Main Menu bug - Can't start a new game or load a game.

[TBGRicky]

I've run into a very strange problem. Yesterday, as I was playing The Frontier mod for New Vegas, my game was getting Out of Memory errors and the game would crash every five minutes. This happened even after I had the 4gb patch installed. I tried to look for a solution to fix these out of memory errors that I was getting, and I believe I have accidentally broken the main menu of my game. I think this happened after I set the Fallout.ini to read only. I tried unchecking the Read Only box after uninstalling and reinstalling the game. Unfortunately, that did not work. I have also disabled (not uninstalled) all of my mods. Nothing has worked so far, since my main menu is still not working the way that it is supposed to.

Now my main menu looks messed up. After I click on New Game, the message, "Do you want to start a new game?" does not even appear. When I click on Load, I can't even load a game. Even when I click on Settings or Quit, the interface messages do not appear. Nothing shows up for me to click on. I had to Alt-F4 to leave the main menu.
It looks like I can't even take screenshots of this issue I am having, so I am doing my best to explain what I am going through in detail. I know this is something that I have accidentally caused, and I have no idea how to fix it. This is really frustrating.

 

Has anyone else experienced this issue? If so, what is the best way to undo this problem and fix it?

 

Here are my pc specs:

 

Windows 10 Pro

Processor: Intel® Core 2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz 2.67GHz

 

Installed Memory (RAM): 6.00 GB

 

System Type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

 

DirectX runtime version: 12.0

 

 

NVIDIA information:

I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 950

Driver version : 456.71

Driver Type: DCH

Graphics Clock: 1139 MHz

Memory data rate: 6.61 Gbps

Memory interface: 128-bit

 

 

[M48A5]

Did you try to verify the game files? That usually fixes most anything.

[TBGRicky]

Did you try to verify the game files? That usually fixes most anything.

 

Hi there, I've seen you around the Nexus sometimes. Thank you for responding. At the moment, I have just verified my game files for the third time today. Wish me luck.

 

Update: Okay, so after the files were verified, a Steam popup displays this: " 1 file failed to validate and will be reacquired. "

 

Hmm, now unfortunately this did not tell me which file that was. I'll continue to monitor this and see if anything works.

[TBGRicky]

Did you try to verify the game files? That usually fixes most anything.

Alright, so after the files were verified, I tried running my game again, and the problem still persists.

[M48A5]

Is that with or without mods? It order to get completely straight, you will need to completely uninstall everything related to Fallout: New Vegas and start over.

 

When you re-install the game, do not install it in the default location of "Program Files".

[dubiousintent]

* Did you install Steam to it's default location? (GOG is not a problem as it places the game correctly.) If so, please see the wiki "Installing Games on Windows Vista+" article for why the original default Steam behavior of installing games to the "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files(x86)" folder tree was bad (they learned better, and don't do that any more but didn't change it for older games); and why "disabling UAC and running as Administrator" is NOT sufficient, with instructions how to move it. Among other things, later versions of Windows (since the game was released) force files in "system protected" folder trees to be "read only" regardless of how you set them manually. It includes instructions on how to correctly move the Steam folders out of that folder path.

Don't move it to a folder under "User\Documents" either, as "executable" files are not permitted to run from there for similar "anti-malware" reasons.

This is the single most important thing you can do to fix and protect yourself against problems in the future. As much of a PITA as that is, it's never going to be any easier than now. System updates often cause issues with games installed to these folder trees. With the game moved out of the default location you will not need to be running it as an "Administrator Account", which is safer. Please see the 'Restoring to "Vanilla"' section of the wiki "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article as well.

* Do you have "New Vegas Stutter Remover" (NVSR) installed? If so, please see the 'Issue: CTD after 10-20 minutes of play (post-Win10 2017 FCU)' and 'Issue: CTD without warning, "Out of Memory error", or stops responding after the Main Menu' entries in the 'Solutions to "Crash To Desktop" (CTD) problems' section in the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide. Note the default NVSR settings do not work with Win10, but there are some recommended by the author for Win10 further down in the article.

:* Currently, the recommended alternative to NVSR, if you are running Win7 or Win10, is to try using the "New Vegas Tick Fix (NVTF)" and "New Vegas Heap Replacer (NVHR)" mods instead.

Please see the 'Towards Game Stability' and the 'Common Game Problems' sections of the wiki "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article.

If the problem persists, then work through either the 'Solutions to Starting the game problems' or the 'Solutions to "Crash To Desktop" (CTD) problems' sections in the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide.

