Launcher not recognizing correct video card

[Gnubee]

New to FO3 GOTY, since I liked FNV so much but I have been plagued with problems. Typical CTD/system freeze stuff mostly. Running minimal mods (unofficial patch, RH iron sights, CASM). I use FOMM and have 3GB Enabler & FOSE installed. The game was DL'd via Steam only a couple of days ago, so it is the latest version - 1.703.

 

My system is running XP Pro (32bit), 4GB Ram, and has an ATI Radeon 4670 with the latest drivers installed. Intel Core Duo processor (so multi core fixes won't help me). This is all on a iMac running bootcamp 3.2.

 

As of last night, every time I try to open FOMM, I get a message that it has encountered a problem and must quit. If I open FO3 with FOSE, the launcher is skipped entirely (so I can't choose graphics settings, data files, etc). IF I go to the vanilla launcher, it comes up just fine, but lists my video card as an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS and auto sets display quality to "medium." This seems odd, since FNV detects the ATI 4670 and sets everything by default to "Ultra."

 

I'd love to hear if anybody has any input on how I might fix this, since it makes sense to me that I would be getting tons of CTDs & freezes if the game is trying to run on the wrong video card. Any input as to wtf happened to FOMM is also appreciated.

[csgators]

"3GB Enabler"

 

Just a heads up the extra RAM enabler gave me many CTD's when I used it but others seem to run it fine. You might want to roll it back until you get the crashing under control. To have FO3 re-detect the graphics settings you should delete fallout.ini and re-open the launcher. You also may want to clean out any old video drivers by using something like Driver Sweeper. I'm not sure what is going on with your FOMM but you could try re-installing it.

[Gnubee]

Thanks, I'll try the Driver Sweeper to see what it picks up. If the launcher is detecting an nVidia card, it makes sense that there must be a driver for one somewhere on my system. (How it got there is an entirely different question though.) I don't think the 3GB Enabler is the problem, as it seems to have actually reduced the number of crashes I am getting. I also doubled the size of my system VM and did a full defrag of the HD.

 

It looks like I'm not the only one having issues with FOMM at the moment, too. I have uninstalled / reinstalled it a number of times now, but nothing seems to help. This is really too bad because I practically rely on it.

 

I contacted Bethesda for some help, and they are telling me that they will not help because I have a Mac. In fact, they just told me that they will help once I "uninstall iMac" (what does that even mean?). Are they suggesting that I uninstall OSX on my Mac (which is not even running when I boot the machine with Windows!)?

Edited March 9, 2011 by Gnubee

[Kastrenzo]

My FOMM Was also telling me I had a geforce 7900, I didnt get any crashes but I worried at first since I'm using a GTX 285 2GB. WIndows of course.

 

I'm not an advocate of macintosh or apple, but that's a pretty douchebag answer from bethesdta.

[obobski]

The graphics adapter is being reported as a GeForce 7900 due to a mod or emulation software, for example this (yes I know both are related to New Vegas, still relevant):

http://anthonydamasco.net/blog/aleinware-m11x-fallout-new-vegas-framerate-fix/

Or this:

http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/851242-fallout-nv-essential-mods-thread.html

 

Are you using that dll? I know it exists for Fallout 3, here:

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13245 (and potentially elsewhere)

 

By itself, the game thinking you have some oddly named graphics adapter is not a problem - it can call the thing whatever it wants (it's just an ID string).

 

I would first re-install FOMM, the latest version, it's a very quick install and may fix your problem. If the game still crashes frequently, I would re-install it and go from the official patch and FOSE to one mod at a time; so you know which one is the problem child.

 

You can adjust graphics settings through FOMM - simply select Game Settings at the top, and from that menu select Graphics Settings. Alternately you can make the adjustments by hand directly from fallout.ini, if you know what you're doing.