It has been a long wait for Grand Theft Auto V to come to PC. However, since the launch there are several problems and bugs that has prevented people from playing the game!
We have outlined some problems and the solutions/workarounds for them until Valve and Rockstar fixes these problems.
Windows Account Names
There is a bug when downloading the update for GTA V where it is left hanging or an error message saying “The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1)”. The main reason for this issue is that the Windows Account Name in which you are logged into has characters that are not found in the table of data which Rockstar has used. Here are the characters that are accepted:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
A fix has not been made yet by Rockstar and the only workaround is to create a new user account with administrator privileges. N.B. Editing your already made account will not work! Once the new account is made, simply restart your PC and log into the newly created Windows account and continue with the downloading.
If you have a problem with creating a new Windows account, you can follow these links which will help you for the Windows that you are using:
- Windows 8/8.1 click here
- Windows 7 click here
- Windows Vista click here
Corrupted Downloads
The pre-load for GTA V from Steam is averaged around 60GB, and being such a large file, it is understandable why a lot of people downloaded the game in advance ready for the launch. However to those who have already downloaded this is experiencing problems where the game will not unlock on Steam. Sometimes the gaming engine can verify files and sometimes correct the corrupted files.
Two workarounds can be made to fix this. Firstly, exit Steam and to completely make sure it is closed, go into Task Manager and End Process the program. Then open Steam back up and see if it works as some found that it did.
If this doesn’t work, the second step to do this:
- Right click on GTA V in Game Library on the Steam app
- Click on Locate Files tab
- Then click on Verify Game Cache
These should hopefully resolve this issue and unlock GTA V.
Unable to Detect Windows Media Player
GTA V PC requires Windows Media Player to be installed and enabled in order to play the game. If you receive an error with this problem, it can only mean you have not installed it or that you have disabled it.
You can enable/install Windows Media Player by:
- Open Control Panel
- Go to Programs
- Click on Windows Features On or Off
- On the new pop-up window, make sure Media Features is clicked on for this media player
This should enable/install Windows Media Player for you.
Rockstar Social Club
Many people can’t log into the Social Club with the some of the following error messages:
- 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
The only way to fix this is to re-install the program manually which you can get the file from here. However you have to make sure that GTA V is not running. Here are the following programs which you will need to close on Task Manager: GTA5.exe, PlayGTAV.exe, and GTAVLauncher.exe.
Once the download is done, right-click on the Social Club installation and select Run as Administrator.
Are There Any More Bugs?
We have highlighted the main issues that everyone is experiencing. If we have missed any or there are any other solutions for the issues mentioned, feel free to comment for everyone else to see!
