Guide to Fix GTA V PC Pre-load, Graphics Card, Launch Errors, Download, Installation and Crash Issues

GTA V PC Performance Guide: Fix for GTA V PC Launch Errors, Broken Pre-load, Low FPS on AMD Graphics Cars, Crash/Freeze, Download and other Installation Issues.

GTA V for PC is been released and it’s time to tackle the issues with GTA V PC installation to get it working. If you don’t face any issue then you are lucky enough and should share your experience and installation process in a comment section below to help out others.

Most of the issues on PC installation occurs due to incompatible PC specifications against the minimum or recommended System Requirements of a Game. In case of GTA V, first verify if you have a compatible PC to run it (Please don’t feel offended)

GTA V PC System Requirements:

Minimum specifications:

• OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2* (*NVIDIA video card recommended if running Vista OS)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz
• Memory: 4GB
• Video Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11)
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• HDD Space: 65GB
• DVD Drive

Recommended specifications:

• OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1
• Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)
• Memory: 8GB
• Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• HDD Space: 65GB
• DVD Drive

Now once you have a compatible PC, then something is wrong with the installation and let’s try to solve your GTA V installation issue.

Followings are the issues and errors have been reported till now with GTA V PC installation:

Summary:

• GTA V PC Error “The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1)”
• GTA V PC Error: “Unable to detect Windows Media Player on your system”
• GTA V PC is not unlocking on Steam after Pre-load: Broken GTA V PC Pre-load
• GTA V doesn’t launch, after clicking on GTAVLauncher.exe | GTA V crash on startup
• GTA V PC Social Club issues
• Low Framerate with AMD Radeon 4000 series Graphics Card
• Lost connection to a GTA V download server
• Error “ERR_GEN_ZLIB_2 Failed zlib call. Please reboot or reinstall the game”
• GTA V PC Error 0xc00007b
• GTA V PC Sound is not working | GTA V No Audio in Gameplay
• GTA V is not working for AMD+Intel Combo Graphics Card Laptops

GTA V PC Error “The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1)”

This issue occurs due to special characters included in your Windows Administrator Account User Name. GTA V only supports Administrator Accounts with Usernames which are composed of basic characters namely: “A to Z, a to Z and 0 to 9”.

So if your Account name includes some #, $ or any other character which is not basic roman alphabet listed above then you’ll get this error “Error “The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1)”. This happens with all the Supported Windows OS like Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Fix:

Simply create a new Windows Administrator Account with username which is composed of A to Z, a to z or 0-9. Renaming your Existing Account won’t work, you need to create a new Administrator account to get rid of this error. Restart after creating a new account. For more detail explanation to this, head over to this link.

GTA V PC Error: “Unable to detect Windows Media Player on your system”

GTA V on PC requires Windows default Media Player enabled and installed. So you get this error when you haven’t completed installation of Windows Media Player or you have disabled it. To enable the Windows Media Player, open Control Panel -> Go to “Programs” then “Turn Windows Features On or Off” and make sure Windows Media Player is checked under the “Media Features” folder.

GTA V PC is not unlocking on Steam after Pre-load: Broken GTA V PC Pre-load

This is known issue many Steam users are reporting at Steam Community for GTA V pre-load, even after release date game simply doesn’t unlock. A workaround to fix this issue is to Exit Steam completely (Verify in your Task Manager and End Process related to Steam if running). Now relaunch the Steam and GTA V should be unlocked. If not then Right click on GTA V in Games library and then click the “Local Files” tab and select the option “Verify Game Cache”. Hopefully, this workaround will unlock the GTA V on Steam.

GTA V doesn’t launch, after clicking on GTAVLauncher.exe | GTAVLauncher.exe has stopped working, or GTA V crash on startup

Well, this is the weird issue with a weird workaround to fix. Mostly it’s happening due to GTA V PC installation having troubles in communicating with your primary graphics card so workaround which is working for most of the people is to disable graphics card in device manager then launching game and at social club window switching back to device manager and enabling graphics card.

• Step 1: Go to Control Panel -> System -> Device manager -> Display adapters, then double-click on your graphics card and select disable.
• Step 2: Launch the Game, run GTAVLauncher.exe
• Step 3: At Social Club Page, switch to Device Manager and Enable Graphics card again by Right Click and select enable.

GTA V PC Social Club issues

Errors:

“Social Club failed to initialize.”
“Social Club failed to load due to an incomplete installation. Please exit the game and re-install the latest version of the Social Club.”
“A newer version of Social Club is required. The updater may have failed. Please exit the game and install the latest version of the Social Club.”

Fix 1: Uninstall Social Club and then reinstall it by downloading from official site.

Fix 2: Open task manager and make sure GTA5.exe, PlayGTAV.exe, GTAVLauncher.exe are not running. Then Right click the Social Club installation and select Run as Administrator.

Low Framerate with AMD Radeon 4000 series Graphics Card:

AMD no longer releases driver updates for AMD Radeon 4000 series graphics cards, so you may experience reduced framerate while playing GTA V. There is no workaround or fix to this issue unless AMD decided to release and official update for drivers of AMD Radeon 4000 series graphics cards.

Lost connection to a GTA V download server:

Go to GTA V Installation directory and find the file name with pattern ‘x64(*)rpf.par’, take backup and delete this file. And start downloading the game again.

Error “ERR_GEN_ZLIB_2 Failed zlib call. Please reboot or reinstall the game”

This error means GTA V PC installation data is corrupt and as the error says, that you need to restart the game to fix this error but just restarting won’t fix this GTA V PC error.

To fix it you need to repair the installation files which you can do by inserting installation discs and selecting Repair option or if you have downloaded the GTA V from Steam then use the “Verify Game Cache” option to repair the GTA V installation files.

GTA V PC Error 0xc00007b

If you face Error 0xc00007b in your GTA V PC installation then there might be some issue with yours .Net installation or Admin rights. To fix this error first try running the GTAVLauncher.exe as administrator (Right click -> Run as Administrator). If that doesn’t resolve Error 0xc00007b, head to Microsoft website and download and install latest .Net framework.

GTA V PC Sound is not working | GTA V No Audio in Gameplay

This issue gives you no sound while playing GTA V, you get sound at Rockstar logo and intro but not in gameplay. To fix this no Sound problem you need to update audio drivers and install latest compatible DirectX for your Windows installation.

Do the following:

• Unplug your headphones or speakers.
• Update audio driver to the latest version. You’ll find latest audio drivers at your Motherboard Manufacturer support site.
• Install DirectX version from this link.

GTA V is not working for AMD+Intel Combo Graphics Card Laptops

Well it seems, GTA V is not working with laptops having a combo of Intet+AMD switch-able graphics card. And the solution of disabling one and then re-enabling as given above is not working.

There is a temporary fix to this, you can download Driver: ‘Leshcat’s Catalyst 13.4 WHQL UnifL v2 for AMD+Intel Powered Laptops‘ and install and GTA V should work. It’s a bit old driver but works perfect with GTAV. This Catalyst driver lets you select only one graphics card to keep enable. So select AMD or intel of your choice and you should be able to play GTA V. Let us know in comments if this fix is working for you. If not then mention name of your AMD+Intel Combo Graphics Card Laptop.

We will keep updating the list, feel free to report your issues in comments and don’t forget to mention your rig.