"Please insert your GTA Vice City CD, or press ESC to cancel" Fix

A guide to fix the "Please insert your GTA Vice City CD, or press ESC to cancel" bug.

Introduction

This guide should be able to help you solve the "Please insert your GTA Vice City CD, or press ESC to cancel" message when you first run the game, usually caused from installing GTA: VC into a different location (A: B: E:).

The Solution

A simple and non-risky way to fix this issue is by using a mod called SilentPatch. SilentPatch is a modification that attempts to fix some of the existing issues with GTA: VC. One of the fixes being the different install location issue.

(Apr 10, 2018 @ 7:11pm)
ORIG: 1. Download the patch from here [www.gtagarage.com](silentpatch_11_vc.zip)

(Oct 7, 2018 @ 8:32pm)
EDIT: Silent (the developer) stopped providing the download "due to endless problems with mod uploads on GTAGarage", so the new download link is here[cookieplmonster.github.io]. The download contents is still the same except the file name will be 'SilentPatchVC.zip'.

Here are the new links in case you want to use an older version or check the checksums.

• latest build[silent.rockstarvision.com] (no checksum due to dynamic link)
  
• build 10[web.archive.org] (sha256: fe4c09b8a070a3312a82cbc7125561b6c6d908e394efb46a08d0cd12bfecce92)
  
• build 9[web.archive.org] (sha256: 11a84f7b76074639f0efb53a44ab940b23034a67eb0c181896b608fc53970c4a)
  
• build 8[web.archive.org] (sha256: 58c69515be02b2d4926f59986e5a5cbbaffbe75fa3f7bb0bd6e0b40f3169a6a0)

2. Extract the 'SilentPatchVC' zip. There should be a data folder, a readme, and a .asi file.
EDIT#2: And as of build 9 and onwards, now includes a SilentPatchVC.ini file.

3. In Steam, right click Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, on the drop-down menu click Properties. Then click the 'Browse Local Files...' button. From here simply drag and drop the files (answer yes to replace the files).

4. Upon opening the game, you should now see the main menu instead of "Please insert your GTA Vice City CD, or press ESC to cancel".

Guide Edits

Edit #1:
Updated the links from GTAGarage to cookieplmonster.github.io.

Edit #2:
Added links for each build and included sha256 checksums.

Edit #2 (Virus Report):
After a claim of a virus I decided to go through the files and investigate.

Everything in the data folder only contained .ipl files. These files seem to be unchanged across builds 8, 9, and 10 according to 7zip. Upon inspection of these files they do not contain any lines that could execute shell commands as most of the file contents are map coordinates.

As for the .asi file:

$ file SilentPatchVC_B{8,9,10}/SilentPatchVC.asi
SilentPatchVC_B8/SilentPatchVC.asi:  PE32 executable (DLL) (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows
SilentPatchVC_B9/SilentPatchVC.asi:  PE32 executable (DLL) (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows
SilentPatchVC_B10/SilentPatchVC.asi: PE32 executable (DLL) (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows

$ '/c/Program Files/ClamAV/clamscan.exe' SilentPatchVC_B{8,9,10}"\SilentPatchVC.asi"
SilentPatchVC_B8\SilentPatchVC.asi: OK
SilentPatchVC_B9\SilentPatchVC.asi: OK
SilentPatchVC_B10\SilentPatchVC.asi: OK

----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
Known viruses: 7171399
Engine version: 0.102.3
Scanned directories: 0
Scanned files: 3
Infected files: 0
Data scanned: 0.34 MB
Data read: 0.34 MB (ratio 1.00:1)
Time: 32.415 sec (0 m 32 s)

So the .asi file is a .dll, which cannot be plainly executed, and is not a virus according to Clam Anti-Virus.
On a side note, I think 124kb is too small for most common virus executables.

Edit #3:
Created a guide edit/update section and made minor changes.

Conclusion

If you have any issues you can post them in the comments and I will try to address them to the best of my abilities.

[Captain Conrad]

This worked, but then stopped working...

[KONAMBRE]

Works like a charm even when I have an SSD just for system, thanks for your work!

[acastro2608]

Nobody thinks about who uses an SSD just for system :c

[fin]

i'll try it in VM :)

[Asking God Almighty forgiveness]

شكرا انها الان تعمل

[EDSHOT]

Updated the guide again to address that.
Also when I used Norton a long time ago it would constantly flag programs like Bizhawk or Garry's Mod as viruses. It would make me more annoyed with Norton especially at the fact that there was an executable running in the background from boot-up to shutdown creating multiple invisible tray icons doing lord knows what and Norton ignored it.

[Fog Kant]

It has a virus btw norton scanned

[Beyar]

This solves the issue as of 2020-04-28

[Hasis ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.com]

works 2020

[GoldenEye4ever]

Thank you, this works on Windows 10 in 2020.