GTA IV Launch problems?

[MrBish]

Hey guys

been having some problems with GTAIV recently. It simply will not launch. It was working around a month ago with no problems. Had some mods installed but no problems launching or playing. Now, after not changing any settings or doing anything to it, it decides to just not launch? I click to open it in steam, the social club login opens, i log into that but then the actual game never launches. I have tried verifying game files in steam, that didn't help so i did a fresh install and it still doesn't work.

Anyone heard of this before and know how to fix it? Getting a bit pissed off that I can't play a game I payed for...

 

[jamesriley94]

You tried opening the game file from the location within the steam directory, rather than just the shortcut?

I think there's two different exe's in the directory, I had a similar problem and opening from there worked for me, dunno if the same will be true for you though...hopefully

 

[MrBish]

Well I tried both .exe in there. one launched the social club login thing and had the same problem that I had launching from steam. The other just gives an error saying "GTA IV fatal error: DFA did not initialize properly. Please make sure you are using LaunchGTAIV.exe to launch the game"

I remember having to use that to launch gta iv on my old pc. Had problems with it back then too when it just refused to launch from steam. but it worked after i launched from that. But it just refuses to do anything now.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Something similar happened to me when I rolled back something (can't remember what it was exactly - I think it was an update) to be able to install some mods and it stopped loading after that. Your situation is slightly different as your problems started for no apparent reason. The only thing I can think off is get rid of the mod files (if they are still present) and try re-installing then.

 

[MrBish]

The only thing I can think off is get rid of the mod files (if they are still present) and try re-installing then.

But surely if the mod files are not in the GTAIV folder then they can't affect the game? Or am I wrong on that one? And due, i really don't feel like installing again lol. On my internet, it took me most of yesterday to download and a bit of today as well. Downloading is not a fun game for me lol

I will try deleting the mod files/programs and see if it changes anything and I'll let you know.

 

[SieB]

Have you tried running the .exe in different comparability modes like XP SP3 etc?

 

[yassarikhan786]

But surely if the mod files are not in the GTAIV folder then they can't affect the game? Or am I wrong on that one? And due, i really don't feel like installing again lol. On my internet, it took me most of yesterday to download and a bit of today as well. Downloading is not a fun game for me lol

I will try deleting the mod files/programs and see if it changes anything and I'll let you know.

Yeh that's why I said to get rid of them if they are present. I should have been more clear. I meant if the mod files are in the GTA IV folder then get rid of them. But seeing as they are not in the folder they shouldn't affect the game at all.

 

[MrBish]

Yeh that's why I said to get rid of them if they are present. I should have been more clear. I meant if the mod files are in the GTA IV folder then get rid of them. But seeing as they are not in the folder they shouldn't affect the game at all.

Ah, does uninstalling the game from control panel or deleting the game's local content in steam delete the GTAIV folder? If so, then the game's folder will be a fresh anyway.

 

[MrBish]

Have you tried running the .exe in different comparability modes like XP SP3 etc?

Just tried this. Still no joy

 

[yassarikhan786]

Ah, does uninstalling the game from control panel or deleting the game's local content in steam delete the GTAIV folder? If so, then the game's folder will be a fresh anyway.

Not entirely sure, but it should. Try loading the game again and check the task manager to see if there is an instance of the game running.

 

[MrBish]

Not a peep of it in the task manager mate. Baffled me

 

[yassarikhan786]

Very strange. Try moving the game files and clicking on the "Add a non-steam game to my Library" and add the game that way. I think it's worth a try as you have tried the more general methods.

 

[jamesriley94]

But surely if the mod files are not in the GTAIV folder then they can't affect the game? Or am I wrong on that one? And due, i really don't feel like installing again lol. On my internet, it took me most of yesterday to download and a bit of today as well. Downloading is not a fun game for me lol

I will try deleting the mod files/programs and see if it changes anything and I'll let you know.

Why not back up game files so you dont have to download it? Just saves an installable file to a disk or a directory on the hard drive

 

[MrBish]

After searching the web for a while, I stumbled upon a thread which magically managed to make my GTA work again. By simply downloading......... MSN. I know, I was baffled as well. But, as long as it makes my games work, I really couldn't give a monkeys. Anyway this is what the thread says incase anyone is interested.

If your GTA 4 suddenly stopped working (crashes after logging in to social club) here's a posible fix.

Try to open windows live market place and it should fail also.

Download windows live essentials

http://explore.live.com/windows-live...tials?os=other

Install any programm you want.

After the installation your PC will ask to reboot and do so.

Check to see if you can open the market place. If you can now login, then GTA 4 should also work properly .

Then a guy replied explaining a bit more as to why it doesn't work:

I'm on Windows 7 64-bit and apparently after the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile update that came not many days ago through Windows Update, GTA IV stopped launching. It would show the Social Club sign-in and it would successfully pass but after that just nothing; no game loading screen, just like I wouldn't have pressed 'play'.

After trying to launch Games for Windows Marketplace client manually, it would say something like 'required Windows component is missing' and offer link to XBox.com support site. No help there, not even via phone support. I tried uninstalling/ reinstalling the GFWM/GFWL client, no luck. Same with the .NET Framework 4, reinstall didn't fix anything.

Luckily I checked the Steam Forums and found this thread and tried the fix. Clicked link, downloaded and installed Messenger (the Marketplace client and .NET Framework 4 were installed back already at this time) and restarted my computer. After boot the Marketplace client magically worked again! I could sign in again and GTA IV works too.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Glad you got it to work. You could have done a system restore as well to before the update if it was the update that caused the issue.

 

[MrBish]

Meh, Downloading MSN was a pretty easy option

lol