Hey guys, can you help?
I have Fallout 3 on my computer. It was working perfectly up until today. Now, no matter what I do. It will not launch. I click "play". The screen goes black and the game just doesn't start. I have to CTRL, ALT, DEL to exit the game. Interestingly, the CPU usage is 48%. So it's using one core to do something but there's nothing on the screen. Just black and the Windows 7 wheel spinning.


I installed it on Saturday and up until today it has been running perfectly. I've uninstalled and re-installed the game three times. Uninstalled and re-installed Games for Windows LIVE. I've patched it and re-installed the DLC. Even tried the d3d9.dll fix. Even tried it under XP and Vista compatability but still no success.

Is there anything else I can try? It's really infuriating because it's been working perfectly up until now and there's no sign of a problem at all. Any advice would be appreciated.

My system specs are:
Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD E-450 APU with 6320 HD Graphics (Dual Core 2.4GHz)
1GB RAM
1TB HDD

PS. Don't say my computer specs are not sufficient because it has been working perfectly until today.

When you wait for the game lauch, how many time do you wait ? Because the real problem is not your GC or your CPU but it is your memory. Maybe you make a mistake but 1GB RAM is the minimum to run under windows 7. For example, if in your specs you have 4GB RAM, you can only use 3GB because windows 7 needs 1GB to run.

Before you problem appears, have you dl or do something ?

babaloued wrote:When you wait for the game lauch, how many time do you wait ? Because the real problem is not your GC or your CPU but it is your memory. Maybe you make a mistake but 1GB RAM is the minimum to run under windows 7. For example, if in your specs you have 4GB RAM, you can only use 3GB because windows 7 needs 1GB to run.

Before you problem appears, have you dl or do something ?

I wait maybe five to ten minutes before I give up and kill the program.
As for the RAM, on process kill I check to see that I have over 75% of my RAM avaliable because I kill all of the programs I don't need before I play the game. I only have the Windows 7 OS running and my MSE Protection Software running. I checked that, it doesn't view the game as a threat so it ignores it.


There's nothing on the screen. Just black with the spinning Windows wheel. No dl...nothing. I'm stuck for an answer.

5/10min is sure, long for a game to launch .sweat.
Try to put the priority of your game to the max level or try to launch your game without kill any process. Maybe your kill wrong one.

For more information, is Fallout 3 online game ? I never played it ... and who is the publisher ? For example Blizzard, Ubisoft, EA ... Maybe you forget to update the launcher but it sounds stupid lol

Anyway, in my opinion you need more RAM

babaloued wrote:5/10min is sure, long for a game to launch
Try to put the priority of your game to the max level or try to launch your game without kill any process. Maybe your kill wrong one.

For more information, is Fallout 3 online game ? I never played it ... and who is the publisher ? For example Blizzard, Ubisoft, EA ... Maybe you forget to update the launcher but it sounds stupid lol

Anyway, in my opinion you need more RAM

Sorry, I made a mistake. I have in fact 2GB of RAM. Sorry dude. I made a mistake.
It seems that after I delete and reinstall my AMD drivers and then the game it seems to work fine...for the moment. There's definatly something wrong with the software.


Fallout 3 is a game made by Bestheda Softworks. It's about a nuclear war between China and the USA. Here check this out: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_3


Anyways though, I'm planning to buy a Sony Playstation 3 for my new house and buy the game for that. I hear that it works better on Playstation then on PC.

ok I'm glad it works fine again (for the moment...)
I don't think it works better on your PS3 than PC. Just games on game console or optimisize with specs of game console and if you want to play peacefully on your PC, you only might buy better one.

Playing of Fallout/TES series by Bethesda on PS3 can really get buggy in late game when the save file is really huge. Stick to the PC version.

darksteel wrote:Playing of Fallout/TES series by Bethesda on PS3 can really get buggy in late game when the save file is really huge. Stick to the PC version.

I had the same problem on the Xbox. But then the Xbox is junk compared to the might of the PS3. I guess it's just a Bethesda game problem. I know many people have multiple problems with this Fallout series. Bethesda never seem to fix their bugs in their games.


Well, there is one more thought I'm thinking of. I'm beginning to wonder that the reason why it is so buggy is because it is pirated. It's from a torrent that a buddy of mine downloaded.


Babaloud: I would like to buy a Sony Vaio. I had one before. The one I want is a Sony Vaio, but for the moment I'm stuck with my Acer. It does play all my games flawlessly, it just has a huge problem with Fallout 3.

if i am not wrong the PC version get the most support from Bethesda itself. Fastest patch release..
And you get to have mods too.

Bethesda games are inherently buggy. I've never really had a problem with Fallout 3 / New Vegas though. Oblivion gave me quite a few problems (crash to desktop). Morrowind was unplayable because this happened SO MUCH. Skyrim didn't really have this problem, but it gave me 15-20 fps in some areas even though I had a Phenom II X4 3.7ghz CPU and HD 6850 GPU.

I've had problems with games not launching if there was a windows update to install.
Usually updating and restarting fixes it for me.