Fallout 3 crashing on save

[werepossum]

I've hit that seemingly inevitable point in Fallout 3 where I begin crashing, this time on saves of any kind. Removing my recent mods doesn't help, re-ordering with BOSS, making merged patches with FO3Edit doesn't help. Anybody got any magic utilities for this kind of situation? Generally at this point I surrender and play something else, then when I want to revisit Fallout 3 (Fallout New Vegas has the exact same problem) I completely unload it and re-install, then begin building up my mods from scratch. Problem here is that I still have some mods (Cube Experimental, The Institute, Nightmare Realm, The Mantis Imperative, Shadows and Dust) that I was hoping to play.

My load order:
Fallout3.esm
Anchorage.esm
ThePitt.esm
BrokenSteel.esm
PointLookout.esm
Zeta.esm
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esm
CRAFT.esm
CALIBR.esm
Project Beauty.esm
ArefuExpandedByAzar.esm
AWorldOfPainFO3.esm
TheInstitute.esm
CubeExperimental (EN).esm
FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esm
Mart's Mutant Mod.esm
Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow.esm
DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm
UNDCity.esp
Sydney Follower.esp
ImaginatorFO3.esp
Project Beauty- Broken Steel.esp
Project Beauty- Point Lookout.esp
ArefuExpandedByAzar-Radio.esp
GNR Enhanced.esp
NightmareRealm.esp
Shadows and Dust - Southwest DC - Public.esp
The Mantis Imperative - Mantis.esp
The Mantis Imperative - Jello.esp
The Mantis Imperative - XP.esp
The Mantis Imperative - SkillBooks.esp
The Mantis Imperative - Medical.esp
The Mantis Imperative - Combat.esp
BlackWolf Backpack.esp
BlackWolf Backpack - Vendor Script Replenish.esp
BlackWolf Backpack - Blank's Container Patch.esp
ArefuExpandedByAzar-FixMisc.esp
ArefuExpandedByAzar-FixOptRemOld.esp
ArefuExpandedByAzar-FixOptAddNew.esp
ArefuExpandedByAzar-FixEyes.esp
Big Town Overhaul.esp
Megaton House and Theme Overhaul.esp
NewMall.esp
Rivet City Merchants With Point Lookout.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - Optional Restore Tracers (automatics only).esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - Project Beauty.esp
FO3 Wanderers Edition - Project Beauty (Followers Enhanced).esp
WeaponModKits.esp
WeaponModKits - FWE Master Release.esp
WeaponModKits - OperationAnchorage.esp
WeaponModKits - ThePitt.esp
WeaponModKits - BrokenSteel.esp
WeaponModKits - PointLookout.esp
WeaponModKits - Zeta.esp
Dragonskin Tactical Outfit.esp
DragonskinBonusPack.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Zeta.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Master Menu Module.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release + DLCs.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release + Project Beauty.esp
LucyWestCompanion.esp
Fellout-pipboylight.esp
Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow in Fallout.esp
Enhanced Weather - Weather Sounds in Interiors.esp
Enhanced Weather - Sneak Bonus during Storms.esp
Enhanced Weather - REBOOT.esp
Fellout-Full.esp
Fellout-Anchorage.esp
Fellout-BrokenSteel.esp
Fellout-PointLookout.esp
Fellout-Zeta.esp
Sydney Follower - Load Order Fix.esp
Valuable Scrap Metal v1_1DLC.esp
essential caravan.esp
Ammo Merchant.esp
HZSmoothLight - FO3.esp
Billboard Camps.esp
fgScrapMetalCrafting.esp
TrentonTowers.esp
BetterFrag Grenade Physics.esp
MegedPatch_9-13-14.esp

Total active plugins: 93
Total plugins: 97

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Cerb]

Have you cleared out all cells?

Load the game.

Turn of all auto-saving.

Go into an enclosed room somewhere.

Then, wait. If memory serves, 7 days is more than enough.

Then, save, in that room.

If that fails, try again, but see if you can save after you exit.

 

[werepossum]

Have you cleared out all cells?

Load the game.

Turn of all auto-saving.

Go into an enclosed room somewhere.

Then, wait. If memory serves, 7 days is more than enough.

Then, save, in that room.

If that fails, try again, but see if you can save after you exit.

