CTD at launch

[ZephyrX]

Hi all. As the topic says, I'm having difficulty launching Fallout 3 on my new computer. When I try to launch it, the screen goes black like it's about to run, then the cursor (blue circle at this point) freezes and the message "Fallout 3 stopped working" appears. At first, I thought it was a mod conflict, so I unchecked all mods besides the Fallout.esm. Even so, it still crashed. Reinstalled and updated to latest version, crashed both times. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point since it ran fine on my old Vista SP2 laptop. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium now, could that be the problem? That's the only real compatibility difference I can think of between the two computers. Any ideas?

 

Computer specs: (in case it has an effect on this)

 

mobo: MSI NF980-G65

RAM: 2x2GB DDR3 g.skill (running underclocked to 1333mhz 7-7-7-18 iirc)

Video: BFG GTX 275 SLI (2-way)

Processor: 965 BE (overclocked to 3800mhz)

OS: WIndows 7 Home Premium

 

If any more information would be helpful, I'll gladly provide it. Thanks for the help!

 

 

ZephyrX

[ZephyrX]

Anyone? Please? I've tried everything short of reinstalling the OS. Help?

[vforvic]

Anyone? Please? I've tried everything short of reinstalling the OS. Help?

 

So on this new machine did it ever work? When you first installed FO3 did you do a fresh install with no mods and then checked to make sure FO3 worked clean right off the bat?

[quicksilverva]

Was reading online for a way to help people out that use Windows 7, and i found an interesting tidbit of information. This comes straight from Fallout 3's FAQ:

 

Does Fallout 3 Support Windows 7?

Fallout 3 is not an officially supported title of Windows 7.

 

 

i know this doesnt help, but thought id share it

 

 

 

quick

 

 

[ZephyrX]

Thanks to both of you for replying!

 

@vforvic - It's never worked before on this machine. I installed it about a month ago right after I got this build stable and didn't really think much about it until now (been playing mostly Mass Effect and Oblivion). Then I tried to launch it a few days ago and found that it would crash. I've done some more research: I don't have ffdshow so no conflict there, tried changing compatibility on fallout.exe, tried rolling back the video drivers to 178.24 but Windows 7 isn't supported by that version. I did another fresh install about a half hour ago, still crashes exactly the same. I'm tempted to reinstall Windows 7 to see if that will fix the problem, but I'm wary of how that will affect other games dependent on GFWL. I'm really not sure what else to try at this point; I vaguely remember having an issue like this on my old computer about a year ago and reinstalling the OS was the solution if I remember correctly, I wonder why that would make it work though? Perhaps leftover registry issues from other programs that I uninstalled before (I had an old version of Nero on this computer to work on a project before I uninstalled it a few days ago)? Even so, I'm probably not knowledgeable enough to delve into such things.

 

@qucksilverva - Funny you mention that, I also saw on the Windows compatibility site that FO3 isn't compatible with Windows 7 (both 32 and 64 bit versions). Still, numerous people have reported being able to play FO3 on their Windows 7 builds; I'm not quite sure what issue mine has with the game.

 

Now that I think about it, I feel like it's not a driver issue since Oblivion runs fine on the latest nvidia drivers. With that said, I'm baffled as to why Oblivion would work fine while FO3 crashes considering how similar the two games are and that FO3 is more recent.

[vforvic]

I have FO3 on two different Win7 machines, one 32bit and one 64bit, and it works with no issues and with no special tweaking. Still, I guess it could be a driver issue of some kind. Video or even Sound for that matter.

This is what I would do if it was my machine. Uninstall FO3 and make sure you go in and see that the entire Fallout directory is gone...everything. Manually delete anything that might remain. Also, do the same thing for the Fallout directory in the My Games directory. You want to make sure that no files remain in either of these two areas...especially ini files.

If the game will not run at this point then I would go into my FalloutPrefs.ini and set "fDefaultMasterVolume=0.0000".

If it will not start at this point then I would take out the SLI and run one card to test. Making sure I delete FalloutPrefs.ini to let FO3 redetect the video.

If it will not run after that then only the shadow knows.

[ZephyrX]

I have FO3 on two different Win7 machines, one 32bit and one 64bit, and it works with no issues and with no special tweaking. Still, I guess it could be a driver issue of some kind. Video or even Sound for that matter.

This is what I would do if it was my machine. Uninstall FO3 and make sure you go in and see that the entire Fallout directory is gone...everything. Manually delete anything that might remain. Also, do the same thing for the Fallout directory in the My Games directory. You want to make sure that no files remain in either of these two areas...especially ini files.

If the game will not run at this point then I would go into my FalloutPrefs.ini and set "fDefaultMasterVolume=0.0000".

If it will not start at this point then I would take out the SLI and run one card to test. Making sure I delete FalloutPrefs.ini to let FO3 redetect the video.

If it will not run after that then only the shadow knows.

 

Good to know that I can rule out Windows 7 as the problem for sure then. I tried out all of your suggestions, but it managed to crash the same way each time. I usually install to the My Games folder, but I tried creating a new folder within that to ensure that the directory wasn't the problem. Changing the audio setting doesn't change the crash, so I suppose that rules out the sound card (integrated) and audio drivers as the source of this problem. Disabling SLI in the nvidia control panel also has no effect. My mobo forces both video cards to be adjacent to one another so that they both run in x16 lanes which makes it rather difficult to take out the secondary card since the primary one blocks access to the clip that holds the other one in place, making it rather difficult to remove just one card to test it out. Unless you have any other ideas I can try out, I guess I'll have to wait until I find a more opportune moment to reinstall the OS to see if that fixes my problem. Either way, thanks for your suggestions!

 

ZephyrX

[vforvic]

....I usually install to the My Games folder, but I tried creating a new folder within that to ensure that the directory wasn't the problem.....

 

Let it install to its default directories "C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3". Some of the ini files by default will also go into your My Games folder under a folder called "Fallout3." Also, are you logged in as the Administrator?

Also, you can try installing it in compatibility mode for Windows XP by opening the game disc folder on the CD/DVD drive and run the install file by right clicking on it and running it under Windows XP mode.

[Fonger]

....I usually install to the My Games folder, but I tried creating a new folder within that to ensure that the directory wasn't the problem.....

 

Let it install to its default directories "C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3".

open invitation for UAC to tap-dance on his face.

 

in all reality, this is a bad idea.

[vforvic]

....I usually install to the My Games folder, but I tried creating a new folder within that to ensure that the directory wasn't the problem.....

 

Let it install to its default directories "C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3".

open invitation for UAC to tap-dance on his face.

 

in all reality, this is a bad idea.

 

Sorry, I did not think about UAC. I keep mine off. Turn UAC down to do not notify. If it is just too much danger to handle then you can just use it as a test. I just don't think installing into My Games is a good idea at this point. At least if we are talking about the My Games inside the user directory.