Possible solutions for Grand Theft Auto 4 fatal errors, crashes and performance issues

Several days ago we reported how the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4 got leaked to BitTorrent trackers ahead of release. The game has now been officially released in many parts of the world and a lot of gamers can now enjoy the highly anticipated GTA 4 on their PC. Judging by user comments on various gaming forums, the game is fu*ked in several different places. I have only played it for about an hour (legitimate version – no cracked release out yet) and still ran into some problems playing it. This article discusses solutions to various fatal errors, crashes to desktop (CTD) and performance issues you may encounter with GTA 4 as well as tweaks you can use to improve game performance.

GTA 4 Fatal Error Messages

There are quite a few fatal error messages in Grand Theft Auto 4. Here are some of the most common ones and how to get around them.

Fatal Error MMA10 (MMA 10)

This one is probably caused by the Social club application but i’m not quite sure. Anyway most of these MMA10 problems go away once you install .NET framework 3.5. Follow the steps below:

1. Determine which version of .NET framework is installed on your machine through the method described here. If you don’t have .NET framework 1.1 installed go to step 2. If you do have v1.1 or any higher version (2.0, 3.0, etc) installed, go to step 3.
2. Download and install v1.1 from here. Reboot and install .NET framework 3.5 obtained from here. Reboot again if required. Then download .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 from here, install it then reboot and try launching the game.
3. Install .NET framework 3.5 obtained from here. Reboot if required. Then download .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 from here, install it then reboot and try launching the game.

Fatal Error RMN40 (RMN 40)

This error is caused when the game is run on Windows XP systems without Service Pack 3.

• You need to download and install Windows XP Service Pack 3 or use Windows Vista to run the game.

Fatal Error RESC10 (RESC 10)

I am not sure but this seems to be caused by the game running out of available video memory. To max out graphics settings for GTA 4, you probably need a VGA with around 1GB video memory.

• You can try to get around this problem by lowering display settings (Lower view distance, detail distance, etc).
• For a more permanent solution (you won’t like this) you can buy a video card with more VRAM.

Note: For a complete list of GTA 4 error codes and what they mean, please refer to this article.

GTA 4 crashes and other errors

GTA IV crashes when trying to save the game

These crashes are probably caused by Windows Live or Social Club applications (which run in the background by the way).

• Try the same solution for GTA 4 Fatal Error MMA10 mentioned above. It is known to solve many of these save game crashes.

Cannot increase or change graphics settings in GTA 4 or modify default display settings

This is not a bug. Rockstar implemented this feature to prevent users from increasing graphics details on systems with low video memory. Anyway I don’t think this was a good move on their part and luckily for users this can be overridden.

1. Browse to the directory where you installed the game to and create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
2. Right click the shortcut and add the –norestrictions switch at the end of target field (leave a space after the closing quotes , add –norestrictions and press ok).
3. Start the game using the shortcut. You should now be able to change the graphics settings. Be warned that increasing graphics detail on systems with low VRAM may cause RESC10 fatal errors to occur.

Cannot run GTA 4 in Windowed mode

1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –windowed switch. Start GTA 4 using shortcut to force windowed mode.
3. To force fullscreen mode, add –fullscreen switch and launch the game.

Cannot change screen resolution in GTA 4

1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –width (value) and –height (value) switches. Start GTA 4 using shortcut to force the new the screen resolution

Example: to force the game on 1024x768:
”X:\……\Launchgtaiv.exe” –width 1024 –height 768

Cannot disable vsync

1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –novblank switch. Start GTA 4 using the shortcut to force vsync off.

Cannot start GTA 4 and various audio and video problems

This could be due to one of many reasons and a direct answer cannot be given unless more information is known. However, you can try launching the game in safe mode (which will force GTA 4 to run in lowest possible graphics settings) and see if it works:

1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –safemode switch. Start GTA 4 using the shortcut to force safe mode.

If you are having audio problems, you can try switching between high end CPU audio footprint and low end CPU audio footprint.

1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add -fullspecaudio OR –minspecaudio switches. Start GTA 4 using shortcut to force the desired audio footprint.

Updated 6/12/2008

Missing textures in GTA 4

1. Download RivaTuner 2.2 from here. Install it and run it.
2. On the 'Main' tab, there will be a section titled 'Driver Settings' with ForceWare detected displayed below that. Click the build button to the right of it to open a menu with 5 icons.
3. From this set of icon, choose "Reset all driver settings to their default values'.
4. Do not modify any other settings using RivaTuner. Now launch the game.

Note that missing texture problems may also be present on systems with low video memory. The above method may not work in such cases.

Display settings reset every time GTA 4 is started

Sometimes after the installation of new drivers or other software, you may encounter the problem of the game resetting to default settings with every start. This can be very annoying. Follow the steps below to fix this problem:

For Windows Vista users:

1. Navigate to the GTA 4 settings folder. That is "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV"
2. Delete the 3 files inside this folder. Do not delete any subfodlers as the saves and any custom music you placed are also stored here.
   
3. Restart the game and configure your display settings for one last time.

For Windows XP users:

1. Navigate to the GTA 4 settings folder. That is "C:\Documents And Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Application Data\Rockstar Games\GTA IV"
2. Delete the 3 files inside this folder. Do not delete any subfodlers as the saves and any custom music you placed are also stored here
3. Restart the game and configure your display settings for one last time.

GTA 4 performance issues and tweaks

Unlike previous PC ports of the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto 4 does not seem to be optimized that well. There are reports of the game running poorly on even high end graphics hardware such as ATI 4870X2,4870X2 and nVIDIA GTX 260, 280 etc. Video memory (VRAM) on the card plays a critical role here; even mid range cards such as Geforce 8800 or 8800GTX with lower than 512MB video memory can have trouble running GTA 4 at high settings. Also, having a quad core processor can help immensely. Even if you have a high end video card with a lot of video memory, an older dual core processor can become a bottleneck.

You can try using the –noprecache and –nomemrestrict switches to see if there is a difference in game performance but this is not guaranteed. –noprechace disables pre-caching of textures and models and –nomemrestrict removes the memory restrictions that are enabled by default.

As always, upgrading to the latest graphics and audio drivers may help. Latest ATI and nVIDIA drivers (including beta drivers) along with drivers for popular audio cards can be found here. Hopefully either Rockstar or graphics card manufacturers will release a patch or new drivers soon that will hopefully boost GTA 4 performance on the PC.

UPDATE: nVIDIA have released v180.84 display drivers which they claim are specifically designed to boost the performance of Grand Theft Auto 4 on nVIDIA GPUs. You can download them from here.

Note that I cannot guarantee that above mentioned solutions will work for everyone. Reuslts may vary depending on the version of the game you have as well as your computer’s hardware and software configuration. Also tote that this article does not list every possible GTA 4 error out there. I will update it if and when I discover solutions for more problems out there. Feel free to drop a comment if you need any help.

Related Articles

• Pirates crack Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA 4) DRM
• DVD Image of GTA 4 leaks to BitTorrent, DRM remains uncracked
• GTA 4 to use SecuROM DRM, Requires online activation

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