Actually have it working again, but thanks for the help. I tried something weird I found on line - I intentionally died, then restored a previous save. I don't know why that worked when simply restoring a previous save did not, but it did. I went indoors and purged cell buffers both times, but I didn't try waiting except for sleeping eight hours before saving.

I have all auto-saving turned off anyway - I'm told it corrupts the game. And something else weird - if I sleep or wait more than twelve hours, it always crashes when the time passes twelve hours. Don't know why, but it's running so crash-free that I just work around that. May have something to do with my running game time at 1:1. Only real problem is that it takes a long real-world time to wait a long game-world time. Not a problem since FWE's Primary Needs tends to kill me off if I try to go that long anyway. I discovered that the hard way because the primary needs counters don't work right while sleeping or just after waking, so I wake up with thirst at negative numbers, sleep another twelve hours, wake up again with thirst at negative numbers, sleep another twelve hours, then wake up and die. lol

 

[borderdeal]

Deleting a most of the saved ones forked for me

 

[werepossum]

That's one thing about Bethesda's Fallout games - getting them to run stable the way you want to play is a challenge in and of itself. But the result is easily worth it.

I'm playing through Underground City, an unvoiced (except for one truly atrocious voice acting job) mod which is nonetheless of DLC size and except for the lack of voice acting, at DLC quality of execution. After that I'm going to play through The Institute, a full voice acted and very professionally done mod. Not only are the Bethesda's Fallout games a huge bargain in content, the mods are like getting two or more games for free.

 

[ControlD]

That's one thing about Bethesda's Fallout games - getting them to run stable the way you want to play is a challenge in and of itself. But the result is easily worth it.

I'm playing through Underground City, an unvoiced (except for one truly atrocious voice acting job) mod which is nonetheless of DLC size and except for the lack of voice acting, at DLC quality of execution. After that I'm going to play through The Institute, a full voice acted and very professionally done mod. Not only are the Bethesda's Fallout games a huge bargain in content, the mods are like getting two or more games for free.

Yep. I actually just modded Fallout 3 for the first time yesterday and started playing. I forgot how good this game is, and the amount of really high quality mods out there makes it just that much better.

Thanks goodness for Gopher's YouTube series on modding this game or I would have made a real mess of things. Even then some of the mods just won't work for me (EVE mainly results in a game that won't play at all), but I have enough added to make this game feel like a new release.

 

[werepossum]

Yep. I actually just modded Fallout 3 for the first time yesterday and started playing. I forgot how good this game is, and the amount of really high quality mods out there makes it just that much better.

Thanks goodness for Gopher's YouTube series on modding this game or I would have made a real mess of things. Even then some of the mods just won't work for me (EVE mainly results in a game that won't play at all), but I have enough added to make this game feel like a new release.

I had the same experience with EVE. It was a nice mod, but the authors have put everything in one file and that file gave me instant CTD if used with FWE.

 

[shortylickens]

Deleting a most of the saved ones forked for me

a?


Anyways, yes.
Make a hard save in a small cell, like the house in Megaton.
Go out, delete ALL other saves.

Or, if you keep crashing. Go and delete all but the most recent save, then load up your game again. Do a fresh hard save in a small cell.

You dont NEED to wait seven days. Am pretty sure theres a console command the refresh all cells.

check the wikia.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Gamebryo_console_commands

 

[ControlD]

Speaking of mods ...

Holy crap does FWE make this game hard. I have been stuck trying to finish The Pitt DLC for a solid day, and I have probably had to quick load 50+ times. I'm starting to wonder if this might have been a bad idea. When you are in an open area with 10+ raiders and it takes two shots to kill you, things get messy in short order.

 

[Bman123]

We need a new fallout game so I can build a new PC just for it

 

[werepossum]

a?


Anyways, yes.
Make a hard save in a small cell, like the house in Megaton.
Go out, delete ALL other saves.

Or, if you keep crashing. Go and delete all but the most recent save, then load up your game again. Do a fresh hard save in a small cell.

You dont NEED to wait seven days. Am pretty sure theres a console command the refresh all cells.

check the wikia.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Gamebryo_console_commands

Yes, pcb purges all cell buffers. Very useful command to speed things up and minimize crashes. It's a weird engine though*, and sometimes waiting fixes things that pcb won't fix.

As witnessed by blowing up oneself to fix a save game from before one blew up . . .