Random CTDs.

[wolfodude]

Hey there, guys. I originally posted this on the BethSoft forums, but no luck there. I have a lot more faith in this side of the community, though.

 

 

As it stands, my computer just desperately and drastically HATES Beth's Fallout engine. It all started with my recent reinstall of Fallout 3 a few days ago. Crashed usually within 15 minutes, and always a sure thing. The types of crashes varied from lock-ups ending in Windows Error Report dialogs to full on hardware crashes. Black screen or still video that would brick my rig completely, forcing me to restart.

 

I've tried plenty of fixes from updating all my drivers to disabling some hardware acceleration to forcing Fallout to use 2 cores (as opposed to my three).

 

Now, after getting my copy of New Vegas (non-steam, hard copy), I make it through the beginning, even manage to wander around, talk to Victor and Easy. Unfortunately, upon trying to enter the Saloon it's a straight up CTD. My girlfriend, while playing it earlier, crashed right around the Petrol Station on the hill outside Doc's place. Hard crash forcing a restart for her, while mine was an Error Report dialog.

 

I'm completely at a loss on fixing this issue. They're totally random, but often during new area loads, I've found. I'm assuming the random crashes while just wandering the world map are from streaming loads, as well. If anyone has some advice on some fixes or tweaks that might help, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

Also, this is my secondary comp. Technically my girlfriends. I've yet to even try New Vegas on my own computer, that one has beyond good enough specs and used to run Fallout 3 like a dream, but still had plenty of random crashing issues. I'll report back on how that one goes and see if the issues still continue on a completely different hardware setup. If they do, than golly gee whiz, Batman; this engine just hates me.

 

Further Investigation: Alright, so something interesting occurred. Twice now it's crashed while entering the Prospector's Saloon. Right before my second attempt, I entered the General Store with no problems. Chatted to Chet, did some bartering, worked all as it should: Beautifully. But went right next door to the saloon and it crashed about half-way through loading the area.

 

So my questions to anyone out there: Has anyone replicated area load crashes like this? Specifically in the same area?

I know the engine is buggy. I've had area load crashes ever since Morrowind. Always random, but never in the same spot. And even if I don't go straight for the saloon, I never get more than half an hour of gameplay.

 

Even Further Investigation: Boy howdy, it gets better and better! Tried the back door of the saloon and after a very suspenseful load time, I was met with success! Until of course Sunny told me to follow her. She took two steps and I crashed harder than a lightweight in the midst of a forced drinking binge trying to retain his cognitive faculties during a debate on string theory.

 

I'm at my wit's end here, and rightly so seeing how I just spent the last of it spewing forth that masterpiece after hours of debugging this game. He's dead, Jim. Or at least in need of a nap.

 

 

Just about word for word from my BethSoft post, save for the edits. I've looked to them once, now I turn to you. ANY help, even more tiny fixes, will be greatly appreciated!

 

 

System Specs:

OS: WinXP x32 SP3

Mobo: Mid-level Gigabyte M68M-S2

Processor: AMD3 Athlon Tri-core @ 2.6Ghz

Ram: 1gb DDR2 (sad, I know, but we're working on that.)

Video: NVidia 8500GT 512MB (again, sad, but it holds up well enough)

[JimboUK]

Something I noticed with FO3 was the harder you pushed it the more likely it was to fall apart. When I upgraded my graphics card the stability increased, when I cranked everything right up and it started to slow down it started crashing again. Neither game is well optimised so adding more memory will certainly help as will upgrading the GPU.

[LordNighthawk4]

Hi there,

 

I think i am in the same bad position as you and a lot of other people expecting more or less regular CTD.

 

I always remember the first 2 months when i bought F3, i had a slower rig with completly different hardware from the one i own now, but the game ran smooth, while area loading things happened the screen got a bit stuttering but the game itself kept stable. Then i bought a new graphics card (old one was a Radeon 1950 pro, the new a 4830), and the problems with F3 started immediatly, loads of crashed after that. The graphics card is allright, every other game and benchmark ran smooth and without any problems over hours. I then spammed (lol) the bethsoft forums without any result, and finally did a complete Windows freshinstall on a new harddisk only with the required drivers, no stuff like video codec packs or other tools. But even then the Problems still hold on.

