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I spent months in the Fallout 4 forum helping people to get their Fallout 4 game running. The gnarliest threads were my favorite ones to dive in to. People post new threads with titles like "help! my fallout won't load" or "fallout crashes to desktop when...", and I would jump right in to those threads and try to help find a resolution to the problem.

Well I'm bringing to this guide, knowledge that I've gained in fixing Fallout 4 problems, in the hopes that someone searches the guides for help and manages to find it here.

If you just bought the game, and it won't run, this guide may be able to help you. If you've been playing the game for months or years and have dozens of mods loaded and you ran into a problem where it locks up or crashes, this guide may be able to help you.

I'm going to dive in to the nastiest problems that you hope you never have, and try to resolve them so that we can all just play our game already. We're going to troubleshoot issues together until the resolution is found or we run out of options.

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There are a few adjustments I suggest for people to make here on Steam, for Fallout 4 no matter what. Even if you're not experiencing any types of problems, doing these few things can help ensure that perhaps you never do.

First, we're going to disable a couple Steam features because they honestly don't play nice with Fallout 4. I would suggest keeping these things enabled ONLY if you use them and are certain that they work as expected.

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1.) Disable the Steam overlay VR and Steam Cloud under game properties.

In Steam, click:
LIBRARY -> HOME -> FALLOUT 4 -> MANAGE -> PROPERTIES -> GENERAL ->

Un-check the boxes that say:
- Use desktop game theatre while steam VR is active
- Keep games saves in the Steam cloud for Fallout 4

So many users reported problems resolved once these two Steam features were deactivated. Even me, I had to disable these things or my game was going crazy.

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Disabling some programs while playing Fallout 4 has also been reported to help.

If you run Microsoft One Drive, try disabling it while you play and see if it helps. Some users have reported problems associated with One Drive, particularly in regards to saving the game properly.

Disable Antivirus Software. Antivirus software has always been notorious for interfering with the regular operation of programs. If it has no effect then you can re-enable it and rule it out as a cause for interference.

The ENB page says this about conflicts with their mod:

Many software types have compatibility issues with the mod because they hook in to game process or graphics, so make sure you do not run anything like that. This includes Steam overlay, EVGA, Afterburner, Avast antivirus, EMET, D3D Overrider, Razer and Logitek utils.

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If you have too many save game files, try deleting some of them. The game can slow way down when too many files are in there. Save files are usually located in This PC -> Documents -> My Games -> Fallout4 -> Saves. Too many save game files can cause the game to boot up slower and to run slower in the main menu. Some users even reported problems like "infinite load" where their game would never load at all. Just sit in the loading screen forever.

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Another thing about saving the game is that you should never use the quick-save feature. It has been documented that this feature can interrupt scripting and break the process it was working on (it saves a broken file). :D

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So if you're having trouble, try these things and see if they help. If not don't worry, I'm just getting started at looking for solutions for you, so let's keep digging.

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There are a lot of different problems that come up while playing the game. Many of them are display related. A lot of them are happening to people because they're buying new computers and trying to run this old game on it. Cool! I mean, I know your PC can more than handle this old game but we're probably going to have to make some modifications to your system to get it to work properly.

The problem is that your new computer will do things with Fallout 4 like run the monitor at 300 Hz and disable the v-sync and run the frame-rates above 100 FPS and you'll try to do things like get it to fit full-screen on an ultra-wide screen monitor. These are all things that Fallout wasn't designed to handle. This doesn't mean we can't adapt it to though. But when you just buy Fallout 4 or when you just buy a new PC you are probably about to experience some Fallout 4 problems.

Before we begin troubleshooting display problems, you should update your graphics driver. Right-click on the Windows start menu and select Device Manager. Now expand the section named Display Adapters. It should show your graphics card. Right-click on it and select Update Driver. Tell it to search automatically for drivers. If one pops up to install, install it. If it says you're already up-to-date then you should be good to go.

If it didn't find anything you can try searching on your card's web site.

- For nVidia users: https://www.nvidia.com/download/index.aspx

- For AMD users: https://www.amd.com/en/support

Once you locate and download a package, install it by unpacking or executing the installer.

* IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using an nVidia card (GTX 1600 series or RTX 2,000 model and 3,000 model cards), make sure you have the 'Weapon Debris' setting off in the launcher settings. This setting is known to cause crash to desktops when a weapon is fired or when debris is created.

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First I want to take a look at a common problem people are having where the game boots up to a black screen but doesn't crash. Sometimes they can hear the main menu music playing in the background. The game is most likely running you just can't see it. Usually it means your computer is rendering too fast. We need to slow it down. This is very common with people running 200 - 300 Hz refresh rate monitors.

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If you use an nVidia card:
Right-click on your desktop then select "NVIDIA Control Panel".
Go to "Display" > "Change resolution".
Select the display and appropriate resolution under "PC".
Change the "Refresh rate" to 60 in the drop-down option.
Click "Apply".

or, depending on the version of your nVidia control panel you might be able to navigate this way:
-> nvidia control panel
-> manage 3d settings
-> program settings
-> fallout4.exe
-> set "max frame rate" to 60.

