a known problem, and I've found some interesting threads on this forum, but now for the strange part.

My game only has problems loading when the startup menu screen (image) is Niko standing to the left of a GTA IV logo. Normally you would see some random character to the left, and the RGSC video + news thingy to the right, but sometimes it doesn't appear, instead you get an image of Niko.

But, sometimes (usually after ctrl + alt + deleting my game like 3 times) the menu screen is black, and after a few seconds it turns into the Internet Explorer page saying that the web page cannot be displayed in this program. If this occurs, I can get past the loading screen and play as usual. This problem with the game not loading and only Niko showing at startup didn't exist the first time I played GTA IV.

 

Now for problem number 2, I can't access mutliplayer because the game states that my files are modified! This of course isn't true, but still it says so. After some searching here as well, this seems to be kind of known, but no real fix (except that File Check Fix which btw didn't work). Now for the strange thing here, this multiplayer feature worked fine the first time I installed GTA IV, but after some time it stopped working. Because of that I have reinstalled my game 2 times, but it didn't help.

It wasn't until today i think I've found the reason for it. I remember that I didn't change any graphical settings the first time I played it, but then i started to do just that. One of the things I did was disabling VSYNC, and it was after that multiplayer stopped working. After reinstalling my game the second time, I didn't change anything, and wow, now multiplayer works!

So, I decided to disable VSYNC, and surprise, multiplayer stopped working.

I haven't tried changing it back yet, since the game won't load now, but I'll see to that later.

 

For the record, GTA IV (1.0.0.4), RGSC and GFWL are all patched to the latest version and reinstalled. I'm not sure about the .NET things though...

My theory for the first problem is that it won't load because of some connection error to RGSC, but what do i know.

The second problem is harder to imagine, perhaps if I change VSYNC I edit a config file, which the file checker dislikes.

Perhaps something has to do with all that stupid protection crap that comes with this legally bought game

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and the official Rockstar Support didn't help much.

 

Jeez, this became a long post, but if any of you are having the same problems or know any fixes, please reply!

Edited January 23, 2010 by vaexelverkan

[mkey82]

lol what a mess.

 

Firstly, file checking routines will not normally check the config files. There was maybe some weird error with settings files, try fixing it by removing them (there is a guide for this in the FAQ, look in my sig).

 

As for the first problem, it seems to be partially caused by vsync, but there is also something weird going on. I really have no ideas.

 

When you reinstalled the game, did you make sure there are no leftover files in the game install dir? Have you ever applied any mods?

[vaexelverkan]

lol what a mess.

 

Firstly, file checking routines will not normally check the config files. There was maybe some weird error with settings files, try fixing it by removing them (there is a guide for this in the FAQ, look in my sig).

 

As for the first problem, it seems to be partially caused by vsync, but there is also something weird going on. I really have no ideas.

 

When you reinstalled the game, did you make sure there are no leftover files in the game install dir? Have you ever applied any mods?

Hah, yeah, I should try removing those files, not that I see why it would help

When i reinstalled it I made sure of that, I think, but I left my AppData settings and saves for convenience...

Nope, the only thing I have tried is that File Check Fix, but it didn't work so i removed it and reinstalled the game.

[vaexelverkan]

This might just be a coincidence, but i deleted all my Settings files, and now multiplayer seems to work flawlessly!

And for some reason I had four files, not three as the FAQ stated. The extra file was named serial.dat

I hope it wasn't necessary for the game itself.. Does any one else have this file?

[ZAZ]

Start screen: I never got webpages on the right side though I installed actually flash.

I asume it's because I disabled the activX (sounds stupid but anyway)

I'm often testing script mods and since some weeks I have more problems with the strart screen and the load screen

doesn't matter if I have modded files or not

sometimes I get the normal screen, sometimes the screen with Nico on left side, sometimes with blank page, sometimes with black screen.

Sometimes the loadscreen never ends.

It's annoying but trying again helps, or sometimes restarting PC helps also.

 

Well, generally my gta4 game works fine.

 

But in the first half year I had also problems with the online features, can't access multiplayer and nobody could help.

I reinstalled my whole system and created new accounts to solve the problem.

But got again that sh*t and reinstalled the OS more times.

 

Meanwhile I know the reasons which seems corrupt system files or GfWL files

The installation of a tiny useful but old tool damaged anything. It was Ulead Gifanimator5demo.

Another reason was because I deleted sometime the content of the temp folder: C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\user\Lokale Einstellungen\Temp

 

I recommand to get a slim system, the best would be only Windows with nessesary servicepacks and then gta4

and then create new accounts at GfWL and social club

 

The online syncronisation is very sensible

Edited January 24, 2010 by ZAZ

[vaexelverkan]

 

Start screen: I never got webpages on the right side though I installed actually flash.

I asume it's because I disabled the activX (sounds stupid but anyway)

I'm often testing script mods and since some weeks I have more problems with the strart screen and the load screen

doesn't matter if I have modded files or not

sometimes I get the normal screen, sometimes the screen with Nico on left side, sometimes with blank page, sometimes with black screen.

Sometimes the loadscreen never ends.

It's annoying but trying again helps, or sometimes restarting PC helps also.

 

Well, generally my gta4 game works fine.

 

But in the first half year I had also problems with the online features, can't access multiplayer and nobody could help.

I reinstalled my whole system and created new accounts to solve the problem.

But got again that sh*t and reinstalled the OS more times.

 

Meanwhile I know the reasons which seems corrupt system files or GfWL files

The installation of a tiny useful but old tool damaged anything. It was Ulead Gifanimator5demo.

Another reason was because I deleted sometime the content of the temp folder: C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\user\Lokale Einstellungen\Temp

 

I recommand to get a slim system, the best would be only Windows with nessesary servicepacks and then gta4

and then create new accounts at GfWL and social club

 

The online syncronisation is very sensible

Ok, perhaps these startup problems have something to do with Rockstar Games servers or something, since the start screen seems to be merely a web page.

Now I'm just hoping that my multiplayer will keep on working, though sadly I do not dare to change any graphical settings now (especially vsync which eats up fps) since it might start to complain about my files again.

But reinstalling my whole system for one game seems a bit too drastic for me.

I don't have that program at least, but I don't know if I have deleted any temp content on my computer...

[mkey82]

Hah, yeah, I should try removing those files, not that I see why it would help

 

This might just be a coincidence, but i deleted all my Settings files, and now multiplayer seems to work flawlessly!

Yes, it was a coincidence

[vaexelverkan]

 

Hah, yeah, I should try removing those files, not that I see why it would help 

 

This might just be a coincidence, but i deleted all my Settings files, and now multiplayer seems to work flawlessly!

Yes, it was a coincidence

Hmm, I wonder why it helped then, still problems with the loading in singleplayer though. But that as well seems to work a bit better now. Now I have even been able to load when that Niko image is showing. But multiplayer isn't yet perfect I should add...

Well, well

 

Do you think I should dare to turn of vsync and stuff now?

[mkey82]

--> sarcasm

 

If the game doesn't lock while loading, there is no need to disable vsync.

[vaexelverkan]

 

--> sarcasm

 

If the game doesn't lock while loading, there is no need to disable vsync.

Damn smileys, didn't bother the meaning of it, but I don't want vsync in any game, so the question is if there would be a reason to leave it on just in case?...

And in GTA 4 vsync even makes the loading time longer.

Edited January 26, 2010 by vaexelverkan