Fallout 3 and Skyrim Launcher Resolution Drop Menu Empty

jnelsonj

Prominent
Aug 9, 2017
3
0
510
Before I start with my problem, I have gotten Fallout 3 to work on this PC before. Auto detect set my graphics settings to Ultra High. I have uninstalled it since (this was about a year ago that I last played this game.) Upon re-installation I am beset with this error. I ended up giving up and decided to play Skyrim instead. But I got the same issues! Resolution drop menu totally blank, and similar if not exactly the same error messages when I try and click, "Play." It was at this point I decided I must have some sort of hardware issue and completely reset the C drive of my PC. (I have a separate drive, which does not have the OS on it.) And even after that, this is still an issue.
So, here is my problem.

When I open the Fallout 3 Launcher, it will pop up with a box that says,
"Fallout 3 will now detect your video hardware and set video options accordingly."
I click OK on the box, and Fallout 3 Launcher crashes, windows tries to solve the problem, but ends up leaving me with a box that says, "Close Program."
If I reopen the Launcher, it will not pop up with auto-detect. I tried clicking, "PLAY," but i get a pop up that says,
"Failed to initiate renderer. Your display doesn't support the selected resolution. Please set resolution in Fallout 3's Launcher under, 'Display settings."
So I reopen the Launcher. If I click "OPTIONS," the resolution drop menu box is empty. I can click, "windowed mode" and resolutions appear. I click OK, and press PLAY, but I get the same pop up notification, except this time it says,
"Failed to initiate renderer. Windowed mode not supported on this Adapter."
Basically the big problem is that the resolution drop menu is empty for full screen mode. If I was able to click any resolution I am confident the rest of the game would run smoothly. As for playing windowed mode, I wouldn't mind, but that won't seem to fly either.

I have searched through many forums for a solution to this problem to no avail. Some suggestions were:

1 Have your graphics driver fully updated - mine said it had the latest already.
2 Roll back graphics driver - my option to do this was greyed out.
3 Manually edit ini file to set resolution to what windows is already set to, in my case 1360 x 768 - same crash errors when I click PLAY in Launcher, resolution drop menu empty in Options.
4 Delete ini file so it is rewritten - causes auto-detect to initiate when I open Launcher, and Launcher crashes.
5 Reinstall the game - no changes.
6 Manually uninstall graphics driver, and windows, upon reboot, will automatically reinstall it - no changes.
7 Download a dll file to trick Launcher into thinking you have an NVidia graphics driver (I forget the exact specifics of this workaround...) - resolution drop menu still blank.
8 Run Fallout.exe with compatibility mode checked - tried various modes, vista, windows 7, windows xp, and no change. Tried running the launcher under a compatibility mode as well, no change.

Not suggested in any forums, I've tried opening Options and clicking "Default" in the "Detail" section, which initiated auto detect, and the Launcher crashes.

It was at this point I decided to give up and start playing Skyrim instead, which was already installed and had worked perfectly fine the last time I played it, maybe 6 months prior. Launcher opens. I click Play and I get the failed to initiate error. Reopen Launcher and go into OPTIONS and my resolution drop menu is blank here too...
It was at this point I decided I must have some sort of driver/hardware issue, so I reset the C drive on my PC. After a long reboot, I have reinstalled Fallout 3 and am still stuck with this problem... Please help.

P.S
As a note, the only difference I can think of between playing before when it all worked, and now that it does not, is that I am using a VGA cord to connect to my monitor/t.v. My HDMI cord broke, and I haven't gotten a new one yet... But I can't imagine that is the source of this issue. Although I do want to share any information that may be relevant. Since this seems to be some sort of a display issue, I thought to share about my HDMI cords demise, and the use of the ancient VGA cord.... Long live VGA?

I think not.


Here are my specs.

Windows 10
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD A10-7800 Radeon R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G, 3500 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 12.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 10.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 7.27 GB
Total Virtual Memory 13.2 GB
Available Virtual Memory 9.75 GB
Page File Space 2.25 GB
Display Adapter AMD Radeon(TM) R7 Graphics
 
Solution
First thing, something you didn't mention trying was reinstalling your DirectX. It might be worth a shot.

Being that the resolution options are missing, it sounds like the registry for those games is missing. While the ini files do generally hold this information, it can also be stored in the registry. When you reinstalled windows on the new computer, it didn't transfer the registry entries over and because you didn't reinstall the games, the registry entries wouldn't have been created. So, if the launcher/game are looking to the registry for the information, it wouldn't find it and error out. Verifying Game Cache in Steam should fix this problem (if it's installed through Steam).

When the game crashes, if the Windows Debug...

Reepime

Prominent
Aug 8, 2017
126
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710
First thing, something you didn't mention trying was reinstalling your DirectX. It might be worth a shot.

Being that the resolution options are missing, it sounds like the registry for those games is missing. While the ini files do generally hold this information, it can also be stored in the registry. When you reinstalled windows on the new computer, it didn't transfer the registry entries over and because you didn't reinstall the games, the registry entries wouldn't have been created. So, if the launcher/game are looking to the registry for the information, it wouldn't find it and error out. Verifying Game Cache in Steam should fix this problem (if it's installed through Steam).

When the game crashes, if the Windows Debug screen comes up, then Windows has created an entry for it in the Event Viewer under the Application section. Reviewing the log could point you to what specifically is crashing. Most likely though, if there is no resolution appearing in the options and it's telling you unsupported resolution, then there's either a mis-configuration in the launcher/program or a problem with the driver installation. While you may have the latest drivers installed, be sure you have all the drivers installed (sometimes with AMD installing the chipset will install some of the GPU drivers but not the Radeon Settings). I'd recommend going to AMD.com/drivers and allowing the automatic detect run to see if everything is found or just manually download the drivers for your system. If you want to try the "Roll Back" option, even though it's grayed out, download an older driver version from AMD's website and install those.
 
Solution

SBMfromLA

Distinguished
I may have caught something:

6 Manually uninstall graphics driver, and windows, upon reboot, will automatically reinstall it - no changes.

Windows will only install the basic version of your driver.. just to get things up and running. You need to download the driver yourself and manually install it.
 

jnelsonj

Prominent
Aug 9, 2017
3
0
510
Let this be a reply to both Reepime and SBMfromLA
Thank you both !!
I did all of the things you suggested shy of the Steam related fixes, as I do not play Fallout 3 via Steam application.
I did not completely uninstall DirectX, but I did make sure it was fully updated, and downloaded necessary files for it. I then skipped viewing Window's Event Viewers logs, deciding to download the latest AMD driver software for my graphics card first. After installation and reboot, I skewed through the Event Viewer, and realized that it is a huge list. My firs thought was to run Launcher to get the error, so I would know the exact time the error would be logged into Event Viewer. So, I deleted the ini files that had been written last time by the Launcher and opened it expecting a crash after auto-detect initiated, and voila, graphics set to Ultra High!
Awesome, game runs fine, thank you both again.