[shewillnotdie]

Yes, I saw the other recent FO3 thread but my problem is a bit different...

Just recently bought the GOTY edition for my gf since we recently upgraded her PC. We installed the first disc and I set it to run in compatibility mode windows xp sp3 and it works great. Mostly... Aside from this
fallout 3 has stopped working thing that has happened about 3 times total since she's been playing it...

That however is not my MAIN issue. She just finished the game so she wants to start the dlc. We installed the second disc and now I get this darn error about ordinal whenever we try to start the game from either disc! I researched it a bit on google and mainly just saw uninstall and reinstall but I'm worried about deleting her save file and need to 100% make sure her save game stays intact if that is the solution.

Super frustrating. Hopefully someone knows whats going on here because I tried to research it a bit and really can't get any good information on why it's doing this or how to fix it minus a reinstall.

 

[McNinja]

I would start off with re-installing Games for windows live the most accursed thing for games I've ever seen.

Steam Users' Forums - View Single Post - Fallout 3 saved games gone

Fallout 3 does not make any use of Steam Cloud. It was programmed and released long before the cloud was implemented in any way. Your saves are most likely there, just under the GFWL profile. If you're having trouble, move them OUT of the profile folder into the main \saves\ folder, or INTO the profile folder if they were previously in the main folder.

Confusion filter: (default location

C:\Users\<username>\My Documents\My Games\Fallout3\Saves)

Games saved with GFWL active - Move from \saves\<profile\ to \saves\
Games saved without GFWL active - move from \saves\ to \saves\<profile>\

full thread

There's also a way of killing windows live for games with the fall out manager (FOM)
Fallout mod manager at Fallout 3 Nexus - Fallout 3 Mods and community

Use this to disable windows live for games: Games for Windows LIVE Disabler
Games for Windows LIVE Disabler at Fallout 3 Nexus - Fallout 3 Mods and community

 

[shewillnotdie]

Thanks for the response. Okay, so I don't even understand what games for windows live is?... However I didn't see it anywhere on her PC. So I installed it and what the heck... It works now... However we couldn't see the DLC so I went to data file or whatever and clicked them and now it's all working.

However it still randomly closes the game on her sometimes. Any fix for that? I'm kind of scared to even mess with the other stuff you linked because it's working now and I don't want to mess w/ that! You know?

 

[McNinja]

I hate Games for windows live and I'm not sure if that is causing the crashing or Fallout 3 is itself. Fallout 3 is a pretty unstable game but maybe if its fully updated which it should be with all the DLC.

Latest update 1.7

I have the game but I haven't played it for about a year. What I do remember is that it crashes randomly so save often and don't rely too much on auto saves.

You could try these 3 steps, I'm not sure how good they are but it can't hurt.

Fallout 3 Crash Fix Guide - Fallout 3 Technical Support - The Nexus Forums

Hi!I seen a lots of topics like "Fallout crashes, freeze" or something like that.So i decided to gather most popular and efective tips from net and and my experience:

First tip:

1. Click Start
2. Click “All Programs”.
3. Go to the ffdshow folder.
4. Click “Audio decoder configuration.”
5. In the left hand pane, click “Info & debug.” or "DirectShow control".This is the second entry in the list.
6. In the right hand pane, near the bottom, find a check box labelled “Don’t use ffdshow in:”
7. Check that box, and in the text box underneath (it lights up when you check the check box), add “fallout3.exe” (don’t include the quotes). If there is already something in that box, put a semi-colon ( ; ) after what’s already there, and fallout3.exe after that. Do NOT use spaces, since ffdshow will think that’s part of the filename. A valid entry would be “explorer.exe;fallout3.exe” (without quotes).
8. Finally, click “Ok” and start Fallout 3.

Second:

1.Turn off autosave on sleep,fast travel and wait(sounds stupid but it help fix crashes)

Third:

1.The fix for this Fallout 3 bug is very easy: just copy and paste and you are ready to go:
-Open the folder My documents / My Games / Fallout3
-Edit the file FALLOUT.ini.
-Inside FALLOUT.ini look for a group called [general].
-Inside the general group, after all the configuration parameters, just copy and paste the following 2 lines:

bUseThreadedAI=1
iNumHWThreads=2

Now close and save the Fallout 3 configuration file.

 

[Smargoos]

Another possibility are mods that increase game stability and performance like stutter remover borderless windowed mode and others.