Getting GTAIV running in Steam

[KaosMD]

I have posted this in the Steam forum, but that was about as productive as a hole in the head. Thought I might ask here incase someone with brains knows the answer.

I cannot get GTA running, it wont even start. I am trying to run it through Steam. I have also tried it outside of steam as suggested, it still doesnt load. Cursor shows up as thinking for 5seconds, then absolutely nothing happens.
When I first tried to run GTA, Steam told me it was installing something (1 of 7), (2 of 7), etc..., that finished, then i tried to load game and nothing.
I tried everything listed on first page as i said, including defrag, updating everything, registry cleanup, integrity check, etc.. and it still will not even load.

What can I try now?

Here are my system specs:

Processor Information:
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Speed: 2211 Mhz
1 logical processor
1 physical processor
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Unsupported
SSSE3: Unsupported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Unsupported
SSE42: Unsupported

Windows Version:
Windows XP (32 bit)
NTFS: Supported

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU
DirectX Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.11.9562
DirectX Driver Version: 6.14.11.9562
Driver Date: 21 Nov 2009
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0xf9
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Desktop Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Primary Display Size: 18.50" x 11.54" (21.77" diag)
47.0cm x 29.3cm (55.3cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 256 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x

Memory:
RAM: 2047 Mb

[Jigoku]

Minimum system requirements:

OS: XP SP3/Vista SP1
RAM: 1.5GB
Video: 256MB nVidia 7900/ATI X1900
CPU: Intel C2D 1.8GHz/AMD X2 64 2.4GHz


Your CPU and GPU do not meet minimum specs.


The installing stuff was DirectX, Visual C++, GFWL, Rockstar Social Club ...

[Judge_Kiwi]

FYI - GTA IV is a nightmare to get installed sometimes. You have to log into Steam then you have to log into Rockstar and, worst of all, you have to log into Microshaft Games for Windows. Often, MG4W will attempt to update, leaving a dialogue box on the screen informing you that you cannot shut anything down or the World will end and God will eat all the (cute) kittens. After staring at this for 45 minutes it will dawn on you that there is something wrong. A CTL+ALT+DEL will reveal that the service has, in fact, stopped responding. Shutting down the offending service will NOT bring the economic World to its knees but actually force the service to restart and (hopefully) operate correctly.

MG4W has to be the worst service I have ever come across and was almost singly responsible for me almost telling Steam/Rockstar/MS to stick the game up their collective arses. I am glad I persevered as it is an awesome game that I played and loved (despite the excessive blood, gore, violence, sex ... blah blah blah).


Oh, and you don't meet min. spec.

[Drac]

Yeah, you're not going to be able to run GTA IV on that machine, sorry mate, it's an absolute beast of a game. Even if you did get it to start, you'd only get about 5fps, it wouldn't be playable or enjoyable.

[KaosMD]

Yeh im finding that more and more, i cant even run Bioshock without bare minimum specs, and even then its a wee bit jerky.