Several days ago we reported how the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4 got leaked to BitTorrent trackers ahead of release. The game has now been officially released in many parts of the world and a lot of gamers can now enjoy the highly anticipated GTA 4 on their PC. Judging by user comments on various gaming forums, the game is fu*ked in several different places. I have only played it for about an hour (legitimate version – no cracked release out yet) and still ran into some problems playing it. This article discusses solutions to various fatal errors, crashes to desktop (CTD) and performance issues you may encounter with GTA 4 as well as tweaks you can use to improve game performance.

GTA 4 Fatal Error Messages

There are quite a few fatal error messages in Grand Theft Auto 4. Here are some of the most common ones and how to get around them.

Fatal Error MMA10 (MMA 10)

This one is probably caused by the Social club application but i’m not quite sure. Anyway most of these MMA10 problems go away once you install .NET framework 3.5. Follow the steps below:

  1. Determine which version of .NET framework is installed on your machine through the method described here. If you don’t have .NET framework 1.1 installed go to step 2. If you do have v1.1 or any higher version (2.0, 3.0, etc) installed, go to step 3.
  2. Download and install v1.1 from here. Reboot and install .NET framework 3.5 obtained from here. Reboot again if required. Then download .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 from here, install it then reboot and try launching the game.
  3. Install .NET framework 3.5 obtained from here. Reboot if required. Then download .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 from here, install it then reboot and try launching the game.

Fatal Error RMN40 (RMN 40)

This error is caused when the game is run on Windows XP systems without Service Pack 3.

Fatal Error RESC10 (RESC 10)

I am not sure but this seems to be caused by the game running out of available video memory. To max out graphics settings for GTA 4, you probably need a VGA with around 1GB video memory.

  • You can try to get around this problem by lowering display settings (Lower view distance, detail distance, etc).
  • For a more permanent solution (you won’t like this) you can buy a video card with more VRAM.
Note: For a complete list of GTA 4 error codes and what they mean, please refer to this article.

GTA 4 crashes and other errors

GTA IV crashes when trying to save the game

These crashes are probably caused by Windows Live or Social Club applications (which run in the background by the way).

  • Try the same solution for GTA 4 Fatal Error MMA10 mentioned above. It is known to solve many of these save game crashes.

Cannot increase or change graphics settings in GTA 4 or modify default display settings

This is not a bug. Rockstar implemented this feature to prevent users from increasing graphics details on systems with low video memory. Anyway I don’t think this was a good move on their part and luckily for users this can be overridden.

  1. Browse to the directory where you installed the game to and create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
  2. Right click the shortcut and add the –norestrictions switch at the end of target field (leave a space after the closing quotes , add –norestrictions and press ok).
  3. Start the game using the shortcut. You should now be able to change the graphics settings. Be warned that increasing graphics detail on systems with low VRAM may cause RESC10 fatal errors to occur.

Cannot run GTA 4 in Windowed mode

  1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
  2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –windowed switch. Start GTA 4 using shortcut to force windowed mode.
  3. To force fullscreen mode, add –fullscreen switch and launch the game.

Cannot change screen resolution in GTA 4

  1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
  2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –width (value) and –height (value) switches. Start GTA 4 using shortcut to force the new the screen resolution

Example: to force the game on 1024x768: ”X:\……\Launchgtaiv.exe” –width 1024 –height 768

Cannot disable vsync

  1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
  2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –novblank switch. Start GTA 4 using the shortcut to force vsync off.

Cannot start GTA 4 and various audio and video problems

This could be due to one of many reasons and a direct answer cannot be given unless more information is known. However, you can try launching the game in safe mode (which will force GTA 4 to run in lowest possible graphics settings) and see if it works:

  1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
  2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add –safemode switch. Start GTA 4 using the shortcut to force safe mode.

If you are having audio problems, you can try switching between high end CPU audio footprint and low end CPU audio footprint.

