In other words, just unplug your ethernet cable. Mine freezed last night and unplugging the ethernet cable fixes that.

I thought the internet agreed to ignore Gamespot/Faqs due to the Kane & Lynch Payola saga. The uncodified rules of the internet must be adhered to.

I just started this game and I've got to say: I'm not really liking it, that much. It feels like GTA4: nothing has changed. It's just wearing a beautiful coat.

MMmm called it?

[kotaku.com]

What confuses me is that isn't this one of the 12 steps to hell and hasn't that already been shown to not work?

Mine just started locking up this morning after uninstalling a bunch of videos on my HDD. I'm reinstalling GTA at the moment in the hopes of getting it to work... We'll see. I'd hate to have to avoid psn while playing.

And peace was returned to Liberty city

@Anemone: i read on the ps3 fourms if you go to internet options disable internet connection, load the game and save the game you can then go back and put internet back on and no problems.. i "heard" this so not sure 100% fix

Aren't Gamespot and GameFAQ's forums fused together... meaning there the same forum... right? o.o?

Worked for my friend. I guess since rockstar know the problem now they can patch it... i'm eager to play my friends online but simply cant lol..

This worked for me. It was freezing, then I disabled my internet connection, then it wasn't freezing.

Whelp, reinstalling fixed my issue, it seems. Then again mine only started after I messed with files on my HDD.

im glad i havent had this problem, but thanks for reporting Owen! You're an alright guy.

Unfortunately Live wasn't the issue with my 360, as it continued to lock up even after removing the HDD and not signing in.

Doesn't fix my problem.

Now if only there was a fix for Niko's robotic movement.

It actually kinda makes sense. When the mp works, I don't even have to be connected to choose a game through the phone. I was very impressed by that little touch (I say that every second for GTA4).

YAY! I just got this problem for the first time, game would stay on load screen for ages I'm about 15 hours in, tried reinstalling etcetera, and am so fucking relieved I can't stop smiling, thank you, this makes me appreciate the game so much more!

If that doesn't work, just kick the hell out of your PS3. IT will work, It's a basic comedy fact.

Sooo..... no multiplayer until the patch?

@Fulgurator: hehe.
Never underestimate the power of percussive maintenance...

this would make sense. I have the 360 version and have had trouble recently with my router, and when my router drops the connection, the game would freeze

My game started freezing last nght, after four days of heavy play.
What changed?
I downloaded some stuff from the PSN store while i was playing, that's the only thing I did differently, and the game froze, so maybe there is a link.

Yay for SomethingAwful!

Now, if only these comments and every forum in the world was regulated like SA! =(

@Cruithne: Judging by our experiences the 'fragmented files' theory is probably another reason for crashes. I can't comment of the PSN, but it sounds like others have had their issue fixed by it.

I have done this to fix the freezing issues in NHL 08, which works as well.

This seems to work mostly for the people who get stuck at the loading screen. Supposedly it happens when the last thing you did was play online ( for a few people though).
But disabling PSN does help if your game shows that it's loading, but does not.

i actually had to do the same problem for MLB 07, one day it just stopped working whenever it was connected to the internet

@Cruithne:

I think that might be it. I've had no problems untill today after playing whilst downloading from the PS Store.

Eh, thanks. After 15 hours of smooth playing I suddenly got the same problem as all the others and now I can't even play without it freezing on the loading screen. Hopefully this will fix it. (haven't been able to get online play working anyway)

[kotaku.com]

... I guess it helps some. Not me.

Technically sound version my ass... :D (flame shield)

This does NOT work for me. I have disable the internet, unpluged the ethernet cord, turned off the router and even the modem and my game still freezes. IT SUCKS! lol oh well I've gotten pretty far playing only 10-20 mins at a time before it freezes.

Stuck on loading screen, quit out, disable Internet Connection, reload, loaded instantly.

It's definitely a problem with the game looking up multiplayer servers and it timing out as opposed to getting a response saying the server is down (because I've been able to play previously when multi is just not available,) so it keeps trying and gets stuck in a loop.

disabled connection and it seemed to fix the problem of endless loading screens and freezups in game.

hopefully it's a temporary work around.

@PSWii60-Fanboy: PS3 version, I must add.

The problem I had that started just today was that the game wouldn't load. It'd just get stuck at the intro and display the loading subtitle in the bottom right corner. Didn't freeze though.

Signing out of PSN solved it. Still, a stupid bug that should be ironed out ASAP.

@PSWii60-Fanboy:

More like consumer fanboy. Amirite?

This tends to work for the non-launch PS3's. This was tried on the launch PS3's when the problem was first encounted, and did nothing.

If you're getting a freeze once in a blue moon, its not the same thing as the big problem, namely, a majority of launch PS3 owners can't go more than 15 seconds before the game locks-up, without fail, every time.

If your game freezes after 3 hours of play, you are not being affected by the problem. That's just plain-old Rockstar system instability.

@Malvolio the Magician: I like to stay out of the console wars by fighting for all three sides! I'm like a mercenary except I spend money instead of make it.

