The Game all of a sudden won't load

[Zagzagel]

Not exactly sure where to put this, but one night when I closed the game up the game was running fine, and next day it wouldn't load. At first the game would start but would crash right after the Bethesda logo would appear. At first the game would start through the steam launcher, so I thought there was a problem with MO2. Then I deleted MO2 completely then reinstalled it. Now the game won't load at all. Now when I try to launch it from Fallout4.exe I get the following error message pops up: "main.cpp(269): Buffout4 has loaded too late. Try adjusting the plugin preloader load method." When I try to launch through MO2 it wont even load at all. Just immediately crashes to MO2. Although the Fallout4Launcher.exe screen will load.

I figured that it has to be something wrong with MO2 as FO3 won't start at all through the fallout3.exe file, although the Fallout3Launcher.exe screen will load. But as in FO4, the game will not load. When I try to load FOSE I get the message "You have an unknown version of Fallout Please check silverlock.org to make sure you're using the latest version of FOSE." Again I don't know what's going on I verified the integrity of all the files of all of these games. Skyrim will load through the launcher, but not through MO2.

FNV will load okay, so no problem with it, Same with Oblivion and Morrowind. They both load without a problem. SkyrimSE will launch as will SKSE64, but not through MO2, and neither will Starfield. Although it'll launch just fine on its own.

I've done just about everything I can think of, I'm quite certain that I'm leaving a lot of steps out. What really irks me is that none of my mods will load. But this is just about all I can think of. I guess it's something wrong with MO2, but for the life of me I can't figure out what. Any ideas?

[Zekiran]

Mo2 installs the incorrect version of F4SE.

Go to the NEXUSMODS site, where the current version is hosted. Manually install it and point it to the correct exe for the game to use, and don't use Mo2 to launch, use F4SE.

[Löthar Storm]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Mo2 installs the incorrect version of F4SE.

Where are you getting this information from? This is one of the only occasions where I've selected 'mod manager download' as opposed to manual download and it installs the version I requested just fine for me. Maybe your source is incorrect.

[Löthar Storm]

https://youtu.be/-rFwk4tb6Ew
From the 6:35 minute mark to 8:03, is how one ought to be launching the game with MO2.

[Löthar Storm]

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/3115

AFTER INSTALLATION

IF THE GAME FAILS TO LAUNCH / START OR YOU GET THE WARNING THAT "Buffout 4 has loaded too late!":

Open xSE Plugin Preloader.xml with a text editor, go to line 14 or 15 and you should see <LoadMethod Name= " ... ">
Change whatever is between the quotation marks in this line to one of the following options (check game after each change):
<LoadMethod Name="OnThreadAttach">
<LoadMethod Name="OnProcessAttach">
<LoadMethod Name="ImportAddressHook">

(xSE Plugin Preloader.xml is only available if you manually installed this mod https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/33946 Otherwise, delete this xml file and IpHlpAPI.dll if you still can't get the game to start.)

If the game fails to launch / start AND there's no crash log, remove all Buffout 4 files and check if the game starts.
If that's the case, manually install Buffout 4 again by removing existing files and reinstalling the latest version.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/33946

Calente69
21 January 2025, 8:36AM
Hey there - I've tried every single possible solution in every corner of the web and it STILL says Buffout is loading too late (269), including:

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/3115
https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMods/comments/o6zzo2/fo4_error_when_trying_to_setup_buffout_4_with_xse/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/4841930637298788431/?l=italian
Everything. Reinstalled the game, Buffout 4, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables AIO, the address library, deleted ALL mods except F4SE and its plugins, and made the load order edits in the preloader multiple times. Is there ANYTHING else I can try? Thanks in advance.

Calente69
21 January 2025, 8:44AM
I am going to reply to this in case anyone is having the same issue. I fixed it. Just delete the xSE preloader and the other file file (WIN). Even though Buffout lists it as required, it is NOT required.

[genu]

MO2 detects F4SE only.

MO2 will throw errors if the user aka 'you' has installed/copied a non matching version of F4SE into the fallout directory.

Same rules for Buffout.

[Zekiran]

My 'information' is "the wide variety of people with the same issue that turns out to be incorrectly installed F4SE".

[Löthar Storm]

well, it installed the correct version for me, the several times now that I've tried it for both the .163 version as well as the .984. Wondering if we'll ever hear from OP any time soon...

[Zagzagel]

Well, I'm stumped. I deleted Buffout 4, and now it'll start up, but crashes at the Bethesda logo like before. So I installed Vortex, but it still crashes when I try to start the game. I have a feeling if Vortex won't run either, then it's something more serious that I'm not seeing. And it won't start from the steam overlay, or the desktop. I'll try reinstalling it but I don't have high hopes. I just reinstalled the game and the same thing. The game won't start. I wish I knew what was happening. If it was a problem with mods, then the game should still start from the steam overlay. So there's got to be something inherently wrong with the game or steam. Or it could be something wrong in Windows 11. Maybe that's what could be wrong, but I wouldn't know it if you threatened me. Could something be stopping the game from running.

[Zekiran]

Windows 11 is certainly something to consider.

Make sure that Onedrive, your firewall and virus scanners, and such that might have the ability to change or move files are NOT allowed to do so.