GTA:SA Crashes (0% CPU Usage)

Foxie3a · Jul 9, 2011

Hey guys, this one is stumping me. It's always happened when I've played GTA: SA, and I can't figure out what it is that's wrong.

Software:
GTA: San Andreas (latest version via Steam)
OS: Windows Server 2008 R2 64Bit SP1 (Fully updated)
(Have tried a variety of compatibility options, nothing seems to make a difference)

Problem: It's only when LOADING either a building that u enter, or a cut scene, etc... where it usually slowly fades into the game. It doesn't do it every time, and there doesn't seem to be a time that it does it more often than not.

If it hasn't happened in a while, there are times that it'll do it everytime I try even loading a game, and it'll never go from the loading screen to the game, just stick at 100% loaded playing the cool music. This got me to install it a long time ago, like a year ago. Now I've found that deleting the settings file (gta_sa.set) in the My Docuements, which gets rid of all your settings, will fix the problem, just reset everything to where it was, then you can play again. But it's super annoying, and really gets in the way of completing missions.

No BSOD, or any kind of errors at all, the game just goes to 0% CPU usage, and stays there no matter what. Have to Alt-Tab and terminate the task. While playing the game, there's no problems, it'll run till the rapture just fine. One thing I have noticed is rarely, like when flying through lots of clouds or fog, the frame rate will get very low, and the CPU usage is actually down to like 3% (the game can take up to 13% usage or so), or even down to like 1%, studdering quite a bit... then ounce out of the clouds or dust, it's fine. So I wonder if those clouds / dust is the same type of effect that the fading in after loading a game, or fading in after entering a building is. And that transition effect is what stops the program.

I've reinstalled... upgraded VCards... Latest drivers... compatibility modes, Running on only 1 core.... Nothing helps. I notice too that the game never really goes above 250MB of RAM, I know it's an old game, but it seems low.

The game is not modded, never was.

Thanks!

turbohans · Jul 10, 2011

You got .net (1.1, 2.0,,) and c++ redist installed?

hmm, probobly do as I don't think it would even run without.

As far as the one core and 256mb of ram, that along with a 5500fx Nvidia was all I needed for it back in the day. Never had any lag either.

I would almost wonder if the disk or whatever you have is scratched. If so, I don't think the key is bound to the disk like GTA4 if you can clean it or find another it may be worth a try. Seems those old games always loaded the cut-scenes from the disk.

Psycogeec · Jul 10, 2011

i do not understand all the game speak, but here goes.

0% cpu does not define 0% I/O.
meaning you could have a load of disk movement and still merly a drop of CPU consumption.
or like mentioned a minor data "storage" glitch then on loading .

to see more, you would have to have i/o , gpu utalisation AND cpu use monitored, and then what fun is the game

when you bail out on the game to check the problem, it is then minimised, and if winders works the same way it did, it could start paging the game out , cause windows is stupid that way

that makes checking things more fun.

Hmm, i think i would hard test your motherboard memory, and your video card memory, and see if either of those act up in hard testing.
if you know the game data is solid on the disk (because you freaking try and fix it 15 times)
and you know that the hard drives dont go to SLEEP in the middle of the game (power management)
and you know that the hard drive doesnt corrupt or fail,
then
it could be minor glitching via the motherboard memory, or the video cards memory. everyone is always cranking video card memory way to high, and sometimes it bites back.
furmark doesnt do spit to test a video cards memory, gputool or ati tool things will though.
or just adjust those items down a bit and play again, and see what happens.

clouds and fog is high GPU need (hard to render, depending on the render type they use) , normal to have more effort to do that. it is logical that the CPU use would decrease , as the gpu is still working on rendering the frame slower.
.

Original1993 · Jul 10, 2011

i know turning the frame limiter off on a powerful system can cause crashing (any system is powerful for that game now), also back in turning the AA from 3 to 1 stopped crashing on a 7300 GT, just a couple things to try, cant promise its gonna work

Sammich · Jul 10, 2011

Did you install any mods? Specifically.. for... coffee?

turbohans · Jul 11, 2011

Sammich said:
Did you install any mods? Specifically.. for... coffee?