After doing this you're also going to want to go in to the Fallout 4 launcher settings and select WINDOWED mode and BORDERLESS otherwise it's just going to revert back to your desktop settings.

If you're a bit craftier you can probably create an nVidia profile for Fallout 4 and specify certain settings you want only to run with Fallout 4 running. In the NVIDIA Control Panel, click on the “Manage 3D Settings” link on the left side of the window. You can create a profile for a particular application to run under NVIDIA. That way you can keep your high-end settings running but just have it dumbed down for Fallout 4 only.

On an AMD card:
right-click on the desktop, choose AMD Radeon Software.
Click "Gaming" then "Games" from the menu then click Fallout 4.

You can make changes to the settings on this page and they will only affect Fallout 4. Now, in my AMD settings, I can't even limit the FPS in this way. So I have to look at other ways in the game to do it. I chose the FPS Physics Fix mod to handle it, or you can use the Fallout 4 INI file settings.

High FPS Physics Fix (REQ: F4SE)
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/44798

Fallout4.ini:

[Display]
iPresentInterval=0
iFPSClamp=60

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You can also do it through Windows: Settings > System > Display > Advanced display settings -> scroll down to where it says refresh rate and switch it to 60Hz.

So what kind of settings are good? Well Fallout 4 wants to run in 1920 x 1080 resolution at a frame-rate of 60 FPS. So 60 or 70 Hz on the monitor as well. It also really likes if your desktop resolution matches the game resolution. It doesn't have to be 1920 x 1080. Mine runs at 1920 x 1200 (desktop and game) and runs fine, so you just have to see what works for you. Everyone's PC is different.

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If you can't get the game to render still then we can dig in to the game's .ini settings. The 3 .ini files you should be editing are located here:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\

Right-click on "Fallout4Prefs.ini" and select EDIT from that menu that pops up. Find the line that says iPresentInterval=1. Well if it =1 then change it to =0. This is the v-sync basically. it synchronizes the frame-rate of the game with the refresh rate of the monitor. By setting this value to zero, we untie the two settings to work independent of each other.

The trouble now is the game is going to run at an unregulated frame-rate. The best way to handle this is through your nVidia control panel again. Set the frame-rate to 60 just for Fallout 4. If you don't have nVidia control panel or similar software that lets you change these settings then you can again dive into the .ini files and try to set it there.

Locate and open fallout4prefs.ini.
Find the following variables and edit them as shown.
They should be in the [Display] section.
If the setting does not exist, you may create it by writing it in.

[Display]
iPresentInterval=0
bMaximizeWindow=1
bTopMostWindow=1
bBorderless=1
bFull Screen=0
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
iLocation X=0
iLocation Y=0
iFPSClamp=60

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If going full-screen keeps changing your iPresentinterval back to a 1 in prefs.ini then set prefs.ini to be read-only.

If it doesn't work you might try deleting your 3 INI files in your Documents/My Games/Fallout4 folder. The reason is I think you might already be editing all those files trying to get things to work and you've got some bad settings in there. Delete those files and start over. Reboot your game, it will remake those files with defaults then crash to desktop. If the files aren't remade then run the steam validator over the files and it will replace them (except Fallout4Custom.ini).

Now try the settings again, and this time ONLY edit the "Fallout4Prefs.ini" file. You don't have to run around editing every INI file you can find. Just edit this one. It gets loaded last so far as I know, which means settings in here should overwrite settings in other INI files.

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If that doesn't work there are mods you can use to control the frame-rates in the game.

If editing INI files isn't your thing then perhaps try this mod:

BethINI
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/67

Then you can forget about editing INI files wrong. BethINI is an old mod but it still works and has a friendly user interface for making INI changes rather than having to go do them "in code".

But if you're looking for a simpler way to control your frame-rates then you should use this mod:

High FPS Physics Fix [REQ: F4SE]
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/44798

It requires F4SE:

F4SE
https://f4se.silverlock.org/

I already wrote another guide detailing how to install these performance mods for Fallout 4.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2718451026

The FPS Physics mod will allow you to control your framerates, and keep it at 60 where the game likes it during play, but throttle it during load scenes to cut load times in half, because unfortunately, the load screens are also tied to the framerate. So look in to installing those performance mods in my other guide. If you're worried about mods disabling achievements, don't worry. Install the Buffout 4 mod also listed in the guide. It enables achievements while modded.

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This is a pretty common problem also. First, try pressing F11 to see if it goes full-screen. No? Try pressing ALT + ENTER. Still nothing? Regardless of whether it does or not we will probably still need to put it in the settings to always launch that way.

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First, I want to say that if you are on an ultra-widescreen monitor then you may not be able to go full-screen in Fallout 4 without the use of a mod. This old game engine just can't comprehend your screen dimensions without help. You will need to choose and install a mod that enables the widescreen interface. I can recommend two but I have never used them. They just have a lot of endorsements so I'm guessing some people have found them useful.

