FO3 GOTY crash after intro movie - Working FIX here

[HughmanCase]

i found a fix from others online.

go to your Fallout3.ini (C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Fallout3\FALLOUT.ini)

copy the FALLOUT.ini file and paste it somewhere outside of here. this is your backup. if something goes wrong you can copy and paste this original over the file you are about to change.

open it up (the original file inside the My Games\Fallout3 folder) and use "find" (edit tab > find)

search for: bUseThreadedAI

change the 0 to a 1

press enter / return to make a new line right underneath that bUseThreadedAI=1 line

type this exactly (or copy and paste it): iNumHWThreads=2

close the file and click to save when prompted. that's it. run up FO3 via steam and it will work and won't crash anymore.

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also recommended:

disable GFWL.

download: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/1086

follow the simple instructions when running the program. you don't need to click to move DLC, you already have them activated via the GOFTY edition you bought via steam. Just make sure they are checked on the Data tab when the game launcher is showing.

If you did save a game with GFWL on and signed in, then you will need to move your saves.

go to: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Fallout3\Saves\<GFWL username>

select all files in here and copy them. go back 1 folder into the "Saves" folder and paste them in here. either ignore the folder with your GFWL username or delete it.

all saves now working and GFWL gone.

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it has been some time since i played this, and upon trying to install it again following my same steps here the game still refused to run even on startup. I have NOT yet tried a new game getting through the cut scene but i will update this when i do tomorrow.

what fixed it was changing the falloutprefs file settings for the screen resolution to my monitor's native res instead of the default 1024x768.

go to: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\my games\Fallout3\falloutprefs.ini

open it with right click > edit

find: isize W and isize H. w is the screen width and H is the screen height. change isizeW to your width and isizeH to your height of your native res. for example delete 1024 and replace with 1368. isizeH for 1368 res has the same height as 1024, so we leave 768 as it is. for your native res though, change it to how it should be.

close and click to save file.

run FO3 from steam. done - should work fine. as i said i have not yet tried a new game getting past the cutscene. although i have applied the previous settings in the fallout.ini folder and disabled GFWL so i expect it will work ok.

hope that helps someone.

[Terawatt]

I ran into an issue where Fallout 3 GOTY would crash as soon as it launched on 2 of my systems, both running Windows 7 Professional x64. I actually contacted Bethesda and was only given generic responses telling me to do things I had already informed them of doing (as someone in IT this sort of thing drives me insane).

In the end, to play the game I had to do the following:

Right click on the exe, go to properties and Disable Visual Themes, Disable Desktop Composition.

This allowed the game to launch, but it would crash when I clicked "New" on the main menu.

I modified the fallout3.ini file in My Games/Fallout 3 as mentioned above AND remove the following 3 lines:

SMainMenuMovieIntro=
SIntroSequence=
sIntroMovie=Fallout INTRO Vsk.bik

By removing all references to the intro video, the game started up and I have not had a single issue with it since!

[HughmanCase]

well done. i would recommend though you try all the above at some time without modifying the exe or deleting those other intro movie related lines in the ini file. maybe the bits that I mentioned for you to do did actually fix the problem and removing those other lines might not have been needed.

i don't know what the bUseThreadedAI line does, but i do know the extra line that needs to be added forces the game to use only 2 of your CPUs 4 cores, assuming you have a quad core CPU. I simply found somewhere else online that the game can't run stabley on 4 cores.

in any case glad to have helped.

[Todeswolf]

THX ! my game runns now better !

[HughmanCase]

it has been some time since i played this, and upon trying to install it again following my same steps here the game still refused to run even on startup. I have NOT yet tried a new game getting through the cut scene but i will update this when i do tomorrow.

what fixed it was changing the falloutprefs file settings for the screen resolution to my monitor's native res instead of the default 1024x768.

go to: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\my games\Fallout3\falloutprefs.ini

open it with right click > edit

find: isize W and isize H. w is the screen width and H is the screen height. change isizeW to your width and isizeH to your height of your native res. for example delete 1024 and replace with 1368. isizeH for 1368 res has the same height as 1024, so we leave 768 as it is. for your native res though, change it to how it should be.

close and click to save file.

run FO3 from steam. done - should work fine. as i said i have not yet tried a new game getting past the cutscene. although i have applied the previous settings in the fallout.ini folder and disabled GFWL so i expect it will work ok.

hope that helps someone.

[Austin]

The first of your tips fixed it for me. Thanks alot!

[HughmanCase]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Austin:

The first of your tips fixed it for me. Thanks alot!

you're welcome. happy new year!

[BenWah]

These fixes are already in the pinned thread at the top of this forum.
I'm glad you didn't give any bad info like most of the guides on the net have LOL

Instead of editing falloutprefs by hand you should go to fallout launcher options and set it there, does same thing

[HughmanCase]

Początkowo opublikowane przez BenWah:

These fixes are already in the pinned thread at the top of this forum.
I'm glad you didn't give any bad info like most of the guides on the net have LOL

Instead of editing falloutprefs by hand you should go to fallout launcher options and set it there, does same thing

fair enough, but this thread was made before that other one had these fixes in it and was pinned if i remember correctly. consider it more of a fix and a guide on how to have a games for windows live-LESS running and working copy of FO3 rather than just a fix on it's own.

