Fallout 3 GOTY Help

Hey guys,

So I realize this is not the first topic on here about this but after spending a couple of hours searching through threads on this forum and other forums I can't seem to fix my issue.

The other night I came home and bought Fallout 3 GOTY Edition from direct2drive, wasn't thinking and didn't check compatibility. Turns out it is pretty difficult to get it to work with win 7.

What happens is every 5-15 minutes I am playing the game the screen will freezing. The sound continues on, but visuals are frozen and the game doesn't receive any mouse / keyboard input. I have to use task manager to forcibly exit the game.

Things I have tried / things you should know:
-I have all latest drivers / updates for win7, graphics card, sound card, directx11, etc...
-I have tried all compatibility modes
-I have tried running as administrator
-I have tried the quad to 2 core fix where you go into the .ini file and make some small edits. I only have 2 cores but did this anyway.
-I have tried the d3d9.dll fix
-I am using a laptop
-I downloaded this from direct2drive

My specs:
-Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
-Intel dual core i5 CPU M 580 @ 2.67 ghz
-Memory 6gb
-ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 w/ 3.7gb memory

I am pretty much ready to go ahead and uninstall this game and forget about it, but since I paid the money and already spent this much time trying to get it to work I figure maybe someone has some advice.

Thanks and feel free to link me to any threads / other forums if this issue has already been addressed / would better be addressed elsewhere.

hey buddy,

go into the luancher where you can set things like graphics options, resolution ect.
go into the second/ or the tab with water reflection settings. now, turn water reflection rate, and any other water options to low.

i have NO explanation for why this happens, but there are really buggy parts of the game, even if you cant see water it usually still renders it.

if it doesnt work, ill search up a few things to try for you if you like.