He said "The game is not modded, never was.", so I imagine not.

(back in the day I did mod the weapons.dat & handling.dat as they were 'OPEN SOURCE' (ea. not compiled and totally self explained (those files alone)) but that never created a problem & that game is SP only)

I don't understand sometimes when people get mad about modding GTA though,, even though this is totally off topic most files you crack open in GTA include instructions on how to change variables like the two original file headers I will list below.

Handling.cfg

Code:

; Author: Bill Henderson
; Created 10/12/1999
;
; > COMMENTS <
; ------------
; [COLOR="Red"]TWEAK AT YOUR OWN RISK[/COLOR]
;
; > UNITS <
; ---------
; vehicle identifier 14 characters max
; dimensions in metres
; mass in Kg
; velocity in Km/h
; acceleration/deceleration in ms-2
; multipliers x1.0 is default
; angles in degrees
; Levels :- (L)ow, (M)edium, (H)igh
; buoyancy = percent submerged (> 100% vehicle sinks)
; engine type :- (P)etrol, (D)iesel, (E)lectric
; engine drive :- (F)ront, (R)ear, (4)-wheel drive
;
; > FIELD DESCRIPTIONS <
; ----------------------
; (A) vehicle identifier			[14 characters max]
; (B) fMass					[1.0 to 50000.0]
; (C) fTurnMass				//was////Dimensions.x				[0.0 > x > 20.0]
; (D) fDragMult				//was////Dimensions.y				[0.0 > x > 20.0]
; (E) (not used)			//was////Dimensions.z,				[0.0 > x > 20.0]
; (F) CentreOfMass.x				[-10.0 > x > 10.0]
; (G) CentreOfMass.y				[-10.0 > x > 10.0]
; (H) CentreOfMass.z				[-10.0 > x > 10.0]
; (I) nPercentSubmerged				[10 to 120]
; (J) fTractionMultiplier			[0.5 to 2.0]
; (K) fTractionLoss                             [0.0 > x > 1.0]
; (L) fTractionBias                             [0.0 > x > 1.0]
; (M) TransmissionData.nNumberOfGears		[1 to 4]
; (N) TransmissionData.fMaxVelocity		[5.0 to 150.0]
; (O) TransmissionData.fEngineAcceleration	[0.1 to 10.0]
; (P) TransmissionData.fEngineInertia		[0.0 to 50.0]
; (Q) TransmissionData.nDriveType		[F/R/4]
; (R) TransmissionData.nEngineType		[P/D/E]
; (S) fBrakeDeceleration			[0.1 to 10.0]
; (T) fBrakeBias				[0.0 > x > 1.0]
; (U) bABS					[0/1]
; (V) fSteeringLock				[10.0 to 40.0]
;
; (a) fSuspensionForceLevel 			not [L/M/H]
; (b) fSuspensionDampingLevel 			not [L/M/H]
; (c) fSuspensionHighSpdComDamp			often zero - 200.0 or more for bouncy vehicles
; (d) suspension upper limit
; (e) suspension lower limit
; (f) suspension bias between front and rear
; (g) suspension anti-dive multiplier
;
; (aa) fSeatOffsetDistance 			// ped seat position offset towards centre of car
; (ab) fCollisionDamageMultiplier		[0.2 to 5.0]
; (ac) nMonetaryValue				[1 to 100000]
;
; (af) modelFlags!!!  WARNING - Now written HEX for easier reading of flags

&
Weapon.dat

Code:

