GTA IV Problem: Refuses to start

SPARC · 3 Jun 2011 at 21:29

I felt like brutally murdering some hookers in GTA IV so I moved across my Steam backup to save me from downloading the full game. Started it up from steam and got to the Social Club login, I hit "Play Offline" and the screen disappeared but nothing happened.

I tried launching the game from within the Steam common folder by using "LaunchGTAIV.exe" but that did the exact same thing.

I then verified the integrity of the game files. They were fine.

Went browsing on the Steam forums for some answers and found a thread which was implying that GTA IV won't run if you already have Games for Windows Live installed and updated to the latest version. So I un-installed GFWL and then re-installed it using the .exe from within the GTA IV install folder. Tried launching the game again in hope that it was fixed and to update GFWL within the game but the same thing happened, clicked "Play" or "Play Offline" at the Social Club and nothing else happens, the screen closes leaving me sitting on the desktop.

After this I thought sod it!, un-installed the game and began the long 15GB download of a fresh copy. It has finally finished about 30 minutes ago after 10 hours of waiting and would you fraking believe it, it still doesn't work! ARGH! I was literally playing this game 3-4 months ago perfectly fine so the only other explination for it not working is a GPU driver update as that is the only change made (that I can think of) since then but why would that effect it?.

Any ideas guys as to what is going on?. I swear if I get this working those hookers will pay - BIG TIME

Cliste · 3 Jun 2011 at 23:11

lol @ the hooker thing.

I'm downloading this now (had to move across the Irish sea for the weekend to download this game from my University address as my home Internet download cap is only 20GB rofl)... and better be worth the wait.

Hope you get it fixed and slay some hookers.

Cliste · 3 Jun 2011 at 23:16

Cliste said:
lol @ the hooker thing.

I'm downloading this now (had to move across the Irish sea for the weekend to download this game from my University address as my home Internet download cap is only 20GB rofl)... and better be worth the wait and travel.

Hope you get it fixed and slay some hookers.

Eh... I might need to learn how to edit again.

Sorry :confused:

andy_mk3 · 3 Jun 2011 at 23:25

I had this problem when I installed it a week or two ago, mine's not the steam version, but I downloaded the latest GFWL and it worked straight away. Make sure all your drivers are up to date as I had a problem where a game wouldn't load because of the sound drivers. Is the latest patch installed also?

smogsy · 4 Jun 2011 at 08:59

had same problem with mafia II i could do the first mission & it would drop to the desktop. completed this game 4 times already :mad:

i had lot issues with games though since i reinstalled windows & left my games on d: without installing them again. so im currenting doing that

maybe yours is same problem?

Langlest · 4 Jun 2011 at 09:17

if you are using the latest internet explorer then uninstall it and try again, i had to go back to firefox to get it to work

i have no idea why it was causing this problem but its sorted now i changed browser

AWPC · 4 Jun 2011 at 09:38

It uses Securom on all versions so moving the folder will never work you have to reactivate it & use up another activation token if you did not revoke the licence where it was installed before. This was done to prevent casual piracy. If you click on the main .exe file it should prompt for activation then you need to manually type in your code from Steam & once GFWL launches you need to type that code in as well from Steam.

GFWL has 15 activations on GTA4 before you need to request another code from GFWL.

Securom has 5 activations before you have to request another code from Rockstar.

If you ever reach the limit & have not kept proof of purchase like your Steam securom activation code you need to buy another copy.

The DRM limits are courtesy of Rockstar BTW :rolleyes:

SPARC · 4 Jun 2011 at 11:16

andy_mk3 said:
Make sure all your drivers are up to date as I had a problem where a game wouldn't load because of the sound drivers. Is the latest patch installed also?

I believe Steam applies the latest patches automatically and besides the latest patch is a year old so I think I definitely have it. All my drivers are up to date too, I even tried dropping back to 10.5 (AMD) driver to see if that would work but no joy

smogsy said:
i had lot issues with games though since i reinstalled windows & left my games on d: without installing them again. so im currenting doing that

maybe yours is same problem?

