Hello everyone, I know this is the 5341234th thread about Fallout 3 lockups and I want to say, that I just spend the whole sunday and monday trying to get Fallout 3 to work with all those internet solutions. I know that the game worked on my PC about a year ago, but since even a complete reinstall of my system didn't help, I'm hoping to find some support here. Maybe something in the game has changed with a recent patch that I don't know about? Ok, first my specs: Intel Quadcore Q9550 @ 2.83Ghz 4GB DDR2 800 GeForce GTX260² v197.45 SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium Vista64 Home Premium Running Fallout 3 Retail UK Version 1.6/1.7 No Cracks involved Not using the standard installation path The symptoms: I installed F3 on my old Windows-Installation, where it worked a year ago, because I figured a lot has changed (mod-wise) and it would be best to get everything up to date with a new game setup. Everything worked fine, except for the game crashing on startup when I DID NOT use FOSE. With the Script Extender I was able to start the game and play. I got out of the Vault, did the first quests and then it suddenly locked up randomly. I figured that it always happened in Silvers house in Springvale within a matter of seconds, but everywhere else after a few minutes as well. My search for fixes: - first I tried the usual candidates, deactivating mods until I reinstalled the game completly and tried to run it mostly vanilla (except for FOSE, otherwise it wouldn't start, probably something with LIVE) - this didn't help, even the vanilla version locked up - then I looked up FFDSHOW, which I hadn't installed at all ... I did install it and deactivated Audio/Video for Fallout 3... didn't work - I tried deactivating my pagefile... didn't work - I tried using older video drivers, of which some said it fixed their problems... didn't work - I tried playing in Windowed-mode... didn't work - I tried using ALchemy on F3... didn't work - I tried increasing the process priority... didn't work - I tried to set the speaker configuration to stereo... didn't work - I tried setting the Fallout3.exe to use >2GB RAM with CFF Explorer... didn't work - I tried switching between Version 1.6 and 1.7... didn't work - I switched the installation path... didn't work After that I figured I should reinstall my entire system, was about time for it anyway. So now I have nothing installed except for: - Vista64 Home Premium (with all updates) - Nvidia Drivers 197.45 - recently updated Sounddrivers - Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro 6.7.1 - Fallout 3 v1.7 without any mods/DLCs ... and it still locks up after a few minutes of gameplay outside the Vault. I have to add that it does not crash on startup anymore, not with FOSE nor without. So the new installation fixed something at least. I figured, since it ran perfectly once, it can't be some BIOS setting or missing firmware update. I'm expecting something with the 1.7 patch or the Windows Updates since last year. My PC temperature is fine, I kept monitoring it all the time. Even after a complete system reboot the game would lock up in a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds. So yea, if anyone out there would be kind enough to give me a hint, I would be very grateful.