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:biggrin: ... there's a mod for all seasons! Seems a bit of a hassle to have to check/uncheck mods based on season though ... but it is definitely a thought if they've been de-conflicted with FO3Edit! :)

Just as FYI, the fault was really Bethesda's ... the script to start Broken Steel is embedded in race-specific switches, so if you are playing a custom race, you by-pass all the "if race==xxx" kind of statements where the Broken Steel start-up statements are located. The custom race mods generally overwrite this script with one that adds a condition to start if the previous ones didn't fire. Because of the script overwriting, it is generally best to put such custom race mods near the end of your load order in FOMM (not using FOMM? Shame on you!). Also, utlities like FO3Edit (get Miax's guiide on how to use it as well) are priceless in resolving mod conflicts (and script overwriting can definitely cause mod conflicts!).

I'm not sure about Windows 7 (haven't tried it), but FOSE can cause problems in Vista, with an immediate CTD on start-up with FOSE enabled. Too many other fish to fry atm to go poking around into why FOSE's dll's are bombing Fallout3, so this topic is of interest to me as well. In the meantime, I removed FOSE and mods that require it and all is good. :)

You can find the latest nVidia drivers on their site: Official nVidia Drivers Page.

Unpacking a BSA should be a last resort (it can really bloat your Data folder over time). Usually problems like this (where ! icons appear or red squares), indicates that a needed resource (texture or mesh) isn't available. If you used ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated! (which you should, it's a great utility), then there is no need for the archiveinvalidation.txt file. If you didn't use the utility, then the textures/meshes have to be added to archiveinvalidation.txt (or if it doesn't exist, it has to be created). All that said, things like that are common when changing load orders in FOMM. It's a good idea to get FO3Edit (and Miax's guide on using it) to get rid of mod conflicts.

To expand on gsmanner's driver suggestion -- if you use an nVidia card, older drivers can cause problems in Vista. I had similar problems (in Oblivion) until I updated the driver. With my new GeForce GTS 250, the newer driver causes no problems. You can check for the latest nVidia drivers at nVidia Official Drivers page. Hope this helps.

That usually happens when the resource isn't found by Fallout3 and that ugly box pops up in-game. If you use ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated! (and you should have), you can turn it off and then on again, would "refresh" it and (hopefully) force FO3 to look in the Data textures and meshes folders for the replacements. The same thing can be accomplished from within FOMM with two clicks of a button. Another consideration: if you recently installed a new mod, there might be a conflict between mods. You can use FO3Edit to find and resolve these conflicts (Miax's FO3Edit guide will show you how). Hopefully, this is of some help. I'm sure others can offer different insights.

On the customized armors, look in your Data/Textures folder and look at the size of the .dds files. There's always the off-chance that if the .dds texture is very high resolution, your graphics card is having a problem rendering it in a timely way and FO3 has to wait for it to "catch up." Others might have more technical solutions :) ... this is just what popped into my head because I had that problem when using the uncompressed texture (21mb) for Type3 body replacer. Once I replaced the texture with a more reasonable (compressed version (5mb)), the problem went away.

SirFrank: the fallout .ini file is in your My Documents\My Games\Fallout3 folder (XP) or in (UserName)\Documents\My Games\Fallout3 (Vista). A default .ini is created when you install Fallout (to whatever directory). Some utilities (ArchiveInvalidation Invalided! is one) make changes to this file, so deleting it probably isn't a good idea (though, Fallout3 itself might recreate a default one(?) if it isn't there ... not sure about that, since I've never intentionally deleted it.) There are tweak guides that tell you about the settings and how to optimize them available on the 'net.

In addition to gsmanner's suggestion (I DLed it myself :) to try it out as an alternative), there is also FO3Edit. Does what the other does, plus more. If additional conflict resolution, merge patch options and whatnot are needed, this utility has it. If you do try out FO3Edit, also get Miax's great FO3Edit guide.

I hate to get somewhat off-topic, but if moving the .ini file and using ArchiveInvalidated Invalidate! cause a problem of that nature? I know the utility changes a few settings the bArchieve...whatever setting for one, and establishing the reference for its BSA file. Would that lead to the behavior that was reported if the BSA were no longer there? :) Thanks for considering the question in advance, I'm just trying to resolve that potential thorny issue in my mind.

First and foremost, with that many mods you should be using FO3Edit to help with conflict determination and resolution (get Miax's great FO3Edit guide to help you learn the tool). As for hairpack.esm and all the other cosmetic mods ... I highly recommend you get Ling's LC&C, or Ling's Finer Things (or both). Then, once you are comfortable with FO3Edit, you can change the master dependency of mods on hairpack etc. to point to Ling's LC&C as its esm ... works great and the FormIDs in LC&C are compatible with HairPack.esm. This will greatly reduce the Data folder's mesh/texture bloat, as the vast majority of the cosmetic stuff (and armor and other things as well in LFT) are kept in BSA files -- in addition, you'll have access to more hairs, eyes and whatnot than in the original hair/eye mods individually, and with no conflicts that can't be easily resolved with FO3Edit.

