New Vegas Brutal Crashing Problem - Need Help

[MrVassal]

Hey Nexus New Vegas Forum-Folk,

 

I've been trying to play a modded Fallout New Vegas game and have been experiencing very bad crashing issues. The game is extremely unstable and locks up or outright dies every few minutes, or repeatedly when trying the same action (though rarely). I'll post my system specs, game load order, the symptoms and what I've done to try to fix things. I'm basically at the point of just washing my hands of the game and walking away, so suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

I. My system:

 

 

Intel i7 3770 3.4gHz
8 Gb memory
Windows 7 64-bit
Radeon HD 6800-series graphics card
1 TB system drive

 

 

 

II. Game info & load order. NVSE v2, fake windowed mode (using Game Companion from the Nexus) with the 4Gb patch and all NV autosaves turned off. All mods installed with Nexus Mod Manager (manually when needed). Archive Invalidation provided by NMM. [NOTE: in addition to the list below, I also have a Type3 body replacer, improved LOD noise textures, NMC's retextures (small version with performance landscape) and Poco Bueno retextures. I also had Nevada Skies and Fallout NV Realistic Wasteland Lighting installed but removed them as the crashes became ubiquitous - to no avail. I haven't reinstalled them]

 

 

FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
CaravanPack.esm
YUP - Base Game + All DLC.esm
Companion Core.esm
Advanced Recon Tech.esm
Detec Traps.esm
Afterschool Special.esm
Someguy Series.esm
The New Bison Steve Hotel.esm
Shogo_Heavy_Industries.esm
RobCo Certified.esm
Project Nevada - Core.esm
Project Nevada - Extra Options.esm
Project Nevada - Equipment.esm
ELECTRO-CITY - CompletedWorkorders.esm
ELECTRO-CITY - Highways and Byways.esm
New Vegas Redesigned II.esm
Project Nevada - Rebalance.esp (ESP marked as Master)
Project Nevada - Cyberware.esp (ESP marked as Master)
JIP Selective-Fire.esm
oHUD.esm
SRDG.esm (Silver Rush Door Guard mod)
DarNifiedUINV.esp
CASM.esp
The Mod Configuration Menu.esp
Project Nevada - Cyberware Additions.esp
Project Nevada - Rebalance Complete.esp
Project Nevada - All DLC.esp
AWSW.esp (Atomic Wrangler Sex Workers mod)
GRARG.esp (Gun Runners Actually Run Guns mod)
Machinzo-RadioNewVegasFixv11.exp
avangraffscorned.esp
betsybrahmin.esp
NewVegasBounties.esp
NewVegasBountiesII.esp
TheInheritance.esp
outsidebets.esp
rotfacetoriches.esp
Detect Traps - Perk.esp
Power Armor Training Perk.esp
Detect Traps - Traponator 4000.esp
Detect Traps - DLC.esp
Improved-ammoingredientsloot.esp
MTB.esp (Mobile Truck Base mod)
PortableCampsite.esp
SaveCass.esp
ArmourRepairKits.esp
LFox Missing Ammo Recipes.esp
LFox Missing Ammo Recipes HH DLC.esp
LFox Missing Ammo Recipes GRA DLC.esp
Advanced Recon Gear.esp
Advanced Recon Tech.esp
turrets.esp (Portable Turrets mod)
Advanced Recon Armor.esp
Advanced Recon Desert Ranger Helmet.esp
Advanced Recon Riot Gear Helmet.esp
Advanced Recon Range Finder.esp
Advanced Recon Gear - Project Nevada.esp
Boacombat2glove.esp (aMidianBorn NV Book of Water retextures)
BlackWolf Backpack.esp
BlackWolf Backpack - Vendor Script Replenish.esp
boa ncrpahelmet.esp (aMidianBorn NV Book of Water retextures)
Colossus T49.esp
Project Nevada - T49XV Patch.esp
FlashlightNVSE.esp
QS_Blackwolf_NV_Backpackmod.esp
RangerPA.esp
NVR-Recommended.esp
New Vegas redesigned- Honest Hearts.esp
Voice dissonance fix.esp
Light Step ED-E.esp
My essential friends (animals).esp
RobCo Certified Friendly Hit Fixer.esp
UnlimitedCompanions.esp
UnlimitedCompanions SCRIPT FIX.esp
Mojave Nights.esp
RWD-NV v1.4 [standard Version].esp (Realistic Weapon Damage)
PipBoyLight.esp
pipboyx2.esp
Burning CampFire.esp
Delay DLC - DM + HH + OWB + LR + GRA.esp
Easy Hacking.esp
SPECIALer_DLC03.esp
Terrifying Presence.esp
Lfox Bottle That Water.esp
Weapon Stat Viewer.esp
PreorderWeaponFixesComplete.esp
WeaponModsExpanded.esp
Project Nevada - WMX.esp
WMX-ModernWeapons.esp
WMX-DeadMoney.esp
WMX-HonestHearts.esp
WMX-OldWorldBlues.esp
WMX-LonesomeRoad.esp
WMX-GunRunnersArsenal.esp
WMX-MW-GRA.esp
WMX-PreOrderPackClassic.esp
WMX-PreOrderPackCaravan.esp
WMX-PreOrderPackMercenary.esp
WMX-PreOrderPackTribal.esp
EVE FNV - All DLC.esp
WMX-EVE-AllDLC.esp
Project Nevada - EVE All DLC.esp
ulyssesbarksfix.esp
Better Game Performance.esp
CourierCacheWSE.esp
H&K P90c.esp
Merged Patch.esp

