Fallout 3 crashes/freezes !?!???!!

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From what I understand, they have had a lot of problems with sound card drivers and cheap built in sound chips. Not sure what exactly the problem is but thats what a lot of people are reporting. If you haven't tried it yet, you might want to install new sound drivers.

They really should have cleaned up a lot of these bugs before shipping.
 
I originally was crashing every time I tried to start a new game.

I solved all my crashing issues by starting the computer in a "Clean Boot" mode, by disabling all but the original MS programs and processes that start when windows boots. I haven't had a single problem since, I just have to start in clean boot mode any time I want to play.

This should work for both Vista and XP.

I would highly recommend giving this a try. See this MS article on how to start with a clean boot: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796
 
I close out steam and save obsessively. I'll try updating my audio and chipset drivers probably later today.

Mine crashes probably once every 3 hours or so. Not terrible, but certainly not good either.
 
i just wanted to say that i completed the game. And after updating vga bios the freezes which occured completly disappeared.

I only had a couple of crashes exiting and one in game but these where different crashes. Not the ones i explained above. These crashes just gave me errors and i needed to re-enter the game after crashing to the dektop. These are mostly probably from the game itself and will be eliminated after patches for the game.

Great game.... take care everybody
 
Yup I got the same deal with the little squares on my 4870, it is definitely NOT the temperature of the card. I installed a temp monitor in the foreground and the temperature only goes up a few degrees at full settings. I think its some compatibility issue with vista/your video card/fallout 3. I decided to load up oblivion on my vista and I would get the EXACT same issues, random freezing with the little squares. Luckily however I downloaded the big patch they released for oblivion + an unofficial patch that fixes vista issues and tadah oblivion can run for days at a time if I want it to without any crashing/freezing. So unfortunately we'll probably have to wait for a major patch or even newer drivers (even though the last ones were just released a month ago).

And btw I loaded the game up on my dell xps laptop and tried to run it on xp and the game runs great albeit at lower settings than my PC but no crashes/freezing
 
never seen a crash with Fallout3. the little square problem it seems everyone who is saying they see that is running ATI cards. maybe the next catylist driver will have a fix in there for it.
 
hey whats up, I have been having terrible trouble with this game crashing every 10 or so sec. and just today I updated my graphics card driver to the 1-22-09 patch and the game plays perfectly no glitches no crashing. my specs

Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX+
Windows Vista 32bit
 
i had my first game crash to desktop yesterday. i had alot of crap running in the background so i will dismiss it from being a game issue unless it starts giving fits. played it an awful lot, beat it twice, went through as many side quests as possible so i can live with one crash that was probably my fault.
 
Just received fallout 3. I have an aging PC by most people's standards:

Gigabyte GA400Npro motherboard - At least 6 years old
Kept alive with AMD 3200+XP CPU - (That's one core - Barton for the w1n)
1 gig of corsair XMS v (overclocked) RAM
ATI X1950pro sapphire turbo doing all the hard work. Catalyst drivers 8. something from Nov 2008
Windows XP sp2 -
Nvidia on board sound card with some ancient drivers from 2004=]

Here's how I managed to get past my persistent Black screen then CTD.

Usually comp is pretty stable.
Last problem I had was with Gears Of War running at 2 fps. Gave up on it thinking it was my PC finally admitting graphical defeat and begging to be put to pasture to simply churn out word documents. Turns out one x1950 pro driver update later and it was fine on medium settings.

Anyway, Fallout 3:- Installed it, perched the little nodding figurine on desk, and flipped through instruction book whilst it installed. Clicked play.

- Black start-up screen - then :"Fallout 3 has had to close - sorry for the inconvenience" - again, and again and again.

