I just recently bought Fallout 3 game of the year edition on Steam (cause of the sweet deal). It installed fine and all that jazz, and whenever I try to start a new game, the intro video plays, and then when it finishes it just sits at a frozen black screen, then the "Fallout 3 has stopped working" error sometimes comes up. The only way to exit is with ctrl+alt+del. I am on Win 7 64 bit. Here are my specs (all drivers are (I'm fairly sure) up to date).

OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
CPU - Intel Core i3 processor 550
Ram - 4 GB DDR3 memory
HDD - 1 TB Hard Drive
OPTICAL - DVD-Super multi drive
Video - ATi Radeon HD 5450 512 MB

I have searched the forums for other problems similar to mine, but every time the solution has been that they where on a laptop with an integrated GPU. Someone please help! If any more information is needed I can post it.

I have the exact same issue, only difference is that I have a i5 processor. I was about to post a thread but you beat me to it.

Turn off HDR/Bloom and AA and see if that helps any. Otherwise, make sure your drivers are up to date and you have the latest DirectX 9.0c installed.

I did that, and now after the into, i get the cut scene of me being born, but after like 5-10 seconds into the birth scene, it freezes/crashes again...

Same outcome for me.

Edit: This seems to be a common issue, there were several threads about this problem on Steam's forum all posted recently. Try there to see if any of their solutions work too.

I'm having the same problem, and I am playing on a windows 7 laptop with an integrated GPU. Where did you find the other users with this problem, and did they offer any fixes?

Where did you find the posts about an intergrated GPU being the problem? As I am having the same problems you are, and playing on a GPU.

Same problem here:

Notebook:
- Medion AKOYA P7615 Notebook
- windows 7 Home premium 64 bit
- Nvidia Geforce GT 330M
- 4 gig DDR 3 Ram
- Initel Core i3 2.13 Ghz

tried to look for fixes for over 8 hours yesterday. NOTHING, the game keeps crashing after max 1 hour (most of the time it's after 5 minutes)

No error message whatsoever, the game just freezes

You didn't mention if you're running FO3 as administrator and in Windows XP SP 3 compatibility mode. If you're not, apply those settings to the fallout.exe file. There's also a http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php that may or may not work. I've had no problems with running the game on my AMD laptop, I've only had issues with the desktop until I changed my memory settings in BIOS.

Yes I have set tet it windows xp service pack 3 and yes it's running as administator (I tried getting this game to work for 8 hours I've tried this and TONS of other fixes)

I think Steam's to blame on this one.

Try running it in offline mod. The Steam website should have information on how to do this. If that doesn't work, all I can suggest is to make sure it's not in the Program Files (x86) folder. Sorry.

Well I finally got it working. If you have a quad core or more, then you just have to make it so that FO3 only uses 2 cores, cause apparently it was built with only that technology in mind... or something like that... http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/20199-fallout-3-windows-7-w-quad-core.html thats the link of the post that helped me. After I did that, it worked perfectly.

Sorry about the double post. I was having trouble connecting, so I figured I would just post an updated post and delete this one once my internet decided to play nice. Didn't know that you can't edit this into deleting...

I thought I changed that bit of code, but I double checked and it turns out I edited the wrong file. Fixed one problem, but now it's crashing upon exiting the game.

Crashing upon exiting doesn't happen to me on FO3, but often times happens to me on Oblivion, might just be a Bethesda problem? Not sure, can't help anymore, sorry .

Hey, guys your not alone, my issue is after upgrading from Windows Vista 32-bit Premium to Windows 7 32- but Premium. Fallout 3 standard eidtion has worked fine in vista and no problems with my Nvidia GT 130M. G.O.T.Y edition is a different kettle of fish. It crashes on trying to start, the audio just kicks in then boom:

'Fallout 3 has stopped working'

Now I think this is a video driver issue rather than codecs, as most posts seem to be implying, the standard driver windows 7 installs for my card does not, crash. Guys, I will try to download older drivers and see how I go.

Craig

Just to note, I solved my issue with a crash on the G.O.T.Y edition as soon an the introductory audio kicked in; the screen resolution in the launcher did not default to what my laptop monitor was displaying, once this was changed, the game loaded normally. Now if anyone knows why I can't get that blasted radio signal from anchorage lol......