It would be nice if a mod created a sticky topic regarding this issue as the vast majority of new topics repeat the exact same thing- Fallout 3 freezes on modern systems. This is a fact and there is no available solution to remedy this.

This is the most common complaint: Randomly, right after opening a door the screen will freeze. The music continues but you are unable to control the game in any way and MUST ctrl-alt-del fallout3.exe from task manager to exit the game. This can also occur randomly while roaming the wasteland, usually right around the time the game loads new assets (which in non-freezing instances is accompanied by a brief 'stutter' as data is streamed off the hd) and again the game will suddenly freeze with the music continuing to play. This is a random occurrence, you can so several hours without seeing it or you might see it immediately upon beginning a new game. Many of us unlucky players may run into it more often than not including several times in under an hour!

The issue is often attributed to Windows 7 but this is NOT TRUE! Windows 7 is used a scapegoat because the game's official requirements do no support it. Underneath the hood, Windows 7 is not much different than Windows Vista. The truth is that this very issue has been encountered since the game was released and is directly attributed to having more than two CPU cores, not the operating system. The reason it is more common now is because quad cores and Intel i5 CPUs with four threads are very common and in most instances they run Windows 7 so it is mistaken as a Windows 7 issue. I'll repeat that again, Windows 7 is NOT the problem, it has something to do with having more than two CPU cores. If you have an Intel i3, i5, i7, or any triple/quad+ core AMD CPU you WILL have this freezing issue REGARDLESS of operating system (it will happen on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 in all their 32/64-bit variants)

There are many often-cited solutions (even by mods) that some report as being successful but this has not been the case in my extensive testing. Here are a couple of suggestions along with my results:

Changing "bUseThreadedAI=1" and adding "iNumHWThreads=2" to the .ini file - I can tell you that changing any of the 'threaded' values in the .ini file to "1" is absolute rubbish, leave them all at their default values. Many of these are deprecated settings that are not even used in Fallout 3 and you can verify this with console commands. Some of these 'threading' settings have a completely different name in game than their .ini equivalents and this was most likely purposely done so users would not change the .ini settings. For example, iNumHavokThreads has a completely different name in game so you can go to town and set this to 9000 but it will have no effect since it doesn't read or recognize that line. You can verify this with console commands or using the GECKcustom.ini file (generated using GECK). I repeat, changing "bUseThreadedAI=1" has NO EFFECT ON THE GAME and could possibly even have negative results. Don't mess with it

"iNumHWThreads=2" does appear to have an effect on the game but it will not exactly solve our freezing issue. This tells the game you have two hardware threads (two cores) and can be verified in the RenderInfo.txt file. This DOES NOT limit the number of threads that the game uses which is around 40 (you can see this in task manager). In the background your operating system will distribute these threads to your cores as applicable. This WILL stop the game from freezing BUT instead it will crash to desktop. This might be desirable to some rather than ending the process from task manager, but limiting your available threads might have a negative impact on performance. So it is your choice - put up with freezing and ending using task manager OR in the spots where the game freezes it will CTD instead but performance might potentially be affected. Still not a solution but it does indicate the game may have trouble in load balancing on over two hardware threads with the in-game engine.

Changing CPU affinity - Either via task manager (which can cause the game to be unstable) or via a batch file you can tell the operating system to limit the number of cores that the game uses. DO NOT DO THIS!!! The game won't freeze but it WILL CTD just the same as above. Unlike the .INI change, you WILL see reduced performance. Oddly, running a similarly or lower clocked Core 2 Duo will give better performance than a Core i7 with two cores disabled even with hyperthreading turned off. I have no idea why this is the case, but either way it doesn't fix our issue!

Any other Placebo fix such as Defragging, other .ini changes (seriously, don't mess with the .ini unless you want more problems), unofficial mods and patches, disabling autosave etc - None of these work. I've tried... Performing any of the .ini changes from the unofficial tweak guide will cause the game to become less stable and negatively impact audio and framerate.

