Infinite Load Screen on Starting a New Game

[Ariathwen]

I need help, I have been playing FO4 on xbox for the first time and got so frustrated with it crashing that I decided to buy it on PC. Now I've got my game installed and used Vortex to help me mod it which seems to work. It said I had one file that failed to deploy, but when I checked the logs I found nothing that said anything failed. So I start up the game using the F4se loader and the main menu is great but when I try to start a new game it goes into the loading screen and gets stuck.
I have looked into finding a solution on several forums and so far nothing has worked for me.
Important Info:
I have a brand new gaming PC with Nvidia GeForce RTX and there is literally nothing else on my PC right now besides FO4 and Vortex and Steam. It is running Win 11 because that's what it came with unfortunately (If it were up to me I would have stuck with Win XP).
SPECS:
11th gen intel core i7 2.5GHz
16GB RAM
Win 11 Home
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
1 TB Hard drive

What I've tried:
I checked game integrity through Steam: 1st attempt flagged 2 files but said it corrected them, ran it a second time to be sure it was fixed and no problems.
I disabled the vsync in all 3 folders according to a youtube video.
I don't have the Nvidia streaming service when I looked in processes.
I have game set to not update automatically and only on startup, but I have been using the F4SE loader to startup the game.
I've tried changing my option settings to a lower quality even and no luck.
I also checked my Nvidia drivers were up to date and they are.

I spent about 24 in game hours on xbox playing and was really enjoying it, but when I got to Diamond City the game started lagging out and crashing entirely, so I thought it might be the companion mods in that area. I tried uninstalling the mods and no luck, so I started the game over without those mods and the same thing happened when I got to the area of Diamond City (outside of it even) the game lagged and crashed. After buying on PC I used a modding guide on Nexus (out of date) and ended up having to reformat my HD from bad info and nothing working. ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Aria

[M͕͕͗͗i͕͕͗͗y͕͕͗͗o]

first of disable weapon debris in the advanced options or your game will crash because of Nvidia GPU. then before you even start modding the game you have to start it at least 1 time ( in Vanilla ) to create the INI file. after that you start modding. maybe the game runs not well under windows 11. try the compatibility mode and set it to 8 or 10

[Ariathwen]

Additional attempts:
Switched game plus mods to my SSD instead of HDD. Then I took your advice Miyo and uninstalled all mods, deleted the save file for the game in the documents folder and restarted the game vanilla. It loaded and I got to see Nate looking in the mirror finally. I exited and re-installed all the mods and infinite loading screen again on start new game. So, I guess it is the mods I have. What a pain in the ... Vortex didn't say I had any issues...there were some things I had to choose a order for, and 2 mods didn't include the .esm files like they were supposed to so that they would be compatible. Would that be the problem? I have never done mods on PC before, and only just started with mods on xbox last year playing Skyrim, so I'm a bit green still. I *could* list all of my mods here if anyone would be willing to help with that, but from what I've read on forums of people asking for help with mod compatibility issues people get kinda weird. Anyway, thanks Miyo for your response.
Aria

[wtiger27]

With your GPU, weapon debris can certainly cause issues. It is a well known problem with the Nividia higher end cards. And newer Nvidia drivers for some players, have also been reported as causing conflicts with the game. Resorting to a older driver have fixed it for some users.

[Ariathwen]

wtiger27, how would I find an old driver for a new Nvidia card? I've tried running in compatibility mode for win 8 and still no luck. I also disabled all conflicting mods and tried again with no change. I have weapon debris disabled as well, never had it on.
Aria
Edit: I found where I can download the older drivers, Dec 2021 being the oldest driver I can install.
Edit2: Installed the old driver - nothing, ran in compatibility for 8 - nothing, then for win 7 - nothing.

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by ariathwen:

wtiger27, how would I find an old driver for a new Nvidia card? I've tried running in compatibility mode for win 8 and still no luck. I also disabled all conflicting mods and tried again with no change. I have weapon debris disabled as well, never had it on.
Aria
Edit: I found where I can download the older drivers, Dec 2021 being the oldest driver I can install.

That will not be old enough. Have you checked Nvidia's website? I am still using a Nvidia driver from over a year ago. Like from the summer of 2020.

[ElanaAhova]

Originally posted by wtiger27:

...
That will not be old enough. ... I am still using a Nvidia driver from over a year ago. Like from the summer of 2020.

Agree. Been playing FO4 / Skyrim series since their first release. And I always use Nvidia.

I've learned to NEVER install a new Nvidia driver. Always wait at least 6 months to a year before installing 'new' driver. When you have a driver you really 'like,' make an archive copy and save / store it elsewhere - just in case the Nvidia site drops that driver.

