GTA IV shows black screen on start up and freezes at loading screen

[GABEN AKHBAR]

i have purchased GTA IV during the sale and it was working fine for on windows 8. however when i updated my windows to 8.1 it shows a black screen on start up and freezes at the loading screen. My computer is an i7, 16 gb ram, 1tb hdd, and has a 4gb dedicated video ram( NVIDIA geforce gt730m). What do i do?

[Razorbak86]

Make sure you dowload and install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE client from Microsoft's Xbox website, because the version installed with GTA IV is a older version and doesn't work with Windows 8.1. (Trust me, you'll find it there, even though you are trying to solve a PC problem.)

Then make sure you run the game in compatibility mode with Windows 7 as the O/S chosen in the Compatibility tab.

If you need further help on the above tips, Google is your friend. There are thousands of threads on various forums across the net dealing with those two issues, but you may want to start with the Rockstar Games Technical Support website first, and focus on the GTA IV (PC) section.

Finally, if your graphics card has 2GB or more of Video RAM (VRAM), you need to run the game with the following command lines:

-nomemrestrict -norestrictions

http://support.rockstargames.com/hc/en-us/articles/200145206-Issues-with-GTA-IV-showing-video-cards-with-over-2GB-as-under-spec

You don't have to create a separate text file. You can actually input the command lines via the Steam interface. Just ignore everything above the text in the bottom paragraphs that starts with the words, "If you are using Steam, try", and then follow those instructions.

Good luck, and let me know if those tips help.

[GABEN AKHBAR]

hi thanx for taking the time to reply to my thread, however, how do i run the game in compatibility mode? thanx really appreciate your help...

[GABEN AKHBAR]

@razorbak86 hi after a couple of weeks i have finally found out how to run in compatability mode with windows 7 as my o/s. i have also installed the latest Games for Windows and added the command line, however, my gta iv still is unable to load after i sign in with windows live account at the part where they say autosave feature is disabled