rogerdsl Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 I am starting this discussion so I can write about my experiences with Fallout 3. I have come across some quirks, anomalies and bugs (hardware and software) that I haven't found anything on the internet so I am documenting them here. I have been playing FO3 for about a year and there are some things that I have discover about running the game, playing the game, and having fun with the game. My intent is not to write spoilers or cheats, though I may do so if it helps fix the problem. I have the Game of the Year (GOTY) edition and I am running it on a Dell XPS 700 dual core, 2G RAM and (2) NVIDIA GS 7900 video cards NOT in SLI mode, Creative Labs Extreme Audio, and 5.1 Logitech speakers. I am using MSI Afterburner to monitor the video cards and a G15 Keyboard with Logitech's LCD Manager to monitor the CPU and RAM usage during gameplay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerdsl Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 I have been having sound, lockups. and CTD's while playing FO3. I've done a lot including, deleting, uninstalling, and defragmenting the hard drive before putting FO3 back on (it crashed within 5 minutes after doing so). However, I was just playing with video settings prior to all this. I have 2 NVIDIA GS7900 video cards in SLI and wanted to see how easy it was too get FO3 to span (2) monitors. In fact it was quite easy. I didn't like the line through the middel of the game, 3 monitors would be most excellent indeed. Anyway, I noteiced that only (1) video card was processing date during the spanning AND the game was incredible stabe. So I'm thinking, WTF? I disabled SLI and the game has worked better than it ever has. I know when it's about to crash so I usually exit and re-enter the game. A pain but not as much as having to reboot my computer. I still get CTD's (mostly during battle). I still loose audio but that anoying high pitch wistle has gone. I still get a little lag but most of the time it's my indicator that a crash or loss of audio is about to happen so I just save exit re-start and I'm back in business. Oh, and the setting in the .ini file for SLI doesn't work. I had to use the NVIDIA control panel to disable the SLI mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendo 2 Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 WOW. You've probably already tried this. I had a CTD (during combat) issue with the DLCs from the GOTY edition. I have an ATI 5800 so there should be no issue. What I did was install the DLCs, extracted the content to a folder and then reinstalled the game without the DLCs. I added the DLC content like it was a mod and that resolved my video issue. And I never found anything on-line about it either or why I would only CTD with the DLCs loaded. I hope you find a solution. I feel for you, man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerdsl Posted November 3, 2010 Author Share Posted November 3, 2010 It's just another level of gameplay. I monitor the temperature and usage of the video cards and RAM usage, while making sure Dogmeat's health doesn't get critically low as well as my character. Usually around 88% I try to save and restart the game because the background sound will stop and most times I won't be able to save the game (As soon as I do it crashes. It doesn't always workout that way. BUT I found this cool console command PCB for Purge Cell Buffer. When the game starts lagging and stuttering, I punch in the pcb and voila! the game starts responding normally again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjafish Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 I actually haven't had any issues with hardware or software gamewise. Any issues I ran into were due to mods, usually missing a master file or compatability issues. Running an MSi motherboard, Intel Core i5 and 4 gigs of ram, using ATI HD 3850, no SLI (until further notice)., Creative Audigy2 zs sound card, 5.1 Logitech speakers, Razor Lycosa Mous and Saitek keyboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger910 Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Well, I had the windows live problem that almost everybody had. lol Then I had this strange problem with the AA. Whenever I had full AA on (can't remember if it's 16x or 8x) the game would run for 5-10 minutes and then when I used the vats it would get super laggy and all the percentages would be 0 then the game would crash about 30 seconds later. Anyway, figured out through trial and error that if I kept the AA to like 4x it would run just as smooth and there would be no crashing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerdsl Posted November 4, 2010 Author Share Posted November 4, 2010 Well, I had the windows live problem that almost everybody had. lol Then I had this strange problem with the AA. Whenever I had full AA on (can't remember if it's 16x or 8x) the game would run for 5-10 minutes and then when I used the vats it would get super laggy and all the percentages would be 0 then the game would crash about 30 seconds later. Anyway, figured out through trial and error that if I kept the AA to like 4x it would run just as smooth and there would be no crashing... Hey thanks for the info I'll try it. I stopped using AA but I'll hike it up a bit and try again. Also try the consol command "pcb"when it gets stutters. I've done this a couple times and it cleard right up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts