A unique Fallout 3 problem

[Cameron]

Hi guys. Just signed up. This seems like a good forum, and everywhere else I've tried has been unable to assist.

I think I have a slightly unique problem with F3 to what most people seem to encounter in the threads I have read through - mostly because I cannot get into the game at all and I am not getting any errors or anything.

When I press play from the launcher, I get a black screen with a loading cursor for a few seconds and then it all freezes. The whole system, not just F3. I have to restart the computer every time.

Things I have tried:
- Starting the launcher.exe straight out of the game folder, and the F3.exe as well, both with administrator and various levels of compatibility.
- Going back to pre-190 nVidia drivers. Also tried the latest 191 beta driver.
- Uninstalling X-Fi card and trying onboard sound only.
- Some thing to do with editing the .ini to solve problems arising from having 4+ cores.
- Tried installing the latest official patch from their site to see if that would help, but part way through the installation it went to the black screen with loading cursor and then the system froze... don't know why that happened during a patch installation but it was exactly the same thing as when I try to launch the game.
- Read that it might be an issue with playing it through Steam, so uninstalled it from that and re-installed directly to Windows with some ISOs.... still having exactly the same problem though. Tried the compatibility stuff with this new installation as well.... no luck.

Hopefully haven't missed anything that I've tried there. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information to help solve the problem.

I am getting desperate and I really want to play this game cranked on this new rig. It seems most people are having no problems whatsoever, or only requiring minor hacks/tweaks, to play this game on W7 64-bit...... but not me. Like I said haha, unique problem....

I have attached two DXDIAGs. When I run it there is a button at the bottom for a 64-bit DXDIAG. I have no idea if this is any different to the normal one, or which one I'm supposed to use so I attached both.

Please help.

Thanks.

 

[Phuxake]

I had this problem when i first tried this on W7. The only problem is i cant remember what i did to fix it as it was a couple of weeks ago.......

I think it had something to do with windows live. Try updating that, then see how it goes.

Good luck

 

[Cameron]

As in the thing that you use to DL messenger and stuff? Well I just DL'd that on account of needed messenger.... how do I go about making it help Fallout 3 from freezing my entire system?

 

[Phuxake]

Games for Windows - LIVE : Support Documents


Games for windows live mate. You might need to update it, Fallout 3 uses it to save your games.. ect.

 

[Cameron]

So I DL'd Games for Windows, but it won't let me log in with the account I created.... it all seems to be for Xbox anyway, sorry to seem like a moron, but how exactly to I use this program to make Fallout 3 work?

When I press sign in, it says there is a problem I must resolve before I can sign in, then when I press the link to resolve the problem it takes me to a fresh account registration page. But I've already created an account, and I am trying to sign in with the email address I used to create it...

Edit:
So I just created a new account and this time it works with exactly the same email address. But Fallout 3 is still doing the same thing.

Edit:
Not sure if this might help pinpoint my problem, but I disabled my X-Fi again because when I was launching F3 I could hear my sound card clicking (changing modes or something, no idea) and re-enabled onboard sound, turned the theme from Aero to Basic, and the reso from 1920 to 1680 and then tried to launch the .exe in compatibility mode. It did the same thing as always, but it took maybe 10 - 15 seconds on the black screen with the loading cursor to lock up, compared to the usual less-than-5 seconds.

 

[Phuxake]

Ok it wasn't that.

Fallout 3 does have a bug where the screen goes black and it throws you out, maybe its related to that. It has a problem with a FFDshow codec.... Have a look and see if you have that installed, if you do you can go into it and add fallout 3 to its exception list (FILEnetworks Blog: Possible solution for Fallout 3 crashing to desktop at start screen).

This might sound obvious but did you try uninstalling and re-installing the whole game?

 

[Cameron]

It's not the codec. I have no codec packs or anything installed.

And yeh uninstalled it from Steam. Installed it straight to Windows wtih some ISOs. Didn't work. Reinstalled it to Steam as well, still no luck. Identical problem with both versions. Tried every single possible fix I can think of and find on the net with both versions as well.

It's very demoralising haha.

 

[holo88]

try contacting Live support. maybe you fudged a letter or 2 in your account details. i've done that on a few occasions. see if they (or maybe Steam) can verify all your log in info, and change it if necessary. GFWL is a pain in the butt to begin with, but coupled with 8 other "services" t run a single game is a nightmare. next time, go retail box

steam should have your CD key, and can be viewed by right clicking on the fo3 icon in the steam / games window, and clicking 'View CD key'

 

[Phuxake]

Ok then..... Lets try and cover everything it could possibly be.

Your graphics card..... Works fine with other games?
All other device drivers updated?
Bios up to date?
Tried running before attempting to update F3?
Tried installing update again after a fresh re-install?
Are you importing saves from anywhere?
Do you have the addons installed?
Do you have wmp installed?

That should keep you busy for 10 mins lol

 

[Zahl]

See if this will help;

Download and install the latest DirectX; http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...4B-00D1-474E-B7B1-442D8712D553&displaylang=en
Use the 186.18 nvidia drivers (190 series are total crap for this game); NVIDIA DRIVERS 186.18 WHQL

Once you're in the game menu go into Live! and log in. It might download some patches once you do, just let it do its thing. Try the game again.

Edit- Windows Live is the same as Xbox Live. If you have either use the same username and password for the other.

