GTA: vice city probs

LoLth

Hi all,

I just installed gta vice city but after a random amount of time the game reboots my machine.

I have upgraded my graphic card drivers to the latest available on the nvidia site. I've taken off directX and installed the one from the gta CD. The only patch I can find is for graphics corruption but the only graphics problem I have is that vice city will only allow the lowest graphics setting.

My pc spec:
P4 2.4
1gb ram (ddr)
gainward geforce 4 64mb graphics card
on board sound
Windows 2000 sp3


anyone any idea why this is happening or what else I can check?
Next step is email tech support in rockstar (or whoever handles it for them) but thought I'd give it a go here first.

Nothing else crashes on the PC so I doubt it is RAM related.

AL][EN

What Version of DirectX do you have? also I had a similar problem with Vice city and Battlefield 1942 the exact same thing happened turns out it was my laser mouse that was causing the problems. If you have stuff like Scanners/Printers/Webcams etc plugged in its worth just unplugging them just to make sure (but your problem sounds more of a S/w driver problem more than anything else)

AL][EN

does it happen with any other game or just vice city?

LoLth

only happens with vice city.

I had the network distribution of DirectX 9 but I uninstalled that and installed the one that comes with vice city, just in case there was any difference. DXdiag says everything is fine...

I do have an optical mouse (USB) so you might be on to something there. Nothing else USB is connected at the minute. I may try to run it with a PS2 mouse and see how it goes.

Woden

perhaps there is a chance your computer is overheating also? maybe your could run a program like prime95 and check out what your load temperature is? maybe there is just bad circulation in your case?

AL][EN

Fine point aswell data but it would happen with other games too if the CPU was over heating but its good advise too, LoLth you should try prime95 just to be sure,

i assume your opsys is Windows XP? this has never worked for me yet but i'll mention it anyway. you could try running the game in compatibility mode (win98 or win 2000) again its not really worth mentioning but its something you can try if the PS2 mouse doesnt work,

upgrade your Gforce drivers to the latest version too that should do the trick, other than that if its still not working lemme know and i'll have a dig around and see what i can come up with,

patch

I've got a similar set up to the original poster, how I got it working was to install older detonater drivers. Down around the 30's, the couple of 40's I tried didn't work strangely.
Bear in mind I could install it, but then when I clicked the exe file I get nothing.
It seems perfect now, here's a link, bottom of the page has the driver I used.

http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/

Woden

Originally posted by AL][EN
Fine point aswell data but it would happen with other games too if the CPU was over heating but its good advise too, LoLth you should try prime95 just to be sure,

yeah i think i thought that vice city might have been his most demanding game or something, probably is software related though

Ste.phen

i have problems on some games on my laptop because the application that controls the one-touch navigation keys uses a desktop overlay, it causes vice to crash now and then, and battlefield to minimise itself repeatedly.
until i figured out i nearly went crazy.
probably not related, but its worth looking into

LoLth

well, the PS2 mouse didnt work

Cant go to the older geforce drivers as I need at least the ones I have (42 or thereabouts) for other programs. I will try installing the ones I downloaded from Nvidia (seems to be more recent than the ones on PCGamer magazine).

I doubt it is heat related as the PC has 1 intake and 2 extraction fans, is standing at least 8 inches from any surface (except the floor!) and runs a good few more demanding applications quite happily (3d max for example).

Personally I am suspecting the graphics card as it will only allow me to use the lowest graphics settings. whenever I change the resolution or colour depth it instantly pops back to the lowest...

Woden

its not a geforce 4 mx is it?

patch

Originally posted by LoLth
well, the PS2 mouse didnt work

Cant go to the older geforce drivers as I need at least the ones I have (42 or thereabouts) for other programs. I will try installing the ones I downloaded from Nvidia (seems to be more recent than the ones on PCGamer magazine).

Download a few older drivers. You can just uninstall and re install a lot easier than you think. At least then you'll be able to rule it out as a option at least. That link I gave you has all the info you need if you dig around a bit.

LoLth

it is a geforce 4 MX.
Is there a problem with this card and GTA? I havent had any problems with any other game (Neverwinter nights, max payne, UT 2003 etc) though I do have a problem with Quake 3, the opengl subsystem error that I cant seem to get around.

Woden

off topic i get an open gl error with wolfenstein i used to have it on my geforce 2mx but i thought there was something you could download for it, same with jedi knight 2

i don't know of any particular problems with a geforce 4mx i was just wondering was it struggling with the game, iirc there is not a huge amount of different between geforce 2mx's and geforce 4mx's

data

tman

Originally posted by LoLth
it is a geforce 4 MX.
Is there a problem with this card and GTA? I havent had any problems with any other game (Neverwinter nights, max payne, UT 2003 etc) though I do have a problem with Quake 3, the opengl subsystem error that I cant seem to get around.

nope, i played through the game twice on a gf4mx440...
the only problems i had were that the textures took too long to load, running the game in windows '98 compatability mode sorted that out.