Hit the forums and tried:

1) Patch - no joy
2) Completely clean driver install - latest 9.whatever catalyst drivers. - No joy
3) Looking for FFshow codec. Couldn't find it - I ended up uninstalling Community Codec Pack I had, and installing the k-lite codec pack, then disbling FFshow in the options - still no joy
4) Updated windows - There were a few critical things I hadn't installed, but none looked particularly relevent - none the less, did it. - No joy
5) Uninstalled games for windows - no joy
6) Tried the page file 'fix' (secretely knowing it wouldn't work) - No joy
7) Playing in windowed mode/compatability for other windows mode/disable visual themes mode/ tinkering with antialiasing etc etc - No F***ing joy.
8) Tried loading through the DVD, through the fallout 3.exe, tried defragging HD, disabling everything deemed 'possibly unnecessary', under and overclocking the RAM, CPU and GPU, disabling Norton, turning off t'internet- Still wouldn't show anything apart from black screen then CTD

Then thought I'd just uninstall games for windows again - did this
Tried to uninstall fallout 3. - No icon in add/remove programs - possibly caused by deleting games for windows first?
Ended up just deleting the fallout 3 folder.
Used DVD launcher and clicked play again. It started to re install.
Saw one forum tip that said open up DXDIAG in run menu and turn hardware acceleration for sound to minimum - Did this.
Didn't install the patch.
Reboot of comp. Now it starts and runs on medium settings with not one glitch. Bizarre.

So:
Latest catalyst drivers (clean install++),
Uninstall of games for Windows Live (previously there from Gears of War)
Hardware acceleration for sound set to minimum,
Not patched.

Good luck. Hope this has helped someone.

Dave
 
My "fix" was suing for my money back on the grounds the game was defective, and Bethdesia broke federal law for not giving back a cash refund for a defective product.

I'm $60 richer after the first judge refused to throw out the case. Guess they didn't want to risk being liable for their code...Gotta love the legal system!
 
So a fix for me, though not a very satisfying one, is to reinstall your graphics drivers every time the game crashes. It clears up my problems for about a day, and then I have to go and reinstall it again. It always seems to work... Another note is it usually only crashes on the large world spaces such as the wasteland but never in any towns....
 


I have 100% the EXACT same problem - same graphics card but i have 4GB of ram and a quad core cpu so its not your spec.

The game has been running with only a single crash in the ladt 6 days and since about 1am last night i have had over 20 crashes, ive given up now load of bolox it is.

And the worst part is i am in doors (tenpenny estate) so i know its not a problem with the visuals. ive goggled and read many web pages and no help.

i might follow the above posters suggestion and sue for my money back (but i will also have to sue for the time ive wasted looking for a solution) and the best part of it all is i love in Ireland and it will cost them a fair bit sending a lawyer over here over such a small amount, im sure if EVERY gamer who had problems sued the cost would be so high to companies they would not release products until they are finished.

Do you all remember when game companies actually released finished products? i still haven't completed mass effect because of crashing problems with the game (crashes every 10-15 min)

10 or 15 years ago i never had any problems with any of the games i bought they all worked like a dream. Id happily sacrifice "modern graphics" for a game that actually works
 
I found the fix for one of the freezing problems and it worked for me.

I had played Fallout 3 in the last few weeks and had no problem.

I recently did a clean vista install and also added a new video card. A 1GB 4870 Sapphire.

I started playing F3 and it started crashing. sometimes within five minutes,s ometimes within 15.

So I started looking all over the web for a solution. I did the fddshow trick, the bios problem was only with the 512mb versions of the Sapphire 4870.

Then I found the following link.

http://www.pdsys.org/blog/post/2009/02/07/Fallout-3-VideoDisplay-Freezes-sound-keeps-going.aspx

Turns out the patch for 1.1 breaks quad core support. The game can't handle 4 cores anymore. So if you have a quad core pc and you install the latest patch the game will start crashing. There are instructions on how to fix this.

Open up the fallout.ini file in: My Documents\My Games\Fallout3
Find the line:

bUseThreadedAI=0

change it to:

bUseThreadedAI=1

Add another line after it and insert:

iNumHWThreads=2

This will limit the game to 2 cores and prevent the engine bug from causing the game to freeze.

I tried this and it worked for me. And I have a quad core pc. Also, I didn't have freezing issues before the patch. Only after the patch. I thought the culprit was my new graphics card but this was my problem. After I made the fix, I played two hours without freezing.

So give this a try. It MAY fix your problem.
 
Like Jay064, I set my virtual memory(page file) to minimum of 2MB and game freezing stoped. Good work. But my RAM is 2GB, I don't sugest doing that if you have less then 2GB.
 