 

 

 

 

III. The symptoms:

 

Game locks up (i.e., freezes, requiring killing it with the task manager) or dies (i.e., Windows dialog 'FalloutNV Has Stopped Working') very often, usually while trying to load new terrain or while loading into a new cell but has had sporadic issues with other things (shooting geckos through a scope at a particular location caused 100% reproducable crashing, but moving to a slightly different location nearby (literally a few in-game meters) worked fine. Also, trying to enter the mobile truck base produces 100% reproducable crashes in my latest save. Has crashed immediately after a CASM save a couple times, as well).

 

Lately, I've also had texture issues where something would be completely black or someone would be nothing but floating eyes and equipment. I understand this is an archive invalidation issue, but I'm not sure what to do about it. The Archive Invalidation Invalidated mod for NV is outdated and, by the mod author's own description, doesn't work.

 

 

 

IV. My feeble attempts to fix things:

 

1. Saved a lot. Then installed CASM and had it save a lot. No help.
2. Saved a lot more using CASM quicksave (F4).
3. Downgraded NMC's retexture from medium to small.
4. Ran windows memory test. No problems found.
5. Upgraded video drivers.
6. Ran disk check. Found 1 bad sector and some free space that was marked as used. Disk has 600+ Gb free. Crashing problem continued.
7. Made sure disk was defragmented. It was (auto-defrag once per week).
8. Originally had JIP Companions Command & Control mod installed along with NVSE 4.2b12 Beta. Thinking the beta NVSE could be having an issue, and that JIP CC&C was the only mod requiring v4 NVSE, I removed both CC&C and NVSE v4 and installed NVSE v2. New Vegas wouldn't even start afterward. Cue ragequit and uninstallation of all mods, deletion of Fallout: New Vegas and all savegames.
9. Cooled down, reinstalled FNV from Steam and searched the internet and read a lot/watched a lot of video tutorials. Restored deleted savegames.
10. Begain reinstalling all mods except JIP CC&C (didn't really use it) and some others I wasn't going to use (Russell companion, Real Time Settler, Farming Bob NV, etc.). Went with v2 NVSE. Added FNV Stutter Remover, setting max FPS to 50 (30 was choppy). Unchecked vertical sync from NV Options as per Game Companion documentation. Installed a performance improvement mod (Better Game Performance). Downloaded FNVEdit and made a merged patch.
11. Crashing continues unabated.
12. Downloaded performance landscape patch for NMC retextures. No help
13. Turned off all plugins in NMM, reactivated only the DLCs and pre-order packs and started the game. It ran great.
14. Slowly started reactivating plugins. Game ran fine with Project Nevada, WMX, all the HUD mods, the mobile truck base (MTB) and RobCo Certified. Ran around shooting everyone/everything for hours, just happy to be able to play.
15. Reactivated the Colossus armor (which my character is wearing) and the game crashed on entering the MTB.
16. Ran another memory test. Came back fine again.
17. Toyed with plugins a lot. Found that eliminating the Colossus armor and the Blackwolf backpacks helps, but still get crashes (I can enter the MTB and exit fine, but trying to enter the Novac hotel lobby just outside causes a crash).
18. Verified Steam New Vegas local files. Two files were replaced, but those were the .ini files I had to edit for DarnUI, so I had to reedit those.
19. Removed more mods (Weapon Animation Replacers, Stimpack Counter, Signature Weapons, New Vegas Uncut #2 and #7, and Improved Automatic Ironsight Animations). Remade merged patch. Crashing still continued.
20. Downloaded BOSS. Ran BOSS. Reorderded load order according to BOSS recommendations. Ran FNVEdit and immediately had a problem. BOSS had a needed master file below a dependent file. Not encouraging. Fixed that and ran FNVEdit with no errors. Remade merged patch just in case. Crashing not fixed.
21. Stopped using fake window mode and ran full-screen instead, on off-chance that was contributing to the problem (stopped using Game Companion, re-enabled vertical sync). Did not help.
22. Turned off anti-aliasing. Did not help.
23. Looked into Wrye Bash/Flash, but documentation is so outdated or vague that I don't even want to attempt it.