 

Note that "Starting the game problems" section includes an entry about requiring a specific version of DirectX9 also be installed.

I recommend anyone read the entire "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article to understand the differences between this game and others you may have experience with; especially if this is your first attempt to play a modded FNV or it's been more than a year since you last set it up. It is designed for someone who has never played a modded PC game before, so it tries to avoid making any assumptions, is kept "up-to-date", and covers years of "lessons learned" by a retired Technical Support expert. It is NOT a list of various mods to install that happen to work on the author's machine; only "the essentials". It addresses fundamentals underlying how to get the basic game and mods to work together. At least 90% of everything I post in the "Technical Support" sub-forum is already in that article. Once you can play a test game to at least Primm, only then should you try adding other mods from some other "guide", such as "The Frontier".

-Dubious-

[TBGRicky]

Is that with or without mods? It order to get completely straight, you will need to completely uninstall everything related to Fallout: New Vegas and start over.

 

When you re-install the game, do not install it in the default location of "Program Files".

I used to have a huge mod list, but that's all gone now. I'm trying to uninstall the game again as I am typing this.

 

Okay, so if I do not install it in the default location of "Program Files", then what is the better location to install it in?

[TBGRicky]

* Did you install Steam to it's default location? (GOG is not a problem as it places the game correctly.) If so, please see the wiki "Installing Games on Windows Vista+" article for why the original default Steam behavior of installing games to the "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files(x86)" folder tree was bad (they learned better, and don't do that any more but didn't change it for older games); and why "disabling UAC and running as Administrator" is NOT sufficient, with instructions how to move it. Among other things, later versions of Windows (since the game was released) force files in "system protected" folder trees to be "read only" regardless of how you set them manually. It includes instructions on how to correctly move the Steam folders out of that folder path.

 

Don't move it to a folder under "User\Documents" either, as "executable" files are not permitted to run from there for similar "anti-malware" reasons.

 

This is the single most important thing you can do to fix and protect yourself against problems in the future. As much of a PITA as that is, it's never going to be any easier than now. System updates often cause issues with games installed to these folder trees. With the game moved out of the default location you will not need to be running it as an "Administrator Account", which is safer. Please see the 'Restoring to "Vanilla"' section of the wiki "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article as well.

 

* Do you have "New Vegas Stutter Remover" (NVSR) installed? If so, please see the 'Issue: CTD after 10-20 minutes of play (post-Win10 2017 FCU)' and 'Issue: CTD without warning, "Out of Memory error", or stops responding after the Main Menu' entries in the 'Solutions to "Crash To Desktop" (CTD) problems' section in the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide. Note the default NVSR settings do not work with Win10, but there are some recommended by the author for Win10 further down in the article.

 

:* Currently, the recommended alternative to NVSR, if you are running Win7 or Win10, is to try using the "New Vegas Tick Fix (NVTF)" and "New Vegas Heap Replacer (NVHR)" mods instead.

 

Please see the 'Towards Game Stability' and the 'Common Game Problems' sections of the wiki "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article.

 

If the problem persists, then work through either the 'Solutions to Starting the game problems' or the 'Solutions to "Crash To Desktop" (CTD) problems' sections in the wiki "Fallout NV Mod Conflict Troubleshooting" guide.

 

Note that "Starting the game problems" section includes an entry about requiring a specific version of DirectX9 also be installed.

I recommend anyone read the entire "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article to understand the differences between this game and others you may have experience with; especially if this is your first attempt to play a modded FNV or it's been more than a year since you last set it up. It is designed for someone who has never played a modded PC game before, so it tries to avoid making any assumptions, is kept "up-to-date", and covers years of "lessons learned" by a retired Technical Support expert. It is NOT a list of various mods to install that happen to work on the author's machine; only "the essentials". It addresses fundamentals underlying how to get the basic game and mods to work together. At least 90% of everything I post in the "Technical Support" sub-forum is already in that article. Once you can play a test game to at least Primm, only then should you try adding other mods from some other "guide", such as "The Frontier".

 

-Dubious-

 

 

Hi Dubious, thank you for the reply.

 

Yup, I installed Steam to its default location.

 

The thing is that I never used to have any problems like this when the game files were placed in my game folder under the C:\Program Files(x86) folder tree. But now with your post, now I know better.

So I'll take a look at these links, thank you for them.

[TBGRicky]

Important update:

Thankfully, my issue is completely resolved now. Two days ago, I had to reinstall FNV and that was the only way to fix my problem. As I am typing this, I am in the process of reinstalling the last few mods that I need in order to get my game back to the way it was a few days ago.