I'm very hopeful for Admiral Ackbar's suggested fix. Here's my old setup, with which I had absolutely NO PROBLEMS with Fallout 3:
AMD Athlon X2 64 5600+ 2.9Ghz dual core CPU
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe mobo
4GB Corsair DDR2 800 RAM
2x XFX Geforce 8800GTS (G92) in SLI mode
Windows 7 Beta, 64-bit

Again, NO PROBLEMS with this setup

With the new setup (listed below) I am able to start the game, load my saves, and when I stand in one place everything is great. Once I start moving around, about 30 seconds later the game freezes and I have to open Task Manager to close out. I have not been able to play since changing my equipment:

AMD Phenom II 940 Deneb 3.0Ghz quad-core CPU
ASUS Crosshair II formula mobo
4GB Corsair DDR2 800 RAM (same as before)
2x XFX Geforce 8800GTS (G92) in SLI mode (same as last time)
Windows 7 beta, 64-bit

Besides the different hardware, I updated fallout 3 to the latest update.
Neither of the setups were overclocked; everything was running at factory settings.
I will try Ackbar's resolution tonight and reply back if it worked or not. I hope my setup can help some other people that might be seeing this same problem.

[EDIT]
preliminary tests are good. I was able to load my saved game (before you go into the final building to beat the game) and the game ran flawlessly with no crashing. I will play some more to be safe, but it looks like ackbar's resolution fixed my crashing issue!

[EDIT]
...Nevermind. After sitting down for some real play time on it today, I'm back to square one. Game crashed just minutes after fast-traveling to another area. Same thing each time, about 2 minutes into the game....freakin bugs!!
 
hey guys im trying to run fallout 3 on my laptop the thing it works fine sometimes and then it starts to crash as soon as i load it leaves small boxes on the screen which remain even after i close fallout

spec: 2.0GHz 3Gb RAM 256mb nvidia 9200 video card
 
Damn, so many solutions and no one works for me

My computer runs on XP
Intel Pentium Dual CPU T3400 2.16 GHz
3,00 Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS

The Game crashes when entering certain areas or talking to certain NPC's, for exemple, the pimp suited guy in Megatron inside the bar.

And most of the times te game crashes to the desktop randomly.
I restart the game and try to load the last save, and as soon as it's done it crashes again.

Ten i need to load an older save to keep playing, and sometimes it crashes in the same area it crashed before....

Can anyone help??...
 
I just downloaded and installed patch 1.6, and I was able to run around this morning for about 10 minutes before work without any problems. I warped around to a couple places, got in some fights, jumped in and out of buildings, etc, etc.....Basically did anything that was causing it to freeze and crash before. I'll play some more this weekend and update accordingly.

Please see post (a couple up) for hardware specs if you need 'em

UPDATE (from a couple weeks ago): I booted up Fallout 3 and played all morning long! NO issues whatsoever. NO crashing, NO freezing, nothing. I did everything that I could think of that was causing issues before, and I was able to breeze though with no problems. I'd have to say that patch 1.6 fixed my issues!
 
for me its even worse than feezing up for 20 minutes i was currently working on the quest stealing independence and i had just got the ink and was returning to Button Gwingett and now every time forte psat 2 months when it is loading it freezes!!!!!! Does anyone know what to do?
 


Anyone with a Quad-Core Processor and the 1.7 update installed, who experiences semi-random in-game freezes and stuttering while opening the Pip-Boy 3000 or V.A.T.S. should try this tweak. I tried to ignore the crashes at first, but when I got to the Abandoned House inside Tranquility Lane, the game became virtually unplayable for me. It crashed every few seconds after I loaded my save game. Admiral Ackbar, I can't thank you enough. You really saved my ass out there! *You have gained Karma* ^_^"
 
Fajita3053:

My Fallout 3.... the effin video freezes randomly, but the sound still works. I have to close it with task manager. No fukin clue.

My specs:
2 Intel Xeon 3.6ghZ HT
6 GB DDR2
ATI Radeon HD 4870
Windows 7 Ultimate

Any help is greatly appreicated
 
My fallout 3 doesn't crash but the game will freeze randomly from 30 to 45 seconds
it freeze's often
tried all the fixes in here no dice
if bethesda could build me a machine that could play this i'd buy it but i bet they can't

specs
intel 9550 quad
8 gigs of ram
ati 4870x2
windows vista 64
 
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