Need help, Fallout 4's freezing my whole computer.(Fixed)

[Kitty Darkling]

Hey everyone, I don’t usually post here but I’m sort of at the end of my rope and was hoping you guys might have some answers.

I began running into issues with my fallout 4 about a week after dooms launch. I had been excited about doom and had updated my graphics driver’s along with installing one or two mods without testing them first. Since then I have been plagued with unexplained total system freezes. I am writing this post in the hopes that somebody, anybody, can help me figure out what the cause of this issue is and how I can fix it.

Note: I am extremely computer literate and have been modding games for at least 10 years now, so please no comments of “Well it’s obviously the mods”
With that being said, I’m now going to outline all the steps I’ve taken to troubleshoot this issue, with as much detail as I can manage.

What I've tried:

My initial steps were to revert the condition of my fallout to the state it was at when it was functioning properly, this included downgrading mods I’d upgraded to the previously installed versions as well as removing any new mods.
Unsuccessful.

I then tried seeing if it was an issue with my save or perhaps the area I was in, still with all the new mods removed, I loaded an older save that had never given me issues.
Unsuccessful.

Attempted pulling out all mods and loading an old, unmodded save.
Unsuccessful.

Attempted re-installing all mods and verifying integrity of game cache on steam.
Unsuccessful.

Attempted re-downloading all non-content files (.exe, .dll, anything that wasn’t a packed texture or model)
Unsuccessful.

Attempted updating my graphics drivers to the current version at the time, I tried updating them to what is current now, and then tried downgrading them to the set of drivers that I was using before the issues began.
Unsuccessful.

Additionally I deleting my ini files. This was the closed to successful I had gotten as the issue stopped for a small amount of time before resurfacing. I have no idea why the ini file is relevant but it’s the closest I’ve gotten to anything reasonable.

In an effort to figure out if it was the mod load out/save or hardware, I moved my save file onto my partners computer. They run the exact same mod loud out as I do but have inferior hardware, and I was able to run the save file just fine, without any issues what so ever.

After this I stopped for a while because I was stumped, then a few days later deleted the INI file again and was able to replicate the same results, it worked for about 20 minutes and then total system freeze.


This issue is only affecting Fallout 4, no heating issues were registering as my temperature gauges all read perfectly normal temperatures. I’ve been playing the game for 650 hours without issue, so I don’t know what could possibly be doing it.

These are my computers specs:

Time of this report: 6/5/2016, 13:19:57
Machine name: CLANKINCREATURE
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.150722-0600)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 09/23/10 21:00:01 Ver: 08.00.15
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 960 @ 3.20GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 12280MB RAM
Page File: 6189MB used, 18367MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 750 Ti
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1380&SUBSYS_362D1458&REV_A2
Display Memory: 4041 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1993 MB
Shared Memory: 2048 MB
Current Mode: 1202 x 690 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: MTC26T42
Monitor Id: MTC0B01
Native Mode: 1280 x 720(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: HDMI
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 10.18.0013.5891 (English)
Driver Version: 10.18.13.5891
DDI Version: 11
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 6/3/2016 21:46:46, 15717864 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-50C0-11CF-EB60-20161FC2C735}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x1380
SubSys ID: 0x362D1458
Revision ID: 0x00A2
Driver Strong Name: oem5.inf:NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1:Section130:10.18.13.5891:pci\ven_10de&dev_1380
Rank Of Driver: 00E62001

[GunBoat]

I vote graphics driver but it slays me that after all that info not one bit about the graphics specs. You have to include the full graphics info when having issues with a graphic game. So all I can offer at this time is to revert to what was working for 650 hours. Note tho I am not the end all of troubleshooting either.

[igloosfolly]

Pull the ram one stick at a time . Clear CMOS .

[Armos]

"Page File: 6189MB used, 18367MB available"

That's one large page file. I can't say for certain this is the cause of your issues, but it doesn't hurt to try. For one, you've got 12 gigs of RAM. Try limiting your page file to a static minimum 4096 MB, and maximum 4096 MB.

Also, type "dxdiag" in your RUN start bar in Windows and tell us about your video hardware. Better yet, run nVidia Inspector for that.

[Kitty Darkling]

Originally posted by Armos:

"Page File: 6189MB used, 18367MB available"

That's one large page file. I can't say for certain this is the cause of your issues, but it doesn't hurt to try. For one, you've got 12 gigs of RAM. Try limiting your page file to a static minimum 4096 MB, and maximum 4096 MB.

Also, type "dxdiag" in your RUN start bar in Windows and tell us about your video hardware. Better yet, run nVidia Inspector for that.

That's a little embarassing, I apparently only posted like 1/20th of the dxdiag. Sorry about that I'll update the post now. Also yeah I use to have my page file static, but then I read somewhere that it was better to handle it so I swapped it without looking much into it. I... Might revert that change.

Originally posted by God:

I vote graphics driver but it slays me that after all that info not one bit about the graphics specs. You have to include the full graphics info when having issues with a graphic game. So all I can offer at this time is to revert to what was working for 650 hours. Note tho I am not the end all of troubleshooting either.

Good advice, sadly I did try four different drivers already, last know good ones included.

Originally posted by igloosfolly:

Pull the ram one stick at a time . Clear CMOS .

I really hope it's not RAM related. I feel like that would affect other games as well, or even my broawser, but.. I guess if there's no better options I'll try that.

[engie❤cat]

fullscreen's got some heavy memory leaks from my experience, it's fine for a first few minutes but then ram and pagefile usage skyrockets, and since fullscreen apps have a priority - other system programs can crash, stalling the system. check if you're playing in borderless window for best experience is my advice.

[Zeradus]

Where did you get the mods from because that can make all the difference among other possible issues.

