Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

What the hell.

Thats all I have to say.
I'm afraid to go through doors, fast travel, see the loading screen and save games. Every time I do any one of these, CTDs have a 60% chance of appearing.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

CTDs?

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Crash to desktops.

I've checked my mods, and they don't seem to clash in anyways, and should be overridden. I started like 3 new characters. Wham, after like 2 levels, doors, loading screens and saves become dangerous.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

This is why I do all my gaming on playstation3 now. I dont do it on the computer BECAUSE of this reason.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Have you installed the newest patch? Tried running it without your mods? Also make sure you are using the latest drivers for your hardware (graphics drivers, sound, ect..).

I've never had that problem with Fallout, even in the 60+ hours i'm into it now.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

So it would a be lot helpfull if you actually posted your specs.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

I'm glad I got the 360 version really, despite my PC being as powerful as it is.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

awh, i have the same problem to. are u sure u arnt playing for incredibly long periods of time? because i play for at least 3 to 4 hours and plus my brother plays about the same. so i then it just crashes and after i wait for half and hour or so. it works fine. either that or update ur drivers.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Yeah, I have the latest patch. Yes I have the latest drivers.

And as far as specs go, I've seen people with much better specs crashing randomly too.
Anyways this is all I can remember of mine.
3.06Ghz Intel Pentium 4 (Single core)
1.5GB RAM
Windows XP SP3
Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT


I played about 2 hours each before crashing. Plus I have the game immersion thing where saving is like not breathing for a couple of minutes.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Hello Blitz

I can tell you that Fallout 3 does not like the newer surround sound features most new sound cards have. Things like DS3D Gx cause it to crash out in the way your describing.

Turning off surround sound and any DS3D Gx features and reverting to PCM stereo reduced my crashes from about the same as you are having all the way down to zero.

I had my first crash today in over a week and that came after installing the 1.4 patch via windows games live. Only had it installed a day so its too early to say if it broke anything new. All I know is windows games live has a habbit of corrupting files i download and i had to download the 1.4 patch via windows games live.

Scarey stuff.

All the best, hope the tip above works for you.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Yeah I'm gonna try out what giskarduk did.
But other than the crash issues, its a pretty okay game. Especially if you like the some immersion and open-endedness.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Well it crashes about 2-3 hours in. Crashes earlier if you have some mod conflicts...

@giskarduk: Do you mean changing settings in your overall sound system? or just the ones that fallout 3 use... Because I'm not seeing a choice to choose which system to play on what mode in Fallout 3.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Your specs are really not that great for this game. If you've got texture settings at high and stuff like anti-aliasing enabled, you may be running out of texture memory. I made the mistake of getting the 320 MB version of the 8800 GTS, and often it would crash in games if they consume to much texture memory. It's happened to me in Oblivion and Crysis plenty of times (though I use Qarl's Texture Pack anyway).
Another possible cause is overheating. Use something like Coretemp to check the temperatures after playing for awhile. I've had my computer get so hot that it locked up totally and I had to shut it down for a while. It's better now since I blew all the dust out of there, and it might help if you did the same thing.
Also, could you please tell us what mods you're using?

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Look for it in windows Blitz, not in the game.

I use an Xonar card and it supports the DS3D GX stuff for surround stuff. So I use the Xonar D2 Audio Center on windows to change the settings, which is easy enough to do. It might be a control panel program for you Blitz.

Fallout 3 really dislikes this new surround features everybody seems to be adopting. So its a problem that will get worse as newer hardware supporting it becomes common place.

I found the tip online and it was reported to work on creative cards and a bunch of other surround sound supporting cards as well as mine. Some I have never heard of but some do not call it DS3D GX, some just call it DS3D.

Basically its Direct Sound 3D or something, in game surround sound features. Clicking PCM stereo in your sound confuration program might be all you need to do to turn it off on your system.

DS3D works great for most games, its just fallout 3 that hates it.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Yeah I get the idea my specs aren't that awesome for Fallout 3, I have textures set to low and Antistrophy thing set at 4 samples and Anti Aliasing set to 2 samples.

I only use texture packs specifically for weapons and certain clutter.
My computer doesn't heat up ever I noticed. (as in touching the side or back doesn't result in a warm feeling) It only does that fan sound when it really starts using alot of memory or RAM; like when I have multiple firefox web-pages up and playing a game.

As for my mods, the list is quite long.... I can PM the list to you, but I'm afraid it might be a hassle for you and all :uhm:

Thanks, I'll try it out.
I've heard how tinkering with Fallout.ini in the audio section may cause crashes too, since fallout 3 is sensitive to audio configurations.

Re: Random CTDs in Fallout 3
 

Blitz

Yes its probably related, Fallout 3 does use surround but it becomes unstable when you use it.