Hi everyone! I recently installed F3 on my new computer, and I can get between 30sec-5min of play before the screen freezes and ambient sound/music continues. Here are some specs:

Toshiba Notebook- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i5 CPU (Quad Core) 2.27 GHz
4 GB RAM
507 GB Free on Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
NVIDIA / Realtek High Definition Audio

If you need any other specs, please ask. Not sure what's important. Anyway, to date I have tried a lot of common fixes, including:

Updating display driver
Updating DirectX
Quad Core Fix in Fallout_Default.ini
Compatability Mode for Windows XP
Lowering Quality Settings
Patching Game
Reinstalling Game
Using FOMM to imitate xlive.dll ( That allows me to get into the game in the first place).

My computer is 100% clean of malware. The game wasn't working any better before I patched the game. So downgrading isn't an option. I was running graphics on the default Medium setting determined by the game, and it was perfectly smooth and free of lag. The game freezes just as fast at minimal quality settings. If anyone has any ideas, I'd really appreciate it.

Hello there, i have the same exact problem on my PC, and i've tried all the things you already did too. Windows 7, last patch installed.

I've solved my problem. I had done the quad core fix in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Fallout_Default.ini file (the actual program file) as opposed to the C:\Users\SpecificUser\Documents\My Games\Fallout3\Fallout.ini file. Once I set the game to run on two cores, the game worked perfectly.

Exact same laptop as me, exact same problem, but the problem also exists on my desk top. I've tried the quad core fix on the laptop to no avail. The desk top is a tri core but i didsabled one core for the game
no luck.
I'm out of ideas here.

How do you use FOMM to imitate the xlive.dll?

could you elaborate further please, i'm having the same problem after having to deal with the infamous xlive.ddl issue.