Avoiding Crashes

[pleasenoname]

I solved Oblivion stutter for my self and I am tired of reading of Fallout 3 crashes so I've decided to research a solution once and for all( Someone please pin this ). I have posted this elsewhere:

 

"Windows Intelligent Background Transfer service" downloads data on your game which it puts into something called "games explorer"(type it into search to see what i'm talking about).

As far as I can guess, it might be able to change windows 7 UAC settings. Because the Windows 7 UAC may have prevented the above quoted posters game from running.

 

I installed fallout 3 to its own folder in "C:.

So it looks like: "C:\Fallout 3". I have the disc based version though. I was kinda annoyed that steam installed New Vegas into the program files(x86) folder, because it can cause problems like refusing to execute code or saving changes. Most modders install the game outside of the program files folder in Windows 7.

 

Also, yes run it as administrator every time,the falloutlauncher.exe. Set it to run as administrator in properties make sure to click the make changes shield first. That way you can launch it from steam. I am unsure if Steam allows running the fallout.exe in administer directly or not.

 

Whenever a process tries to access the CPU at the same time as the game, it crashes. New Vegas and Fallout 3 are relatively free of crashes for me. However crashes will eventually always happen for fallout 3, if you play longer than a few hours.

 

Crash causes

Random(silent) background anti-virus scans can crash it.

Steam updating itself while the fallout.exe is running

Windows UAC("program files" and other personal folders block it)

RAM filling/overflowing (When you play for a long time.)

Need newer audio drivers (Fallout 3 uses XP audio,7 can't read)

 

Fallout3 cannot detect Intel Integrated graphics and will crash(Needs a D3D9dll)

 

also, "tweak guides" website has multi-threading tweaks listed that help with mutithreading efficiency on multiple/dual core CPUs(Oblivion seems to run a little more efficiently if iNumHWThreads=2 or 4 and fallout 3 crashes less if iNumHWThreads=2).

In the ini:

"bUseThreadedAI=0

 

change it to:

 

bUseThreadedAI=1

 

Add another line after it and insert:

 

iNumHWThreads=2

 

This will limit the game to 2 cores."

Oblivion can be set from 2 to 4, Fallout 3 must be 2 though.

 

Last but not least, defragment your hardrive or at the very least the fallout folder. If the fragmentation of your games files is very severe, the game can hang and crash because a CPU request to the hardrive might time out. Also by doing this the game loads faster.

 

Most of the problems with Windows 7 64-bit and bethesda games may be because the SecuRom DRM that is packaged with the game blocks the game from running while emulators are running and Windows 7 64-bit has to run 32-bit Windows XP emulators everytime we play, because that is what the Gamebryo engine was built in.

 

Disabling Windows 7 Aero in the fallout 3.exe's properties helps too. If you run in compatibily mode, run it as XP SP2. Make sure to click the shield in the properties before you make these changes. Apply them. Then hit OK.

 

Try putting an exclusion of your anti-virus from scanning fallout 3's folder on the machine and exclude .fos and .bak from scan, only if everything above doesn't work.

 

I Actually set Windows classic theme and shut down the process dwm.exe. The result was a better working GECK in Windows 7(It didn't stall for a few seconds, when loading the ESM like usual).

Edited September 9, 2012 by pleasenoname