Trust me on this, I've done extensive testing and have concluded that there is no fix. You can either put up with it or alter it (with the iNumHWThreads=2 which still might have a negative performance impact). This is what I can tell you about the freezing - it happens when the game engine loads a new area which is called a "Cell". An interior Cell is loaded when opening a door. An exterior Cell is an area such as Megaton or all of the Capital Wasteland. These are loaded when exiting an interior area or on-the-fly in the background (usually accompanied by a brief stutter while streaming from the hd). Randomly when this occurs the game will freeze as mentioned above. This does NOT happen on a Core 2 Duo or similar dual core CPU - the game will run practically rock solid. In fact, in a prior pre-DLC version of the game I never experienced even a CTD using a Core 2 Duo AND Windows 7. It was only after the GOTY edition where I noticed very rare CTDs usually in areas related to DLC such as the UFO. After upgrading to a Core 2 Quad and later an i7 did I encounter the freezing the same as many others have. The freezing also affects AMD triple core CPUs and strangely Intel i3 CPUs without hyperthreading. It is strange that the i3s are affected but this might have something to do with sharing the architecture of the other CPUs. That could also indicate the issue has nothing to do with the number of cores at all, but I'm not an expert so I couldn't say!

So in conclusion, if you've read this far that is (I appreciate it!) Fallout 3 has freezing problems when loading new areas on modern CPUs. This problem has existed since the game launched nearly four years ago but wasn't widely reported because triple core and quad core CPUs were rare. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH WINDOWS 7 and if you have a quad core you'll even get the same freezing with Windows XP. Even though the game hasn't been updated in years, I would hope that somebody would recognize that there is a problem which has existed since the initial shipping version which affects systems that met the requirements. Therefore, Windows 7 should not be used as a scapegoat because it is irrelevant (again, happens in Vista and XP!). New Vegas does not seem to have this issue, although it will CTD far more often than Fallout 3 and does so during loading occasionally which might indicate it still exists but is 'hidden'.

I beg to differ here. After making this change to my fallout.ini file (Phenom II quad core CPU), I went from averaging a CTD every 30 minutes or so to being able to sometimes complete 5 and 6 hour playing sessions without a single crash. Any performance hit (and in my case, it was miniscule if it happened at all) was far outweighed by no longer having to restart the game every few minutes.

Your mileage, of course, may vary. But anyone experiencing frequent crashes owes it to him/herself to at least try this fix.

ETA - I wanted to add that, since the last patch, Fallout NV crashes much less frequently for me as well.

OK, I just have to add my two cents. I have no doubt that some people have problems running Fall Out 3, or that applying the “thread fix” helps others. But, to say that this game won’t work on a quad core without problems is not true.

Over the last year that I’ve played through Fall Out 3 (I know slow, but I search every inch of the map), the game has crashed only 6 times total. Which I attribute to random game-software errors. I don’t consider my computer to be the latest anymore. I’m using an Asus motherboard, Q6600 overclocked to 3.0, 8 gig ram, Vista 64 and a 5870 gpu. Game settings maxed with 60 fps. So I have no complaints.

The question should be why some quad cores play the game just fine and others don’t. I think the answer is how well the components are balanced with each other in the computer.

Hello,

I just gotten myself a nice speedy Apple MacBook Pro 17 " (2011, Sandy Bridge) with intel i7 (2720QM) 2,2GHz CPU.
With 8GB RAM, AMD HD 6750M GPU, Windows 7 64 Bit and a 512GB SSD I thought I would finally give Fallout 3 a try (I never got to
play it before) since this machine should just kick it hard.
And the game does load fast, I maxed out all the settings but yes I do have the very randomly freezes.
To edit the ini back to two cores, which would svck anyway, didn't help me either.
Please update this game. We want to be able to enjoy this game with our new machines.

