Steam version of GTA IV On Pc stuck on loading screen

[DeadShotDiva]

I have updated everything that I know of and ran in admin. but still doesn't work. I log in and load game and get to screen where I can choose GTA IV or Episodes from liberty city. I click play under GTA IV and then play again and the screen comes up with the pictures of all the characters. It just keeps rolling through pictures and never loads. If I pull up my task manager it says game is not responding. I have Toshiba satellite, intel core i3, windows 8.1. Please help. I know other people who are playing this on windows 8 so there must be some kind of fix. Thanks.

[jpm1]

may be several things . it can be your firewall blocking silently , but it can be caused by too ressource demanding mods too . did you installed cars mods , if yes how big is your vehicles.img file