  1. Create a shortcut to Launchgtaiv.exe on the desktop.
  2. Edit the target field of the shortcut and add -fullspecaudio OR –minspecaudio switches. Start GTA 4 using shortcut to force the desired audio footprint.

Updated 6/12/2008

Missing textures in GTA 4
  1. Download RivaTuner 2.2 from here. Install it and run it.
  2. On the 'Main' tab, there will be a section titled 'Driver Settings' with ForceWare detected displayed below that. Click the build button to the right of it to open a menu with 5 icons.
  3. From this set of icon, choose "Reset all driver settings to their default values'.
  4. Do not modify any other settings using RivaTuner. Now launch the game.
Note that missing texture problems may also be present on systems with low video memory. The above method may not work in such cases.

Display settings reset every time GTA 4 is started

Sometimes after the installation of new drivers or other software, you may encounter the problem of the game resetting to default settings with every start. This can be very annoying. Follow the steps below to fix this problem: For Windows Vista users:
  1. Navigate to the GTA 4 settings folder. That is "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV"
  2. Delete the 3 files inside this folder. Do not delete any subfodlers as the saves and any custom music you placed are also stored here.
  3. Restart the game and configure your display settings for one last time.
For Windows XP users:
  1. Navigate to the GTA 4 settings folder. That is "C:\Documents And Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Application Data\Rockstar Games\GTA IV"
  2. Delete the 3 files inside this folder. Do not delete any subfodlers as the saves and any custom music you placed are also stored here
  3. Restart the game and configure your display settings for one last time.
GTA 4 performance issues and tweaks

Unlike previous PC ports of the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto 4 does not seem to be optimized that well. There are reports of the game running poorly on even high end graphics hardware such as ATI 4870X2,4870X2 and nVIDIA GTX 260, 280 etc. Video memory (VRAM) on the card plays a critical role here; even mid range cards such as Geforce 8800 or 8800GTX with lower than 512MB video memory can have trouble running GTA 4 at high settings. Also, having a quad core processor can help immensely. Even if you have a high end video card with a lot of video memory, an older dual core processor can become a bottleneck.

You can try using the –noprecache and –nomemrestrict switches to see if there is a difference in game performance but this is not guaranteed. –noprechace disables pre-caching of textures and models and –nomemrestrict removes the memory restrictions that are enabled by default.

As always, upgrading to the latest graphics and audio drivers may help. Latest ATI and nVIDIA drivers (including beta drivers) along with drivers for popular audio cards can be found here. Hopefully either Rockstar or graphics card manufacturers will release a patch or new drivers soon that will hopefully boost GTA 4 performance on the PC.

UPDATE: nVIDIA have released v180.84 display drivers which they claim are specifically designed to boost the performance of Grand Theft Auto 4 on nVIDIA GPUs. You can download them from here.

Note that I cannot guarantee that above mentioned solutions will work for everyone. Reuslts may vary depending on the version of the game you have as well as your computer’s hardware and software configuration. Also tote that this article does not list every possible GTA 4 error out there. I will update it if and when I discover solutions for more problems out there. Feel free to drop a comment if you need any help.

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39 Comments

  1. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/03/2008 05:10:00 PM  

    FYI at the time this comment is written, there is no working cracked release of GTA 4. Ones that are on bittorrent trackers are wither merely clone DVDs or non working cracks or viruses.

  2. Unknown // 12/03/2008 08:23:00 PM  

    I've been watching www.isoleeted.com closely. They have previously been one of the first to post workarounds for securom DRM's and Darkc0der is a member there too.

  3. Unknown // 12/03/2008 08:30:00 PM  

    Thanks a lot for this article. Very helpful.

  4. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/04/2008 12:59:00 AM  

    Darkc0der has cracked the activation process. DVD check still prevents pirates from playing.