I had my first freeze last night loading up a saved game. It would get past the introductory loading screens to the point where the text would indicate the save file being loaded and then.. then... nothing.

Several reboots later did not solve anything. Turning the power switch off on the system seems to rectify this at least last night, but we'll see if it continues.

What's humorous to me is that I grabbed the ps3 version simply because I am sick of stability issues with my 360 hardware.. (3rd one).

This Disabling doesn't work that gamespot put on their site. it still freezes on intro and if i skip the intro and pause the game to disable the flikering and auto save it freezes then also. now i wait for a patch.

@zeropoint.0: I don't know if 07 and 08 suffered the same problem, but yeah, I was getting lockups like crazy on MLB 08. I ended up switching from wireless to wired connections when I wanted to play online. The problem for me was that the connection kept dropping.

Developers: wait until people choose to enter multiplayer to start sniffing for connections, 'kay?

Ok wait, the GTA IV/system lockup issue was to do with the PS3? Bwahhahahaha! I'll concede that I wasn't really paying attention until I saw this article and most likely I'll be called a fanboy for this comment, but I can't resist. Now all the PS3 homies are getting a taste of what its like to have your system just stop working. Pardon me please, its the schadenfreude talking.

My game keeps freezing when I load for the first time. Though I would not really call it freezing since the loading text keeps flashing. I can exit the game, but it restarts(cuts controller off, have to login) the PS3, so it knows that the application is in a "Not Responding" state. I've never had it lock up during play or cut-scenes though. Seems to only happen 50% of the time. I have a 60GB PS3 that I bought after they dropped the price.

this is one trend i'd like to see go away...like...forever. games that ship broken, it's the goof of the industry. so rockstar had 1000 people working on this game and this problem got passed the play testers? or were take two so desperate for monies that they said "to hell with it" and shipped it busted? whatever the circumstances, it sucks. thank goodness for MGO beta...which ironically runs better than GTAIV and its not even a finished product.

@Jamo: Xbox 360 users are having similar issues. 1 out of 3 of my friends that have it for the 360 has this problem.

Well mne just started working again.
The fix of disabling the PSN seemed to work.
By the way, I've had my 360 for a year and have had no problems with that, so far.

I live in Finland and have the 40 GB Euro PS3. I got GTA IV yesterday and today it froze up during the initial loading screen. It did this two or three times. Now, however, I sign out of the PSN network before I fire up GTA and so far this seems to be working, I have had no further freeze ups so far today. Hope this gets patched though, bit of a pain in the ass to have to go offline before every game.

It works for me
damn
now i cant play multiplayer
THIS IS BULL

In a china shop (;

@Elderwulf: Hi, my console has been doing exactly the same as yours, freezing during the flashing loading text and then shutting down and re-starting when I try to exit the game. I have been taking my console off line by signing out of the PSN network before I fire up GTA, hope this helps, I have the 40 GB version so not sure if this will work with your 60 giga.

Ctrl+F "bork"
Text not found.
I grow sad.
Allow me: Bork bork bork!

Anyway, good to see there's a somewhat reliable temporary fix.

@Vileyaser: You said it, total BULL.

Good news if that is causing the problems. Then they could release a fix easily.

Basically to see SA you need 10bux =0

A friend of mine usng a PS3 for playing GTA did not survied the PS3 lockdown...so i told him this "fix". He told me it worked.

@Maldron: Did you unplug the cable?

I had the Intro Scene lockup on my four times in a row. I simply removed the game from my PS3, loaded another game (Guitar Hero III in this situation), quit the game, put GTA back in and it worked.

Well, I'd been wondering why I hadn't experienced this lockup. I guess I haven't had my PS3 plugged into the internet while playing yet. I live in a dorm, and we only have two internet cable sockets so my PS3 and computer share one depending on what's being used.

After 22 hours of play I finally experience one of the bugs which is when the save game wouldn't load. Disabling my internet connection solved it right away and now I'm back causing mayhem in Liberty City. This game is really good. The problem definitely lies with the game trying to access the internet during the game. I'm not sure why the game needs the internet other than when playing multi-player. Well, I'm not planning of playing the multi-player mode until I finish the story anyway so back to the game I go.

Mine just started locking up on me this morning. I get to the mission title loading stage and then nothing. I can play without an ethernet cable plugged in.

Attempting re-installation at this point. Seems like bad networking code.

I have a 60 gig PS3 and confirm, at least in my expierence, this method fixes up the lock up issue.

Hopefully they can fix this soon so I can check out the online function sooner than latter.

This totally does not help the people who cannot get past the intro cinematic / 5 seconds of gameplay (if they skip the cinematic). If you look at the 12 step fix that was posted, you will see this is a part of it. This does not help me play on my US Launch 20GB system.

I was about 30 hours into the game when I started receiving free/loading issues. Logging out of PSN did seem to fix it for me and I've put another six hours into the game since then.

I never experience the lockup and then suddenly it happened twice. I think it's caused when you have a background download going that destablizes it. Thats what I think happened with me.

Wow with all these problems I'm actualy glad i didn't buy this and don't really care about this game :/

After 0 hours of play, my xbox 360 version never froze on me so I win hahahah