[blizzard]

tried all mentioned,digged up a lot of forums,but nothing helps...still error occurs,have OS Windows 8 x64,i5,4gb Ram...can anyone help?

[Atomblonde]

Początkowo opublikowane przez blizzard:

tried all mentioned,digged up a lot of forums,but nothing helps...still error occurs,have OS Windows 8 x64,i5,4gb Ram...can anyone help?

I did the "play game in compatibility mode for windows xp" after doing everything mentioned by the OP to get past the intro, it still crashes every now and then but at least I got passed the intro, I had found the same info on google before checking here but it does work and once you change the compatibility mode the crashes are minimal, just save often.

[blizzard]

i understood sir...and made this too,but even it didnt help,the interesting thing is everything is ok with Fallout NV,but the 3rd part doesnt work at all...i dont mean bugs and etc. i mean intro part,it crashes after this...

Początkowo opublikowane przez Lulu:

Początkowo opublikowane przez blizzard:

tried all mentioned,digged up a lot of forums,but nothing helps...still error occurs,have OS Windows 8 x64,i5,4gb Ram...can anyone help?

I did the "play game in compatibility mode for windows xp" after doing everything mentioned by the OP to get past the intro, it still crashes every now and then but at least I got passed the intro, I had found the same info on google before checking here but it does work and once you change the compatibility mode the crashes are minimal, just save often.

[HughmanCase]

i can't speak for windows xp or 8 because i haven't been using those OS so i apologise that it still doesn't work for some of you using xp or 8. on windows 7 at least, these fixes do work though.

maybe for windows 8 you can set compatibility mode to windows 7 64bit? maybe it will work if you do that and apply all the above fixes just as if you were on win7.

for xp... can't think of anything tbh. the above fixes should work regardless of the operating system, all it does it force the game to use 1 of your cores in your CPU, not all of them. it doesn't really have anything to do with a 32bit or 64bit operating system.

assuming FO3 says its compatible with windows xp then i cannot think why it would not be working for you.

win 8 might have a chance with the windows 7 compatibility mode but for xp users you might be out of luck. maybe just upgrade to windows 7? 2015 now, you should. microsoft has stopped updates for xp since 2014 if i remember correctly.

[blizzard]

i have windows 8 sir,it doesnt work only on it,it works both on XP and w7,i tried to use compability with all window-s,but still no result,by the way.thanks for sharing your time)i will play New Vegas)hope it will not bug))

Początkowo opublikowane przez cr4zyjay:

i can't speak for windows xp or 8 because i haven't been using those OS so i apologise that it still doesn't work for some of you using xp or 8. on windows 7 at least, these fixes do work though.

maybe for windows 8 you can set compatibility mode to windows 7 64bit? maybe it will work if you do that and apply all the above fixes just as if you were on win7.

for xp... can't think of anything tbh. the above fixes should work regardless of the operating system, all it does it force the game to use 1 of your cores in your CPU, not all of them. it doesn't really have anything to do with a 32bit or 64bit operating system.

assuming FO3 says its compatible with windows xp then i cannot think why it would not be working for you.

win 8 might have a chance with the windows 7 compatibility mode but for xp users you might be out of luck. maybe just upgrade to windows 7? 2015 now, you should. microsoft has stopped updates for xp since 2014 if i remember correctly.

[Atomblonde]

Did you tweak the ini file by any chance? That's what helped me get past the intro. Also I think you can use console commands to skip a level but I'm not positive on that.

Początkowo opublikowane przez blizzard:

i have windows 8 sir,it doesnt work only on it,it works both on XP and w7,i tried to use compability with all window-s,but still no result,by the way.thanks for sharing your time)i will play New Vegas)hope it will not bug))

Początkowo opublikowane przez cr4zyjay:

i can't speak for windows xp or 8 because i haven't been using those OS so i apologise that it still doesn't work for some of you using xp or 8. on windows 7 at least, these fixes do work though.

maybe for windows 8 you can set compatibility mode to windows 7 64bit? maybe it will work if you do that and apply all the above fixes just as if you were on win7.

for xp... can't think of anything tbh. the above fixes should work regardless of the operating system, all it does it force the game to use 1 of your cores in your CPU, not all of them. it doesn't really have anything to do with a 32bit or 64bit operating system.

assuming FO3 says its compatible with windows xp then i cannot think why it would not be working for you.

win 8 might have a chance with the windows 7 compatibility mode but for xp users you might be out of luck. maybe just upgrade to windows 7? 2015 now, you should. microsoft has stopped updates for xp since 2014 if i remember correctly.

[Boothybadboi]

Thank you so much for this post. It works a dream now. MUCH LOVE!