It might work for the mods. But there is a higher probability that it won't, I'd highly recommend reinstalling mods. The saves should be okay once the mods they depend on are reinstalled.

Are you using a customized race? If so, you'll need to get one of the customized race alternate ending mods.

There are three essential tools you need. You are most likely already using two of them -- FOMM and ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated! When using more than a handful of mods, it is a good practice to use FO3Edit as well, as it is an invaluable tool for detecting conflicts and creating a merge patch to overcome those conflicts. So get FO3Edit and Miax's invaluable FO3Edit Guide and get those wrinkles ironed out! Hope this helps :)

To underscore what Baduk so rightfully posted, simply moving the folder doesn't change the Windows registry entries (and using regedit to do it is a dangerous practice). Programs like FOMM, FO3Edit and ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated! rely on Fallout3's registry data to work. So, yep, Baduk's right -- reinstall Fallout3, the 1.7 patch, then any DLCs, followed by reinstallation of any of the mentioned utilities. That would be followed by the grunt work of reinstalling mods. Do reinstall to a directory other than Program Files, especially in Windows Vista, as it gets rid of some problems. A location like c:\games\Fallout3 works great (not only for Fallout, but games in general with Vista).

saizai: Are you installing to the c:\Program Files default installation? I have read countless posts that it is far better to install to a directory other than Program Files, like c:\games\Fallout3. This is especially true in Vista, where the Program Files directory is under UAC (User Account Control) security and UAC and Fallout (and Oblivion) are almost mutually exclusive, even when going to the trouble to create a User account specifically for Fallout. The error message you posted is vaguely similar to the ones I got when I originally installed to c:\Program Files\etc. Though my memory might be hazy, it's been a while :D Hope this helps.

Here you go :) ... nVidia Drivers

Thanks for beating me to it isgod101. I recommend the MS Word version of the guide, the .mht "Web" version will only work IE, and even then the Word version works better. The part you'll want to look at is the chapter on Conflict Resolution (though all of Miax's guide is worth reading). Good luck getting your mod order straight! I found the time investment well worth it, I don't have mod conflicts and don't seem to crash in-game more than the Bethesda Daily Crash Quota dictates. :)

You didn't list your system specs, but a good start would be to ensure you have the latest drivers for your video card. From experience, this is particularly true in nVidia's case. If that doesn't help, maybe posting more information regarding your operating system, processor, RAM and video card would get the real experts to weigh in with their suggestions.

Even though I don't use xlive, it was good to know that! Thanks for re-posting it (probably for the umpteenth time) ... they should sticky that link somewhere. :thanks: So kudos to you for your conscienciousness and patience! :)

The one that comes immediately to mind that changes a lot of NPC appearances is Project Beauty. Overwriting PB's stuff (which uses HairPack.esm) would be easy to do if you later installed different hair/eye mods. As an alternative, you could try Ling's LCC resource .esm/bsa. It has almost all the hair/eye mods combined and you could then create a merged patch using FO3Edit where you manually override Susan Lancaster's hair to the one depicted. Hope this helps.

The light bulb came on after posting this. There's no need to copy the exe file and rename it to FO3MasterRestore.exe ... just create a shortcut to FO3Edit.exe and in the shortcut properties add the switch -masterupdate after the executable path/appname. For Master Restore, add the switch -masterrestore to the shortcut path/appname. So essentially you have one exe, but 3 shortcuts to it (one with no switch and two with switches). The post about running FO3Edit when installing new mods is dead-on. You'll want to do the Restore/Update procedure after running FO3Edit set to detect conflicts (get Miax's great guide to show you how). Hope this helps.

Kozar: If you don't play Fallout3 using a downloaded version, you could try installing one of the great xlive.dll disablers. Patch 1.7 is definitely less buggy than previous versions. The recommended install procedure is to install Fallout3 (from the DVD) and immediately install the 1.7 patch, even before running FO3. Then you'll want some great add-on utilities like Fallout Mod Manager, ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated! and FO3Edit (and the great guide in using it by Miax). If Fallout3 was a DL version, you may have to migrate from the GW-whatever folder to the "actual" game folder ... there's a utility for that too (sorry, not as up on that as I should be, since all my DLCs were installed from DVD). As for Sir Frank ... Same deal, install Fallout3, upgrade to 1.7 AND THEN install the DLCs. Also, if you are using Windows Vista, there are some problems with SecuROM and the Vista User Account Control (UAC). I had to disable UAC in order for my DVD drive to install Fallout3 and the DLCs. Also, I understand from reading posts, etc. that doing the 1.7 patch on top of installed DLCs doesn't work all that well. Can't say from my own experience, just something noted in the forums. So best to install Fallout3, patch it to 1.7 and then install the DLCs. Hope this helps.

Well, hopefully you aren't boned ... :biggrin: . Download FO3Edit (by ElminsterAU) and get Miax's great FO3Edit guide in how to use it. It works wonders in tracking down mod conflicts (and hopefully that's what's at issue here). Hope this helps.