Csdrhrt

The FAQ of GTA IV tells me to turn off Windows Event Log in msconfig. This will handle the game more efficiently. And it does!

But turning off windows processes always worries me. So therefore: After playing GTA IV. Should I turn on Windows Event Log again?

If so: What does it do?

If not: Why is it booted by windows in the first place?

I find it surprising and shocking that Rockstar would actually recommend disabling the Event Log. It’s not just some extraneous service that most people don’t use, it’s a required service that Windows expects to be running, and frankly I would be surprised if you don’t get a crash at some point if it is disabled. (It’s like trying to run Windows with the RPC service disabled: you might be able to do it for a bit, but expect a BSOD soon.)

Besides, the Event Log does not normally cause any sort of performance problem whatsoever (it is normally idle unless a relevant event has been generated), so if GTA IV actually gets bogged down when it’s running, then the problem is either due to a bad audio or video driver, in which case you should update it to alleviate the problem, or else the issue is that the game has a bug that is causing many (read thousands of events per seconds) to get written to the log. In that case, they should fix the bug rather than recommend users compromise the integrity of their systems to accommodate their sloppy programming.

From the FAQ, it sounds like either GTA IV is not compatible with Win64 (in which case it is incumbent on Rockstar to fix—and I would be surprised if they couldn’t since they updated GTA 1 and 2 to run well on XP), or else it is an input driver or software that is causing something to be displayed on screen whenever you press a key (eg an OSD, hence the flashes). See if there is an updated keyboard driver available or check your keyboard manufacturer’s FAQs or forums for mentions of this issue. Also see if there is some sort of keyboard program (eg MS Intellipoint, Logitech iTouch) running and either quit it or disable the OSD.

Yes, you should turn it back on. It is a vital piece of the operating system. If you need a performance boost, I would suggest an upgraded video card, more RAM, or a completely new computer.

The following information was found at this wiki page. The following is a quote from that page.

This service manages events and event
logs. It supports logging events,
querying events, subscribing to
events, archiving event logs, and
managing event metadata. It can
display events in both XML and plain
text format. Stopping this service may
compromise security and reliability of
the system.

I thought knowing the type of logs would be helpful to you, so I found this page. The following is a quote from that page.

Three types of logs are recorded:
Application, System, and Security. All
users can view Application and System
logs; only administrators can access
Security logs.

Application log
The Application log contains events logged by applications or
programs. For example, a database
program might record a file error in
the Application log. The program
developer decides which events to
record.

System log
The System log contains events logged by the Windows 2000 system
components. For example, the failure
of a driver or other system component
to load during startup is recorded in
the System log. The event types logged
by system components are predetermined
by Windows 2000.

Security log

The Security log can record security
events such as valid and invalid logon
attempts as well as events related to
resource use such as creating,
opening, or deleting files. An
administrator can specify what events
are recorded in the Security log.

If you need anymore help, let me know.

It is indeed a critical service - required for other services like 'Task Scheduler' to work. It has been optimized to take up minimal resources. You can however reduce its 'priority' to an even lower state; fix the sources of some of the Error Event generating programs and lastly clear the event log with the following command in a Command Prompt:

for /F "tokens=*" %1 in ('wevtutil.exe el') DO wevtutil.exe cl "%1"

You may also set up a scheduled task to clear the logs periodically.

I believe that clearing the logs does result in some kind of performance increase.

I had this problem but updated GTA to the latest official patch 1.0.7 and its running fine now. You can find the patch here.