  5. O.S // 12/04/2008 03:21:00 AM  

    Yes there is a crack thats actually working,involves cracking gods,paul.dll and RGSC.exe(rockastar games social club app)and its 4.8MB...take it from a TLer...visit the torrentleech irc channel and search(!s)gta,if u dont believe this...

  6. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/04/2008 03:28:00 AM  

    whosez,
    With that you can get the game to work but don't bother. You will see strange behavior such as cars driving by themselves, camera rotating forever, etc etc. This is SecuROM triggers at work.

  7. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/04/2008 03:28:00 AM  

    dont post links please

  8. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/04/2008 03:47:00 AM  

    Game is unplayable with CRACKING GODS release. Acceleration is messed up and camera wobbles continuously.

  9. O.S // 12/04/2008 03:48:00 AM  

    Lmao,yeah the gta folks actually said the cracked game was going to be quite unentertaining(u gotta give it to the engineers of this securom)...and yeah some people jst want screenshots and recorded plays as buggy as the game might be just to brag to their friends lol,so let em have it...havent tried the game yet but so far aint heard much negative comments bout this specific crack(not the game)...and yeah no links lolz

  10. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/04/2008 03:51:00 AM  

    And missing textures too sometimes.

    These are no doubt triggers intentionally put in by rockstar to prevent pirates from playing the game. When the crack is not perfect (not all triggers removed) the game will become unplayable. They hinted about these in a previous interview.

    Something like the Mass Effect galaxy map. It will be cracked anyway but may take time.

  11. O.S // 12/04/2008 03:55:00 AM  

    Its a race out there,from creation so comes innovation..i mean its been two days,imagine a fortnight?

  12. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/04/2008 03:58:00 AM  

    It may be the fade protection that may be doing the funny stuff actually.

  13. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/04/2008 10:21:00 AM  
  14. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/05/2008 02:36:00 AM  

    Here is a summary of problems which I think are only present in the cracked version of the game:

    1. Self driving vehicles / auto accelerating vehicles
    2. Missing pedestrians
    3. Exploding vehicles
    4. Spinning, wobbly camera
    5. Cannot complete internet cafe mission in single player - cant use computers in cafe.

    (ThYou may or may not run into any or all of the problems mentioned above. It's totally random and cant be predicted).

  15. Unknown // 12/05/2008 03:08:00 AM  

    Pirates and thieves should be flogged, beaten, and tossed over a bridge.

    Scum thieves!

  16. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/05/2008 09:43:00 PM  
    This comment has been removed by the author.
  17. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/05/2008 09:44:00 PM  

    Here is how to get the command line parameters to work with the FeD0R loader:

    1. Create a new text file and name it commandline.txt.
    2. Add all the command line parameters in the text file, all in a single line and follow the proper format.
    Ex- if you want to run with -novblank and -norestrictions parameters, add the following line to the text file:

    -novblank -norestrictions

    Save the text file and place it in the GTA4 directory and run the game.
    No triggers, better framerates and customizable settings.

  18. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/08/2008 07:30:00 PM  

    Ok here is another tip t boost the framerates. Disable the in game recorder. You will not be able to record replays but I got around 5 FPS increase when i turned it off. May or may not work for you but worth a try:
    You can disable the clip recorder from the game's options menu.

  19. JX // 12/09/2008 03:29:00 PM  

    AND THE FINAL ANSWER (if none of the above work for u):

    For people with missing texture problems that have vista and have disabled superfetch -> turn it back on ;)
    took me almost week and the complete list above to figure this one out lol

  20. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/09/2008 04:19:00 PM  

    Jaxx nice find mate Props to you

  21. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/13/2008 02:52:00 PM  

    GTA 4 patch is out.

    Download:
    http://msxb-d1.vo.llnw.net:3074/content/5454083b/5454083B1000008310000183.cab?n=CB5EDA107F2BA302

    Or sign into windows live from within the game and you can download from there.

    loaders seem to work fine even after patching.

