Recently, there have been an abundance of threads started with "I have this problem. Why?" and nothing more. Without information of any kind, it would be hard to help at all. Often, people will ask questions to test others or just to put the word out to as many sources as possible and see who answers first. This activity will not only damage the performance of the boards for all of us, it will also water down the value of those who have real issues and are really interested in solving their problems. And so, I've locked such topics and invited them to repost them only when they are ready to provide whatever info is necessary. This will deter those previously mentioned and help to surface those that are genuine.
So rather than put everybody through such paces, I will instead make this pinned topic to outline what's expected. This should help calm any frustration one might feel in finding their topic locked "for no reason." First check the other topics here. After that, we need to know:
-Hardware: rarely important unless you're dealing with non-GTA related issues already happening on your PC. However, CPU speed, amount of RAM, and video card can be helpful.
-Software: we don't need to know which version of which drivers you're using (try to ensure they're current first). But Operating System (OS, as in Windows) and Direct X versions can make for a good start. Note that antivirus will always slow a machine down and should always be tried off first.
-History: is this your first install? Did it work once before? Anything that is relevant.
-Modifications: belong in Editing Discussion, not here. If you are using mods and having issues, install GTA3 in a different location and see if that unmodded version works. If so, your issue is in your mods. If not, you're welcome to post here.
Hopefully, this will clear things up. Any suggestions are welcome. Try to keep the spam out though.
Thank you.
This post has been edited by Demarest on Monday, Dec 29 2003, 15:10 
Grand Theft Auto III
