Having loading problems on newer systems?

[kr3m]

So you just found this game uber cheap on Steam Store. Downloaded, Installed, and fired it up to play.. but.. nothing happens? I have an i7 6700k w/ 1060 Asus Rog Strix 6gb and 16gb ram, running native 1920x1080x32bit@60Hz, on a windows 7 system, and I had the same issues. After several hours, I was able to fix my issues, so I'm hoping my investigations will help save some of y'all some of your time too.

Setting Windows Compatibility

:1) In your Steam Library, select Street Racing Syndicate from your list of games.
2) Go to the settings and "Browse Local Files".
3) Go into the "Bin" folder.
4) Right click the SRS(.exe) file and select "Properties".
5) Click the "Compatibility" tab.
6) Check "Run as Administrator".
7) Check "Run in Compatibility Mode".
8) Set Compatibility Mode to Windows XP SP2 (you can try Windows XP SP3; it works for me, but my wife MUST use XP SP2).
9) Click okay and run the game.

Still not working under Compatibility Mode

Compatibility mode MUST be set on newer PCs, so after setting it you should at least be able to see SRS.EXE running in task manager. You might see a "rundll32.exe" running too.

You wait and wait and wait, but nothing's happening? Well, SRS.EXE is waiting for rundll32.exe to finish. Terminating rundll32.exe manually will also cause SRS.EXE to terminate.

**This can be applicable to any game identified by the Windows Games Installer (basically, any game you might find in your Start Menu>All Programs>Games). Sometimes killing rundll32.exe will allow the game to load, other times it kills the game like it does with SRS.exe.**

Bandaid the rundll32.exe

.1) Open "regedit.exe" and go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\GameUX\ServiceLocation
2) Rename the original "Games" string. I named this "OldGames". (Leave it pointing to the URL it already is set to)
3) Right click, add new "String" and name it "Games".
4) Set the value on "Games" to "127.0.0.1".

This will allow rundll32.exe to complete it's process and return a successful result to SRS.EXE, allowing SRS.EXE to continue loading; instead of leaving SRS.EXE stuck open or crashing it because rundll32.exe was terminated before it could finish.

[Moga CMDR]

Thanks for sharing.

I made no changes and it ran fine for me on Windows 10, and new hardware. So maybe only certain scenarios require going through all that work. I did also download an old, like 8 year old patch to make it wide screen and that worked too.

But I went back to square since the ladies looked better. ^_^

[kr3m]

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

Thanks for sharing.

I made no changes and it ran fine for me on Windows 10, and new hardware. So maybe only certain scenarios require going through all that work. I did also download an old, like 8 year old patch to make it wide screen and that worked too.

But I went back to square since the ladies looked better. ^_^

Yea, my wife and I have same version of Windows down to the services I've opted to leave running. However, with my heavier use of my pc for a far wider range of activities than my wife uses her PC, I would probably suspect my system has been compromised over time (I last installed my OS in 2016). Though it could also be hardware related, I'd imagine newer hardware should just run the game easier; providing the video drivers can handle the backwards compatibility like they should.

Sounds like you got the ideal scenario. My wife's PC required little changes, but for those that were in the same boat as me, hopefully this helps them to shore..

[Alpha_Satellite]

Thank you very much for the info! The compatibility mode didn't help, but the registry editing worked like a charm!

I wonder if this would help for other games too. I have the same problem with Far Cry (1). I have to manually launch the game from its installation folder. I will test tomorrow and return with feedback.

Thanks again!

[Alpha_Satellite]

Came back with feedback as promised.

The registry edit fixed the long loading times for several of my games:
- Street Racing Syndicate
- Far Cry (1)
- Gothic 3
- Need for Speed Underground 2

These I managed to test for now. I'm running on Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64 and the games above took literally 2 minutes in real time to load! My system might be old, but it's above the recommended requirements for these games.

The games I listed above now load instantly and I'm almost certain that Max Payne 1 & 2 can be added there. For people having problems with high loading times for old games, this might be just the solution!

Thanks for saving me time!

[aLn*-]

The step "Bandaid the rundll32.exe" worked for me on windows 11.

Ps: disable compatibility mode on SRS.exe and all will be works perfectly!

[HeavyCream]

what if doesnt work in any case?

[marco]

el juego esta chido xd