In free roam (100% completed save game) my game suddenly randomly freezes! (Issue stills UNRESOLVED in 2025, I gave up / ditched this game)

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Vladimir_Dimov

I having issue when my game suddenly freezes. I playing like normal in free roam and while I just fighting Zinyak after rob a Stores game just freezes and I have to close it with force! :( I have following mods installed:

Golden CID Stays in place + Disable Anti-Superpowers Grenade https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/golden-cid-stays-in-place.4794/;
No Notoriety https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/open-notoriety.3743/
Customize any vehicle plus wardrobe color changer https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/customize-any-vehicle-plus-wardrobe-color-changer.3217/ (I'm using Wardrobe color changer only though)
Extra clothing colors and extra makeup colors https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/extra-clothing-colors-and-extra-makeup-colors.3215/
Clothes Fixes + Extended Wardrobe https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum...aturing-the-latest-customization_items.13825/
Unlimited Super Powers Mod https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/unlimited-super-powers-mod.3437/

Any ideas if any of those mods are obsolete and are NOT 100% compatible with latest patch, so know to remove it and search for compatible equivalent? I cannot enjoy this game with those random freezes... I think the "No Notoriety" might be incompatible, but need help about other mods - are any of them obsolete too?

Edit: I've played again and while I had no issues during actual gameplay, when I wanted to exit the game, it just hung and I was forced to shutdown it through Windows' Task Manager. WHY this game is so much broken on my system?!? :mad: Saints Row Gat Out of Hell runs without single issue for now on my PC...

Edit at 03.27.2025:
Even after all those years, this game still suffering all those crashes / freezes, even after I had changed my PC! This game is just busted! Seems there's no fix basically and the issue itself might remains completely UNRESOLVED for me!
 
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My PC have following spec:

Dell Precision 3400
CPU Core 2 Quad 9450;
HDD 160 GB + 2 x 80 GB;
RAM 8 GB ECC;
DVD-RW
Nvidia GeForce 730 2 GB DDR5 64-bit (using driver ver. 347.52)

When I started to get the freezing, in graphic options I've was enabled following graphics:
Windowed mode - 1280 x 1024
Preset - Custom
Anti-aliasing - 2x MSAA
Filter Mode - Trilinear
Scene Detail - Medium
Lightning Detail - High
Shadow Detail - Low
Reflections - Low
Post processing detail - Off
Ambient Conclusion - Off

These settings has made the game started issues me. Then I've disabled the anti-aliasing (switching the option from MSAA 2x to Off) and enabled Anisotropic 2x instead. Freezing / Hanging stopped during gameplay with these new settings, but game started to stop working when I attempt to exit game after least 1 hour I've had played in.

Then decided to try this: I've set Filter Mode back to Trilinear without setting any Anti-aliasing in my game. Also I've had NVidia Experience running on my computer in background, so I've decide to uninstall it and try game without this running. Interesting, this time game was fine without any anti-aliasing and Filter mod active and without NVidia Experience running in background. I've robbed several shops in Virtual Steelport as well fighting Zinyak in the Restricted area Sierra Point, and the game did NOT froze or gave hanging or any other issues / glitches even with Steam Overlay and FPS counter enabled. But I think I might be able to finally play the game flawlessly.

I'm using one more mod I forgot to mention in my previous post - Homies to Super Homies- Genki Edition https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/homies-to-super-homies-genki-edition.5739/
 
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Vladimir_Dimov said:
I played a few times more and... Nope! With "Dynamic Time of Day" Workshop mod and "Customize any vehicle plus wardrobe color changer" removed game seems to freezes a lot less, but I still got game went unresponsive from nowhere twice! I really cannot play flawlessly this game with my current PC configuration. Appears Saints Row IV just can run normally only with integrated Intel HD Graphics and with AMD GPUs, but seems to hang or freezes pretty often with NVidia videocards! Also seems I'm not only one with this issue - on Steam Community forums almost all peoples (probably 95%) getting random freezes in their Saints Row IV like me are also using a NVidia card like my PC, but almost nobody with an integrated Intel HD Graphics or an AMD GPU is having such problems with the game. Someone from Steam is running the game with integrated Intel and he posted Saints Row IV in fact works fine with the Intel HD Graphics' drivers.

My conclusion: This game just DOES NOT WORK CORRECTLY on configurations with NVidia GPUs! The fact the game almost doesn't suffer similar issues on players with an AMD GPU, and fact even on crappy Intel HD Graphics it also works fine with almost NO random freezes / crashes clearly tells only one thing: Saints Row IV badly needs a PATCH for NVidia players! Please, Volition, fix that awful major issue... :(
Click to expand...
I have used all the mods you list without issues. However, I do not currently keep any mods that change/add or replace Homies.

I've been playing SRIV on two 660 GTX in SLI for 2 years...no issues with drivers...and I stay up to date with current, non-beta drivers.