I have performed both modifications in the .ini file and still wouldnt load a new game. i had to go in the .ini and remove the intro video and renamed it in its respectable file. with the all 3 mods to the .ini and the intro renamed i had got to be born at least.

i had to cntrl-alt-del and end all my processes. close your dock if your running a dell, close your sidebar and all gadgets(win 7 win vista). then run the fallout 3 launcher not the game. in the launcher run the options tab. put it on low. next youll go it to the advanced tap turn texture to low, vsync on, aspec ratio standard.......

now im running this all on a insperon r14 laptop w/intel I3 win 7 os, and i run glitchless with out CTD's...(sometimes i forget my win live messanger and i crash out every im....so close out everything everything)

Component balance and OS-stability seems to have helped my case, that's for sure. I can't quite accept that just 3gigs of ram more made such huge difference in my game's graphics, movement smoothness, and much better sound quality. I'm positive that the very quirky Vista x64 was the far-greater culprit. I'll probably pay for this later, but leaving the .ini file alone and playing on a fresh Win7 OS has caused a religious experience. I never knew how crappy my graphics were before. I'd not play if I couldn't get it to play as well as it does now.

I recently bought the GOTY edition and am running the game in 64bit Windows 7 on a very modern hardware platform.

I was having an absolutely terrible time with freezing and the .ini tweaks didn't seem to make any difference. I installed the mod to remove the Games for Windows LIVE component and have not had a single crash since.

I can live without achievement tracking for a stable game.

Mod linked here, be sure to read the instructions about moving your save games.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1086

@Dodger

Thx mate, this was the solution.
I got the German GOTY Editon of F3, and the same freezingproblems.
But first, i got a copy of a friend, without this LIVE-svckING-GAMESTUFF-FOR-WINDOWS, and this version 1.0 was running without problems.
Now i removed it in my updated GOTY and it worked. Time to play without freezes

I have the German GOTY version running too. I upgraded from the "normal" version which always froze on me without LIVE too. Now I am playing the GOTY edition with LIVE enabled which kept freezing as I said earlier on. I made my way through the game and I am playing the DLC level, no freezing for two whole days playing the DLCs. Go figure...

EDIT:

OK forget it. It only seems to freeze on me within small buildings. Else outside in the game it runs without any freezes. A nightmare is the little shack in the swamp area where you have to help this lady to make some alcohol. The game freezes every time I am in this shack. svcks really bad.. I would really love an official fix for this.

Hi

First post here. I've just installed Fallout 3 on a new PC - it was one of the first games I've installed. I'm having the same issue as the OP, and would like to thank both them and the other posters here for saving me even more frustrating dead ends. For what it's worth I've tried the above solutions and the usual updating/rolling back etc. of drivers, and it's hard to escape the conclusion that there's simply an issue with the game that needs to be addressed.

Fallout is a terrific game and I'd be very disappointed if I couldn't play it. Please let us know if this issue is being looked into or will be sometime soon.

Thank you.

I've been through three PCs with Fallout now, every one, every configuration, mods or no mods, they all crashed to some degree, it can be infuriating but I think you have to get used to it, until some clever member of the community nails down the precise cause we have to make do and see these documented "fixes" as finger plugging a hole in a boat, it helps but eventually she's going down.

So there is no help for me I've used this program from Dodger post. It didn't worked. I will try to do something with ini files, but if Voult13er is right then F3 will have to be put on shelf and I will have go back to F2.

Sorry for not updating my post here, but if you haven't yet, you really need to try the .ini file trick to throttle the number of cores recognized by the game. I have a brand new computer, new Win7 os, and I still had to perform the .ini throttle. I haven't had one freeze up since then, and I'm now a level 22 DC Wastrel. hehehe.

I should also mention that Bethesda Support does in fact recommend the .ini throttling as a method of fixing the freeze up problem.

One last thing that i had found, not sure how much of an impact it made, but Changing the exe to turn off desktop composition (in WIn7 only) helped for me.