 

This is where I'm at now. I can play New Vegas with a fraction of the mods I want to use, but the total number of plugins I want isn't exorbinant (125-ish originally and now down to about 115, 14 of which are WMX. I can get that down to under 100 easily). I've read that NV has a much lower mod limit than FO3 or Skyrim at around 150, but I'm not anywhere near that. My system specs are more than enough, by far, to run NV even heavily modded. And yet, here I am. I can run Skyrim with 200+ plugins mostly trouble-free with the odd crash few and far between, but New Vegas has been nothing but frustration sprinkled with a smidgen of amusement. Steam says I've played NV about 45 hours, and I can tell you I have at least twice that in non-play research/troubleshooting.

 

For some reason the Colossus armor and Blackwolf backpacks cause issues for me, but why? I looked at them in FNVEdit and nothing jumped out at me (granted, I'm not a modder, but nothing was red). Sigh...

 

Hopefully someone here will read this and say 'oh yeah, do X and Y and that will fix everything'. I'm pretty much resigned that I'll have to ditch my current playthrough (at level 16, I think) but that would be a small price to pay if I could, you know, actually play the game.

 

If you've read this far, kudos and thanks. Suggest away.

 

EDIT: I almost forgot. I had the HK MP5SD3 mod installed that added a MP5 submachine gun. It was beautiful. I uninstalled it because equipping it or drawing the weapon would lock up/crash the game about half the time. Hope that helps.

Edited February 12, 2014 by MrVassal

[MrVassal]

Wow, no replies. Okay...

 

I've been struggling to figure out what the hell is going on with this game. It's definitely not a hardware issue, unless it's a really obscure problem that only affects New Vegas. I decided to uninstall everything and start from scratch. I got the plugin count down to 99. Most of those are either texture replacers, bug fixes or "gameplay effects" like Project Nevada or Weapon Mods Expanded. I still had crashing issues. Quicksaving with CASM every time I do something I don't want to do again (basically once every couple of minutes) has managed to get me to level 14 in a new playthrough, until tonight.

 

Tonight Doc Mitchell decided to stopped healing me. Sure, he'd take my money but nothing would happen. Over and over again. Then, my compass disappeared (using oHUD. Turns out it was the aHUD portion of oHUD causing the missing compass problem, but as I'm having so many other problems I have no way to be sure it's actually aHUD). In the process of trying to solve that problem I realized that NMM isn't working properly. It's not uninstalling mods right, leaving .esp files behind, it kept re-enabling archive invalidation (I'm using another AI method as NMM wasn't working well), etc. So my last ditch effort is to start another new playthrough using FOMM. If that doesn't work, then I guess I'll be ditching New Vegas unless someone comes up with some major pearls of wisdom for me. I was wanting to try my hand at modding, but that's not going to happen if I can't even run the game...

[2much4l1]

I'm no expert, but you have my sympathy. Your rig is way better than mine, but my game is running pretty smooth with about 90 mods and having 3 followers. Overheating is my bane. Maybe a memory problem? I think FNV only uses 2gb by default. Try one of those 4gb large address aware apps here on the Nexus. Also Cleanmem seemed to help me out quite a bit http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem . You might need the Unified Hud Project by Gopher too.

 

Good luck!

[MrVassal]

I'm already using the 4gb executable. And uHUD. And the stutter remover. I used FNVEdit to make a merged patch and clean mods. I used BOSS to help me with load order. That's what's driving me crazy. From what I can tell, I've done everything right but New Vegas just won't run stable.

 

So I uninstalled all mods and switched to FOMM. Reinstalled everything. FOMM kept crashing anytime I tried to install anything with an info.xml file in it, so I had to go in and delete those out just to get the mods into the game. Poco Bueno was too big (I guess), so I had to use NMM for that and uHUD (FOMM couldn't even look at uHUD without crashing). Now my reloading bench/work bench menus are jacked up (they look vanilla even though I've got Darn's UI). And I can't exit the companion wheel with any keyboard key (the work 'Exit' is there without the normal 'E' above it - I have to click it with the mouse to get out). Obviously, something is seriously wrong, but I'll be damned if I know what it is. NMM wasn't working right, and now FOMM is crashing like the Stevie Wonder taxi service, so I don't know what to do. Maybe uninstall NV and pretend this was all a bad dream? Yeah, that's looking better and better the longer this fiasco drags on.

