Fallout 3 The Pitt Crashes / Crash to Desktop, Freezes / Freezing, Load Problems, No Radio Signal, Solutions / Fix / Fixes
Written by badguy001
Is Bethesda’s latest Fallout 3 DLC, The Pitt really ticking you off with its game breaking bugs? If yes then you might find the solutions and fixes you need to get you copy of Fallout 3: The Pitt up and running right after the jump.
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Important:
- Before installing The Pitt, make sure that you have Fallout Patch 1.4 (v1.4) installed -
- If you have encountered problems or solutions not listed in this guide, feel free to post it in the comment section below. No registration required –
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How to download Fallout 3: The Pitt:
From your desktop, Log into Games for Windows Live and choose Operation Anchorage (Make sure that you have the right amount of points needed to download the dlc)
If you don’t have GFWL then you will have to download the Live Marketplace Client to access GFWL
Installing Fallout 3: The Pitt:
After downloading Operation Anchorage, you will find it in the “my media” tab in the GFWL maket place window
Problem #1: No radio signal / can’t Install / Run Fallout 3: The Pitt DLC
Solution #1: (by awkwardfuzz from the gamesforwindows forums)
For XP users:
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\*USERNAME*\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\XLive\DLC\425307d6\00000002\bbc03e8e7b67eae6a81c4e239f14e1db4c14efbe\Content
*USERNAME* is the name you gave your computer.
There are three files:
ThePitt – Main.bsa
ThePitt – Sounds.bsa
ThePitt.esm
Move them into your Data folder where your game is located. Then go into the Launcher and activate the add-on. Play the game and after about 2 minutes, you’ll get a radio signal.
Hopefully this will work for you.
Solution #2:
Download a program called “Fallout Mod Manager” from www.fallout3nexus.com. This mod will allow you to activate or disable newly installed mods and DLCs.
Problem #2. Can’t load / start new game
Possible Solution #1: (By PidgeonPunter from the steam forums)
Guys, I’ve managed to get Fallout 3 working again. I’ve found that TURNING OFF ALL SHADOWS and running without HDR or anything like that makes mine run. Everyone else try this and see if it works for you lot, too.
Bethesda still REALLY need to patch this, seeing as it needed all shadows off all of a sudden.
Problem #3: Game crashes to desktop before arriving to the Pitt
Possible Solution #1: (By KrixBOI from the Bethesda forums)
I think I fixed it!
I loaded the last savegame i made before I installed the Pitt,
then walked to the train station area before talking to the guy at the radio tower.
It was nothing there until it suddenly fades in.
Then I walked to the guy at the radio tower (and talked to him to start the dlc) and then back.
Now everything is normal, for me at least.
Possible Solution #2: (By VideoGameNut from the Bethesda Forums)
The first time I tried approaching the train station I walked north from Fort Constantine. This didn’t work. As soon as I took care of some Enclave troops and marched up the hill the game locked up. Any other time it would have sent me screaming back to the desktop, so I thought; “maybe it was trying to load the train station.”
So the second time I walked north from SatCom Array NW-05a. I made it to the left side (the side close to the tracks) of the station with no crashes.
Problem #4: Fallout 3 keeps crashing / crashes to desktop / CTD
Possible Solution #1:
Download The Pitt crash fix from Fallout Nexus
How to install file: (By Quazzy from Fallout Nexus)
Like all plugins you just put it into your Data folder and click its box in the Fallout launcher, or you could use Fallout Mod Manager to help you with all your mods.
If none of the solutions above work, scroll down to the comment section and check out Fall-Apart’s very informative post.
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March 30th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
No matter what i do my game crashes to desktop, without fail, either as soon as I load, or click continue.
If i manage to load the ame i can play for a minute or 2 before it CTDs again…I dont think its my PC not being able to handle the game, prior to the patch and the pitt, i could play at 1920×1080 locked at 60 FPS…
my specs are:
Core2Duo E6850@3.6Ghz
8Gb OCZ 1066Mhz DDR2 ram
EVGA GTX260 SuperClocked
Asus P5k Deluxe
Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
any help would be greatly appreciated.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Hi TTKRickJames,
Have you tried installing the Fallout 3 Fix over at Fallout Nexus? Here’s the url just in case you missed it: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5152
Some people claim that going back to patch 1.1 (v1.1) will fix the game since v1.4 is so damn buggy, but I really don’t know if it will work though :\
March 31st, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I have used the pitt crash fix,no avail.
