Hello everyone,

for my surprise, the game ran perfectly well for the first hour and then started crashing to desktop everytime I approached the Super Duper Mart (or what ever its name is ). On the best attempt so far I actually reached the backside of the building and then the game crashed, on numerous other occasions the game crashed way earlier (I managed to shoot the dog that's running around the area and from that point onwards just a few seconds moving towards the buildung made the game crash).
I then read about several possible fixes like leaving your keybindings at standard which actually solved nothing. Finally, after reading about the possible codec problem, I used Codec Sniper to check if some codecs were broken, but they were all fine. Since I was using an old version of ffdshow, I decided to update it anyway because on my version I could not make exceptions for whether using ffdshow in a certain application or not. I got the latest version from here -> http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941&package_id=199416 , it was just released yesterday. That alone allowed me to actually go round the building, finding the entrance of the Super Duper Mart, note that I still have not added fallout3.exe to the exceptions lists. That was a major step forward for me since I can assure that this was no coincident because I never managed to get that far with the old version and I always get that far with the new version. Unfortunately, the game still crashs when entering the Mart after I added fallout3.exe as a exception in ffdshow. Which means I am free the run around the world but I cannot enter a building

That information does actually barely help us I guess but I thought I will let you know anyway.

Greets

Disabled my AC3 codec and signficantly reduced my freezes (am runnning a Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIE). Still get distorted radio music (unless I use Alchemy, which causes constant freezing).

Just used the "Reset Codec" utility and now Fallout crashes after two slides of the intro. Maybe I should have just been happy the game was crashing in Tranquility Lane.

BTW My original crash bug was something with something called "l3Codecx"

But anyway I had the same problem as you after running the reset utility but my guess is that the reset utility just doesn't support XP Home SP3. Anyway even after restoring my registry I still couldn't even get to the main menu any more.

So, I started uninstalling codecs...

First CCCP (combined community codec pack) - game still wont run
then a couple others including FDDshow - still no joy
finally uninstalled TVersity Media Server - joy, i can run game. hasn't crashed yet but it's early days.

Wish me luck, I had this problem with Oblivion as well but eventually gave up on it. But from reading through the sites linked from the OP it looks like we customers are going to have to figure out how to fix it for ourselves, apparently this has been an issue for Bethesda customers since their ~2001 game "Morrowind" so, it will probably never be fixed by a Bethesda patch.

it was crackling and stuff even when I then slept and still had the issue to try and let it update so I thought that was odd but I hadnt noticed it in the radio station since I wasnt paying attention so I couldnt tell you but oh well I'll listen next time I'm there and see whats what.

finally uninstalled TVersity Media Server - joy, i can run game. hasn't crashed yet but it's early days.

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TVersity uses FFDShow ... did you uninstall that beforehand?

Ok here is a surprise: Disabling ALL codecs on my system, apart from the two the game obviously needs (MPEG-I Stream Splitter and MPEG Layer-3 Decoder) has virtually no effect, I managed to enter the Mart now, but rather then crashing when I try to enter it, it now crashed right after the new level is loaded, so the overall effect is nearly zero, sadly. That might lead us to a point where we have to admit that it can't be a problem with codecs alone.

Thank you for trying. I appreciate you are between a rock and a hard place - or a shoddy piece of programing and panic.
I have no idea what you are talking about, I am afraid, and I am frankly too much of a techno-idiot to do all the things you suggest. (I have messed up too many PC's in the past by inadvertantly following helpful suggestions for buggy progs.)
Face it, the only solution is a patch. I bought the product and expect it to work. It is not my job to fix it. I don't have the skills.
So please fix it so I can at least watch the intro video.
Thankyou.

I thought it was intentional as well until I heard the radio on the 360 version. But yeah, it sounds great without the crackling/popping.

Ok, now try installing K-Lite, and do the FFDshow tweak. See if it works then.

If not, could try some things others have discovered in the link in my sig. Lets hope something works for you.

Well, I can confirm that Creative Media Source 5 may be causing radio sound issues for some.

It was quite by accident I found it. I decided to see if there where any updates for my E-Gamer, and when I saw the top criticals, I just hit update. Forgetting it always wants to install MS5. So I figured I'd take the opportunity to test, and sure enough, my radio was 'wobbly'.

So I uninstalled MS5, and the radio was fine again.

wow, that totally worked for me. Cheers!

XP 32

My system has a Realtek HD audio built in sound card with Vista64 ultimate and this worked for me as well in removing the pops and skips with the radio on the pip boy. Great tip and thanks, makes the game much more enjoyable!

I had the same thing where only the music is cracking. All though I would use CCCP over k-lite.

those saves could be corrutped, turn off the Autosave (SAve On...) features




CCCP is known to cause issues for this game but I am glad you found the offending media player.

It may not be Windows Media Player doing the processing, but there is some mechanism where WMP has to be the associated program for this game to work. It has been this way since Morrowind and Oblivion. Whether is sounds right or not, it is the way it is.

Nah, it's not. Audio associations to programs have absolutely nothing to do with it, so lets stop spreading this misinformation It's all in the codecs.

Codec reset does nothing. WMP refuses to allow me to assign ogg's as associated to it... Associating MP3's to WMP does nothing (and I really don't want them associated to WMP anyways)

I had radio music stuttering issues as well. I have Realtek HD Audio as my on board audio and I have Vista Ultimate 64 as well.

I installed AC3 Filter. Then on the System tab under Default audio renderer, I changed what was already selected to "Use Wave out as default." This fixed my radio music stuttering for now. I will keep you guys updated if it starts stuttering again.

I just registered to let you guys know that this worked and thank you for the help.

Yeah I noticed that, yes I had run the uninstall that came with a separate FFDshow installation and tested it, then run the FFDshow uninstall that was in the TVersity folder and tested. It wasn't until TVersity was gone that the game was "fixed".

BTW blanket disabling all codecs meant that I couldn't play the game either and I'm also using onboard Realtek HD Audio.

Anyway, still not even 1 crash for the last 6-7 hrs of gameplay, codec related or other. I'm happy, thanks to you guys and the OP.

If i disable all my codecs I get insta CTD when I try to run the game. With them running I at least get to run for 1 minute of game play to saving butch's mom from rad roaches before my game crashes.

I don't know if you qualify that as an improvement

Well, you can't disable all of them. You need at least the stock ones.

We went over this years ago with Morrowind and again with Oblivion. I don't know what the mechanism is, but MP3 files have to be associated with Windows Media Player for these games. Possibly because that is how it finds the correct codecs. Anyway, it has solved issues in Morrowind and Oblivion, I am pretty sure it will solve them in this game. It does remain untested at this point.

So, it is not misinformation.

Also your reset utility cautions it is for SP 1 and 2 only.

I'm at SP 3 on XP Pro. Would it be wise to use that utility or no?

I've looked for K-lite but have been unable to find it except for wonderful advertisemant sites. Anyone mind posting a link?

Here's k-lite basic.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download_soft.php?d=4801&s=95

It fixed the crackling from my pipboy's radio whenever music was playing.