If only it was that simple for me. All my Steam games are in the correct directory.

Langlest said:
if you are using the latest internet explorer then uninstall it and try again, i had to go back to firefox to get it to work i have no idea why it was causing this problem but its sorted now i changed browser

I don't have IE enabled in Win 7. Also lol at IE effecting games, I honestly didn't think that pos could get any worse.

TheCenturion · 4 Jun 2011 at 11:21

There's a file you should try deleting. It's located in the GTA directory. I think it's called filechecklist.asi or something like that. GTA didn't start for me, and deleting that file solved it

SPARC · 4 Jun 2011 at 11:23

AWPC said:
It uses Securom on all versions so moving the folder will never work you have to reactivate it & use up another activation token if you did not revoke the licence where it was installed before. This was done to prevent casual piracy. If you click on the main .exe file it should prompt for activation then you need to manually type in your code from Steam & once GFWL launches you need to type that code in as well from Steam.

GFWL has 15 activations on GTA4 before you need to request another code from GFWL.

Securom has 5 activations before you have to request another code from Rockstar.

If you ever reach the limit & have not kept proof of purchase like your Steam securom activation code you need to buy another copy.

The DRM limits are courtesy of Rockstar BTW

Wow, I had no idea about the DRM on this game. By main .exe I assume you mean the "GTAIV.exe" ? If I run that I get an error (0x000005) I remember when I had this installed the last time and that .exe did the exact same thing so I always had to launch the game from "LaunchGTAIV.exe" instead. I was watching Task manager earlier when I was trying again and I noticed something called "Seculaunch" very very quickly appeared then disappeared, so based on what you have said and seeing that in task manager I assume that the activation of the game is the problem. I guess I will have to go down the naughty route and get a no cd crack by the looks of it

SPARC · 4 Jun 2011 at 11:45

TheCenturion said:
There's a file you should try deleting. It's located in the GTA directory. I think it's called filechecklist.asi or something like that. GTA didn't start for me, and deleting that file solved it

I don't have this file or anything along the same lines as it. Hmmm.

ran_out · 4 Jun 2011 at 12:12

Is there a settings file for gta4 in the user directory? used to get problems with older gta games launching and deleting settings file would often resolve it.

SPARC · 4 Jun 2011 at 12:20

Sod it!, I'm giving up now. Thanks for the help lads, shame I didn't get anywhere

scrlk · 4 Jun 2011 at 13:53

SPARC said:
Sod it!, I'm giving up now. Thanks for the help lads, shame I didn't get anywhere

And people wonder why piracy is rife.

trickycurve · 4 Jun 2011 at 16:59

Try running the SecuROM removal tool. I had an issue with Crysis Warhead a few weeks ago when it previously worked fine a good while before, and running the game after using the removal tool worked a treat.

AWPC · 4 Jun 2011 at 19:00

SPARC said:
Sod it!, I'm giving up now. Thanks for the help lads, shame I didn't get anywhere

No need to give up Securom /Rockstar can help you if you have proof you bought the game they will give you assistance to get it working Securom even do a nodvd launcher but you need to contact them directly & they will ask for proof you bought the game. Try here first:

https://support.securom.com/rockstarunlock/GTA_IV/

Frenzy · 4 Jun 2011 at 20:54

TheCenturion said:
There's a file you should try deleting. It's located in the GTA directory. I think it's called filechecklist.asi or something like that. GTA didn't start for me, and deleting that file solved it

Thats from modding... doesnt come with the game.

Uninstall all GFWL stuff from the control panel. Then also uninstall Windows live id. Id run a cmd prompt with admin privileges and type net stop wlidsvc before that though (peace of mind).

reinstall gfwl from the redist folder in the gta directory or download gfwl from microsoft.

Personally I havent come across this problem using steam. Then again I dont think I had gfwl installed before I install GTA.