Fallout 3 will not let me play for more than 2 minutes without CTD and giving me the "Fallout 3 has stopped working" message. The game ran fine when running version 1.0, then ran fine after installing all the DLCs, which patches to 1.7, aslong as i didnt alt-tab. So the CTDs only started happening after hiring all 8 companion through using the bug where you kill Dogmeat's Puppy. Is it really possible that having too many companions can casue instability? Also before i could play without a hiccup with 4 companions hired (also through bug) with the 1.0 and 1.7 version.

UPDATE: I tried reducing the amount of companions as this seemed to be the issue and can reveal that playing with only 6 ( fired cross and fawkes) has been crash free for 15 mins so far. Woo Hoo!

UPDATE: Tried rehiring Cross and still running stable so it seems that having Fawkes and 7 other companions was causing the instabilty, but is fine with every companion hired except Fawkes.