don't know why Fallout 3 is freezing

demonikal

demonikal

New Member
I got a DVD with both Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on it about a week and a half ago. I haven't yet tried Oblivion, but I really really love Fallout 3. I think I'm at level 4 now and things are freezing on me all the time. I can't even make it more than about 3 minutes into the game now, and the game freezes. It's weird cuz the music is still playing. I just can't move my mouse and nothing except Ctrl+Alt+Del works.:mad:

Maybe it's the fact that both games are on one DVD. I bought it retail. I got it from Amazon.com. I didn't get it illegally. I have heard of this program, another purchase, called GameJackal, from Slysoft.com. I guess it makes it so that you can play a game completely off your hard disk without relying on a CD or DVD. Does anyone know of this kind of thing?

Becuz if it's cuz my graphics card isn't good enough - well that makes no sense that I made it this far in the game with no problems.
 
Sorry to say this, but to be fair, your PSU is rubbish, your gpu is not a gaming gpu and your CPU is also pretty poor. It will be one or more of these three things.

Most likely your gpu is not up to scratch, possibly also not getting enough stable juice from the psu.
 
Well, I'm not a g-a-m-e-r. I just wanted to try out a game since I haven't played anything but Windows Solitaire since 1999. Maybe your being honest, but it's more like being brutal. It's like, "Hey, look over there....while I knock the effen wind out of you." :eek: Where were you when I asked about a month ago what's a good game for a major n00b? Not one person commented about my specs which are all up-to-date. Thanks for ruining my night.
 
Sorry dude, you asked. Im just letting you know why you're getting poor performance.


don't ask if you don't want the truth :)
 
bigfellla said:
Dude, im not mod or anything, just a member like everything else. Confident yes.
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Hey, I owe you an apology. I'm not much younger than you and I'm acting like a kid. I do take honest comments personally sometimes, but I try to take things w/ a grain of salt.

So, what do you think I should do first, seriously. I have very little confidence with what I even basically know I know. Should I start with cheaper first? Or maybe I should go with free and over-clock my four cores, but I'll have to read into what voltages to change them to or whatever. I guess PSU would be least expensive. Then kind of six one way, half dozen the other, with price of GPU or new CPU. I was actually looking on Ebay last week for the fastest AMD AM3 6-core processor that my ASUS mono could take. When I got it, it just became available for Windows 7 and 6-core ready.

What do you think should come first? Or you think I should just start saving up for a new rig??
 
Hi mate, no need to apologise, nothing like being the bringer of bad news.

No matter what you do, you need a new PSU.

After that, you can overclock (not before as this requires stable power).

A new PSU isn't going to increase gaming performance by itself, however you cannot put a new GPU in there until you do replace the PSU.

Then the next step to see performance increase is to get a new GPU.

After that, a new CPU, however this is the last thing to do, and in fact may not be needed if the GPU upgrade sorts your needs.

I would suggest the following:

PSU - Corsair 430W - $25

GPU - HD7770 1GB - $120

Now to respond to the anticipated question about a 430W PSU being better than a 550W PSU you currently have, the Corsair PSU has 32A available to the 12V rail which most of the computer runs off. Your current PSU (albeit 550W) only has 30A MAX. Operative word being MAX. At 30A it shuts down. Factor in the cheap build quality, very poor efficiency, and capacitor derating, that is more likely to be around 25A at best. Not a good idea.

Plus for $25 you get a quality PSU with much more grunt available at greater efficiency. It can provide the full 32A at over 80% efficiency.

In terms of the GPU, the 7770 will play a lot of games well. I went for a budget to mid range card that is efficient and pretty cheap. Compared to the GT430, its between 2 - 4 times faster on raw numbers.

In terms of gaming performance in the real world, the 7770 will play your games easily and even play BF3 at 1080p no problems.

So for $145 you get the gaming performance and quality you can rely on.

Finally, you could leave the GT430 in the second PCIe slot and run it for Physx, which if you play any of games that use Physx would be beneficial.

That would be how I would go.
 
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I'd wager that you have the K-Lite codec pack installed? It is known to cause freezes with FO3 among other Bethesda games. Try uninstalling it.
 
