Hi,

I have played on this PC for several months and this is a new problem for me. The first thing you are going to say is that I probably have bad specs. I don't think that's the case here and I am also aware the game is badly ported for PC. When I play GTA, I get lag spikes every few minutes that last for 10 - 15 seconds. I have tried everything I possible can, virus checks, disabling virus software checks to ensure nothing is faulty. This has only been a problem in the last week or so and I don't know how to fix it. The problem also occurs on minimum settings. I record YouTube videos and in this one, go to 1:45 and you will see I suddenly start lagging. 

Do you have a legal, up to date version of GTA IV? 

Yes, I do. I have a disk version with all the latest updates.

Are you running the game as administrator? What mods are you using? 

I am running as admin. I use clan car pack (uniforms and cars), ALPR, DAS, 0.95 rc2, police helper and game4video enb.

Does it work without these mods? :)

Does it work without these mods? :)

I haven't really tried. It was working a week ago with the same mods.

What was the most recent change you made to the game or system?

I dont really remember making any. I dont usually install anything or delete any software.

Hm strange. The most common reason for the game flashing and pausing briefly every time a key is pressed is a conflict between the game and the Windows Event Log.  

To disable the Windows Error Log service:

1. Press the WindowsKey+R and type MSCONFIG into the bar.

2. Open the utility, select 'Services' and then untick the 'Windows Event Log' entry.

3. After clicking 'OK' you will be prompted to reboot so the changes can take effect. After a reboot please try the game again. It should now work.

Hm strange. The most common reason for the game flashing and pausing briefly every time a key is pressed is a conflict between the game and the Windows Event Log.

To disable the Windows Error Log service:

• Press the WindowsKey+R and type MSCONFIG into the bar.

• Open the utility, select 'Services' and then untick the 'Windows Event Log' entry.

• After clicking 'OK' you will be prompted to reboot so the changes can take effect. After a reboot please try the game again. It should now work.

Ok. Thank you for your time I really appreciate it. I will try that when I get home from school tomorrow as its getting later here. I will get back to you on the outcome :)

Alright, let me know how it goes :) 

What is your detail distance settings? I read that whenever you turn those down, quite contrary to every other game on the planet for PC where this would increase your FPS, in the crappy PC port that is GTA it actually causes lag spikes and massive FPS loss. I too record with the resource hogging FRAPs, and so at some point I ended up tweaking my graphics settings and turned my detail distance down from 100 to 30. Then I began a horrid cycle of about 10-20 second long lag cycles that was maddening and would ruin almost anything. 

 

I searched over a period of two days before I found some hidden away forum (sorry can't recall the name and not about to relive that search) that said one should try increasing their detail distance back to 100. 

 

I now have set my detail and view distance settings to 100 each. View distance is less important, but for me the detail distance was the culprit. Try increasing detail distance to max 100 and see if your lag spikes still occur.

 

I had them really bad around Middle Park. 

 

If this doesn't solve the problem, I apologize. Good luck! Hope to hear back. 

That could be it, but he/she said it had been working for several months + that he/she hadn't made any changes to the game. 

I have now tried both of the above, but unfortunately no luck. Thank you though :)

Does it work without the ENB? 

No

Hm, then I am not really sure what could be wrong really. Sorry.