Fallout 3's crashing problem

Has anyone found a good fix for Fallout 3's crashes? Looking around the web shows this to be a huge problem for the game.

The game started crashing on me about two weeks ago. I think I'm on level 9? At any rate upgrading my soundcard (X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro) and video card (ATI HD 4890 1GHz) has done nothing to stop the crashes. The upgrades were part of my system upgrade schedule and had nothing to do with the crashes, but I had hoped it would help....it hasn't.

I get no error codes or anything other than a hard crash - the game just quits where it is and I have to Ctrl+Alt+Delete to get out the game. I know it's not the video card because I don't have the dreaded "Display driver has stopped" issue. Also my other games, FEAR2, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and HL2 work just fine.

Any suggestions? I really like this game but....

Click "My System Spec's" to see my specs.

Have you updated Fallout 3 with the latest patch?
I did and it caused crashing no end, (it was fine before the patch).
If you have updated it try reinstalling to v1.0, or if you haven't try updating it.

I'm of the mindset that if it can be updated I will update. With that said, I had the latest patch until the 1.5 patch came out the other day, updated the game with it, crashing seems to have gone away - I was able to play for about two hours without a crash before quiting the game. Will do some more testing this weekend, but as of now, no more crashes with this new patch (yet?)

Fingers XXX

I'll have to check out the 1.5 patch as well.

I'm currently in contact with bethesda customer support over this very issue - intermittent hard crashes. they say to reduce the resolution to 1024x720 and quit ALL background programs - including anti-virus .

Please post your success/failure with the patch.

I think I solved my Problem ... :huh:


I did three things and it seems to have fixed my crashing problems...but...more on that in a minute - I patched the game, created a shortcut directly from the game's folder .exe file (no more having to insert disk to play), and cleared out my saves except the last 4 - This seems to have fixed my crashing issues. I've been playing for about 2 hours a session the last couple of nights without a single crash.

But...

I'm getting weird graphical errors now, It's not enough to be bothersome but it is noticeable - sometimes the green startup screen will fade in and out just at the right edge of the monitor.

I can live with that for the time being though because the game just runs so smooth now. And this is with everything maxed

Ah, yes, The no-cd. One's available for the 1.5 patch? (ps: yes, I have bought the game)

Anyway... the thing I found most helpful, actually, was to delete my many saves: I pared it down to 10 and that seems to have helped.

Haven't had any graphics glitches.. 'course I haven't applied the 1.5 patch yet either...

No, the new patch doesn't let you play without the DVD. That's why you create a shortcut from the game's .exe from the directory folder

At any rate I can play for hours and hours without a problem now.

Case closed.

Sorry to hear your game is still crashing. Did you install the lastest patch?

P.S.



Thanks :D

well, maybe it was me then.

Anyway, where's the 1.5 patch? Bethesda only has a 1.4 patch.

Hmmm....

Fallout 3 - 1.5 Patch

04.29.09 - New Update Available For Download

too many websites, too little time?
Bethesda Softworks

(and now it's current - it wasn't when I looked the other day)

:huh:


Anyways, thanks for the link.

I am donloading the patch now, will let you know how it goes.
I found turning off my network helped alot.

sygnus21 said:

Has anyone found a good fix for Fallout 3's crashes? Looking around the web shows this to be a huge problem for the game.

The game started crashing on me about two weeks ago. I think I'm on level 9? At any rate upgrading my soundcard (X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro) and video card (ATI HD 4890 1GHz) has done nothing to stop the crashes. The upgrades were part of my system upgrade schedule and had nothing to do with the crashes, but I had hoped it would help....it hasn't.

I get no error codes or anything other than a hard crash - the game just quits where it is and I have to Ctrl+Alt+Delete to get out the game. I know it's not the video card because I don't have the dreaded "Display driver has stopped" issue. Also my other games, FEAR2, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and HL2 work just fine.

Any suggestions? I really like this game but....

Click "My System Spec's" to see my specs.

Click to expand...

Sygnus~

First off, lets rule out one thing. Is your copy legit? Bought and Paid for. Not a Torrent Free Download? If it a illegally downloaded game, there's your answer.

Ok I'll assume you BOUGHT the Game. I have FO3 and have Never had an Issue with the Game, I bought it through Steam, they do their own Updates as you may or may not know.

Do you have a Steam account? If so add the Game to your Steam account and see if it runs correctly.

Second I'd say if the game is a LEGIT copy, retail. It's a Driver related issue.

