Fallout Crashes on "Please Standy" slide.

[EddieBreaks10]

This just happened to me like 30 min ago. I was about to play Fallout 3, but when I started it up, the game just stayed at the "please standby" slide. The screen also twitches up and down. But whats weird is that the sound keeps playing in the background, as if the slides were actually moving. I dont know whats going on, yesterday it was working fine. The only thing that I did do was change the RAM of my laptop to a larger memory. I had 2gb, now I have 4gb. I dont know if this is the problem, but Im just throwing it out there because I had no problems until I inserted the new RAM. Help please!

[anokii]

Try removing the RAM and start the game again - if it works I would suggest installing your new RAM and running "memtest"

If you boot to a live ISO of just about any Linux (e.g. Ubuntu, Slack,, etc) you will have the option to run a memtest after the initial load - don't worry non-destructive testing.

 

I would be inclined to think you've got a faulty stick of RAM.

 

Also check out - http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html

once your up and running so you can take advantage of that extra RAM - long read but well and truly worth it.

[EddieBreaks10]

Oh, so its not just take out the old RAM and put in the new one? I have to do something?

And could you please tell me what is "Memtest"? Forgive me, Im not much of an expert at this computer stuff. :)

[anokii]

Sorry - hardware tech by trade and the assumption that everyone who games knows a bit more than average (not that there's anything bad with that).

 

Hmm, basics - RAM is usually one of the easy things to replace; take out old and put in new (sometimes just add new). However as an electrical component care must be taken and they are not infallable to out of the box failures. I'm sure many of the tech-heads here have seen their fair share of brand new RAM that was faulty when first installed. The bad thing about this is RAM can fail anywhere inside the size of it and this can mean that until that part of the memory is accessed you would never notice it. So in the case of FO3 it could be putting things in memory (RAM) that is faulty but your OS doesn't access normally. Since this may be above your skillset (and again I mean no offence), and the fact it would take me several pages to explain it all you may want to;

 

1 - put your old RAM back in and try again - if the game works and this is the ONLY change you made = extremely high chance the RAM you have is faulty. Be absolutely sure you installed it correctly and don't touch the gold contacts - EVER.

 

2 - double-check the RAM you bought and make sure you do have the right type (since the computer boots this is probably NOT the problem).

 

3 - get a friend who is a tech-head and ask him to assist (e.g. I've think I've got some faulty RAM mate, can you give me a hand). He/She should be familiar with "Memtest" - a free utility to test memory (RAM), however you have to boot using a boot disk such as a 'repair cd' and run it. Testing can take several hours though.

 

4 - if you can't call a friend get a copy of the latest 'good' computer magazine (e.g. here in Australia one is APC Magazine [Australian Personal Computer]). They typically bundle a CD with software and such with the mag and more often than not its bootable to Linux or a 'rescue cd'. More often than not this also has memtest in the boot menu - I'm trusting that you know how to boot to a CD - if not go back to option 3.

 

So really try #1 and see how you go.