#
# ALL WEAPONS
#-----------------------------------------------
#	A:		string weaponType
#	B:		string eFireType
#	C,D:	float targetRange, weaponRange
#	E,F:	int modelId1, modelId2
#	G,H:	int reloadSampleTime1, reloadSampleTime2
#	I:		int weaponslot
#
#GUN DATA	(use $ identifier)
#-----------------------------------------------
#	J:		AssocGroupId
#	K:		int ammoClip
#	L:		int damage
#	M,N,O:	float fireOffset x, y, z
#	P:		int skillLevel 	0:POOR	1:STD	2:PRO
#	Q:		req stat level to get this weapon skill level
#	R, S:	float accuracy (0.5 - 2.0f), move speed (0.5 - 1.5)
#	T,U,V:	int animLoop start, end, fire
#	W,X,Y:	int animLoop2 start, end, fire
#	Z:		int breakoutTime
#
#	a:		hex flags
#
#	b,c:	float speed, radius
#	d,e:	float lifespan, spread
#
#
# 1stDigit:	CANAIM:1	AIMWITHARM:2	1STPERSON:4		ONLYFREEAIM:8
# 2ndDigit:	MOVEAIM:1	MOVEFIRE:2
# 3rdDigit:	THROW:1		HEAVY:2			CONTINUOUSFIRE:4	TWIN_PISTOL:8
# 4thDigit:	RELOAD:1	CROUCHFIRE:2	RELOAD2START:4		LONG_RELOAD:8
# 5thDigit:	SLOWSDWN:1	RANDSPEED:2		EXPANDS:4

Foxie3a · Jul 11, 2011

A lot of the points brought up are already explained in my original post and signature, but I'll still answer them.

1.) I would guess that all the .Net frameworks and C++ is installed, and the game runs perfectly, completely stable.

2.) Yeah, I think my specs are fine, should handle the game, but just 256MB total doesn't seem like much, would love it to consume more.

3.) There is no media to scratch, as it's downloaded from Steam. File integrity is fine according to Steam, and I've downloaded it a few times over the years, always had the same problem on this OS.

4.) Correct, 0% CPU usage isn't being accurate at all, I don't actually check to see if there's any activity, but it's pretty obvious that it's not using any resources anymore, and task manager says it's no longer responding.

5.) Video and System memory should be stable. I've recently upgraded my video card, and nothing changed... but even then, the game itself should be having problems, it's 100% stable, I can leave it on all day if I wanted, it's only these "buggy times" that it might have a problem.

6.) Hardware glitches, I just doubt it... The game is completely stable, and my system is completely stable. Hard drives have NEVER had any serious errors, and even their cache is ECC. System memory is ECC as well. Hard drives never power down, always spinning 100%.

7. Turning the frame limiter off makes it unplayable, too high of a frame rate.

8. No mods.

I think it's probably some sort of compatibility issue with my OS, even though it doesn't happen every single time. Maybe something with the way the video drivers work? I don't know...

pwnmachine · Jul 12, 2011

Set CPU affinity to 2 cores and priority to high. I had a similar issue, hopefully it works for you as well.

turbohans · Jul 12, 2011

Foxie3a said:
I think it's probably some sort of compatibility issue with my OS, even though it doesn't happen every single time. Maybe something with the way the video drivers work? I don't know...

could be! I know when I was trying to run my copy of '08 R2 x64 that I got from MSDNAA I had ton's of problems. Most of them were with 32bit programs.
But if the game runs at all I would doubt that somewhat.

You try validating the steam files and defraging the cache from the steam settings?

Foxie3a · Jul 13, 2011

I've even set affinity to just 1 core, and high priority, no change.

Before this, I was running Win Server 2008 64Bit (Vista), it was okay... and I've been running Win Server 2008 R2 64 bit ever since, and haven't really had any problems with compatibility. (R2 = Win7). But yeah, it is an old game, so who knows. It runs just fine though, it's only when it fades into a movie, or fades into the rendered game, etc... And it's really weird that deleting the settings file takes care of it, since I can put all the settings right back to where they were and it'll be fine for a while.

Oh yeah, I tried validating the steam files a long time ago, I've never had a problem with that. Fragmentation level is always 0%.

GTA:SA Crashes (0% CPU Usage)

Foxie3a

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turbohans

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Psycogeec

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Original1993

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Sammich

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turbohans

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Foxie3a

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pwnmachine

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turbohans

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Foxie3a

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