Fallout 3 crashing my ati radeon 3870

Hey there

Hi there when I play my fallout 3 it constantly crashes. I have a ati radeon 3870 sapphire and it crashes only with this game and I know it's the card because the game freezes and the colors get all skewed for about a second and give me the " VPU has recovered, your drivers were no longer responding to commands" message the only thing is that the drivers are up-to-date (v9.9 ccc)

It just constantly crashes. Sometimes it only minimizes the game and then I can open it back up again but other times in crashes so hard that when I go to restart the game it tells me that the renderer cannot start, then a CCC (catalyst control center) message pops up that says "there are new settings on the card and they require a restart". if I cancel the restart, then the card doesn't work. Even as i am writing the page lags horribly as I scroll up and down.

specs (dxdiag):
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 10/5/2009, 17:29:11
Machine name: KITCHI
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.090206-1233)
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 3326MB RAM
Page File: 490MB used, 4719MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 (4.10.0000.5512)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
DxDiag Previously: Crashed in Direct3D (stage 2) <----- (just noticed this)

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found. Direct3D functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
Manufacturer:
Chip type:
DAC type:
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9501&SUBSYS_E620174B&REV_00
Display Memory:
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res:
Driver Name:
Driver Version: ()
DDI Version:
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: , 0 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD:
Mini VDD:
Mini VDD Date: , 0 bytes
Device Identifier:
Vendor ID:
Device ID:
SubSys ID:
Revision ID:
Revision ID:
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Disabled
D3D Status: Not Available
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

 

That suck man F3 is a great game.
I noticed that you are on XP SP2 first I would fully update windows.
Also What driver are you using

are blank try unistalling current driver and run a driver cleaner then install the newest driver from ATI
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp XP home/pro 32 3870 9.9

See if that helps any

 

It also sucks horribly on the PC... I have given up trying to play my copy since that patch six months or so back, it's so unstable it's ridiculous. Add to that that it runs at about one frame per second, lags at the same rate, and you have an expensive unplayable piece of pathetic software sitting on my PC wasting space.

Not that I'm bitter or anything... It's never played right from the start. I suppose I should at least be thankful I'm not missing out on any epic grandness of any kind. It was a rather mediocre game.

I should probably try to be a bit constructive as well... try it without any mods you have installed. You may have a conflict between them and the game, or between one mod and another.

 

i would also like to point out i have done clean reinstall with no mods and experimented with several graphics changes and no change, ill try the driver change when i get home. it really frustrates me considering that my laptop can run it on low graphics with no CTD's

 

Check your PSU.

 

I play it all the time on my PC with the HD Texture Mod and every thing on as high as it can go and get great frames and rarely crashes it also makes the Xbox360 and the PS3 ver look like a cheap imitation visually.
To me sounds like theirs a problem with your software or hardware But thats not to say that Bethside isn't one of the worst companies when it comes to updates and such. They IMO release Beta software as if it were finished and when they release a patch its just pathetic. They basically rely on their Fans to make The games stable and enjoyable Oblivion is an excellent example of this compare the official patches to the unofficial ones and look at how much more the unofficial ones fix. To me as a consumer this equals a pathetic software company

+1

 

lol i had to upgrade my psu when i bought the card, it sucks so much juice

 

I could not agree more! :highfive

And since you mentioned differences in system setup, I think a part of my problems come from running Vista 64-bit and two 800GT in SLI. My co-worker who who runs 32-bit Vista and only on8800GT has no problems at all. :banghead

For an almost painful contrast, look at CD Project Red's polices and what they have been releasing. "You bought the original game? Great! Put in your CD key and the entire expansion-add-on-content is free. Just patch the game like you always do."

I support that company on general principle.

 

well i found something... the games seems to run somewhat well with no graphics crashes if the game is running at 1152x720. i dont get it every other resolution does the same thing as when i run at 1680x1050.

i think im gonna format and reinstall all the drivers

 

Had a ton of problems with this game crashing and when i did this there were no problems.

make the fallout.exe an exception in ffdshow. it was in the list but all lower cased. i had to add "Fallout3.exe" manually. i know it helped me.

do a search for "ffdshow audio decoder" and "ffdshow video decoder". click the add button and write the exe files exact name for exceptions. hope this helped.