Random crashing after "clean" install

[PaperyPip]

I managed to corrupt my .exe when trying to apply the 4gb patch to it so I decided to do a clean install of the game. Since the clean install I've had very frequent that did not happen before. They usually happen within a few minutes of starting the game and don't appear to be caused by anything in particular, occuring at completely random times under varying circumstances.

 

My first suspicion was that it was mod-related so I tried playing with only the base game and DLC, and the problem persisted.

 

Next suspicion was that it was save-file corruption, so I tried starting a new game. Still nope, crashed randomly during the opening tutorial bit.a

 

I have tried re-installing many times and subsequent installs retain the same problems. I've tried the fixes listed here: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Fallout_3#Game_Crashes_Randomly and none have been effective.

 

My system specs:

Intel Core i7-2600K CPU

8GB RAM

Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics card

 

Edit: Tried one new thing I hadn't before: Installing to a different directory. Having done this I managed to play half an hour with no crashes.

 

If this really worked though, I'd like to understand why. I'd really like to keep it installed in the directory I usually use, if only to keep my drive organized. (incidentally, this location isn't the usual "C:\Program Files (x86)\" but rather a directory on a secondary hard drive).

 

Edit 2: Having done the above only worked for so long. and only for my new save. Trying the new save later, the problem persisted. Trying my old save on a different computer, I had no crashes, so I think it's safe to rule out the save as a reason.

Edited December 3, 2012 by PaperyPip