Windows 7 Crashes

[Waterdrop]

So I tried playing Fallout 3 on my new computer and am having some problems. First off, here are some details.

 

Installed:

Via Disc

latest Official Patch

On Windows 7, with more than appropriate hardware to handle the game (ex: Oblivion runs ridiculously well)

No firewall/anti-virus interferance

Running Fallout as Administrator (Tried once without doing this just to check)

 

Have tried two install directories so far

Computer/C:/Program Files (x86)/Bethesda Softworks/Fallout 3/

C:/Fallout 3/

 

Have also tried to run in some different compatibility modes.

 

The farthest I've gone without Fallout 3 freezing and becoming unresponsive is when my character wakes up and has to fight his/her way out of the vault (in the begining). I usually crash right around when I leave my room (Bearly get to see the first guard and accompanied radroaches). Lately I haven't been able to get past the initial character creation process (the birthing part). I've tried reinstalling and that didn't help. I was planning on getting some mods going, but need to figure out whats wrong with the vanilla game first. Help would be much appreciated.

[Fonger]

On Windows 7

 

Directory: Computer/C:/Program Files (x86)/Bethesda Softworks

 

I was planning on getting some mods going

you'll want to change your directory long before that

[Waterdrop]

My original install location was "C:\Fallout 3\", but since it was crashing I reinstalled to the default hoping to fix it. This did not work.

[Waterdrop]

Alright, I found a fix on the Bethesda Forums. I'll share it on the off-chance someone is reading who has the same problem.

For Windows 7 Users Experiencing random and frequent game crashes (Game freeze followed by an unresponsive Fallout 3).

This is supposively a multi-core processor issue (which is true for me, I have a dual-core i3)

Fixed by going to your Fallout.ini file in Documents/My Games/Fallout3/ and making the following changes

 

Try adding this line to the [General] section of the Fallout.ini

iNumHWThreads=2

And change the 0 to 1 for this line

bUseThreadedAI=0

this line then should look like this:

bUseThreadedAI=1

 

I feel as though I've wasted forum space for finding an answer to my own problem, hopefully this can help someone else.

[Clint1337wood]

Alright, I found a fix on the Bethesda Forums. I'll share it on the off-chance someone is reading who has the same problem.

For Windows 7 Users Experiencing random and frequent game crashes (Game freeze followed by an unresponsive Fallout 3).

This is supposively a multi-core processor issue (which is true for me, I have a dual-core i3)

Fixed by going to your Fallout.ini file in Documents/My Games/Fallout3/ and making the following changes

 

Try adding this line to the [General] section of the Fallout.ini

iNumHWThreads=2

And change the 0 to 1 for this line

bUseThreadedAI=0

this line then should look like this:

bUseThreadedAI=1

 

I feel as though I've wasted forum space for finding an answer to my own problem, hopefully this can help someone else.

 

You sir are a god, you have just cured my cancer, is there anyway I could ever repay you?

[El`derina]

Try adding this line to the [General] section of the Fallout.ini

iNumHWThreads=2

And change the 0 to 1 for this line

bUseThreadedAI=0

this line then should look like this:

bUseThreadedAI=1

 

Sooo well... i also have windows 7 and a dual core processor. But never experienced the same issues,... just for the heck of it and experimentation, i added in that line and edited the other. In game i 'think' theres a slight improvement, but there wasnt much room to improve on to begin with so i may be imagining it.

since i didnt have those values before, does this mean i was running off half my processors capability? confused since it sounds as if i 'should' have been in the same pickle-

 

Pentium R Dual Core CPU E5300 @ 2.6ghz

[bben46]

Definitely not wasted space. Any post that helps others is more than welcome, whether it has been posted before or not. And I don't remember seeing this fix before.

Bben46, Moderator

 

I also have dual core Win7x64. I have run on both an AMD 64FX-60 (dual core) and my newer Intel i5-650 processor (also dual core). I did not have this problem with either system

[phoneyLogic]

Try adding this line to the [General] section of the Fallout.ini

iNumHWThreads=2

And change the 0 to 1 for this line

bUseThreadedAI=0

this line then should look like this:

bUseThreadedAI=1

 

Sooo well... i also have windows 7 and a dual core processor. But never experienced the same issues,... just for the heck of it and experimentation, i added in that line and edited the other. In game i 'think' theres a slight improvement, but there wasnt much room to improve on to begin with so i may be imagining it.

since i didnt have those values before, does this mean i was running off half my processors capability? confused since it sounds as if i 'should' have been in the same pickle-

 

Pentium R Dual Core CPU E5300 @ 2.6ghz

 

The line "iNumHWThreads=X" defines the maximum number of cores which are use.

=> If you have a dual core with 2.4 Ghz each you can theoretically set the maximum number to 1. This causes only one core being used, which even might improve the game play.

[MadeyeMatt]

Spent 2 hours yesterday trying to work out how to get Fallout 3 to work on my hardware (i7 2760, 16GB, 6990M) - kept freezing hard trying to leave Vault 101

 

This piece of advice did the tricknicely - THANK YOU!!! :biggrin:

[M48A5]

There is a post in the Bethesda Forums for just this problem. Here is the link: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1348070-windows7-quad-core-fixes/.

Hope this helps.