 

Thanks for your response, though. I'll check out cleanmem and see if that helps.

 

EDIT: I found v0.13.22 of FOMM here. It fixes the crashing with uHUD and Poco and (hopefully) the other mods. I think I'm going to try a complete NV wipe and clean reinstall and see if that helps. If not, I'm done.

Edited February 22, 2014 by MrVassal

[2much4l1]

Smarter guys are here http://forums.bethsoft.com/forum/112-fallout-new-vegas-pc-issues/

Verifying game cache on Steam will default the ini changes required by DarnUI.

People swear by merged patches, but they break more things than they fix for me.

I've never heard it recommended to clean FNV mods.

Never felt the need to use FOMM.

Will your game run unmodded?

[MrVassal]

From my limited testing NV will run unmodded. I basically ran around zoning into/out of places quickly or fast-traveling a lot. That would kill the modded game. I've never played NV unmodded, nor do I have interest in doing so. I'm not a fan of western-themed games, so the modding aspect is what drew me to NV to begin with.

 

I switched to FOMM because I found NMM didn't seem to be unistalling mods properly, and I figured it couldn't hurt. The merged patch thing hasn't helped or harmed as far as I can see. I started using it because of the crashing issue and the crashing issue remains afterward, so no help there. I've already tried verifying Steam and that did reset the ini files (which I had to re-edit for DarnUI), but otherwise didn't help anything.

 

I downloaded Furmark to test my graphics card (it benchmarked right where it was supposed to), I've run memory tests multiple times using multiple programs (no problems found), I've run disk checks (a couple small problems were fixed), I auto-defrag every Wed. night, I've run ordenador texture optimizer, the stutter remover, the 4gb .exe, tried windowed mode and full screen, with vsync disabled and enabled, and still I crash a lot.

 

I've tried running from high to medium textures and that seems to help some (as in, it delayed the crash a few seconds in an area where I was crashing 100%), so I'll run with low textures and see what that does. That points to a graphics issue, but I don't want to buy a new graphics card only to have it turn out that wasn't the problem. And I have to say, I'm not going to play NV on low graphics. I can run Skyrim with over 200+ plugins on high graphics with virtually no problems, so NV should be a piece of cake. But it's turning out to be a fragging nightmare.

 

EDIT: Okay, so low graphics setting stopped the crashing in a problematic area where crashing was 100% certain. So the question is, with a graphics card (and system) far better than even the recommended specs for NV, with updated drivers, why would medium/high graphics settings be causing a problem? What other tests can I run on the graphics portion of my system to verify it is, in fact, a graphics problem?

Edited February 22, 2014 by MrVassal

[MrVassal]

UPDATE: It turns out that not only would New Vegas not run unmodded without crashing as I had previously thought, but Skyrim was having crashing issues, as well (where last I played Skyrim I had no problems, though that was months ago). That solidly points to a systemic problem, at least where games are concerned. The mystery is that nothing was showing a problem. All the tests and benchmarks I'd run said my graphics card was working as it was supposed to, as was everything else. So, what to do?

 

Well, I believe that I fixed the problem. I've started another New Vegas game up to level 9 and only crashed twice, and that was trying to load a save. Loading the next recent save (using CASM) worked fine. Here are the things that did this last time that may have helped resolve this issue:

 

1. Removed New Vegas from my computer using Steam's 'delete local files', then manually deleted the folders where any New Vegas files resided (so, under Program Files and My Games). Deleted the old saves, as well.
2. Ran CCleaner.
3. Reinstalled New Vegas.
4. Used the New Vegas tweak guide at www.geforce.com (here) to tweak my NV graphic settings (eliminated DOF and shadows, mainly).
5. Updated video card drivers (again), but this time I downloaded AMD's auto-detect driver installer. Even though I had updated drivers scant days ago, this found different drivers for my video card and installed them.
6. Picked up an SSD drive and moved Steam.exe and the Steamapps folder there. This required Steam to basically reinstall all it's files again.

As I said, I'm up to level 9 and have 109 active plugins, including a merged patch, with only 2 save-related crashes. As I'd already uninstalled New Vegas a couple of times prior to this last time, I think CCleaner fixed something that was corrupted/broken/possessed. Or maybe it was having Steam reinstall itself. Or maybe it was both. Who knows. All I know is that it seems like things are working the way they're supposed to, for the time being at least.

 

Thanks 2much4l1 for the Bethsoft forum link. That pointed me in a very helpful direction.

 

I hope that Fallout 4 is a much more stable game...

Edited March 1, 2014 by MrVassal