Don't know much about ATI cards, or yours in particular, but the NV drivers with a GTX 200 Series card and the latest Drivers, it runs like a top. Smooth a silk. Also I use onboard sound, I don't buy Creative Labs Sound cards anymore, my Realtek Sound is off the Hook sweet. I'm running the latest Vista driver released in April, 2009 for it. Azulia Sound. (it's called or something like that) 7.1, 6.1 5.1 etc.

If your cards gettin to HOT, the game will crash, if your CPU gets to Hot the Game will Crash. If your OC'ing both this may be the issue. Then again your ATI card should be fine. They sell a gang of them. Cheap too.

The game is very sesitive to any apps running in the Back ground as well, try going inti MSCONFIG and un-checking all the stuff you have running at stst up, and see if
it runs, without crashing. Of course make sure all your drivers are up to date as well.

I'm sure you have done this but many folks do not.

Bottom line my Copy of FO3 is from Steam, runs from Steam, and no issues at all.
It's one of the smoothest games I have. Are you running any add-ons to the game?

That can be an issue as well. Hope this Helps.

Blue

One Last thing, your PSU, is a 550, how many amps on the 12volt rail I suggest 60amps to Run any New GFX card like yours. My Corsair is 60amps on the 12volt Rail and works flawlessly. I see from your specs you don't OC, so rule that out. Does your case have ample Vetalation? What is the ambient temp inside your case during a Gaming session? Same with your GFX card how hot does it get?? During a Gaming session??

I guess you do OC your CPU, did you increase your voltage as well? CPU. I run my E8400 Wolfedale 45nm CPU at 1.26 Volts. with an AC Freezer Pro. A hot CPU will crash the game. Same as a HOT GFX card. Is your memory Cooled?? this is a Good idea as well.

Is this your PSU:: http://shopping.msn.com/specs/antec...me:antec-neopower-neohe-550-550w-power-supply

I also Suggest a Single Rail not three way. When it come to a PSU, I don't suggest using a Energy Efficent Unit. For Gaming you need POWER.

Here it is at New Egg:: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103941

it has 18amps on X3 on the 12 volt Rail, so that would be 54 total, and your GFX card will not get all that Power.

Look at my PSU here:: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 60 amps Single rail.
Works Excellent!!

BlueMonster said:

Sygnus~

First off, lets rule out one thing. Is your copy legit? Bought and Paid for. Not a Torrent Free Download? If it a illegally downloaded game, there's your answer.

Ok I'll assume you BOUGHT the Game. I have FO3 and have Never had an Issue with the Game, I bought it through Steam, they do their own Updates as you may or may not know.

Do you have a Steam account? If so add the Game to your Steam account and see if it runs correctly.

Second I'd say if the game is a LEGIT copy, retail. It's a Driver related issue.

Don't know much about ATI cards, or yours in particular, but the NV drivers with a GTX 200 Series card and the latest Drivers, it runs like a top. Smooth a silk. Also I use onboard sound, I don't buy Creative Labs Sound cards anymore, my Realtek Sound is off the Hook sweet. I'm running the latest Vista driver released in April, 2009 for it. Azulia Sound. (it's called or something like that) 7.1, 6.1 5.1 etc.

If your cards gettin to HOT, the game will crash, if your CPU gets to Hot the Game will Crash. If your OC'ing both this may be the issue. Then again your ATI card should be fine. They sell a gang of them. Cheap too.

The game is very sesitive to any apps running in the Back ground as well, try going inti MSCONFIG and un-checking all the stuff you have running at stst up, and see if
it runs, without crashing. Of course make sure all your drivers are up to date as well.

I'm sure you have done this but many folks do not.

Bottom line my Copy of FO3 is from Steam, runs from Steam, and no issues at all.
It's one of the smoothest games I have. Are you running any add-ons to the game?

That can be an issue as well. Hope this Helps.

Click to expand...

BlueMonster thanks for the reply and suggestions, but...

1- I don't do pirated games! It is a retail bought game.

2- The constant crashes of the game is a known issue throughout the internet. In fact there are numerous suggestions for a fix, but no one fix seems to work for everyone.

3- I do have a steam account and "may" load the game on steam at a later date, but for the time being I'll keep it as is.

4- No overclocked or hot GPU here, moderate CPU overclock (from 2.4 to 2.9gig). System has been running like that since Jan 08. No issues there.

5- My ATI HD 4980 is comparable to Nvidia's GTX260/285 - Thank you :D. My soundcard is a X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro (PCI-E). This card is "highly" rated as well :D

6- I'm of the mindset that you shouldn't have to reconfigure MSCONFIG to get a game or any other app to run correctly, and thus I leave MSCONFIG as is. Also, the only background app I turn off during any gaming is my Anti-Virus scanner - That's it. I like to feel that my system can handle what I throw at it... without "special" tweaks. But that's me

6- And no, I'm not running any add-on mods.

