Game crashes on startup

[Heldgalaxy]

everytime i start the game my screen goes black for like 5 seconds then it crashes i have tried running with windows xp service pack 3 admin mode downloading the windows 7 and 8 fix changing stuff in the ini and installing GFWL none of which worked im really hoping i didnt waste my money

[Heldgalaxy]

Ive also checked the ultimate guide and so far from what ive seen nothing there has worked

[Heldgalaxy]

update i deleted my fallout 3 folder in my games folder and it fixed it

[hutdog003]

This worked for me too! Glad I read your post. Thanks!

[Ravenous Blackadder]

I wish it would work for me too - I still get the message: "Fallout 3 stopped working" when starting a new game. I'm running windows 10 on my mac with bootcamp - do you guys have any more ideas?
- What stuff did you change in the ini file?

[Hongkongphoey4526]

What folder did you have to delete? I have windows 10 if thats relevant

[XxXCoCoPuffXxX]

for me it crashes right after clicking play on the client and idk how to fix it as well

[Nestor Ivanovych Makhno]

it crashes for me as well after i start a new game at the loading ... any ideas?

[BMurphy126]

After validating the files and deleting the folder in chain {C:\Users\(User Name)\Documents\My Games} no luck in launching the game. the initial screen/menu disappears yet the game will not launch and resets the Steam window.

[Fawful ✿]

Fellas, you need to uninstall games for Windows Live. It causes a lot of problems. I was able to play fine for a while after I disabled it. On top of that, you may need to install some mods to patch out bugs and such.

[Nestor Ivanovych Makhno]

i fixed it all i needed to do is download a mod from nexus mods .
Copy a .dll file on the game folder and copy on .ini file at documents folder . this worked

[V5-tagged PFN1-C71G]

bruh I don't know whether to be more amused or frustrated at the fact my copy of fo3 just didn't work until I *deleted the game folder* and verified the game cache

anyways, that + the disable GFWL mod on nexus worked for me, many thanks

[smileycyclops]

Thank you! Can confirm this is still a workable fix in Windows 10 in 2022 (delete ...Documents\My Games\Fallout3, hit play from the launcher, let it re-optimize, it will finally work). I did do several other suggested fixes first (making fallout3.exe "large address aware," running it in XPSP3 compatibility mode, running it as admin, setting it and the launcher to "High performance" in the graphics settings). Who knows which of those things was essential, but this was the final piece that got it across the line.

[papawbar]

just purchased Fallout 3: Game of the Year today and cannot play, even after deleting the aforementioned folder several times. I tried launching from the shortcut created after install and from the steam screen - same problem: game crashes after selecting "yes" to start a new game. shortcut points to a web doc "steam://rungameid/22370"

[Wrooby]

This is so stupid why did deleting the folder and re-validating the files work!?!

[6-8 question marks]

The documents>mygames>fallout 3 fix just worked for me and I've been struggling with it for hours. I genuinely can't believe this is a thing lol. Thanks so much for the answer and hopefully this bump keeps the thread relevant in the SEO.