Saints Row IV Solution for Permanent In-Game Freezing

I wish to describe how the bug happens. First off, your playing the game, then you do something, for example, running, or shooting your gun in game, then BLAM! Your game is frozen up. No matter how long you wait, it won’t do anything. So the only way to fix it is to use your task manager.

WARNING: Using mods may make the game worse freeze than it already is. If your going to use a certain mod, please be aware of this. I only played one game with the other person playing mods and it did crash me a couple times. Also, be aware if you connect to someone else using mods, and you yourself are using mods, this could lead to even more problems. MY suggestion is to not use mods, unless you really want to to keep the game as stable as possible.

Workshop mods on steam are a bit safer, but they can still cause crashing too. Just be aware of these issues before using my method to stabalize your game.

Some MAJOR WARNING:

Having used workshop downloads, me and my friend tested them and they WILL disconnect you from any co-op friends you have. If you want to play the story missions with full co-op, do not use workshop downloads. My friend and I also got the santified achievement using this method. We also finished the final mission together without problems. Please read below to see how.

This method explains how to fix the game with the permanent freeze, but you will lose some performance with the game. This is guaranteed to happen, but in my personal opinion, i can live with a little performance issues than not having a stable game. This made my game stable, and i hope it fixes the issue with other people having the same problem out there that love this game, but are having this particular problem with the game. For the love of the game, I will sacrifice what is needed, in this case, performance.

In order to fix the freezing issue, i recommend the following things to do:

#1. Make sure to put your game in compatibility mode. My game is set for Windows xp (sp2).

#2. Make sure your graphics settings are all low, or at default by the game scanning your pc. The higher they are, the more possible for minor freezing issues, even with my method.

#3. Turn off steam overlay. This prevents crashing, which is what happened before my game freezed up. If you can get the freezing issue fixed with the below section, feel free to turn it back on.

#4. You, the readers, need to understand, this method may not work for everyone. I really hope it does, but I cannot guarantee it will. Like all of you, im just a gamer. My friend really helped me fix my game, so hopefully the valuable information i learned from fixing my game can help other gamers out there..

NOTE: This method may or may not work for you. As all computers are different, this may have different results than intended. Be aware the first time i did this myself, the game crashed. You may have to select different processors for it to work also. As stated, this method is not for everyone. If your having only small freezes in the game then it continues, this method is not for you. Some images on here were fixed to prevent private information being released.

SPECIAL WARNING: This method only works with Windows 10. I do not know how to do this on older OS (Operating Systems) so please be aware of this! ALSO..you need to do this everytime to make it work!

Ok, so your tired of this game annoyingly permanent freezing on you? Here is how to solve it:

#1. Start saints row 4 and wait till the menu loads up.

#2. Alt-tab out of the game and start the task manager.
NOTE: If you don’t know how to open task manager, right click the windows button, then select task manager off the menu that pops up. You can also press “control, Alt, escape” to access the task manager also.

#3. In the task manager, under processes, saints row 4 exe should be shown under APPS. Right click on it, and select “go to details”.
NOTE: If you don’t see APPS under Process, click the name button in top left to organize the list of names on your task manager.

#4. When your under details tab, it should take you to the saints row 4 exe under details. Then right click on saints row 4. Select “set affinity”.

#5. A small screen should show up saying “processor affinity”. Uncheck all of the processors on this screen. Now select 2 processors. You may have to experiment with two different ones because the first time i did this, it crashed my game. Pick two different processors..for example, 1 and 3. ONLY PICK two different ones.

#6. Click ok at the bottom and go back into the saints row 4 game. Start your game up.

NOTE: The higher graphic settings you have, the possibility that small freezes will still occur. MY suggestion is to keep your graphic settings low. Also, you can turn on steam overlay as this does not crash the game when this method is used. The other thing to remember is you need to do this everytime you decide to play the game, so if you only do it once, it won’t work. You need to setup the game like this everytime you start the game!

One other thing. Do not use launcher command: -CPUCount:2. You might be tempted to use this shortcut, but this method does not discriminate which 2 cores(processors) you will use for the game. This may cause your game to crash! It is better off picking specific ones to use when you start your game.

In short, yes. My friend and I personally just played for 4 hours straight without crashes, without issues. Nothing happened except a enjoyable experience. This method really works good. Anyways, have fun with co-op. It is peer to peer system so it is quite fun to play co-op without bugs. Enjoy! See ya in the game!

NOTE: If your using a clothing mod, make sure both you and your friend have the same one. If you don’t, it will actually cause the first mission to be bugged and crash…noticeably after getting the gun usually from the gun shop.

According to the saints row 4 forum stickeyed messeges, the last mission is actually bugged for co-op. It is possible to play the last mission on co-op without disconnection issues. This is what me and my friend did:

#1. We made sure not to have any workshop downloads.
#2. We watched all cut-scenes fully. We did not skip any of them. One theory i have is skipping cut-scenes can cause the game to disconnect between co-op partners.
#3. We made sure we did not have any mods on.

Using these tips, we finally got the co-op achievement.