I just want to add that I'm in the same boat as the OP. I'm running a phenomII 955 be, hd6870, 8gb ram, auzentech x-fi forte, and freezing up all the time. I've done EVERYTHING to try to fix it, from the unofficial patch, to .ini tweaks, disabling all mods, fresh reinstalls, closing all other applications, disabling the sound card, reinstalling drivers for everything I can think of, installing codecs (for which fallout3 is already on the ffdshow exclusion list), and doing a non-destructive reinstall of windows7. About 3 entire days I've been at this, to no avail, whatsoever. And now I've hit the final wall. I was finishing up in the Arlington Library, gathered the records for Moira, and the game freezes when I try to leave the building. It locks up on the load screen, while the audio continues. So I guess I'm done with f3, I'm completely unable to advance, and my last save is too far back to bother with. However, I'll post what I've learned about my freezing issue; hopefully it helps someone else figure this out.

My crashes were almost always visual freezes where the ambient sound and music continues. Occasionally I'd CTD, but only occasionally. I haven't done extensive testing on this, but I did heavily anolyze a couple areas where i froze every single time.

The first was at the raider camp between the Flooded Metro and Arlington Library, the one with the overpass walkway with a turret in the middle. Every single time I approached this walkway it froze. If I walked through it backwards however, the game would not freeze. I then walked backward all the way onto the overpass walkway, and then slowly turning around I found that the game would freeze constantly when I reached the east-north-east direction. Something about that view was freezing the game. Possibly a raider corpse sitting on that bridge that just barely began to come into view. The disabled turret also got a bit wonky looking as well during testing (it would appear to stretch downward through the floor), but it did not do this consistently during testing. (I have lots of screenshots of these tests)

There is another building near here, a broken down concrete building with about 3 floors, guarded by raiders, surrounded by landmines, and loaded with boobytraps. Using the FOOK2 mod, there is a fast-travel shortcut to this place called "Raider Jet Lab" I believe. Fast traveling here ALWAYS froze my game. Walking to this location froze my game as well.

When I was fighting through the Arlington Library, I found another "freeze trap". Immediately after you enter the children's wing of the library, you can make a right, then a left, and look down the hall to the room where you find the "restoration tools". Immediately after I started down this last hallway, the game would freeze, always facing a group of attacking raiders. I got past this again by walking backwards and avoiding looking at the freeze trap (medusa?).

Finally, I finished the objectives and, as I mentioned earlier, tried to leave the building. Here it freezes again. I do not know why.

The common denominator in all of these freezes seems to be raiders. Who knows, maybe a group of raiders is waiting for me outside the arlington library. I was thinking perhaps something was corrupt with their meshes, or something, but with so little anolysis it would be premature to guess. Plus I'm fairly sure I've frozen in places that do not feature raiders.

So that's my ramblings. It probably won't help anyone, but there you go. I hope that someone, or bethesda, can find a fix for this.


FOLLOWUP:

I loaded up AMD System Monitor to see what's going on with my quad core and from what I can tell "iNumHWThreads" is having no affect on which cores are being used. For these tests I loaded up the game and loaded my last save and run and jump around in the Arlington Library lobby. You can see where I load up the game from the jump in cpu usage.
----------------------------------------
Test 1: I use the common fix to see what effect it has

bUseThreadedAI=1iNumHWThreads=2

Which results in this: http://img858.imageshack.us/i/withnospecifiedthreads.png/

Test 2: I force the number of threads to 4 to see what effect it has

bUseThreadedAI=1iNumHWThreads=4

Which results in: http://img859.imageshack.us/i/with4threads.png/

Test 3: Revert to the default FALLOUT.ini, using no threaded ai and no specified number of cores

bUseThreadedAI=0

Which results in: http://img13.imageshack.us/i/with2threads.png/
-------------------------------

iNumHWThreads doesn't seem to be having any effect at all on my cpu, and possibly others' cpu. I don't know where to go from here though. I know that the ini has an effect on the game though, I've toyed with the draw distances in the past (I eventually reverted back to default settings), so why iNumHWThreads isn't working I do not know.

