Fallout 3 Causes BSOD when Going into VATS.

[Scyris]

Hi all, I have a rather unique problem with fallout 3, for some reason 30% of the time I activate Vats, my pc tends to BSOD for no apparent reason, and the message from the bsod goes by so fast I cannot read it. The game also has alot of Hiccup's where it freezes for a split second, Do not have this issue in any other game, just fallout 3.

 

here is my pc specs

 

Pentium D 805 Dualcore 2.66ghz (yes i know its a crap cpu but it was in budget at the time)

2 GB Ram

250 gig hdd

Geforce 8800gt 512 MB PCi-e

Windows Xp Service pack 3.

Just updated vid card drivers (195.62)

All Mods are up to date

Antistropic is set to 4x, Anti-alazing is also 4x, Resultion I run at is 1280x1024 (Anything lower and my monitor tends to run games blurry, never been any to figure out why. Doesn't do it with desktop res set to 1024x768)

Soundcard: Realtek HD Onboard (Unsure of what model exactly)

 

Ms games for windows live, is disabled 2 fold, 1 by a mod another by Fomm/Fose. Mod order is Moot because I had this issue on a clean fresh install of the GoTY edition.

 

Thanks for any and all help you can give.

[csb]

First on the vid drivers: see the TweakGuides.com Fallout3 guide for the recommended driver for Fallout3 (and Oblivion). The stability of the latest/greatest nVidia drivers are usually suspect, I'd recommended going with the one that works. Check the guide frequently to see if the vid driver recommendation changes.

 

Second, concerning freezes: this is often caused by fddshow. Codec utilities like K-Lite disable fddshow, either by their default install or by running the utility and disabling on a per application basis. This helps with many screen freeze issues.

 

Lastly, get ElminsterAU's great FO3Edit utility and Miax's great FO3Edit Guide - Web-enized on using it to find and resolve mod conflicts. Just because your mod order was stable in the regular version of FO3, doesn't give 100% surety that it is with GotY edition.

[Scyris]

Already used Fo3Edit and made a merged patch no conflicts detected.

[gsmanners]

Try cutting back on those settings. That AA could well be overheating your video card. Plus you might want to go back a bit on the video driver:

 

http://filehippo.com/download_nvidia_forceware_xp/5795/

[Scyris]

Hmm any reason why going back on the driver? I also don't see why fo3 would cause my card to overheat, i've played other games that were far more graphicaly intensive and it was fine. But I'll try it after i reinstall Fo3.

[gsmanners]

New drivers usually contain experimental features that are meant for developers to test their code against, but are not meant for desktop users to actually use. Those features frequently cause breakage in the system which can lead to things not functioning to the extent that you may see crashing. Drivers work at the hardware level, so any malfunction could possibly even cause damage to your hardware (unlikely, but possible).

 

Fallout 3 uses Gamebryo, which relies heavily on the GPUs in your system. Many intensely graphical games (written by competent developers) use a good balance of CPU and GPU resources. Some nVidia cards (in my experience) have been known to overheat when applications rely too much on the GPUs. Your experience may vary, but I hear a lot of rumors to this effect as well.

[Scyris]

Hmm well Did all you suggested doesn't BSOD as often but it still does. Btw I can play other games that use this same engine and never have this issue, so it seems to be a Fallout 3 problem. I mean I guess I could play out of vats but full auto weapons are totally worthless without it. a 3 shot burst in vats does more than shooting the same guy 20 times outside of vats even at close range. Maybe i'll try downloading one of those overclock things, and use it to set the fan to 100% power when playing Fo3 to see if it IS a overheating issue or not. It just seems odd that 99% of the time this happens its always when I go to use VATS to target something.

[gareththegeek]

Hi all, I have a rather unique problem with fallout 3, for some reason 30% of the time I activate Vats, my pc tends to BSOD for no apparent reason, and the message from the bsod goes by so fast I cannot read it.

 

Wouldn't say it was a unique problem since I get this too.

 

I'd say on my machine there is about a 1 / 30 chance of BSOD when entering VATS and message is too fast to read.

 

I am using Stock FO3 (No Mods, no GOTY) patched to latest version (the problem was happening with previous version so I patched it - still happens).

 

Core 2 Duo

2Gb RAM

nVidia 6600 GTS (A little old now I guess) 512mb

 

Patched up my graphics drivers to latest version and still happens.

 

My brother's PC gets this issue too even though his hardware setup is totally different to mine (i.e. newer generally).

 

Pretty annoying :D

 

I had a save where it seemed to be pretty much guaranteed to crash entering VATS right after start up from cold so I don't think it is overheating.

[Fonger]

Wouldn't say it was a unique problem since I get this too.

haven't heard of this issue since a month after the game came out

 

do you have the current patch.

[Cadeyrn1]

I have the exact problem posted here, plus it'll also occassionally crash when I look at my pipboy. Fallout New Vegas works flawlessly after hours of play, but Fallout 3 on this computer is having that random BSOD at VATS and the pipboy. It's too fast to read, but I always catch a "nv4_disp" in it somewhere. It's not the infamous nv4 infinite loop. If it was I would have problems with AT LEAST one other game, and I would definitely have problems with New Vegas, but I have none with either. It also isn't an overheat issue because as it is for these people, it can happen right when I start the game. Edited February 26, 2011 by Cadeyrn1