Grand Theft Auto IV will not start at all.

[AvengedX [1138]]

Every time I start the game I will get to the social club screen, then the game will go to a black screen, a error window will show up. Now I have been on the forums for hours trying everything. Downloading and updating Games for Windows does not do it, nor does anything else I have tried. If anyone can figure out how to fix this problem I will be internally grateful.

Computer Information that may help:

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 645M

OS Name Microsoft Windows 8
Version 6.2.9200 Build 9200
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name ZACH
System Manufacturer Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
System Model CX61 0NC/CX61 0ND/CX61 0NF/CX61 0NE
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU To be filled by O.E.M.
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M CPU @ 2.50GHz, 2501 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. E16GBIMS.50I, 10/13/2012
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
BaseBoard Model Not Available
BaseBoard Name Base Board
Platform Role Mobile
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.2.9200.16420"
User Name Zach\ZACH\Zach
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 5.89 GB
Available Physical Memory 3.53 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.67 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.98 GB
Page File Space 1.78 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

[JomAn6767]

And your GPU please?

[Daytato]

I had the same problem, i also run Windows 8...I downlloaded a Program called "Games for Windows" Which allowed me to play the game :)

[AvengedX [1138]]

Oh wow, how can I forget that lol...it's a Nvidia GeForce GT 645M

[AvengedX [1138]]

Games for Windows did nothing to fix the problem.

[Jãozim]

I have de same problem, but few hours before i managed to play...

[AvengedX [1138]]

How is this suppose to help me jannjo?

[H.B.One]

did you play it in same computer before?
what is the error message saying?

[Insane]

a error window will show up....... Could you be so kind as to tell me what the error message is/was.
Have you tryed running the game in "safe mode" will force it to use minimal graphics settings, just to see if the game will start. Minimal graphics settings on GTA IV include a screen resolution of 800 x 600. Now let's talk specifics.

The first thing you need to do is set your screen resolution on your computer to 800 x 600. To do this just right-click anywhere on the Windows Desktop. select Screen Resolution, and change it to the 800 x 600 setting that the game's "safe mode" will initially force.

To force the game to initially run in safe mode, just open Steam, go to Library. Find "Grand Theft Auto IV" in the list. Hover of that entry with your mouse, right-click and select "Properties". Click the "Set Launch Options..." button in the middle of the "General" tab. Type in the following command line string: -safemode including the minus sign. Click OK. Click Close. Then double-click the game in the Steam Library to start.

Note: This should force both the game and your screen resolution to 800 x 600 in order to determine if your game is actually running, but your graphics card is simply not successfully changing the screen resolution upon start-up.

If you can get the video working on the game, you can go into the Options menu in-game and change the screen resolution to whatever you prefer going forward before eventually quitting the game and exiting to the Windows desktop.

Once the game is working successfully, just go back into the Steam's "Set Launch Options..." and remove the "safe mode" command line before starting the game the next time.

Hope this helps.
http://www.rockstargames.com/support/IV/PC/RSGSC/index.html

[AvengedX [1138]]

There was no specific error message. It just said there was an error and windows will inform me when there is a solution. Now I was going to do what you told me to try but when I tried to open GTA I got a error message saying that "Failed to start game (missing executable)"

[H.B.One]

Maybe Window8 is not supported

[AvengedX [1138]]

It is supported. There were so many others who ran into the same problem on windows 8, but they were able to fix the problem and get the game running.

[Insane]

Experiencing a black screen then crashing back to desktop is an issue generally caused by a video card incompatibility relating to either the hardware or the software (drivers) installed.

1.check your intel driver update http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect?iid=dc_iduu
2.check your win 8 updates.
3. make sure your account language has been set in Social Club.

4. Verify integrity of game cache
a.Load Steam
b.From the Library section, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu.
c.Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache... button.
d.Steam will verify the game's files - this process may take several minutes.
e.Once the process is completed, the Check Window will automatically exit.
5.check that the game is installed on your pc.

After verifying the game cache, right-click GTA IV in your game library and choose to view the game CD key. This is the key to use in-game during activation.

please try redeeming the code on Xbox.com. There have been a few instances in the past where the keys were redemption codes rather than activation codes. Here is what to do:
1.Go to Xbox. com and sign in with your Windows Live ID
2.Go to My Account
3.Click Redeem Code
4.Enter the code that Steam provided for GTA IV
5.Once that is successful, launch Games for Windows Live application and go to downloads
6.Select GTA IV and choose to view the key
7.Enter that key in GTA IV.
8.Go back to my first post.

Hope this helps

[AvengedX [1138]]

The good news it that I managed to get it to work. The bad news is I can not change the graphic settings in game, and when I did play there was way to many texture pop ups. Now to get it to work I ended up actually messing with the nvidia graphic settings a bit. For adjusting the image settings I checked off let the 3D application decide. Next I set the PhysX configuration to auto select. Now when it comes to starting up the game I doubled clicked the LaunchGTAIV application, run with graphics processor, and clicked integrated graphics. The other stuff you recommend doing did nothing unfortunately. I can not even set my computer resolution to 800x600. I did the -safemood thing but found out I didn't need it to run the game even though the game is stuck at that resolution when I play it. I managed to get the code working though, but not through xbox.com, but when I started up the game.

[AvengedX [1138]]

ok, well I just created a commandline.txt file and now I am able to modify the graphic settings. Now onto another problem...the game will not stop loading, I let it sit for about 5 minutes and nothing happend, just loading. Before I modified the settings it loaded fine.

[wtsfno]

Some of your problems seam mod related, if u installed mods, uninstall them, or find the games folder on your computer. This should be where u got ink ball and other free games that came with the pc. Run GTA iv from there. Also try raising your system rating. Other than that I reccomend reinstalling the thing, or going to the social club support site. Sorry if this does not help.