Remember: modding a game is basically hacking the game to do what it was not meant to do at release. Also, remember, Workshop mods aren't fail-safe and could produce conflicts with mods that are installed manually. Also, if you watch the intro bink trailers when you start the game, you might notice AMD has its brand tucked in there.

All of that said, I can trace any and all freezes/CTDs/etc to something that I have done (by editing xtbl files myself), and soon after correct the issue by removing mods or my own edits (during mission play especially) and using hard saves (not auto-saves). Most of your thread here points to (from my experience with gaming and modding for 15 years or more) overheating, or component failure, or incomplete DX9 dynamic libraries. If you overclock, turn it down some...don't push the envelope too hard. Easy to test if it is overheating from videocard: get FurMark...stress test. Check memory for failures with MemTEST. Stable CPU overclocks can be tested with Prime95...if you don't freeze after an hour or two, should be stable enough for gaming. If you have a super paranoid security setup on your PC, you might let the game have some freedom...and Steam too, since you have to let the Steam talk to servers once in a while. Be sure you don't have "sync to cloud" enabled in Steam, this can inadvertently replace some mod assets with what you have on the cloud.

If the game were crashing and freezing for EVERYONE using nVidia products, there would have been patches during the release period-or the first two years the game was out, or possibly an nVidia driver release with highlights mentioning fixes to Saints Row IV...

The BEST way to find out what is causing your issue(s) is to remove all mods, play your 100% save for an hour or so and find out if issues arise without mods. Then install ONE MOD at a time, play for an hour or so...rinse and repeat until you find the culprit.

I played Oblivion with 130+GB of mods 256 plugins (the max), same with Skyrim, only far more textures so hitting at nearly 150GB OF MODS, full 256 plugins (max)...same with Neverwinter Nights...I currently have over 155 xtbl files in my SRIV directory, and both sr3city and game lua merged mods and still my SRIV game is stable...(unlike SRTT, which likes to freeze almost anytime there is melee and no matter if I have one "mod" (xtbl file) or more.) When it comes down to it, 99% of modding failure is due to end user error.

I wish you good luck finding your solution.
 
Vladimir_Dimov said:
... the Opera browser being opened .... However, appears Windows Firewall can also lead freeze / break the game if it is enabled...
Click to expand...

Never gotten a problem running any type of game under an AMD card, matter of fact I seem to like AMD cards. On another note, why try to run a game while having unnecessary programs running in the background anyway, it makes no sense. Speaking about Windows Firewall, I have it enabled all the time and still I have no problems!
 
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Since I had changed my PC in early 2024 to Dell Precision T3500 back (just the next Dell's model) with Xeon W3565, 16 GB RAM and HD Radeon 7800 Series with 2 GB VRAM - that's an AMD GPU, and Windows 10 Home, unlike my previous PC that had an GT 730 2 Gb that was an NVidia GPU and was running Windows 7.

I decided to try Saints Row IV again with its Workshop Legacy version due to the Re-Elected version still having pretty major issues. I played it on my current PC for a few hours times and BAM! - the game had just froze hard again twice! So, seems this issue isn't actually dependent to a specific GPU vendor or generation as I assumed.

Unfortunately, since at least the Workshop update, and especially since Re-Elected update back in 2022, now the game crashes on stores for some users on Steam when selecting a specific head or a clothing items, which means there's a VERY major ISSUE with some past DLC items being missing from Re-Elected but still listed in Shop's items list. Separately, both recent versions of Saints Row IV (Re-Elected and the Legacy-Workshop build) are still crashing randomly in both free roam and during missions. Unfortunately this major crashing issue might not never see any actual fix EVER, since Volition is gone and vanished in end of August 2023 and is out of business now. This game is just BUSTED! Actually even that Saints Row 2's awful PC port runs somehow with far less crashing issues than that BUSTED game!!!

I own also Saints Row The Third, Gat Out of Hell Saints Row IV's expansion, and since my new current PC I also got Saints Row 2022 Reboot on Steam in February 2024. Actually in freeroam, even the SR 2022 Reboot is working just fine for me (although for now I can only run its DirectX 11 version and I still have some minimal gameplay glitches) for lots of hours now with ZERO crashing issues, unlike that CRAP Saints Row IV's constant CRASHFEST. Beside this yesterday I also had installed and returned to SR Gat Out of Hell and that game also was running fine - NOT even a single CRASH there. I played also SR The Third a while ago, and - it also even with a lots of mods installed is running 100% fully stable with hours with basically NO single crash or an error, just like SR 2022 Reboot!

I am now officially done with Saints Row IV! I might install it again one more time to just delete/wipe my 100% saves hosted for this game on Steam Cloud and remove this game forever, because it's clearly in very BUSTED state now for several years already crashing so frequently for a lots of people now, especially with Re-Elected re-release with missing DLCs packs. I wish I could get back my wasted money I spent for this fundametaly broken "crash fest" game and trade it for something else on Steam that's actually working!
 
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