Sorry to hear about your problem Splitsticks, I've felt the same, almost ready to uninstall the game and concentrate on the billions of games that work perfectly, Bethesda's games almost make you feel like your PC is faulty.

One thing I've read about the multi core ini edit, a few people have mentioned that they edit both .ini files in the folder, solving their crashes.

Well, Im having almost same problem as slipsticks. It USUALLY happens in small areas like a house etc. Sometimes It happens in megaton. The error: I play the game and suddenly game freezes. But still I can hear music and talking (if it happens in a middle of a conversation). By the way about the ini. file. Where is it located?? I could try it. Im playing FO3 Goty btw. And my processor is Intel Core i5 3.20 GHz. Pleace... I've already asked in steam, nothing has helped.I did ask gamesas... No answer for nearly a week... Pleace help!!

Well, Im having almost same problem as slipsticks. It USUALLY happens in small areas like a house etc. Sometimes It happens in megaton. The error: I play the game and suddenly game freezes. But still I can hear music and talking (if it happens in a middle of a conversation). By the way about the ini. file. Where is it located?? I could try it. Im playing FO3 Goty btw. And my processor is Intel Core i5 3.20 GHz. Pleace... I've already asked in steam, nothing has helped.I did ask gamesas... No answer for nearly a week... Pleace help!!

In your documents folder you'll see the "My Games" folder, your Fallout 3 saves and ini files are in there.

That booby-trapped broken-down raider-hideout concrete building is causing my game to freeze. In my wall-of-text post I mentioned three places that the game freezes; all of them are looking at this concrete building. That specific view from the overpass that freezes my game is because I was looking out toward that building and not realizing it. It crashes upon leaving the arlington library because the library is directly facing this building. Damn if I could just remove this building and all its assets from the game I would probably be fine.

On another note, I've tried troubleshooting by manually disabling two of my four cores in my 955 (msconfig->boot->advanced options->change number of cores to 2). It *seems* to have helped alleviate some of the stalling, but it still happens from time to time, and still at the same "freeze traps" I'd encountered before. I still can't play the game without having the worry of stalling in my head. It completely obliterates any immersion.

And one question: How powerful of a cpu does one need to run fallout 3 smoothly at max (and untweaked) settings? On a 3.2ghz cpu I'm getting significant indoor lag (and minor-moderate outdoor lag), often dropping my fps to about 30, and it all seems to be caused by the object draw distance. If I turn the object draw distance to a minimum, it runs perfectly smooth, and conversely, if I turn everything to a minimum and max the object draw distance, I get major fps loss. I'm monitoring my cpu and gpu usage and it seems that increasing the object draw distance heavily taxes the cpu, which to me is odd because I would assume that static objects would be handled by the gpu. What kind of performance are you guys getting and on what cpu? I'm wondering if this excessive cpu usage is tied to these freezing problems...

Hey trog69, thanks for your post. I have changed in fallout.ini bUseThreadedAI to 1 and added iNumHWThreads=2, and it actually helped. I have started new game withouth freezes, tahts very good. Voult13er thanks for your very long post, but you are wrong, changing ini file helps. For the rest, I wish you all luck with this problem.

I figured out part of the problem. The reason I keep freezing at some of these predictable spots is because of ArchiveInvalidation. With this enabled, the game freezes at these spots. With it disabled, the game does not freeze, but some mods do not function properly. It doesn't seem to be the mods causing the freezing either; if I disable all mods but leave ArchiveInvalidation enabled the game will still freeze. In the places that that still crash I'm now CTDing instead of freezing. Need to troubleshoot more...

With my last PC ArchiveInvalidation would cause huge stutters, I spent weeks and weeks trying to figure it out, Quarn sent me a few custom files, nothing solved it, my new pc seems ok with it though.

YES!!!! The ini file thing helped!!!!! If you have the same problem you should atleast TRY!!!!

not to hate on computer players but this is why i prefer xbox: you can install it to the harddrive right away and have ZERO problems with games.