I've just purchased Fallout 3 on Steam, and I can get to the title screen, but when I try to start a new game, it crashes.

I am running Windows 8.1, and I've tried running the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP, modifying the ini files for multiple cores, and running it as a administrator.

I've run dxdiag, and posted the text below.

Any help would be appreciated.

Have you installed any mods yet? If you're running a mod that has another mod as a master that you dont have enabled it will crash every single time. Other than that, it took me a lot of finagling to get Fallout 3 to work semi-well on Windows 7, and I hear its even more of a minefield on Windows 8. What worked in the end for me was moving my entire Steam install out of program files and into c;/games/steam. That was more for patching up the stability after I have got it running fine, though.

A reinstall has worked for me before, and it helped me get past the start screen and into gameplay, after doing the fixes that you have mentioned in your post. Fallout 3 on post-vista systems is just very passive-agressive, and I would try a reinstall plus all of the fixes you already tried, and if that doesnt work or you want more stability then I would suggest moving it out of program files.

I don't have any mods, and I also had it setup in steam to install outside of program files already. I'll try reinstalling it and see if that helps.

Does your computer have any graphics adapters installed besides the integrated Intel chipset? That's all that's showing up in your Dxdiag, and that's probably why the game won't run for you.

If your laptop has one of these dual GPU configurations with another graphics card for running games, then it's likely that the machine isn't switching over to the more powerful graphics card when you start the game.

Re-installing it didn't help.

I don't have any other graphics adapters other than the Intel HD Graphics 4600, and I don't have a dual GPU configuration. Also, it's a desktop, not a laptop, if that makes any difference.

It really doesn't make a difference as far as the GPU is concerned, it still won't run Fallout 3.

If it's a desktop, then you should invest in a dedicated video card. Those Intel chips are not designed for gaming. That's probably why you can get the game going, onboard video chips are not supported.

Interesting. Are there many games that don't run with Intel chips? New Vegas ran perfectly and I don't want to invest in a new chip for just one game.

Newer games usually see the intel chip and then usually down grade the graphics options so the the game will run. The newer intel video chip set has improved but still not very good.

Older 3d games were designed when Intel video chips were even bad at handling common 2d so games like Fallout 3 detects anything with the intel chip set as not able to play the game and then just shuts down the game.

There is a dll bypass mod for intel video chips but it could cause damage to your system since the game thinks that you have an actual 3d card that supports shaders. Your intel card might have shader support but it might no have full shader support.

First of all, it's a video card you want to get, not a chip. You can't replace chips, they're part of the motherboard. And all games will run better with a half decent video card. You just don't get very good performance overall from those Intel chips, they're the absolute worst you can have. Even onboard chips made by AMD or Nvidia don't work as well as their stand alone counterparts.