[Ariathwen]

I have the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060Ti graphics card. Nvidia did not have an older driver on their site than the Dec 2021 file.
I do have my old pc that the motherboard broke still...could maybe swap out the graphics card from that and give it a try if I have to. BUT...seeing as how I have a brand new PC and my old one is from 2013 I'm guessing the old card won't be compatible with my new PC. *sigh* The old one is Nvidia GeForce GTX 770. Current Motherboard is ATX if that makes a difference.

[Iceira]

Sense you mention mods then, thats the first choise of option if you cant even start the new game and original content only thats your problem to deal with it.

Can you try in lowest option GPU setting in the laucher atleast, if that mod issue still fail.

[Ariathwen]

I’ve already deactivated any mod with a conflict and that didn’t work. Tried lower graphics settings and that’s also a no go.

[M͕͕͗͗i͕͕͗͗y͕͕͗͗o]

install one mod at the time and try the game. it's a bit of work but it's the best way to find the faulty mod. also use LOOT to sort the loadorder of your mods

[Shadowrun]

it's probably mods but i posted a lot of suggestions for fixing black screen / infinite load in another thread just yesterday if you want to check it out

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/3175603119507428373/

EDIT:

Originally posted by Shadowrun:

there's actually a few reasons the game can do this.

if you do a search here in the forum for "infinite loading" it comes up with 113 pages of topics. most of them seem unresolved, but you never know. sometimes the OP solves it and doesn't post back the solution.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/search/?q=infinite+loading&gidforum=618463738384243716&include_deleted=1

so the first thing i think is mods. are you using mods? some conflict in mods would certainly cause the game to not load. but to basically get stuck on some part and give up.

if it isn't mods then i can only suggest you try these things:

+ Try disabling steam overlay VR and cloud sync under game properties. in steam, click:
LIBRARY -> HOME -> FALLOUT 4 -> MANAGE -> PROPERTIES -> GENERAL ->
uncheck the boxes that say:
- use desktop game theatre while steam VR is active
- keep games saves in the steam cloud for fallout 4

+ if you run microsoft one drive, try disabling it while you play and see if it helps. some users have reported problems associated with one drive.

+ if you have too many save game files, try deleting some of them or moving older ones to a different folder.

+ Disable Antivirus Software

+ try validating the game files using the steam validator

+ try adjusting the max frame rate to 60 fps in your graphics card settings

+ try running the game at the same resolution as your desktop resolution. go in to settings in the launcher to change it. fallout also wants to run at 1920x1080 resolution so you could try running it at that. another thing people do that sometimes works is running the game in a full-screen window (windowed-mode)+ try running the game at the same resolution as your desktop resolution. go in to settings in the launcher to change it.

+ try updating your graphics drivers
* if you are using an nVidia card, make sure you have the 'Weapon Debris' setting off

+ Enable Borderless Window Mode
- Launch Fallout 4 through steam.
- Click on Options.
- Tick the Windowed Mode box and enable Borderless.
- Run the game and check if the problem persists.

+ Edit Configuration Files
Navigate to this location in your windows explorer: C:\Users\username\Documents\mygames\fallout4.
Locate and click on fallout4prefs.ini.
Find the following variables and edit them as shown.
They should be in the [Display] section

bMaximizeWindow=0
bBorderless=1
bFull Screen=0
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920

+ you could try deleting the following 3 files. maybe there's a bad setting in there:

- C:\Users\aaron\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\
* change the folder name 'aaron' to the name of your PC

- Fallout4.ini
- Fallout4Custom.ini
- Fallout4Prefs.ini

then when you reboot the game, it might crash. it's ok, just reboot it again and it will have remade these files with their default settings. if it does not, you can run the steam validator to get it to replace the files with default settings

- - - - - - - - - -

if you do use mods, try using this one:

Load Accelerator (CPU affinity)
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10283

it can reduce load times during load screens.

[Ariathwen]

Thanks for the reply’s. As soon as I get a chance I will try everything suggested that I haven’t already done, but I’m guessing that Miyo is correct in that I’ll have to check every mod one at a time to see which one is causing the problem. However, since that seems to be the most tedious suggestion I’ll try that last. I’ll post again when I’m done, hopefully with the solution.

[Shadowrun]

yea usually when the game gets stuck on stupid it's a mod conflict. probably just 1 mod conflicting with another.

[Ariathwen]

Sooo….I loaded in the mods a few at a time, checking the game each time with no problems whatsoever. Only one or 2 mods I didn’t try because I decided I didn’t need them. Idk why that worked. 🤷‍♀️