Can't load/start new game

[John McCreedy]

To clarify, the launcher starts fine, the game starts fine. I get the introduction screens and the menu screen. All options work and there are no crashes or error messages and yes, I've downloaded the new nVidia drivers.

However, I cannot load an existing game, nor can I start a new one. I simply get the infinite loading screen bug so common in Bethesda games. I've tried verifying the game cache and whilst that did find a file that was broken and replaced it but it made no difference. I get the loading screen, the icon spins around, the cards change and my Task Manager tells me the game is running but it simply doesn't start.

Does anyone else get this or know of a fix that doesn't involve reinstalling the game? I don't have particularly great internet speeds and it took me two days to download it the first time so that's a last resort for me.

[Neanderballs]

I have the same issue. I have no idea what's causing it but I can't find any other threads about it.
Edit: I found a forum on similar issues that suggested deleting some of your save files or moving them to a backup folder. I tried it and my game works perfectly now.

[RoyalDachshund]

Also looking for suggestions to get this garbage running again.

Disabled mods.
Verified.
Moved some saves.
Moved all saves out.
Tried to find magical workshop.swf file to delete it (such file did not existed in my data/interface)

Game starts to load saved state / new game. Wheel keeps spinning while game shows me graphical effects / textures that don't exists in game and... desktop.

Clickin Add-ons button in the games main menu gives instant desktop.

Any magic, voodoo, ideas? Wasn't playing game for some time, wasn't messing with anything

[Neanderballs]

That happened to me not too long ago. Run NMM (I am useless if youre using a different program). if you look in the toolbar at the top, you'll see a button that uninstalls all mods. Do that, then close NMM, verify, and reinstall the mods. Order doesn't matter except for overwrites or patches or whatever, do those in the right order and all. That's usually caused by ESP issues or .exe issues from mod problems. I would recommend backing up your saves and doing a full reinstall instead of verify. Delete local content, then open your steamapps/common and delete the FO4 folder, as well as the Fallout4 folder where your saves are stored. Run NMM, let it see that FO4 is gone, then reinstall the game. Run NMM, reinstall mods, do any necessary .ini edits, put your saves back. That fixed it for me.

Edit: if you hadn't played in a while it was probably caused by patches. Use NMM to check for mod updates and update any that aren't latest version as well.

[RoyalDachshund]

Re-installed all the mods,moved out all the saves. Tried to start new game with all mods uninstalled, same issue.

Think I'll wait with reinstall, maybe some other / easier solution (also, some people reported that didn't helped aswell), as I don't a) wan't to be stucked with 20+ gigs to download each time new patch strikes in b) I play this game for hour or two a week before turning it off, uninstall, install is simply too much effort for side game

[Neanderballs]

I play the game quite heavily so I'm not of the same mind but I do see where you're coming from. Best of luck to you in finding a solution.

[Smash Palace]

Try deleting all the videos except for, Endgame male/female, GameIntro, Intro & main menu loop. I found the S.P.E.C.I.A.L videos were making my game crash alot ( no mods), got rid of them & it works, no more ctd at main menu when trying to load/start a game.

[Looming Dementia]

Originally posted by Windows 7:

I have the same issue. I have no idea what's causing it but I can't find any other threads about it.
Edit: I found a forum on similar issues that suggested deleting some of your save files or moving them to a backup folder. I tried it and my game works perfectly now.

I don't have this specific issue, but LOTS of people have the issue that if they have too many save files, the starting movies and the intro screen with the theme music will have the video freeze like crazy. There's something wacky with the way the game processes saves at the beginning of the game, that it will eat your hard drive's access bandwidth to the point that the game can't stream the video from the hard drive fast enough.

I created a folder within my Windows profile, in the same folder as the Fallout 4 save file folder, called 'Old Saves'. Every once in a while, I move all but the latest 20 or 30 saves from the main save folder into the 'Old Saves' folder. That fixes the stutter issue. It might fix your issue, as well.

[Neanderballs]

Originally posted by Looming Dementia:

Originally posted by Windows 7:

I have the same issue. I have no idea what's causing it but I can't find any other threads about it.
Edit: I found a forum on similar issues that suggested deleting some of your save files or moving them to a backup folder. I tried it and my game works perfectly now.

I don't have this specific issue, but LOTS of people have the issue that if they have too many save files, the starting movies and the intro screen with the theme music will have the video freeze like crazy. There's something wacky with the way the game processes saves at the beginning of the game, that it will eat your hard drive's access bandwidth to the point that the game can't stream the video from the hard drive fast enough.

I created a folder within my Windows profile, in the same folder as the Fallout 4 save file folder, called 'Old Saves'. Every once in a while, I move all but the latest 20 or 30 saves from the main save folder into the 'Old Saves' folder. That fixes the stutter issue. It might fix your issue, as well.

I actually managed to fix by doing exactly that. Found a forum post somewhere saying that deleting saves would help so I deleted a few and it's working fine now. Thanks anyway though!

[Looming Dementia]

Originally posted by Windows 7:

Originally posted by Looming Dementia:

I don't have this specific issue, but LOTS of people have the issue that if they have too many save files, the starting movies and the intro screen with the theme music will have the video freeze like crazy. There's something wacky with the way the game processes saves at the beginning of the game, that it will eat your hard drive's access bandwidth to the point that the game can't stream the video from the hard drive fast enough.