 

And now, as i remembered how much fun i had with F3 until my problems began, i bought FNV - and ran into the same situation.

 

You cannot exactly say that it is the area reloading i think, as long as a lot of other stuff happens on the engines side in the background, it´s maybe only the visual things that make you think that.

All crashes i had in only 2:48 playtime endet in a frozen game that i had to terminate via task manager or a windows 7 box with the message that the game does not respond anymore, only one of them endet back on the desktop with the message from ati control center the driver stopped working and had to be recovered.

 

All drivers are up to date, win7 x64 is up to date.

 

If i just could get a hand on a system log what the engine and windows does in the second when the system freezes.....

[LadyMilla]

OP:

 

Probably you will need more memory. If the crashes are limited to Fallout games / Gamebryo engine, it is likely that the game responds badly to the small memory size.

 

But there may be other issues. Here is my story:

 

For two years I used a computer that was built using an ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe motherboard, 4 GB Corsair TwinX 800 MHz DDR2 memory and a Sapphire HD4870 video card. Every since that config was put together, I experienced random video resets, crashes, lock-ups, black/blue screens in various games (strangely the computer ran Crysis that I installed solely for testing, without any glitches). Crashes and lockups ruined my limited gaming experience. I suspected, after searching and reading AMD/ATI forums, that my video card might be defective. (I had a Corsair 750W power supply unit and my brother who is my mentor when it comes to buying computer stuff tested it and its voltage/ampere output was stable). Also, my memory modules were stress-tested, and they passed every memory tests, so I was fairly certain that my video card was the culprit.

 

I was wrong!

 

Recently, after a few customers of my small business finally decided to cough up the money they owed me, I was able to invest into a new motherboard. I bought a Gigabyte motherboard, new Geil memory modules and a new processor.

 

And the lock-ups and blue screens STOPPED!! I still get CTD-s every now and then but it is probably mod related. Yesterday I played New Vegas for 5 hours without any CTDs, and I already have a few mods installed and running. Long story short: there may be hidden hardware conflicts that will cause CTDs or blue screens (defective or simply incompatible motherboard components, bad processor, etc.).

 

So unfortunately there is no easy answer to your (OP's) problem, but you definitely need more memory. When I run FO3 / F:NV, the program's memory footprint is usually around 1 GB. With only 1GB system memory, there is a lot of swapping going on. Consider upgrading to at least 4 GB and your life will be much easier.

 

Also, experiment with nVidia drivers. Even on my old crappy system, video drivers performed differently, older ones were usually more stable (strangely).

 

Try http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html. This free utility unloads a lot of unnecessary programs running in the background, and frees up memory for games. I have no memory issues right now, but on my older config, even if it did not eliminate BSODs, it eased my troubles to a certain degree.

[LordNighthawk4]

For sure it would run smoother for him if he upgrades his memory, but i own 4GB for the System and 1GB on my graphics board and there are still the same issues, so it is not a lack of memory i would suggest.

 

Instead i ran the game in windowed mode last night and did not get a single crash in about 4 hours of testing. Then i turned back to fullscreen and "tadaa", CTD after 5 minutes of playtime.

 

So there must be something else that goes strange on some systems.

[LadyMilla]

For sure it would run smoother for him if he upgrades his memory, but i own 4GB for the System and 1GB on my graphics board and there are still the same issues, so it is not a lack of memory i would suggest.

 

Instead i ran the game in windowed mode last night and did not get a single crash in about 4 hours of testing. Then i turned back to fullscreen and "tadaa", CTD after 5 minutes of playtime.

 

So there must be something else that goes strange on some systems.

 

I've never said that lack of memory may be the ONLY reason. This is why I cited my own experience with the hardware conflict between the mobo/processor/memory combo and the video card. But Gamebryo based games are rather sensitive to memory size. Having the operating system's swap manager running all the time due to insufficient physical memory, in parallel with the game's own background loader may cause problems.