At any rate as I stated earlier, my issues were fixed by...

sygnus21 said:

I think I solved my Problem ... :huh:

I did three things and it seems to have fixed my crashing problems...but...more on that in a minute - I patched the game, created a shortcut directly from the game's folder .exe file (no more having to insert disk to play), and cleared out my saves except the last 4 - This seems to have fixed my crashing issues. I've been playing for about 2 hours a session the last couple of nights without a single crash.

Click to expand...

I also no longer have graphical issues as well. The game now runs for hours on end without any issue.

Thanks.

sygnus21 said:

BlueMonster said:

Sygnus~

First off, lets rule out one thing. Is your copy legit? Bought and Paid for. Not a Torrent Free Download? If it a illegally downloaded game, there's your answer.

Ok I'll assume you BOUGHT the Game. I have FO3 and have Never had an Issue with the Game, I bought it through Steam, they do their own Updates as you may or may not know.

Do you have a Steam account? If so add the Game to your Steam account and see if it runs correctly.

Second I'd say if the game is a LEGIT copy, retail. It's a Driver related issue.

Don't know much about ATI cards, or yours in particular, but the NV drivers with a GTX 200 Series card and the latest Drivers, it runs like a top. Smooth a silk. Also I use onboard sound, I don't buy Creative Labs Sound cards anymore, my Realtek Sound is off the Hook sweet. I'm running the latest Vista driver released in April, 2009 for it. Azulia Sound. (it's called or something like that) 7.1, 6.1 5.1 etc.

If your cards gettin to HOT, the game will crash, if your CPU gets to Hot the Game will Crash. If your OC'ing both this may be the issue. Then again your ATI card should be fine. They sell a gang of them. Cheap too.

The game is very sesitive to any apps running in the Back ground as well, try going inti MSCONFIG and un-checking all the stuff you have running at stst up, and see if
it runs, without crashing. Of course make sure all your drivers are up to date as well.

I'm sure you have done this but many folks do not.

Bottom line my Copy of FO3 is from Steam, runs from Steam, and no issues at all.
It's one of the smoothest games I have. Are you running any add-ons to the game?

That can be an issue as well. Hope this Helps.

Click to expand...

BlueMonster thanks for the reply and suggestions, but...

1- I don't do pirated games! It is a retail bought game.

2- The constant crashes of the game is a known issue throughout the internet. In fact there are numerous suggestions for a fix, but no one fix seems to work for everyone.

3- I do have a steam account and "may" load the game on steam at a later date, but for the time being I'll keep it as is.

4- No overclocked or hot GPU here, moderate CPU overclock (from 2.4 to 2.9gig). System has been running like that since Jan 08. No issues there.

5- My ATI HD 4980 is comparable to Nvidia's GTX260/285 - Thank you :D. My soundcard is a X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro (PCI-E). This card is "highly" rated as well :D

6- I'm of the mindset that you shouldn't have to reconfigure MSCONFIG to get a game or any other app to run correctly, and thus I leave MSCONFIG as is. Also, the only background app I turn off during any gaming is my Anti-Virus scanner - That's it. I like to feel that my system can handle what I throw at it... without "special" tweaks. But that's me

6- And no, I'm not running any add-on mods.

At any rate as I stated earlier, my issues were fixed by...

sygnus21 said:

I think I solved my Problem ... :huh:

I did three things and it seems to have fixed my crashing problems...but...more on that in a minute - I patched the game, created a shortcut directly from the game's folder .exe file (no more having to insert disk to play), and cleared out my saves except the last 4 - This seems to have fixed my crashing issues. I've been playing for about 2 hours a session the last couple of nights without a single crash.

Click to expand...

I also no longer have graphical issues as well. The game now runs for hours on end without any issue.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Well that's what I get for not reading the entire post!! LOL!1 :D

Sorry about that, at any rate, I'm very happy you got your issue resolved.

I don't tun everything off in Msconfig either, but it's a Good way to troubleshot for sure.

Again Glad is is Fine and Good now!! I apologize for not reading it all.

Blue :eek:

I had no idea the Game constantly crashes though, as it never has here, so I have never read about the problem, all over the Internet.

Stalker was/is the same way, I have a Friend that had a HUGE Save folder and Sceenshot Folder, . His save game folder would cause Stalker to Crash a lot~

Once he Cleared it out, it ran fine.

I adore FO3, the Game is the Best, GOTY!!

BlueMonster said:

I apologize for not reading it all.

Blue :eek:

I had no idea the Game constantly crashes though, as it never has here, so I have never read about the problem, all over the Internet.

