Problem with GTAIV

haaammit · 16 Mar 2011 at 22:29

Hi all. Hope this is the correct section.

I've been having problems getting GTAIV to run properly/well/at all. Sometimes the view goes kind of 'blocky' or random textures/skins appear, and sometimes I get a bsod (but my pc restarts too quickly and I can't see the message). Other times it'll run fine. When it does run, it's great :rolleyes:

Tried different graphics setting - high/low/min/max but no difference. Sometimes it'll run with settings maxed out, and then not run with settings on minimum :mad:

Video driver is up to date (I think) - salient pooter specs:

Phenom x4 955 BE (oc 3.6GHz)
GTX460 (1Mb)
4GB Ram
600w PSU

Temps are (isfaics) stable with cpu not going above 41 degrees and gpu above 50 degrees.

Aaaaah - any help gratefully appreciated.

Quink

FoxEye · 17 Mar 2011 at 00:16

How you measuring CPU temps? I thought AMD didn't report absolute temps anymore, but offsets (typically 15-20 degrees lower than the real temp).

You'd have to have a really bad-ass cooler to keep a OC'd 955 to 40 degrees I think?

My x3 hits 60 and higher with prime95, and that's at stock :eek:

!

Bizarre · 17 Mar 2011 at 00:39

Presuming you're using Vista or Win 7, is superfetch disabled by any chance?

Reason I ask is because if it's disabled it can cause missing textures in GTA IV. Strange but true.

To check do the following:

1. Go to start, in the search bar type ‘services’, hit enter.

2. Now, look down the list of service for one called 'superfetch', if it's disabled double click it and choose enable. You may need to reboot to start the service.

To prevent your PC from rebooting when it BSODs follow the below instructions.

1. Right click 'my computer' and select 'properties'

2. Select the 'advanced tab' (advanced system properties in Vista, advanced system settings in Win 7)

3. Under 'startup and recovery' click on the settings button

4. Under 'system failure', uncheck the option 'automatically restart'

Next time your PC BSODs (hopefully) it won't restart, allowing you to write down the error code.

haaammit · 17 Mar 2011 at 19:18

Thanks for the replies so far;

CPU temp measured using speedfan and/or coretemp (coretemp displays on G15 lcd screen during gameplay) - running prime gives a temp of +/- 50 degrees. Cooler is an Akasa Nero S case is a Coolermaster Preatorian. I'm fairly certain when I can get GTAIV running, cpu temp never goes above 45 or so :confused:

I should have said - running XP sp3, but I have now disable auto reboot

On a side note, is it a worthwhile upgrade to go to win7?

Many thanks - Quink

Amnesia · 17 Mar 2011 at 19:56

Test the memory on your graphics card

haaammit · 17 Mar 2011 at 20:02

Amnesia said:
Test the memory on your graphics card

Noob question - how do I test the graphics card memory?

Thanks

Bizarre · 17 Mar 2011 at 22:30

Give CacheBoost a whirl. It seems to have solved a lot of the missing texture probs for peeps on XP over at the GTA forums.

http://www.systweak.com/CacheBoost/Download/

As for Win 7 being a worthwhile upgrade, I would say yes, definately.

I was one of the ones who skipped Vista altogether as XP did everything I needed, there's no way I could go back to it now that I've got used to Win 7 though.

The only way I know of testing vram is to run a game or benchmark, like OCCT, Furmark or Crysis.

If the problem was your vram then I'd expect it to show up in every game, not just in GTA.

haaammit · 19 Mar 2011 at 17:29

Well I've now managed to read the bsod info - nv4_disp.dll problem. I've googled but haven't (so far) found a cure. I have a screen shot of the info if needed.

I used the furmark benchmark with no evident problems. The in-game benchmark returns a framerate of 64 fps with no problems/glitches but asfter only a minute of gameplay the game will become blocky/weird before hanging :mad:

It's only this game I'm having problems with.

I have uninstalled the video driver and re-installed (after clearing the registry) the latest driver from nvidia. I've also run memtest with no errors. I did a clean re-install of XP about 6 months ago. I also tried the cacheboost programme, but it made no difference. I've also taken a couple of pics of the screen when it goes weird!

Any more help really gratefully received.

Quink