Alright, so here's the story. After 2 viruses, I've had to get my computer repaired. This means that I've lost all my mods and the load orders.

So today, I think, hey, I should try Fallout 3 again. Well, I get my computer back so I try Fallout 3 again. Thing is, after installing a few mods, like MMM, FWE, FOOk2, etc. the game won't even hit the main screen before crashing. Could it be something that the person who fixed my computer put in the root folder? I mean, I disabled everything except the ESM and it still crashes! That usually fixes things, but it didn't for this. Should I try reinstalling?

Anyway, here's my load order, and don't yell at me for it being wrong, I haven't played F3 in a long time.

Fallout3.esm
ThePitt.esm
CRAFT.esm
CALIBR.ESM
FOOK2 - Main.ESM
FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esm
Mart's Mutant Mod.esm
CASM.esp
Fellout-Full.esp
Fellout-pipboylight.esp
FOOK2 - Main.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Hunting & Looting.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Increased Spawns.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - FOOK2.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release.esp

Total active plugins: 21
Total plugins: 39

hmm, have you tried copying out your pref files from your games folder?

The same one where you saves are, usually under my documents in a my games folder.

It could easily be one of them. Plus try using FOE and doing a merged patch (plus check for compatibility fixes between all of those.. some are tricky to get working together and do have load order requirements)

What do I do with those? Sorry, I'm a noob.Do I put them in my data folder?

To be quite honest, I didn't know FOOK2 and FWE had the ability to play together without causing problems. Yeah, I don't even think that you can play with MMM without problems.

You need compatibility, so try using http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4968 for compatibility patches. FOOK2 and FWE will also need http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10167 in order to play nicely together. Also try using http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10193 in order for a better load order. Lastly, use http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=637 Master Update function and create a merged patch in order to resolve any more bugs.

If you need any help on how to do any of these things, I'll be glad to help.

EDIT: Alo make sure you're updated to the latest patch, 1.7, or else these mods will definitely not work.

I've had some luck using http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=637 to track down loading errors. It'll try to boot up your mods and if there's a conflict should report what's having an error. Of course this won't necessarily solve everything, but is a good place to start. I'm a total new player with mods and this was a helpful tool for me to try and trouble shoot load orders myself.


edit: lol, the forum filter cracks me up.

Thanks for the help, guys.

It's weird, though. I deactivate all the mods and it still crashes... it's very strange, I've never dealt with this before, and I've had all kinds of problems with this game. I just don't understand, even if I deactivate all of the mods in the mod manager, it still crashes. Ideas?

Jeeze, that sounds awfully familiar to a problem that I had. I think once I had to reinstall the game and delete my data folder before the reinstall, but I think patching might've fixed it one time for me. Did you patch to the latest patch?

Yeah, I did, and once it patched it, it started the game, and immediately crashed. I guess I should try reinstalling it, this shouldn't be happening. Hopefully this fixes it.

Before I do, though, does anyone else have anything to add?

Anyone?

Alright, so I reinstalled the game, with no mods, and it still crashes. This leads me to believe that it's a program put in by the people who fixed it; I'm thinking it's either avast! antivirus or Firefox. Could it be? And if so, how to get rid of them?

Also, I've update my drivers too.

Ok, did the game work at all at least once since you got your pc back?
Did you try deleting the Fallout 3 folder and the ini files before reinstall (make a backup)?

Before trying again to reinstall you could try to only delete your ini file (again, make a backup first) and restart FO3, wich will create a new ini.
Sometimes that seems to help.

I don't think Firefox is to blame for FO3 not running.
Neither do I think Avast is causing the crashes, but it would be at least more likely.
You shouldn't go completely without any Antivirus software, so if you do deinstall it (try disabling it first, don't forget to switch it on again, antivirus software is there for a reason) install some different antivirus software.

Could also be a problem with your drivers, hard to tell.

Once I got my PC back, I jumped immediately into modding it again. I didn't test to see if it worked, but now I know that it wasn't the mods. this game, before I sent it in, worked flawlessly on this computer, so I know it isn't a hardware issue. It has to be something that those people who fixed it installed.

How would I disable avast?

I just want to run a few things by you, because I have uninstalled and installed the game more times than I can remember (not for mod issues, just cause of experimenting with making personal mods).

-Did you install the Microsoft for games LIVE (you can disable it after it runs the updates and all that fun stuff)? http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/892715-troubleshooting-tips/

Are you running the latest FWE and FOOK? These aren't compatible just yet, so you are going to run into issues. Take out FOOK since it is a beta and try with only FWE and MMM.

Speaking of MMM, I believe that you can take out:
Mart's Mutant Mod - Hunting & Looting.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Increased Spawns.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.esp
These should already be taken care of with the Custom Options menu for FWE.

Are you using http://fose.silverlock.org/? You need it to play FWE.

That is all I can think of for now, good luck!

As I said, it can't be the mods. I disabled them AND did a reinstall of Fallout 3 with no mods and it still crashes on startup.

And no, I don't have GFWL, but I'm downloading it now. Hopefully that works. If it doesn't, then, it has to be avast. If not that, then it's hopeless.

Thanks for the help though, Miss Sparkle.

You could still try deleting at least the ini files or, before a reinstall, the Data folder?
Do you get any special error message or just the standard "Fallout stopped working/encountered a problem" after the CTD?

For disabling Avast, try a right click on its symbol in the task bar to ring up the menu.
I don't have it so I'm not 100% sure how to do it.

Ugghh, installing GFWL didn't help. God what could be the problem?

No, the game starts up, and when the projector clicks, it goes black and CTD's. It's weird.

Someone please help, I'm going insane.

Well, I got rid of avast, and that didn't help. I'm totally at a loss for words right now.

update with all windows updates they may have not done it.

Had issues in the past where the media player wasn't working right and it borked games due to being unable to handle the opening videos