Game crashing when trying to load save.

[Mihnt]

Few details first:

I have the GOTY version on steam.

Running with no DLC at the moment.

I DO want achievements via GFWL.

Removing GFWL is not an option.

I was never even able to play on my save.

 

So I've been reading on this site for a few hours now trying to figure out how to fix this as I do not want to have to start all over again.

I was playing Fallout 3 and decided that I'd like to add a couple of visual mods to make the game less depressing.

I downloaded FOMM and a couple of mods and promptly installed them.

Started the game up through Steam and then hit continue as always.

Directly after hitting continue the game goes into a non-aero window and there is a crash report thingy.

So after this I decided to just not deal with it and just uninstall the mods and continue without the hassle.

Well, that didn't work as I tried to start the game as normal with the same result after removing all mods and traces of anything FOMM added to my FO3 directory.

Then I decided to just reinstall FO3 and be done with it.

I did so, backed up my saves and deleted the folder in "My Games", deleted local content via Steam, and redownloaded and installed the game.

Well, even after that the game is still crashing after loading the save.

So now I am stuck here wishing I could be playing the game even with it's ugly, depressing atmosphere.

 

Hopefully someone can help.

Until then I will try and continue searching for a fix.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mihnt

[M48A5]

If you did not deactivate the mods in FOMM before you deleted them, the only thing you can do is start a new game. What you should have done, was deactivate the mods, start the game, make a new save, than delete the mods.

[Mihnt]

I used FOMM to deactivate them before uninstalling them.

[Mihnt]

Ok, update. (I got a not too old save working fine and made triple backups in case of nuclear holocaust.)

I began working with mods again and have discovered that for some reason anytime the game crashes now be it with a mod or completely vanilla that save is then ruined.

I've tried with different saves, mods, with and without FOMM, and all sorts of ways.

ANYTHING that crashes the game now destroys whatever save that I loaded last.

What could be the issue here?

 

 

EDIT: Removed ALL mods and any traces of them now and the result that any save loaded now crashes the game. (Tried loading the game via FOMM and Steam. Removed archiveinvalidation and turned it back on. So on and so forth.)

EDIT #2: Some more info since this seems to be getting worse.

 

Windows 7 64bit.

UAC is off.

Only thing in my data folder is the DLC.

I am using the bUseThreadedAI=1, iNumHWThreads=2 fixes since I crash in small areas.

Nothing is helping to load these saves now even after I got them working earlier.

I've recopied the save files from my backup and that changed nothing.

 

EDIT #3: Got a save to load but now it crashes when it tries to autosave.

 

EDIT #4: And now we are back to all saves crashing the game when I try and load them. I also tried an earlier autosave I had backed up from earlier today to no avail.

 

EDIT #5: Frustrated and worn out with this. Uninstalling and deleting all files "\My Games\". Don't know what else to do since I've spent hours trying different things and reading forum post after forum post and nothing has helped. The saves themselves are fine it seems. There's something up with the game itself that is causing the crashes and I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mihnt

[BlackRampage]

EDIT #3: Got a save to load but now it crashes when it tries to autosave.

 

EDIT #4: And now we are back to all saves crashing the game when I try and load them. I also tried an earlier autosave I had backed up from earlier today to no avail.

Disable any and all of Fallout 3's autosave "features". It's extremely buggy.

(CASM would be a good replacement for that once you've got Fo3 running normally again.)

 

Only thing in my data folder is the DLC.

Make sure that in FoMM your Fo3 master file and the DLC's are arranged like this:

 

[X] Fallout3.esm

[X] Anchorage.esm

[X] ThePitt.esm

[X] BrokenSteel.esm

[X] PointLookout.esm

[X] Zeta.esm

[Mihnt]

I'll make sure to disable the autosave when I get things working.

I usually keep it on in Bethesda games since they usually are a pile of bugs but I guess the thing saving me from having to play through an hour's worth of crap because of a crash is the buggy thing this time.

 

I uninstalled FoMM when I reinstalled the game.

I'm not sure if I will continue to try and mod it after all this.

 

I've reinstalled and reapplied the fixes but now the game is crashing as soon as I start it. *sigh*

 

 

I bought this game the second it came out on Steam as GOTY.

It didn't work then because, and I quote; "Bethesda does not support Windows 7.".

Valve wouldn't give me a refund. :(

Only to have all this trouble now when it is supposed to somewhat work on 7.

 

EDIT: Ok, fixed the crash on startup issue. Still crashing on saves. All of them. Damn it.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mihnt

[BlackRampage]

It didn't work then because, and I quote; "Bethesda does not support Windows 7.".

Correct. Bethesda's official stance on win 7 is that they indeed do not support it. Rather convenient considering the rather large memory leak Fo3 has in win 7.

 

EDIT: Ok, fixed the crash on startup issue. Still crashing on saves. All of them. Damn it.

If you haven't already: Try starting a new game (without mods), then save as soon as you're able and see if you can load that savegame.

Or, alternatively, try one of the "clean" savegames available on the Nexus. Like the Conan Savegame by LHammonds

Edited March 14, 2012 by BlackRampage

[Mihnt]

Yea, gave that a shot last night to no avail.

It seems to like to crash when you are going into the vault 101 atrium and that breaks the save.

Never would have installed mods had I know this would have happened. >.<

 

Thanks for the help to both of you by the way.

Sucks getting lost trying to fix something.

 

Going to try the save you linked me there are see what happens.

 

EDIT: Nope, that conan save crashes as well.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mihnt

[Sarissi]

It works fine in Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit for me. I did not buy the GOTY. I got FO3 at Gamestop PC Downloads, and was totally unaware of DLCs (they don't sell the DLCs). I don't have UAC turned off, but, I gave myself as a User full access to those program folders where I needed it. So far, the game, with all DLCs and modded, only crashes at one place and point in the game: at GNR Plaza when the Behemoth shows up and the Mini Nike detonates. Instant Crash to Black Screen every time. It took me 2 days to figure out a work around that works. And yes, crashing while saving does corrupt that save.

 

Don't blame your problem on mods in general. It could be something else entirely, or contributing to.

[Mihnt]

Oh, I wasn't blaming the problem on mods.

Just saying that if I had left the game alone I could have probably beaten it by now and got my gamerscore that I wanted and moved on to the DLC.

I honestly think the issue is the hard drive in my laptop but there's nothing I can do about that right now.

I've started playing this on my girlfriend's desktop so I kinda just gave up on trying to fix it.