GTA 5 PC: launch day issues and how to fix them

With any major game launch, there's bound to be a few issues. Thankfully, in GTA 5's case, they are pretty easy to track and fix.

GTA 5 users on PC have reported a few issues that have prevented them from playing. Rockstar has in turn acknowledged them and has posted step-by-step solutions.

GTA 5 not installing or not playing due to strange characters in Windows username

Update: A fix for this bug is rolling out today, April 17.

If your Windows account name has some unusual characters or isn't based on the Latin alphabet, you're going to run into issues installing or playing the game. "The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1)" is one such error.

This could also cause the game to hang upon downloading a patch. Rockstar is working on a fix, but until that becomes available, you'll need to create (or switch to) a new Windows account with Administrative rights. Renaming your existing one won't work unfortunately. The full steps of how you can do that in Windows, as well as the list of supported characters are through the link.

The various Rockstar Social Club launcher errors

Rockstar's own Social Club launcher is responsible for a number of errors that show up when you try to run the game. Error messages such as: "Social Club failed to initialize," or "Social Club failed to load due to an incomplete installation. Please exit the game and re-install the latest version of the Social Club" to name a few. Rockstar suspects this is due to an incomplete installation of the service and recommends reinstalling it. Before you install it again, make sure GTA 5 is not running in the background - end the process through the Task Manager to be sure.

If that doesn't take care of it, there are a few other checks that you can do. Here's the full list. These are hardly GTA 5-specific and should be your first course of action when any game starts acting up.

GTA 5 for PC not launching with Steam - laptops

Some users are reporting issues with the game not launching in either singleplayer or online through Steam when playing on a laptop. Reddit user MustacheEmperor has posted the following workaround:

"Open device manager, go to display adapters, and disable your Nvidia device so only the Intel card is enabled," he said. "After launching the game, re-enable the Nvidia card quickly. The game will then work.

"Seems like there's a compatibility problem with mobile Nvidia cards."

Nvidia has released a new set of drivers to coincide with the game's launch. There may be a fix in there, so check the list of drivers or known issues. If applying a new driver does not work, use the above workaround until the issue can be resolved.

Losing saved vehicles in GTA Online when transferring from PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 to PC

If you transferred your GTA Online profile from either of the old-gen systems, but haven't played the online portion since December 2013, you may run into an issue where your GTA Online vehicles will not carry over. The only way to take care of this at the moment is to make sure you play GTA Online on either of the older consoles before transferring the date.

As soon as you leave Online and go back to story mode, an orange icon will appear on the bottom right of your screen. Once that icon is gone, it means that saving is finished and you can now transfer your character.

GTA 5 not installing because you don't have Windows Media Player

If you don't have Windows Media Player installed on your PC, you will get the "Unable to detect Windows Media Player on your system" error when installing GTA 5. To solve this, simply install the media player from the Windows Features menu under your Control Panel > Programs and Features.

A fix for the "Failed zlib call" error

If you get an error saying "ERR_GEN_ZLIB_2 Failed zlib call. Please reboot or reinstall the game" it means that some data files are corrupt. Try restarting the game first. If that doesn't cut it, you'll need to verify the install either via Steam, or through the game discs if you own the physical version.

If that too isn't working, uninstall it from your Control Panel > Programs and Features and reinstall from the discs or redownload from the Social Club activation page.

Incorrect pre-order bonus information in PC boxes

If you pre-ordered the physical version of GTA 5, it should come with bonus in-game cash. $1,200,000 to be exact, even if your insert says it's worth $1,000,000. That's because Rockstar has increased the value for all players. You will find GTA$500K in Story mode and GTA$700K in GTA Online when the code is redeemed.

GTA 5 command lines

The PC version supports a large number of command lines. You can add any of them to the "commandline.txt" file, which you'll find where you installed the game. You can also create it if it's not there. The list covers simple tweaks like borderless window, starting the game in safe mode or right into benchmark mode, frame-limiter, resolution and much more.

Here's the the full list.