GTA 3 keeps locking up my pc

[naked&fearless]

i have a 900mhz amd athalon and 655 mgs ram and a voodoo 3500tv agp vid card. Why is it locking up on me? is there another patch besides 1.1?? please help!

[NorthViking]

read this:

Update DirectX
If you're using an older version of DirectX, you're game may lag or not even run at all. You should update to DirectX 8.1. You can download the latest version of DirectX at www.microsoft.com/directx

Don't know if you've updated or not? Go to START/RUN and type in DXDIAG. It will tell you of your processor speed, ram, and version of DirectX you have installed.


Update Video-Card Drivers
STEP 1:
For those that know what video-card they have, skip to STEP 2. Otherwise, go to START/RUN and type in DXDIAG. Then go to the DISPLAY tab. It should tell you what type of video-card you have..

Example of DXDIAG information

As you can see, I use an ATI Radeon 7200. (Actually a 64mb DDR VIVO) according to ATI.com

STEP 2:
Go to your video-card manufacturers website and search their driver downloads archive. According to ATI, the latest driver for my card is the "Recommended Driver - 4.13.01.9031". Damn, I need to update mine, lol. Anyways, download this file. Please note that driver-updates are usually high in file-size, so if you're on a 56k, expect to wait maybe an hour or two.

STEP 3:
Install the driver. Just double-click the .exe and it'll update the files accordingly, reboot after installation, and you're up to par.

Video Card Manufacturer Sites:

3Dfx Interactive - http://www.3dfx.com/
3Dlabs - http://www.3dlabs.com/
Asus - http://www.asus.com/
ATI - http://support.atitech.ca/
Aztech Labs - http://www.aztechlabs.com/
Canopus - http://www.canopuscorp.com/
Creative Labs - http://www.creativelabs.com/
Diamond Multimedia - http://www.diamondmm.com/
Elsa Technology - http://www.elsa.de/
Guillemot - http://www.guillemot.com/
Hercules (see Guillemot) - http://www.guillemot.com/
I/O Magic - http://www.iomagic.com/
Jaton - http://www.jaton.com/
Leadtek - http://www.leadtek.com/
Matrox - http://www.matrox.com/
NVIDIA - http://www.nvidia.com/
Orchid (see Diamond MM) - http://www.diamondmm.com/
SIII Incorporated - http://www.sIII.com/
SiS - http://www.sis.com.tw/
VIA Technologies - http://www.viatech.com/
VideoLogic - ]http://www.videologic.com/

RAM usage
If you're going to play GTA3, and you're at the bare-bone ammount of 128mb of RAM such as I, it's a safe bet that background applications will slow the game down. Before playing GTA3, you may want to shut-off all programs. Example: ICQ, MSN IM, AOL IM, Browsers, Folders. You may also want to press CTRL/ALT/DEL ONCE and close all applications except EXPLORER and SYSTRAY and any FIREWALL you may wish to keep running and other necessities.


How you run the game...
A common problem is users playing the game at too high of a detail level for their comp to run. For example, I use a PIII 450MHz, 128mb SDRAM, 64mb Video. If I run at 1280x1024x32 with graphics at max, I'll probably get as high as 10fps. Not exactly enjoyable. If I wanted the game to run clean, I would want to play it at 800x600x32 or even 800x600x16 with the other options at max.

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DirectX
Grand Theft Auto III requires Microsoft DirectX 8.1 to run. As a
consequence we recommend that the video and sound drivers installed are
also DirectX 8.1 compliant. Even better, use a true hardware DirectX
8.0 / DirectX 8.1 card.

Windows XP
We recommend manufacturer distributed drivers for Windows XP (i.e.
drivers that expose the user controls for changing settings on the
particular piece of hardware), instead of the default drivers installed
by Microsoft as part of the machine setup process.

Memory
Grand Theft Auto III requires at least 96 MB of memory to run. For
optimal performance at least 128 MB is recommended (256 MB preferred).

Running Applications
Grand Theft Auto III has been designed to take best advantage of the
available machine it is running upon, therefore we recommend that you
close down all applications before running Grand Theft Auto III.

Video Memory
Grand Theft Auto III requires a video card with 16 MB of video memory
or greater to run. Grand Theft Auto III will refuse to run if it is
launched on a machine with less than 16 MB video memory.

AMD K6/2 and K6/III processors
These AMD processors both play Grand Theft Auto III at too low a speed
to be acceptable.

Save Games
Grand Theft Auto III uses the “My Documents” directory of the currently
logged in user to store the “GTA3 USER FILES” directory. This is where
we store save games. This was chosen to allow each user on Windows 2000
or Windows XP to have their own saves.