Stalker was/is the same way, I have a Friend that had a HUGE Save folder and Sceenshot Folder, . His save game folder would cause Stalker to Crash a lot~

Once he Cleared it out, it ran fine.

Click to expand...

LOL - It happens a lot, I even do it sometimes

As far as the game crashing, yeah it's been well documented. However, you make an interesting point about the amount of saves in the "save" folder. As I noted for one my fixes, I reduced the amount of save files in my folder and things seem to run well now. Unfortunately I can't tell if this was the fix that did it for me because I also patched the game with the newly released patch as well.

The "saves" issue might be worth looking into though.

I think paring the saves down helped the most. I ended my NIC tray icon and spybot resident. The other thing I don't let the game do is connect to the internet (which is why I was leery of disabling my AV and firewall). I played for three hours, without issue, just doing the above.

Installed the 1.5 patch yesterday and played for eight (hours)

So something in there worked.

update: In my case, it's definitely the number of saved games. I had another crash today but am fine one I deleted some more saves. Can't seem to have more'n 15-20.

Just an update...

I reinstalled my OS, which I needed to do anyway since I had other nagging issues. Anyway, I got Farcry installed and working, However I couldn't get the game to run on anything but the AMD 64 patch. Weird, but it runs and looks great, so I'll leave it as is.

Later

sygnus21 said:

Just an update...

I reinstalled my OS, which I needed to do anyway since I had other nagging issues. Anyway, I got Farcry installed and working, However I couldn't get the game to run on anything but the AMD 64 patch. Weird, but it runs and looks great, so I'll leave it as is.

Later

Click to expand...

Sygnus~

Cool!! Another thing I do, is everything I patch my games, I create a NEW short cut
for my Desktop, I have The Steam Version as well, and one of my Best Buds, does as well we both have pretty much the same system, though he has the GTX285SSC card.

But I have a Slightly newer Board, and my ram is 1066 vs 800. also my CPU is a 45nm Wolfedale E8400 runs stock @3GHz I've always run it @3.5.1 GHz, I'm sure I could push it further easy enough, but I see no need to. so it's just a 500MHz OC on my CPU, as far as my GFX card goes, if it lags in a game which is rare, I run it @ FTW Clocks and it works Great. But to be Honest I usually only need to clock it at 633 Core clock, or not at all.

What's my point?

The Steam version is Best. In short. IMHO. I used to by all my games retail, box, not Steam, but after using Steam for so long now, I find, generally speaking Steam Games run best. Never have to think about them, no disk to fiddle with, updates are applied automatically, Pretty Sweet I think.

I Love Steam, I play L4D all the time on-line with Steam servers run Great. Left For Dead is a Killer MP game!! Big Thanks to Steam and Valve for that game!! Totally Awesome Game.



Glad all is Good now, or close to it :D

Blue

BlueMonster said:

sygnus21 said:

Just an update...

I reinstalled my OS, which I needed to do anyway since I had other nagging issues. Anyway, I got Farcry installed and working, However I couldn't get the game to run on anything but the AMD 64 patch. Weird, but it runs and looks great, so I'll leave it as is.

Later

Click to expand...

Sygnus~

Cool!! Another thing I do, is everything I patch my games, I create a NEW short cut
for my Desktop, I have The Steam Version as well, and one of my Best Buds, does as well we both have pretty much the same system, though he has the GTX285SSC card.

But I have a Slightly newer Board, and my ram is 1066 vs 800. also my CPU is a 45nm Wolfedale E8400 runs stock @3GHz I've always run it @3.5.1 GHz, I'm sure I could push it further easy enough, but I see no need to. so it's just a 500MHz OC on my CPU, as far as my GFX card goes, if it lags in a game which is rare, I run it @ FTW Clocks and it works Great. But to be Honest I usually only need to clock it at 633 Core clock, or not at all.

What's my point?

The Steam version is Best. In short. IMHO. I used to by all my games retail, box, not Steam, but after using Steam for so long now, I find, generally speaking Steam Games run best. Never have to think about them, no disk to fiddle with, updates are applied automatically, Pretty Sweet I think.

I Love Steam, I play L4D all the time on-line with Steam servers run Great. Left For Dead is a Killer MP game!! Big Thanks to Steam and Valve for that game!! Totally Awesome Game.

Glad all is Good now, or close to it :D

Blue

Click to expand...

Errr....this was supposed to go to the far cry thread

Fallout 3 is working perfect here.

Sorry. I'll move it to the appropiate thread

PS...Steam is great...but I can't register Farcry there. See this link http://www.vistax64.com/gaming/227827-far-cry-2.html#post1046881, last paragraph.

Later