  22. Scott // 12/28/2008 10:43:00 PM  

    Lightning_Struck_Tower...You Rock !!

    Where did you find that patch? I looked on the Site for the Patch and it was not listed.

    Anyway it fixed my 'Choppy' Sound Issue.

    Thanks XComa

  23. Unknown // 12/29/2008 11:42:00 PM  

    Hey I'm gettin a erro RMN20, anyone got any ideas

  24. Mind Sweeper // 12/31/2008 10:12:00 AM  
    This comment has been removed by the author.
  25. Mind Sweeper // 12/31/2008 10:15:00 AM  

    Try Razor 1911 crack works perfect no issues, works on 32 & 64bit no probs.

  26. Mind Sweeper // 12/31/2008 10:31:00 AM  

    By the By
    Rockstar made this game based on a system spec not yet available to the general public, and as a result no one can play this game to its full graphics potential not evan halfway.
    I cannot help but laugh when i see that GTA IV is 7th ranking in most popular games, they have just cut their nose off to spite their face. shrood move knobheads your now loosing millions I wonder whos bright idea that was!.LOL

  27. Mind Sweeper // 12/31/2008 10:49:00 AM  

    I am runnig Vista 64bit Intal duo 2.4 / 4 gig mem /Invidia 8500 GT
    running the Razor 1911 workaround,
    Game running fine but have to run in 800x600 and all draw distances around 15%.
    And thanks to the people on this site am tweeking the game evan further getting even better results.
    I did use the Invidia Beta driver that was sugested on this site and it worked perfect helped in all kinds of ways, a must download if running Invidia graphics.
    I have none of the issues mentioned by everyone here so try it if your getting problems with paul.dll.
    AND Lightninig_struck_tower could you let me know what the entire command line is. should it look like this=
    ( exe -novblank -norestrictions )
    and is it a good idea to add this as well!
    ( -nomemrestrict ) Thanks for any help you can give.

  28. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/31/2008 11:05:00 AM  

    Mind Sweeper,
    The commandline acts differently on different machines.
    The only way to determine which are the best options is to experiment with adding and removing commands and running it on your machine. Sometimes you wont notice anything but sometimes the performance will increase.

  29. Lightning_Struck_Tower // 12/31/2008 11:06:00 AM  

    @Catalin,
    This is what it says about RMN20:
    # RMN20 Windows Vista: Need to have Service Pack 1 or higher to proceed.

    Full list of codes here:
    http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2008/12/gta-4-error-codes-and-what-they-mean.html

  30. Unknown // 6/12/2009 10:52:00 AM  

    I installed everything in gta 4, but when I open, It says that RGSC has encountered a problem and needs to be closed, can anyone provide a answer for this, i downloaded many RGSC's from various sites, but still I have this problem

  31. Unknown // 7/10/2009 04:46:00 AM  

    Hey!

    One question...About the patch you just instal setup right? or do you need to do something with the other files(updatetitle and content.xbx

  32. javier // 8/02/2009 11:02:00 PM  
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
  33. Unknown // 6/18/2010 01:45:00 PM  
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
  34. Unknown // 6/23/2010 07:00:00 PM  
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
  35. marco josue // 7/16/2010 03:40:00 AM  
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
  36. Unknown // 7/22/2010 05:34:00 PM  
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
  37. antony // 10/03/2010 09:01:00 PM  

    if you are x4500 gma user go to the site

    http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=430636&mode=linear

  38. Unknown // 6/28/2011 09:36:00 PM  

    Simple post but great expression of thoughts.. how do you do that? i think your a veteran blogger! am i right?

    anyway I'm william
    mind if I put a link back to you?


    (clickable) ------> Cheap Suits

  39. Anonymous // 1/14/2012 12:59:00 AM  

    There is a great software Digeus Registry Fixer I use it when windows system freezes, doesn't boot up or works slow. I also recommend to use Windows Tune Up Suite. It prevents computer problems.