Thanks though…
April 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 am
I was hoping that fix would answer your crashing problems :\ I’m still looking into more ways on how to solve your problem. But if you do find a solution, I would really appreciate it if you would post it here so it could help out other visitors as well.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:46 am
Fallout 3 keeps crashing to the desktop after I kill the last arena fight in the hole, when I attempt to leave the hole it CTD,
I hope there will be a fix soon.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:06 am
TTKRick:
I have an almost parallel system to yours, if you were to switch everything to AMD/ATI. I can’t give you %100 on this but I’ll almost bet 90+ percent this fixes you and gets the game working once again.
I had the same problem, 140 hours on my main with 0, zero, null crashes or bugs or anything. Installed patch 1.4 and can’t go ANYWHERE in the wastes without a freeze in 2-5 minutes. I’ve found the solution, and I’m betting it’s your as well, but it doesn’t seem to be widely published (always buried in threads as the number of Pitt bugs oversteps this completely).
Basically, there is now–and I don’t know why as Beth claims the 1.4 patch added NOTHING other than achievements–a problem with the engine working multiple threads simultaneously. Or rather correctly implementing its multi-core processor features. Some (IDK why or which exactly) quad-cores are locking up when playing now after the patch.
The “fix” is to edit the Fallout configuration file and force it to downplay the feature by locking it to only run on 2 of the 4 cores. Head to your C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Games\Fallout3 directory. Open the FALLOUT.INI file: At the top is the section [GENERAL], scroll to the bottom of it (before [DISPLAY]). Create/append the line ‘iNumHWThreads=2′ directly after “bUseThreadedAI=0″. Save it, be done, play the game, enjoy it, you’ll probably be back here looking for fixes for other bugs which were introduced.
With your rig you probably understand this but for anyone else, the ’2′ is telling the game to use only 2 cores on a quad+. Similarly, I saw little-to-no performance loss on my rig and with yours, you shouldn’t either. Hopefully Bethesda will fix this but I wouldn’t hold out much, they design some of the most fulfilling games ever, I have no clue why they barely support them afterwords. Good luck man and as usual, post back if it works and let everyone else know.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
My fault Rick, I incorrectly thought you had a C2Q (I was just talking to someone else about one). Regardless, try the same alteration but with a 1 instead of a 2 (iNumHWThreads=1). Apparently the “problem” is NOT limited to quads, but any multi-core. My apologies, give it a shot though, I’d still bet it fixes your problem… hopefully.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Thanks for the advice, fall-apart. Hopefully Bethesda will release another patch soon so no one has to go through so many arduous processes just to play the DLC.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Not a problem, hopefully Rick posts back with good news so others can use the info. Thanks to your article as well, once I got the game to actually run I then had problems with the radio signal not showing and used the steps here to correct it.
Worst part is, I have a small Operating System drive (C:) and a large gaming and other drive(s), intentionally. GFWL downloads the DLC into that directory highlighted in the radio signal fix rather than the actual game folder. The Pitt is like 8xx+ megs and took a noticeable hit on my OS drive. Moving it to the gaming drive allowed it to not only function correctly, in that the radio signal finally worked, but freed up almost a gig on my main drive, and STILL allows the achievements to work just fine in Live. Some of these choices are so inefficient and careless it seems?.
As per what you mentioned, I believe, supposedly, that The Pitt is being re-released on Wednesday to fix some of the issues that are handled in your article. Whether a patch will come with it and especially whether it will, once again, release more bugs than it fixes, I couldn’t say. Thanks again badguy.
April 7th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Thanks for the advice Fall-Apart.
I’ve been suffering from random CTD’s. At first I thought it was one of the mods that I’ve been running, which I disabled (to no avail), then I tried removing Anchorage and The Pitt respectively (again without result). Finally settled on it being the patch.
I tried your idea and its seems to have worked a charm. I was starting to get a little annoyed with the random (very random) crashes and freezing (upon entering buildings) that have been plaguing my install so…thanks very much
(For anyone wondering, I’m running a q9450)
April 16th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Fall-Apart, your trouble shooting was the only one that would work, it seems that your theory of the cores is correct. I entered as you said only at one core for Fall Out 3. I was unable to play after a loaded point due to constant freezes. After I did what you said everything works perfectly fine.
Thanks much.
April 19th, 2009 at 5:04 am
hello there! Need help regarding the game NFS underground PC. I cant play drift and drag modes. Everytime i play it,theres an error/exceptions and the game cant continue. Is there a way to resolve this. Thanks.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Alright, so I was finally able to make the Pitt run, but now when I play it, the quest loads twice, which means there are two of every new NPC that came with the quest. Two Wehrners, twice the enemies, etc. Is this a problem for anyone else, and if so, is there a solution?