[Kitty Darkling]

Originally posted by engie❤cat:

fullscreen's got some heavy memory leaks from my experience, it's fine for a first few minutes but then ram and pagefile usage skyrockets, and since fullscreen apps have a priority - other system programs can crash, stalling the system. check if you're playing in borderless window for best experience is my advice.

More good advice that I didn't concider, however I nearly religouslyrun games in barderless windowed mode just to make alt tabing not hell. Additionally, I recall monitering my memory usage during one of the tests, but just to be safe I'll run another test in the morning.

Originally posted by Warhurst:

Where did you get the mods from because that can make all the difference among other possible issues.

nexus mods 100%
additionally I made sure they were all reputable, checked the reviews, and looked through the first few pages of comments just to check for red flags.

[Zeradus]

Did you use mod manager to install or did you do it manually?

What is the FO4 priority set to?

The thing about it working fine on your partners compter and not on yours points to something you should consider, your hardware might be going out or if you installed mods manually you might have made a mistake somewhere.

Also keep in mind that a lot of mods got broken by far harbor release and still havent updated.

[Kitty Darkling]

Originally posted by Warhurst:

Did you use mod manager to install or did you do it manually?

I use NMM to install my mods, however they've been cleanly removed and put back in several times now without any change.

Originally posted by Warhurst:

What is the FO4 priority set to?

Priority? Are you refering to task manager priority? Last I checked It was set to normal, though I have tried increasing it, it didn't change anything.

Originally posted by Warhurst:

The thing about it working fine on your partners compter and not on yours points to something you should consider, your hardware might be going out or if you installed mods manually you might have made a mistake somewhere.

A reasonable posibility, however I have other very intensive games, I have one that's very RAM/CPU intensive, and another that's very GPU intensive. Nether of these games seam to cause issues, or even perform poorly.

Impropor installation is highly unlikely. Even pulling all but two of my mods out and using a save old enough that it never had any other mods in it, it still froze.

[Zeradus]

Move another hard drive into your rig and start it up to see if it runs it fine from that hard drive one that has never had Fallout 4 installed would be great if you have one. If it does than that will narrow it down to the issue with the fallout 4 installation on your hard drive itself.

Otherwise you need to go through and uninstall fallout 4 and then manually go through every folder that fallout 4 had anything in and remove it. From there you also need to make sure that you don't have cloud saves enabled so that if it is a corrupt save file that you don't reintroduce the issue back into your machine.

This includes uninstalling nexus mods completely through the same process. Not just clicking the uninstall button and assuming they are removed completely.

[Kitty Darkling]

Originally posted by Warhurst:

Move another hard drive into your rig and start it up to see if it runs it fine from his hard drive. If it does than that will narrow it down to the issue with the fallout 4 installation on your hard drive itself.

I suppose it can't hurt to rule out the HD, I'll give that a shot.

Originally posted by Warhurst:

Otherwise you need to go through and uninstall fallout 4 and then manually go through every folder that fallout 4 had anything in and remove it. From there you also need to make sure that you don't have cloud saves enabled so that if it is a corrupt save file that you don't reintroduce the issue back into your machine.

This includes uninstalling nexus mods completely through the same process. Not just clicking the uninstall button and assuming they are removed completely.

I've already stripped FO4 down to nothing but the packed BSA files and have steam redownload every file to make extra special sure nothing was currupted.

I've also remade my ini files several times, and tested the game on saves that couldn't posibly of been currupted seeing as I was able to play without issue for hundereds of hours from those saves without so much as a studder.

The odds of it beng an issue directly related to mods is so low that it's really not worth concidering at this point.

[SuperBobKing]

Try repairing the VC install. The file you need to do it is in one of the subdirectories of _CommonRedist in the Fallout 4 folder in SteamApps. It is possible something went wrong there when installing doom. If that doesn't work try doing a completely clean install of Fallout 4. You will have to manually delete the Fallout 4 folder after deleting local content in Steam, because Steam won't delete files it didn't add itself. It might be a good idea to delete the folder in wherever the INI files and saves are stored as well (I can't remember), just make sure to backup your saves first.

[Gnarl]

I updated my nVidia drivers this past week when new driver came out. The optimized settings suggested I change my Depth of Field from Bokeh to Standard, and my Weapon Debris from Off to Medium. I did, and totally crashed 2 times, had to reset pc to fix. Another time had a huge 8GB memory leak and 1 fps.

I went back to Bokeh and Weapon Debris back to off, (i'm melee so it doesn't really matter anyways.) No more crashes.

I have a 970 though, so maybe my problem was totally different. Also, wasn't running mods at time, but now do, and no problems.

[SuperBobKing]

Originally posted by Warhurst:

Move another hard drive into your rig and start it up to see if it runs it fine from that hard drive one that has never had Fallout 4 installed would be great if you have one. If it does than that will narrow it down to the issue with the fallout 4 installation on your hard drive itself.

Otherwise you need to go through and uninstall fallout 4 and then manually go through every folder that fallout 4 had anything in and remove it. From there you also need to make sure that you don't have cloud saves enabled so that if it is a corrupt save file that you don't reintroduce the issue back into your machine.

This includes uninstalling nexus mods completely through the same process. Not just clicking the uninstall button and assuming they are removed completely.

If he moves in a hard drive that had windows installed on another computer then that is likely to have it's own issues. I doubt many people have a spare hard drive laying around with a windows install from the same computer unless there was something wrong with the drive that required it to be removed. It would be easier to just do a second windows install on the same hard drive, and even then that should be a last resort.

[Beautiful Ham Sandwich]

Well it's obviously the mods.










Just kidding. You've tried so much that the only thing I can even think of is your CPU age. The i7 960 is old. It might be old age, and your CPU is just being moody. Any reasoning I can think of you've either already ruled out, or is just completely unlikely.