So after playing this game for some time on an underpowered, Vista-loaded computer, I built a new computer from the ground up to play it at max settings without trouble. I did, however, have some concerns about playing the game using Windows 7, which is the only OS you can buy these days.

The problem now is that the game seems to be even more unstable than before, regardless of what graphic setting I put it at, be it Low, Medium, High, or Ultra High. After a random amount of time that rarely ever exceeds an hour, my game will freeze and I'm forced to use the Task Manager to shut it down. Compatibility mode for the different XP and Vista modes does not seem to help whatsoever. It could be five minutes before it freezes, it could be half an hour, but it ultimately ends when it freezes.

Furthermore, the game can only be played in Windowed mode--when loaded with my graphics card, the game will start up, but not appear on the screen despite the music playing in the background. If I use Intel® HD Graphics Family, the game will start up but promptly crash upon starting a new game or loading up a save file.

Finally, in a recent playthrough when I finally got to the Mall from the Museum Station, I soon came upon an error--the light sources seem to invert, becoming spheres of blackness in select areas in the underground and presumably the entire overworld (was not able to get through the Super Mutants to check its range). A couple loads back and forth between the overworld and the tunnel seem to resolve this, but another problem had appeared--time had frozen; the game clock had gotten stuck and was a list of two separate times, both hour and minute starting with a single digit followed by a decimal, followed by 10 to 12 more digits.

My processor is an Intel Core i5 2300 @ 2.80 GHz.
My graphics card is a 1024 MB GeForce GTX 580 Ti (EVGA).
My motherboard is a Gigabyte Technology Z68P-DS3 (Socket 1155).
My RAM is 4 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz.
My operating system is Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Can anyone figure out my problem based on this information? I don't want to have to give up this game.