 

[Cameron]

Other games work fine.
All devices are fully up-to-date. I have been disabling the X-Fi though and working with onboard during all of these potential fixes.
Just updated BIOS, didn't help.
Have been running F3 un-updated throughout most of this problem.
Tried reinstalling and updating, didn't help.
No saves.
No addons.
If you mean Windows Media Player, then I went into 'Windows Features' from the 'Programs & Features' and disabled it.

Nothing has changed the problem at all.

What next?

 

[Cameron]

See if this will help;

Download and install the latest DirectX; http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...4B-00D1-474E-B7B1-442D8712D553&displaylang=en
Use the 186.18 nvidia drivers (190 series are total crap for this game); NVIDIA DRIVERS 186.18 WHQL

Once you're in the game menu go into Live! and log in. It might download some patches once you do, just let it do its thing. Try the game again.

Edit- Windows Live is the same as Xbox Live. If you have either use the same username and password for the other.

Did the DirectX thing. And installed the old driver. Was hard though, because every time I uninstalled the 190 series drivers Windows 7 installed its own, which were more recent than the 186 ones, so that made the 186 installation screw up. Anyway I think I got it done with some driver cleaning and temporary device disabling.

So when you say the game menu, you mean the launcher? I opened that, and then logged into Live. Nothing happened. Just so we're clear, I didn't get the game through Live and I can't find anything anywhere in the Live client that will let me import/associate my game with it. So I'm not fully understanding how Games for Windows Live is supposed to help me with F3 that I got from Steam, or the cracked version I DL'd in an attempt to get this all working. Sorry, I'm just not at all familiar with GfWL, so instructions that a toddler could follow would be appreciated.

 

[Zahl]

Make sure to hide that nvidia driver from windows update and it shouldn't bother you anymore. But try not to use a downloaded/cracked version as it can cause more problems. Just install it through Steam and you should be good to go (mine is from steam also).
To log into Live you go through the game menu, not the launcher (its the second option under Settings). Once you log in and enter your game key it will do some downloading and you should be good to go. Also I'm not sure if this might help but it gave me an error for not having .Net installed. Try grabbing the latest version and see if it helps you out. I mean if you install through steam and log into Live you should have the latest version installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

 

[Cameron]

To log into Live you go through the game menu, not the launcher (its the second option under Settings). Once you log in and enter your game key it will do some downloading and you should be good to go.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

The game menu as in AFTER I've launched the game? I get a black screen and then a full system lock up before I get anywhere near the game menu unfortunately. As in, straight after I launch the game, it freezes.

I'll go and try the .NET thing though. Oh and how do I hide a driver from Windows Update? The driver Windows 7 is installing seems to be from it's own database, not something I've DL'd. And it does it all automatically without asking me anything.

--------

I DL'd the latest .NET, but it gives me an error in the setup saying that I need to do something in the Windows Features thing to install .NET. Went into that and turned on anything that remotely looked like it had something to do with .NET. Is that all I have to do to update it? Not sure what I can do if the installer throws up this error everytime.

 

[Spot UK]

I have Fallout 3 running on 64 bit W7, only problem Im getting is the jerky sound on the radio music, voice no jerks.

Anyway you might want to try running the game in a window.

Run the launcher, goto options and put a tick in windowed.

See if it runs then.

 

[Cameron]

Have tried the windowed trick. No luck, thanks though.

But that's the thing isn't it... this problem I'm having doesn't point to any of the usual suspects. It's not getting into the game, not anywhere close. So makes it unlikely that its anything to do with the video card, right? Besides which I've tried every possible solution relating to GFX problems.

Anyway, any and every possible solution is dearly welcome.

 

[Zahl]

Hey sorry .Net is already included with Windows 7, you just have to enable it from Control Panel/Uninstall Programs/Turn Windows Features On/Off.

But try this last thing. From within Steam right click Fallout 3 and run a file integrity test(might take a minute). Then if you don't have FDDShow, install the latest version. Try the game again. If it doesn't work leave FDDShow installed but go into FFDShow/Video decoder configuration/DirectShow control/Don't use FFDShow in/ and point it to the Fallout 3.exe.
If all the above fail you can try going to the Fallout 3 Video folder and adding (.old) to the video files. Try doing it to the intro one first. They all end .bik so don't delete any letters but only just add .old after their .bik so you can restore them easy. Note that they wont play once you do this until you remove the .old.
Not sure what else I could suggest bud, sorry if none of this works for you. Its just crazy..

 

[Phuxake]

re-enable wmp, that probably has the codecs needed to run the intro videos, if that still fails install the k-lite codec pack ensuring you do the fddshow thing zhal said.

Let us know how that goes.

 

[Cameron]

Okay, tried the FDDShow thing. Tried disabling the video files. No effect.

Uninstalled FDDShow and tried the same thing with K-Lite. Nothing.

Any more ideas? Frustration barely even begins to describe how I'm feeling about this whole thing haha.

 

[Spot UK]

Some food for thought.

I didn't need to install any codes at all to get F3 to work in W7

I did need to install the latest games for windows live, but i didn't need to sign up to it or even have an account.

I'm using an XFi sound card, for best compatibility I had to set the card to gaming mode.

If running the game crashes Windows then that points to hardware or a driver problem.

It actually sounds like the game thinks it has a particular type of hardware but when the game launches its not available, causing a crash.

So try this:

delete these 2 files

Fallout.ini

FalloutPrefs.ini


Then in the launcher:

Use low detail

Set screen effects to none