Possibly help for some:
A few days ago, while in Freeside, Boone lost his fool mind as soon as I left a conversation. This was on the street. I looked around, figuring I was being attacked, and everything slowed down. Boone was switching between his sniper rifle and his machete, crouching, standing, and then, just as someone turned red, he pounced on them and killed them. This whole time, everything was jerky, slowed, normal, slow. I was worried it would crash, and then it did. It locked up.

So, when I reloaded, the first thing I did was go back to the Lucky 38. I told both Boone and ED-E to stay.

I've been playing for at least two days since this, and I have not had a lock up. I get to keep their perks, but I lose their help and their additional weight for hauling stuff.

It is WORTH it. I do not believe that it has been long enough to say that this will be permanent, and for me, locking has been the worst issue I have had, but the worst slow downs have all happened when I had followers AND too many people close by. Having tossed the followers, my system has not slowed down nearly as badly and it has not locked.

If anyone else gives this a try, please let us know how it works out for you.

ive acctually found that the game only lags with boone. i have had cass and veronica along ed-e and it never lags with them only boone

friends have completed the game with companions no problem.i feel it is more to do with what i did down the brotherhood of steel bunker,that caused a conflict in the game save. i cannot understand why this dlc message kicks in on some of the save points,and just a load screen freeze on other save points.

Hmm. Might try that. But I love his Perk, especially combined with ED-E's. I took out all three of the crazy Fiend's in the NCR quest without them even knowing I was there. I did not even have a scope at the time, just This Machine. I was shooting things without a scope that I would not have been able to see without Boone's Perk. I love sneaking around and killing things that don't know I'm there. I got the Rayslayer in a similar fashion. Sure, I could have used some cateye (or whatever it's called) but things in low light conditions REALLY light up with Boone's Perk. I killed all those rodents (loved the reference with the Wild Wasteland Trait) without a one of them noticing me, all without a silencer, because I took them all with headshots.