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:55 am
Hi Crow,
So you have a glitch or something that doubles the amount of NPCs? Oh wow, that made me lol. I have no idea how to fix your problem but if I do find a fix, I will post it here. But if you do find a fix, I would really appreciate it if you would post it here too so other visitor could benefit from it.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Yes, I actually did find the solution. Bethesda actually helped me out on this one. To solve this (and other issues), you need to remove Fallout 3 and The Pitt completely from your computer (you can keep your save games). Here are the steps that were provided to me and worked:
Open the Windows registry by going to “Run” in the start menu and entering regedit
- Click the “+” sign by HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Click the “+” sign by SOFTWARE
- Click the “+” sign by “Bethesda Softworks”
- Highlight “Fallout 3″ under that and press Delete. Answer yes to confirm
- Highlight “Fallout3″ under that and press Delete. Answer yes to confirm.
- If you have the GECK installed, highlight “Fallout 3 – The Garden of Eden Creation Kit” and press Delete. Answer yes to confirm.
- In the left-hand pane, scroll down to Microsoft. Click the “+” sign by Microsoft
- Click the “+” sign by Windows
- Click the “+” sign by CurrentVersion
- Click the “+” sign by Uninstall
- Find the key labeled “{974C4B12-4D02-4879-85E0-61C95CC63E9E}” and highlight it. Press Delete, and answer yes to confirm
- If you had the GECK installed, find the key labeled “{B343B0E3-212A-40B9-8207-1BD299228F5D}” and highlight it. Press Delete, and answer yes to confirm.
To delete the game data from the hard drive:
- Browse the C drive, and open Program Files folder.
- Highlight the Bethesda Softworks Folder, and press Delete (note; if you have other Bethesda Softworks games installed, open the Bethesda Softworks folder, and highlight the Fallout 3 folder and only delete that one.
- Browse to the :C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data” folder, where is the username you were logged in as when you installed the game.
- Highlight the Fallout 3 folder and delete it.
- Browse to the “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data” folder. Highlight the Fallout 3 folder there and delete it.
- Browse to the “C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Games” folder, where is the username you were logged in as when installing the game. Highlight the Fallout3 folder and delete it.
- Browse to the “C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information” folder.
- Highlight the folder named “{974C4B12-4D02-4879-85E0-61C95CC63E9E}” and delete it.
This solved my incredibly weird issue, and surprisingly also made the game crash less in general for me.
Hope this helps anyone who happens upon this incredibly bizarre glitch.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
i have an issue regarding Op:Anchorage, i don the Nexus suit, prepare to enter the pod, about 10 seconds into the actual pod sim (Not within the Addon game pack) It Crashes to desktop any help please
July 11th, 2009 at 2:27 am
GAh…hate reposting…but i will apologize for not seeing the anchorage thread…but now onto the pit,
For me its a time delay, i think… i tried changing the core count like you said fall-apart and nothing for me…(quick irrelevant quetsion anyone else had trouble running oblivion GOTY Addon’s?)
I will say, i could load my last game in the train tunnel, Kill the stupid guards, Get over the bridge, and just bout into downtown every time and it will crash within 5 seconds. hope this issue becomes resolved
July 12th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Thanks for the extra help, Dallas61!
July 30th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Has anyone actually gotten the pitt to load, I’ve bought the online dlc and the instore dlc and loaded both separte times ofcourse, but every time I played it it gets to the enter downtown part then CTD’s on me , its not hardware related , but software because I’ve ran the dlc and fallout 3 esm’s only and it crashes I do use v1.6 tho
August 8th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
After about a month of trying to get the pitt to work i have given up hope, and was hoping to find some way to salvage fallout here. I am able to load my game with no problem, even start the quest, but when i begin the quest for the ingots, and i travel to the steelyard my game CTDS, which i thought wasn’t a problem i could just put the ingots some ware else using the geck, this works and i continue, then when I have to travel uptown, from the mill, my game crashes, If there are any solutions please help.
August 8th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
After a month of self troubleshooting i have all but given up, I am able to load the pitt and everything seems to work fine, however, when ever i try to enter the steelyard, or uptown from the mill my game crashes, i have tried every thing listed here, and still it is the same thing. help would be much appreciated
September 9th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Hello, HELP! :> I’ve been surfing every single forum who had anything about crashes to desktop of Fallout 3, found many “solutions”, tho none of them worked. And my problem isn’t really the same, I don’t crash only when I enter certain zone or anything, it happens randomly, and after I installed The Pitt, whole wastelands AND the pitt started to crash after every few mins or even seconds of gameplay, even I uninstalled The Pitt, i still crash non stop, tryed everything from FFDshow to Saved games deleting etc.. Anyone has any idea why the hell is that happening? I tryed every single patch available out there and nothing. I just keep crashing to desktop, no matter where I am. I’ve got GeForce 9400 GT 1gb video card, 1gb of ram, 2.2ghz cpu, doesn’t matter if I play on high or low tho, still the same … HELP!!!