I created a folder within my Windows profile, in the same folder as the Fallout 4 save file folder, called 'Old Saves'. Every once in a while, I move all but the latest 20 or 30 saves from the main save folder into the 'Old Saves' folder. That fixes the stutter issue. It might fix your issue, as well.

I actually managed to fix by doing exactly that. Found a forum post somewhere saying that deleting saves would help so I deleted a few and it's working fine now. Thanks anyway though!

Cool. Yeah, I could see how on a system with slower disk-access than mine, the lag could become crash-inducing, after a couple hundred saves accumulate. I only ever have a stuttering issue, for about 20 or 30 seconds after the game launches, myself.

Just for future reference, you don't actually have to delete them, if you want to keep them for whatever reason. I just moved them over to that other folder, so the game doesn't scan them on launch. Just make sure that it's a separate folder from the saves folder, not a subfolder. I think the game might scan the ones in a subfolder, anyway.

[Neanderballs]

Originally posted by Looming Dementia:

Originally posted by Windows 7:

I actually managed to fix by doing exactly that. Found a forum post somewhere saying that deleting saves would help so I deleted a few and it's working fine now. Thanks anyway though!

Cool. Yeah, I could see how on a system with slower disk-access than mine, the lag could become crash-inducing, after a couple hundred saves accumulate. I only ever have a stuttering issue, for about 20 or 30 seconds after the game launches, myself.

Just for future reference, you don't actually have to delete them, if you want to keep them for whatever reason. I just moved them over to that other folder, so the game doesn't scan them on launch. Just make sure that it's a separate folder from the saves folder, not a subfolder. I think the game might scan the ones in a subfolder, anyway.

Yeah, I considered moving them but I had no reason to actually keep them.

[Looming Dementia]

Originally posted by Windows 7:

Originally posted by Looming Dementia:

Cool. Yeah, I could see how on a system with slower disk-access than mine, the lag could become crash-inducing, after a couple hundred saves accumulate. I only ever have a stuttering issue, for about 20 or 30 seconds after the game launches, myself.

Just for future reference, you don't actually have to delete them, if you want to keep them for whatever reason. I just moved them over to that other folder, so the game doesn't scan them on launch. Just make sure that it's a separate folder from the saves folder, not a subfolder. I think the game might scan the ones in a subfolder, anyway.

Yeah, I considered moving them but I had no reason to actually keep them.

Go for it, then. I've occasionally gone back to previous saves, if I wanted to record a particular section of the game.

[Salmon]

I don't know if this thread is dead or not but I've just started getting the same issue. If I try to load a save or start a new game it crashes, whether my mods are active or not. I have used all of the advice I could find.

Firstly I deleted old saves, as suggested, which did not work for me. I then backed up my saves, uninstalled fallout 4, deleted all it's folders (from steam and in my documents), deleted all my mods, ran nexus so it could see fallout 4 was not installed, re-installed fallout 4. This allowed me to start a new game and load my saves with no crashing. However, I then re-installed my mods and the issue resurfaced. I cannot load a save or start a new game without the game crashing, with mods or without.

Would really appreciate it if anyone could help me in any way.

[OGPG]

I had the same problem. After trying multiple things (verify files, disable mods, reinstall), I read on some thread (reddit I think) that there is an issue with Mods that change the Interface, specifically the "Full Dialog Interface" Mod and the Far Harbor DLC. It was suggested I not only disable the Mod, but remove the "Interface" folder in the games Data folder.
I did this and it worked. Was able to load my last save. Though now I have to use the original dialog interface, but at least I can play the game.

[Salmon]

Originally posted by LVPYR8:

I had the same problem. After trying multiple things (verify files, disable mods, reinstall), I read on some thread (reddit I think) that there is an issue with Mods that change the Interface, specifically the "Full Dialog Interface" Mod and the Far Harbor DLC. It was suggested I not only disable the Mod, but remove the "Interface" folder in the games Data folder.
I did this and it worked. Was able to load my last save. Though now I have to use the original dialog interface, but at least I can play the game.

OMG! That actually worked! Thank you so much! I have been struggling with this for quite a while. Thank you!!!

[OGPG]

Originally posted by Salmon:

Originally posted by LVPYR8:

I had the same problem. After trying multiple things (verify files, disable mods, reinstall), I read on some thread (reddit I think) that there is an issue with Mods that change the Interface, specifically the "Full Dialog Interface" Mod and the Far Harbor DLC. It was suggested I not only disable the Mod, but remove the "Interface" folder in the games Data folder.
I did this and it worked. Was able to load my last save. Though now I have to use the original dialog interface, but at least I can play the game.

OMG! That actually worked! Thank you so much! I have been struggling with this for quite a while. Thank you!!!

I incorrectly wrote to Disable the Mod. The suggestion was to NOT Disable the Mod, but just to remove the Interface folder. Both disableing and then removing the folder can cause the game crash on Start. This is a temp fix until a Far Harbor compatable update for the mod is available.

Glad this worked for you