San Andreas Keeps Crashing.

[Johnny League]

I'm not really sure what the problem is, but the first time I played the game it was fine and I could change my settings in the main menu, watch the openning cutscene, everything. But, when it got to the point where you meet your gang and ride the bikes, I got to the destination, but instead of loading, it instantly black-screened and crashed. I started it up again, everything was fine, but every once in while it minimized out of the game. It was bearable at first, but then it started to happen more frequently. I got to the Drive-Thru mission and it started to minimize about every 30 seconds. I checked, and it turned out that it was doing this with all programs open on my computer. Every 30 seconds, any program open would minimize. I restarted my computer and haven't had the same problem since. But, GTA SA seems to just keep crashing. It will still randomly minimize and crash every now and then. It seems to crash nearly every time something tries to load (i.e. cutscene, level). Another problem I had was that when the game started, it didn't seem to show any visuals to the Rockstar opening. I could hear the sound, but it didn't show anything. I don't know if that is related or not. I went to the compatibility tab under properties in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Grand Theft Auto San Andreas" and checked "Disable desktop compostion". This allowed me to watch the opening once, but after that it was just black screen again. Nothing so far has fixed the crashing, I've even tried messing with anti-aliasing to no effect. I would really like to play this game (in preparation for GTA V), so any help would be great.

Specs:

OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description: Not Available
OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: M750SLI-DS4
System Type: x64-based PC
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6400+, 3200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date: Award Software International, Inc. F5, 5/23/2008
SMBIOS Version: 2.4

Hardware Abstraction Layer: Version = "6.1.7601.17514"

Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory: 7.75 GB

[Johnny League]

And before anyone says it, yes I have verified the integrity of game cache.

[Quantum/Cian]

Semi similar problem, however I can't get past the first drive by before my comp decides that we're not going to run the game any farther. Haven't made it past that cinematic.

[Johnny League]

Pls halp

[Pearling]

Try turning on frame limiter, it solves most of the crash problems for me.

[Johnny League]

Thx, I'll try\

[Johnny League]

Frame limiter apears to already be on, so I don't think that's the problem

[Johnny League]

Pls halp

[Joker]

Add the gtasa.exe to Windows DEP and run it on Windows XP SP2 compatibility.

[Johnny League]

Windows DEP? If I'm correct, I believe that was only for XP & Vista. I don't think I can change anything there if I only change the compatibility mode. I've tried running it through all available compatibility modes, and none seem to work. But Windows DEP? I'm not quite sure what you mean.

[Joker]

on Windows 7

control panel
system
advanced system settings
performance "settings"
data execution prevention

"turn on DEP for all programs and services except those i select"

add gtasa.exe

[Johnny League]

Pretty sure it's working, thanks!! Do you know if this affects any other programs? Just wondering

[Joker]

I only have to add older games to the DEP exceptions list. Newer stuff works fine. Tomb Raider Legend is unbeatable unless on the DEP list. It crashes alot. It's also good to disable Windows UAC.

control panel
user accounts

"change user account control settings"

turn slider down to "never notify"

[Johnny League]

That's nice, thx

[Johnny League]

Yeah, it may have just crashed again....

[Joker]

hmm idk

Run the game as administrator if you didn't already do that, check "disable visual themes", "disable desktop composition" & "disable display scaling on high dpi settings". Try Windows XP SP3 or Windows 98/Me. Update your display and sound drivers. Check for Windows updates including optional/hidden updates. Close any background programs before playing including antivirus. Also verify the game cache incase it's a bad install or even reinstall the game. Disable Steam Community ingame. Some older games crash or act strange if this is on.

You could also try minimizing the game at the menu screen, open task manager, right click gtasa.exe, click "set affinity" and uncheck all CPU cores except 0 leaving only 1 CPU core to run the game. This fixes issues with some older games that were made for one core and act strange on multi-core CPUs.

Some people fixed issues with this game by deleting their gta_sa.set file from the SanAndreas User Files folder. I don't think that will help your situation tho.

I'm out of ideas. I've gotten this game to run on different PCs easily. I'm not sure why you're having such bad luck.