You CPU is fine for moderate gaming. Especially older games like Fallout 3 and Oblivion. I would advise a PSU and GPU upgrade though as per Bigfellla's instruction.

Still what your describing sounds like a software glitch or bug, not a hardware issue.
 
1. Your CPU is fine. I was constant 80+FPS, held back by graphics card, on a Phenom II 720BE in FO3. Intel fanboyism taking over, yet again.

2. Whilst not the best graphics card, it will play FO3 and Oblivion without a single issue

3. Your power supply is fine for the system you currently have

With the above in mind, this is not a hardware issue unless there is a fault, I would put money on that. What the fault would be, I do not know as I never did have a problem with either game. The occasional crash before later patches, however this was to be expected, FO3 especially was known for being fairly unstable.

I would act on what Linkin suggested and failing that, google is your friend, try what other people found.
 
Aastii said:
1. Your CPU is fine. I was constant 80+FPS, held back by graphics card, on a Phenom II 720BE in FO3. Intel fanboyism taking over, yet again.
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As I said, last thing to change in fact it may not be an issue. However if he went for a very powerful GPU, then it would be. No fan issue there mate, just common sense.

Aastii said:
2. Whilst not the best graphics card, it will play FO3 and Oblivion without a single issue
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Nonsense. The GPU struggles to get 30FPS in most games even at 1280 x 1024. At 1080p it will be a disaster. This is not a GPU designed for gaming.

I said it before, and I'll end it with here. To put it bluntly, if you want to experience 3D media on your PC and don't care too much about games, the ASUS ENGT430 will be great for you. If you want to play games, get a better video card. http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...k=view&id=625&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=14
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Aastii said:
3. Your power supply is fine for the system you currently have
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The PSU is garbage and if he chooses to overclock (which is what he had intended with the current system) or upgrade the GPU or CPU (also what he was planning on doing), the PSU has to be changed.

Finally, this is a new install of Windows 7, no suggestion whatsoever of a K-lite package installed, with a hopelessly underpowered GPU.

To the OP, of course try the issue that the others have suggested regarding software, but you have a very low powered GPU currently, that is designed for HTPCs not gaming. Should you want to improve that you need a new PSU and GPU and for $145, the improvement will be massive.
 
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A 430 will play Fallout 3 and Oblivion without a hitch. It is a game from 2008, right about when the 9000 series was the latest offering from Nvidia, just before the 200 series came out. I was playing FO3 on my 8600GT on high settings. The 430 destroys an 8600GT, it will play these games just fine. To say otherwise is 100% wrong. The fact that OP was previously playing the games proves this.

You always recommend way over what people need because you don't seem to understand the concept of a low-mid range gaming computer, you don't actually understand what is required to play games at all and for these games, a GT430 is more than enough.


As for the power supply, it is not the best, but it will power this system, even with overclocks, just fine. If upgrades were coming, yes, a new PSU would be highly recommended, but at this moment in time no new hardware is required at all unless there is a fault and to suggest otherwise would be tantamount to telling op to go outside and burn his money
 
No where does he say he has been using it successfully with games.

I haven't found one benchmark where the GT430 gets above 30FPS at 1080p. So your claim that it is more than enough is unfounded.

In terms of gaming, the GT 430 is limited to 1280 resolution and medium quality settings if you want to achieve decent framerates overall. Further improvements are achievable if you disable antialiasing and ratchet down the eye candy a bit. For someone with an older OEM machine, for example, this could be a nice swap-and-drop card, likely requiring no power supply upgrade or anything else other than a driver update. And make no mistake, there is a considerable market out there for people in this situation or similar.
But remember, this isn’t a "true" gaming card.
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http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/asus-geforce-gt-430-1gb/16/

You sure you're thinking of the same card ?
 
