Okay trying to figure out what keeps happening to my saved games. I use Games for windows live. it signs in but everytime i launch the game I only have the inital save point not the last saved point i did. this is so frustrating. anyone have a fix for this?

I would stop using games for windows live. The game doesnt need it.
If you run the game normally it puts , Saves in (user signed in) My documents\My games\Fallout 3\Saves ...
If you have some save points from Windows live you want to keep. Sign in load up ... Then make a save of that point.

They should appear in that folder now. Run the game from Fallout exe. from now on.

Ive read something about this problem , and you can move those saves to your live I think. I just have no Idea where the folder that live is useing would be , since I dont use it.

I found the gfwl save folder and just moved my save into the main folder worked! so now im hoping that every save will go there and can play this game now. instead of the first 2 hours over and over again.

You may also want to look into downloading something that tricks the game into thinking that GFWL is on by default; it's not a lie to say that there are a number of issues of FO3 is caused by GFWL running in the background.

I tried that. Used a gfwl diable mod from nexus. didn't work. this is so f**** frustrating. paid this money for the game and can't even save it. what the hell. i just wish i could get my money back at this point.

Try and sign out of GFWL next time, and continue to sign out of it whenever you start the game.

Remember- there's a reson gamesas never used GFWL after FO3.

I just totally disabled GFWL. i can re-inable and try that. its just rediculous.

signing out of GFWL did not work game still reverts back to orignal save. dear lord i give up. this game is terribad.

Have you tried launching the game from "Where Installed it"\Bethesda sofworks\Fallout 3\Fallout3. exe ???
Forget the windows live ... or just keep moving the saves like it worked the first time.
It is still saveing , its just putting diff saves in diff locations.

There are 3 kinds of saves this game does or , maybe 4
1 -Auto save (you can adjust this in options) only keeps 1 will be overwritten by next one
2- Quick save , next F5 push will overwrite last one.
3- A regular save , have option to make new one or overwrite an existing one.
4- I think there is an auto save at the end of vault (makes its own slot like regular save) so it doesnt get overwritten by next auto save. This is so you can easily adjust your character.
I could be wrong and I just did it the first time but dont remember. Albiet I have 2 of these since I started 2 chars from the birth scene.
Is it the Quick save and Auto save that are not showing up in GFWL ? err sum version of vice versa there?

The only save showing up is one that I saved at the "10th birthday" also I can see the saves ingame after creating a new manual save. I can see them when I quit to the main screen and then when I exit and reload the game they are gone. they also don't show up in the reg save folder or the GFWL folder.

All I can think is youve got some kind of issue happening with different desktop user's for running the game and windows live. Have you always been on the same user in all instances when running this game?

Or something got screwy'd up some how along the way , in what youve described.
In wich case try reinstall ???
Sorry I couldnt help ya.