[Solved] How to beat "Out of Commission" (Helicopter Bug - SPOILERS)

This guide will show you how to get Niko into the helicopter in the final mission of GTA IV. This mission is known to bugged in the portion where you have you rapidly press space to make Niko climb into the helicopter. In my experience, the camera would glitch out and Niko wouldn't move, resulting in me failing the mission time and time again. However, I have found an easy workaround.

1. Play the mission normally until you get on the dirt bike

After making it inside the factory, you will start chasing Pegorino. You will need to kill all of Pegorino's henchmen and follow him to the dock. He will take off in the speedboat and Niko will need to get on the dirtbike.

2. Pause the game and go to desktop

Press [Alt + Tab] to switch windows

3. Open Task Manager and go to Details tab

Two easy ways to open Task manger are by pressing [Ctrl + Shift + Esc] or by right clicking on the taskbar and selecting "Task Manager."

Then click "Details" tab on the top of the window.

4. Find GTA IV and right click on it

It is sorted by alphabetical order by default, so scroll until you find the GTA IV executable.

5. Click "Set affinity"

6. Only select one of the CPU cores in the drop down menu

7. Press "OK" and return to the game

8. Drive the dirt bike to the ramp

Play the mission normally. The game will probably be preforming considerably worse, but trust me, this is supposed to happen.
For whatever reason, higher processor speeds of modern CPUs have made the next animation impossible to complete. Having a lower frame rate allows it to work as intended. This is the easiest fix for this issue without installing any programs or changing any advanced settings.

9. Rapidly tap space as the game tells you and you will be able to get up!

Once you jump the ramp, Niko will automatically grasp onto the helicopter and from here you will be expected to spam the space bar. Now working as intended, Niko will eventually climb up and get in the pilot seat.

10. Once controlling the helicopter, switch the game back to normal CPU settings

From here onward, you can revert back to using all the cores again and running the game normally. This is the only portion of the game that I've encountered which needs this modification to function properly.

Pause your game again, and complete steps 2-7 again. Right click GTA IV and set affinity back to "All Processes." Return to the game and complete the rest of the mission.

11. Finishing the mission

In the helicopter all you need to do is just avoid the missiles by maneuvering the helicopter and try to shoot at Pegorino in the speedboat. You will eventually be shot by a missile no matter what you do, just make sure you don't crash into the water and keep the helicopter steady while following the speedboat. A cutscene will transition you to landing on the dock. From there, it's up to you complete the story!

Thanks for reading!

I hope this helped you fix this annoying issue. If you have any questions, please ask in the comment section below and I'll do my best to respond.

Note: You will have to repeat these steps again if you do fail the mission because you will be put all the way back to outside the factory in the beginning of the mission.

Still doesn't work?: If my fix doesn't work: try capping the fps at 30, play on the lowest graphics settings, play with controller, or check the comments for some other ways to get around this annoying bug!

[Luster]

You’re a legend

[Raffish]

Para mim o problema é outro. Eu consigo subir no helicoptero, mas SEMPRE um míssil me acerta e explode o helicoptero, não importa como ou onde eu esteja esse missil sempre me atinge.

[DHB Deejay]

It worked for me thanks!!!

[Sajiu]

Nope, it does'nt work

[police_mbk]

or you can simply limit your fps to 60

[awsomephil]

This worked for me! Thanks! I had the same problem with a weird graphics bug when I had to keep pressing A/Space on the helicopter scene. Also, if you are on Windows 11, in task manager you need to click the "Details" tab and find the gtaIV program, right-click and select "Set Affinity" there.

[Fenix]

In my case I have two bugs, one is this one that I have fixed with this guide, the next one is a bug with the missile that you have to hit to continue the story, in my case instead of damaging the helicopter it destroys it, falling into the water and failing the mission, I have tried in all ways following this guide until the end without returning to the standard settings, flying higher, flying higher and to the side, there is no way, the missile that has to damage you instead of damaging you destroys you and there is no way to finish the mission, Rockstar is quite tiring with this nonsense.

[putrakijs]

I swear to god you're a lifesaver man. Thanks A lot!

[james.norris38]

maybe my computer is still to fast it did not work for me sadly.

[Byzantian]

Спасибо большое