Pretty much the whole of OP's post is saying he played the game. I will help you pick out the bits, though tbh, it would be easier for you to just go back and read the post again:

I got a DVD with both Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on it about a week and a half ago. I haven't yet tried Oblivion, but I really really love Fallout 3. I think I'm at level 4 now and things are freezing on me all the time. I can't even make it more than about 3 minutes into the game now, and the game freezes. It's weird cuz the music is still playing
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Becuz if it's cuz my graphics card isn't good enough - well that makes no sense that I made it this far in the game with no problems
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As for those benches, I will repeat my previous post:

You always recommend way over what people need because you don't seem to understand the concept of a low-mid range gaming computer, you don't actually understand what is required to play games at all and for these games, a GT430 is more than enough.
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Nobody that buys a GT430 expects max settings with multiple monitors at high resolutions. All of those benches completely back up what I said:

The MW2 bench, 40fps. You disable anti-aliasing, you get a huge bump. You drop some settings too and you can up the resolution

RE5 - 35 fps max settings. You drop some of them you can easily hit over 60, or up the resolution and maintain 30-40fps

L4D2 - 38fps max settings, you drop it to medium you again have over 60.


I know myself that for Fallout 3 and Oblivion, a 430 has ample power, that is a fact which OP has seen, I have seen but even with it laid out in front of you with anecdotal and quantitative evidence, you yourself cannot see because it isn't Intel and it isn't the latest and greatest graphics card
 
I suggested a very moderate update - play the ball not the man. The GT430 is a HTPC graphics card, not a gaming card. ITs low profile, low powered and not designed for gaming. The FPS you claim are at 1280 x 1024. The OP is playing at 1080p, so you can expect half that FPS, which is unplayable. seriously, it struggles at even lower resolutions than that to get 30FPS. All but one game it fails at 1600 x 1200. This is not 'plenty of power' http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gt_430_1024mb_review,8.html
 
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While these two argue about hardware I'll put forth this.

Have you tried reinstalling it? Still sounds like a software issue with corrupt files or the like. And for what you're wanting to do and play, your hardware is fine.
 
linkin said:
I'd wager that you have the K-Lite codec pack installed? It is known to cause freezes with FO3 among other Bethesda games. Try uninstalling it.
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No, I may have had that at one time, but got rid of it before I got Windows 7 and built my computer back in 2010.

But here are screenshots of my program list. I have nothing to hide anyway. But who knows, you or someone else may see something that could interfere or simply something I don't need that I can replace with something simpler. For now though, I just want to figure out what's wrong or nothing wrong maybe with FO3.

First thing I did do and actually I'm gonna try playing it tonight since I made the change - was unhook the data and power cable to my 2 TB hard drive and the additional DVD writer that I put in there, neither of which are on my specs. I'm only guessing that until I get a new better PSU, like the one bigfella suggested, that if there are less things needing power, then there is more power to go around. Or I could be totally wrong on that.

Here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9fi0vc1dyzo7ty8/G665o5Mn-x
 
bigfellla said:
I suggested a very moderate update - play the ball not the man. The GT430 is a HTPC graphics card, not a gaming card. ITs low profile, low powered and not designed for gaming. The FPS you claim are at 1280 x 1024. The OP is playing at 1080p, so you can expect half that FPS, which is unplayable. seriously, it struggles at even lower resolutions than that to get 30FPS. All but one game it fails at 1600 x 1200. This is not 'plenty of power' http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gt_430_1024mb_review,8.html
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It is like talking to Life...

op can play the game just fine, he has already said that - The card has plenty of power for the needs. Like I said before, you are completely unable to fathom a low-mid range gaming computer, which a 430 is perfectly fine for.

The fact that he has played the games that he wants to straight out proves that it is enough, but of course you don't want to acknowledge that you are wrong, so carry on posting your benches and wasting your time, they mean nothing at all when we have already established that a Phenom II and GT430 are enough for OP's needs.

The power supply is also completely fine for the setup that OP currently has, a 430 is hardly the most power hungry card and the whole system won't even begin to get close to 500W consumption, so even with it being a low end unit, the system will be stable.

I would consider Denther's idea of reinstalling it. What I found was that up until mid-game (though I admit, still being in single figure levels is not...), it was stable, however as I got further in it would begin to become more and more unstable, even though every other game was fine. This hasn't happened in my two latest play through's, the most recent of which was just a couple of weeks ago, but it has happened and I still to this day don't know why
 
Aastii said:
It is like talking to Life...

op can play the game just fine, he has already said that

we have already established that a Phenom II and GT430 are enough for OP's needs.

The power supply is also completely fine for the setup that OP currently has
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Okay, but what is "OP". does that stand for "our problem"? That's a total shot in the dark guess.
 
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