Allright, i recently purchased Fallout 3 GotY. After about 6 hours of play, i've been experiencing Crashes. I know all about .ini file tweaking, ever since the days of Oblivion. I went and set iNumThreads,Threaded AI, which is considered the most sure-fire way to fix crashing...
I've even went as far as reinstalling the game...Nothing... What else can i do? You'd think the newer game with the same engine would be more stable...Why is Fallout 3 so bugged?

Why was the game not optimized for multicore processors? ;especially being released after Oblivion, which wasn't, which is understandable. I would like someone from Bethesda to specifically answer those questions, if possible...

I purchased this game, and it's not working. I've had no problems with any of the countless games i play. What else is there to do with Fallout 3 to actually make it work? I've experienced freezing mid-game, on loading, and level up, depending on how the .ini file looks.
Im getting very frustrated with this game.

Bethesda's people aren't interacting with gamers in here. This is a gamer to gamer self-help forum.

Official support is elsewhere. If you want assistance from fellow gamers, provide all of the usual data we need for diagnostics (hardware / software environment, etc).

This problem has been answered so many time right here in this forum. All you have to do is a little research through the threads and I am sure you will find a solution. Just to start, take a look at this: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1348070-windows7-quad-core-fixes/.

Well, there's simply too many answers, i don't know where to start. Now, im just crashing on level up. Im leveling to 14, if it matters...

System: Phenom X3 8550 2.2GHz
RAM 4GB @ 400MHz
Vista 64
Radeon HD 4850



As i've said before, i've already looked at those threads, can't find anything specific about Crashing on Level up. The .ini core limiting variables aren't working for me. As a matter of fact they don't seem to do anything, other than reduce performance. Any threads specific to crash on level up? I've used the thread search...Isn't working too well.

DIsabled all DLC, still crashin on level up.


Also, i've got no mods.

So is it crashing on other things besides level up? ... you seemed to focus more on that with your later comment.


If your not familiar with the tweak guide , here's a link to the ini tweaking section >>> http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_8.html

Off the top of my head , it sounds like your a bit of a pack rat in play style (have lots of items stashed) and your peaking the cache limit at certain times during the game. So try some of those tweaks in the memory loading and multi threading on page 10 , but I recomend reading atleast that whole section if not the entire tweak guide for FO3.

I've looked at tweak guides since Oblivion, but i'll read that section more thoroughly...And yes, i'm just experiencing crashes on level up now.

EDIT:....yeah...Forgot to add, to be honest, i don't have a lot of items stashed... And besides, how could that make the game crash specifically at level up? Regardless, i don't have a ridiculous amount of items.

Plus, it's sort of inevitable. You'll have a lot of items in your own inventory, anyway, ones that can't be removed. Keys, notes. It just happens once the gameplay hours stack up.

Went to check my locker to see for myself, if i had lots of items stored... I was taking things, repairing them, in case i had multiple copies of items...I close the locker once i was finished, and the game locks up on me...YAY!


Is it even possible to play this game without problems? Seriously, this is the PC version...The console versions seem more stable than this...FFS...Im getting really, really irritated, right now...

And no, nothing new in that tweak guide. Been there, done that.

It was just an Idea , cuz the fact you played it so far till it gave you problems.

The next guess would be your save file is corrupt.

Start a new char and see what happens.

I tried an earlier save, 20 mins earlier.... But i'll try the autosave from the exit of the tunnel...Which is a bit of a piss-off...Because i've played a lot. It better not be a corrupt file. If it is, though, what does that mean? How does a save just because blatantly "corrupt" ? What causes it? If it's so abrupt, what can i do to prevent it?

UPDATE: Ok, i have an autosave just at the exit of the vault cave, where you level up immediately. I successfully leveled up...No problems...Deleted my old saves, because they are most likely corrupt...

Now, the only thing i want to know...HOW do i prevent corrupt saves? I dont want to play for another 18 HOURS, and have this happen again...

UPDATE 2: Also, to add on this. When i went back to load my initial saves, it notified me of content that "is not available" on those saves.

Im assuming this has to do with the reinstall i did of the game? Which could possibly be the reason the save got corrupt in the first place...?

EITHER WAY, i would very much like to know how to prevent corrupt saves. I DON'T EVER want my saves to get corrupted. I want to make sure of it.


I have a feeling this was my doing...Although i don't know how a reinstall did that, oh well.

Well thats good news

The notification was because of DLC content in that save.

Its hard to say why it got corrupted ... but it did ... so throwing that out was a good thing.

Did you defrag before install?

Nay on the defrag. If it REALLY matters.

But like i asked before, what can i do to prevent save game corruption?

1. Avoid Quicksaves

2. Keep the number of hard saves that have ever been autosaved to the very least possible.

By Quicksaves, do you mean saving through the console? In that case, i never do that.

Hard saves...? Well, i mean...Wasn't every save at one point initially an autosave?

Quick saves are done with the F5 key , and you can turn auto saves off. So basically you can make it so the only time it saves is by your chooseing. And you can always give it a fresh slot so to speak , never overwriteing the data. Wich is where Gorath is saying corruption can happen.

Useing the console to save is actually good for this , in that you can name the file with a unique name so you know wich ones your deleteing when they get stacked to deep. hehe

Honestly I wouldnt worry about it to much.

Well, i WANNA worry about it, because i sure don't want to start all over again after ANOTHER 18 hours of play...

So your saying that ideally, you want to save on a new slot, and periodically delete your old saves?

Why is it bad to "stack" up your saves? It's one single file.

When I said stack , I didnt mean they all stack on one save. I meant you will have alot of them in your save folder "a deep stack metaphorically speaking" If you make a new slot everytime you save.

Your reference here to "stack" means to overwrite the data each time , wich is where corruption can occur.
So yes "Ideally" you should make a new save slot everytime. And clean them out every so often , or not.

So in short , lots of overwriteing = bad ... less overwriteing = good

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhh.......FFS...I've overwritten at least 30+ times... I just started to save on a new slot every time... UGH...I remember doing it on consoles, but i didn't think the same would have to apply for the PC.

Ok, well, i've come to a new question. The performance of this game seemingly deteriorates over time. Looking into look/dead bodies takes a couple of seconds for example. It's been boosted up after a few minutes, however. But i've also noticed sluggish performance when going into VATS...Why is this? And what does it mean/what can i do about it?

Also, when looking at places like Wheaton armory, or Pomp estates; places that have a lot of assets in one given area, FPS goes down. Is this just simply expected/normal? Also, textures such as the graffiti at Wheaton armory (just using the same place as an example) flicker. Otherwise i never see flickering textures...Too many things bother me in this game...

I just want it to perform without any problems. The deterioration of performance is annoying me... How can i just play this game in freakin' peace, already?