September 10th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Hi Exiled,
Do you have any mods installed?
September 10th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Hello, I only have Anchorage ATM [ The Anchorage didn't even crash itself ( when I was at the anchor land ) ] and everything was like 20-40 min’s crashes then ( suits me ) but everything started after I installed The Pitt, even I uninstalled it, it’s still the same. I just wonder maybe theres some Evil Hax to fix this for at least 1 hour crashless? I tryed the Saved games, the configs to default, every possible patch, chaning the .ini file, the 2 samples AA, forced vertical sync on nvidia panel.. and.. NOTHING :’<. Oh btw, that means I have no mods, just one DLC left.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Have you tried using “The Pitt Crash Fix”?
If not, then here’s the link to it: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5152
September 10th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Yes, I did :[ But now, even after The Pitt is deleted, it still crashes. Just reinstalled fallout, gunna check now
September 10th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Ah, now it started freezing for few secs, like 3 times in a row, then CTD. Also, now, my armor textures are bugged :O It changes colors…
( It’s the ones from Anchorage )
September 10th, 2009 at 5:35 am
So do you like your new funky-colored waste land? Kidding ^_^
There’s the unofficial Fallout 3 update, maybe that could help you: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3808
September 10th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Waste land is ok, just my Anchorage “winterized w/e armor” is from black to yellow
I’m downloading the patch right now, we’ll see what it will bring… :]
September 10th, 2009 at 9:44 am
K well, patch didn’t do anything, I still crash, and my Gauss rifle is a damn “!” mark.
September 11th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Okay whatever, screw the crashes and other stuff, I fixed the armor part, and crashes seem to be unfixable, but now.. something new.. When I level up to lvl 18, after selecting a perk, I click Done and… CRASH! anyone knows whats up with that? I have NO MODS installed!
September 11th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hmmm…. try lowering your graphics settings?
Do you log into GFWL when you play? If you do then try playing Fallout without being logged into GFWL.
September 12th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I didn’t ever log into GFWL, and the settings ARE at the min., except the Actor and object fade. This has to be something else.. I couldn’t find anything about lvl 18 perk window crash on google too.. HALP! :’[
September 13th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Found the problem ( duhhh ), I can sucessfully choose perk after level up IF I disable the Anchorage.. I though after the level up I can save my game, enable the DLC and keep playing, but the items dissapiers [ Gauss rifle and the armor ] :/ I though they were supposed to come back to my inventory after the anchorage is enabled again … So I’m pretty much stuck.. I would like to keep my Anchorage items :’<
September 18th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
fix for the pitt crash
1. get to the near cliffs until you can see the pilon station.
2. goto the console and type “tcl” to activate no clipping
3. go straight to “Wernher” whilst in noclip mode, the pitt raiders will show as allies and not attack you
4. after you have spoke with wernher and exited the conversation, turn the clipping mode back on and kill the pitt raiders
thats it!
September 26th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I have the same probem as Exiled but i don’t even have anchorage but i have broken steel and i leveled up for the first time after installing it to 21 and no matter what i do it crashes after i hit done.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 pm
fucking hoes for the 360 it said i had a null saved game went back like 20 levels i never saved just let it do it
March 15th, 2010 at 9:43 am
[...] EVGA GTX260 SuperClocked. Asus P5k Deluxe Vista Ultimate x64 SP1. any help would be greatly appreciated. badguy001 Says: March 30th, 2009 at 10:15 pm. Hi TTKRickJames,. Have you tried installing the Fallout 3 Fix over at Fallout Nexus? …. I’ve got GeForce 9400 GT 1gb video card, 1gb of ram, 2.2ghz cpu, doesn’t matter if I play on high or low tho, still the same … HELP!!! badguy001 Says: September 10th, 2009 at 4:33 am. Hi Exiled,. Do you have any mods installed? …Read more… [...]
March 27th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Crashes everytime I’m halfway on the bridge….at the exact same point. No fix or whatever seems to work.
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:12 am
Fall Apart, Thanks for the ‘iNumHWThreads=2′ fix, did the trick!
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:12 am
Fall Apart, Thanks for the iNumHWThreads=2 fix, did the trick!
May 24th, 2010 at 9:41 am
I don’t know if anyone is going to respond on this one… But hey, I’ll try!
My problem is that, whenever I have “The Pitt” installed and running (even including the “bug fix.esp”) Fallout 3 blacks my entire system out after about half an hour of playing the game. I can’t even ctrl+alt+delete anymore, my screen just turns black and I have to manually shut down my pc, get it back up running again and load my last save game… Don’t understand why it does that, but I don’t dare playing Fallout 3 for to long anymore, since manually shutting down a PC is not the best thing to do to it… :S
Anybody experiencing the same problem?