Didn't have any problems with Dead Money, except for a few minor bugs and glitches. I thought Dead Money was great and it certainly had a much better story than any of the Fallout 3 DLC. Plus, you got the Assassin suit along with cool weapons like the Holorifle. It was a good investment overall.
Unfortunately, leaving with the Gauss Rifle, Holorifle, Assassin Suit and tonnes of other stuff, I got NONE of it. I left Sierra Madre with it all in me, it went to the slide show (And I got an ending that wasn't what mine should of been since I had to console command my way past the bugs.), than I spawned back in the BoS bunker with absolutely nothing from when I went in with, or what I should of left with.
Wait. That's a lie. I'v got the slave collar on still!!!!
It's kinda late for you, but I gave this advice over in the xbox forums,
Doing dead money My advice for anyone doing it,
goto the area where dead money starts, don't go in just discover it.
If you have a place at Novac then leave everything you can there and fast travel back to abandon BOS bunker. you don't need weapons or armor.
create a NEW save before you go into the bunker, then a separate save once inside(after you agree to message) Once you start the DLC and wake up, make a new save.
Never use the first save, the others you can use. Also save before big decisions or even small to medium. thats up to you.
above all watch your feet

I did most of that. I made a new save just outside the Bunker, made a new save as soon as I gained control in the Madre. Whilst the "losing items" and such stuff svcks, I could always do a reload of an earlier file, however odd's are the DLC will bug on me again, and I just don't want to put another 12+ hours into the DLC combing over every area, and whatnot. And it wouldn't be so bad (I could console command stuff back to me) but again, I got a slave collar on my guy. So i'v officially said screw it, and I am no longer playing my EW character, which is a shame because I put a ridiculous amount of effort into making mods so Energy Weapons were balanced // made sense for my playthrough, and collecting weapons and ammo.
On a side note. Why the friggen hell does a Gauss Rifle use 3 shots per fire, yet it's got 5 rounds per clip...?