Super Ultra Wide Interface (32x9)
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/56363

TRUBY9 ULTRAWIDE - FALLOUT 4
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/24630

The more appropriate way of solving this issue is to run the game in a borderless window and use the game's INI - DISPLAY settings to fit the window to your screen. People have reported this as a viable solution to the problem that works.

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Now, what if I can't move my mouse? It just gets stuck in the middle of the screen, if I try to tab out or anything out of the small radius I can't.

This happens to me sometimes, when I double-click to launch the game, then immediately click something on my desktop or task bar, like emptying the recycle bin.

When you launch Fallout 4, you have to just sit and wait a moment until it loads. if you go trying to minimize it right away to poke around in your desktop it will break like this.

To fix it, ALT + TAB, (and I mean press and hold ALT and keep tapping TAB until the selector points at the Fallout 4 window), then release ALT to bring the Fallout 4 window into 'focus'. If you lost 'focus' during the initialization process the game will break like this again.

If the game loads like this all the time without your interaction then some program running on the desktop is stealing the 'focus' when you launch the game. You're going to need to figure out what program it is and disable it. some people have reported problems with Microsoft One-drive, so you could start there.

Otherwise you can try editing the full-screen settings into the Fallout4Prefs.ini file. Sometimes the game doesn't want to run full-screen on a certain system, but will run fine in a borderless window. What you have to do is run it in a borderless window set to the same size as your desktop so it looks full-screen. The only time this doesn't work is when your desktop resolution is too large, like when you're using an ultra-wide screen.

Go to your game preferences folder. Usually it is located at:
This PC\Documents\My Games\Fallout4
open the file Fallout4Prefs.ini
you can use these settings to change the display

[Display]
bMaximizeWindow=1
bTopMostWindow=1
bBorderless=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize W=1920
iSize H=1080

You can put your desired screen size in iSize W = width, H = height.

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OK, so, there are a few things you can do to avoid FPS drops in this game. First, the game was optimized using pre-combines which is where they combine multiple objects into one object to have less polygons to render. This generally makes the area load and run faster. If you use mods like scrapping and cleaning mods the break pre-combines, you will undoubtedly see significant FPS drops.

One thing worth mentioning up front is about the DLC: High-Res Texture Pack. DO NOT USE THIS! 90% of the people who install this DLC report serious FPS drops, micro-stutter and other display problems. If you want better textures, look to the mods on Nexus. Good 4k textures are there that won't drag your FPS down nearly as much.

Another thing that needs to come up first is the framerate. If your FPS is above 60 then it causes all kinds of problems, one of which, can be micro-stutter. It's important to limit your framerates to 60 in this game. It's not just what the game engine wants, it absolutely demands it. Now it is possible to set it to 72 or 74, and there are some people who claim to have it set at like 140 and it runs fine. But you need to have a lot of things right in your system from certain hardware to specific settings to pull that off. That exceeds the depth of this guide so I'm just going to move on using the standard "cap FPS to 60" method, which is suggested by Bethesda.

Another thing that comes up in the discussion boards is poor performance using godrays. It's often suggested to disable them but again, there's a mod that aims to correct the problem instead.

Ultra Quality God Rays Performance Fix
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15211

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Be sure to also check your other programs running with Windows. Try ending some programs and see if it fixes the problem. I can't stress it enough. Sometimes the problem is another program and not even the game itself. At least try it so you can rule it out as a possibility.

Now, sometimes the problem is in your system configuration. One user posted a solution to fixing his framerate problem in Windows 10 using the Windows troubleshooter. Here's what he said:

Originally posted by mccoy585:

Fixed Framerate Problem with Win 10 Program Compatibility Troubleshooter. (edited for readability)

I ran Fallout 4 on Win 7 with everything cranked up to Ultra and had no issues whatsoever with framerates (i7 4790K 4G; GTX 970; 16G Ram)
THEN I installed Windows 10 - huge framerate problems - MAJOR frustration factor.

Solution: did toolbar search for "troubleshooter"; opened the Troubleshooter window; clicked on "Additional Troubleshooters" and scrolled down to the "Program Compatibility Troubleshooter"; clicked on that and then "Run the Troubleshooter" and let it do its thing.

It comes back with a list of programs with potential issues. Find "Fallout 4.exe" and click on it. Two options at this point:
1.) Try Recommended Settings (my choice); or
2.) Troubleshoot Program (no idea what this does).

Again, I let it run and it returned a message about fixing "high system [not program] DPI settings" and when I tested it, it ran beautifully. Apparently there was something going on with my global display settings that I wasn't aware of and don't have the expertise to know that was an issue to try fixing.

Anyway - hope this helps somebody.

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Again I'm going to suggest performance mods as a solution to FPS drops and poor performance.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2718451026

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There are other graphics problems that exist that haven't already been discussed.

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Purple / Pink Textures:
Purple or pink textures usually means missing texture files. It is recommended to validate game files and troubleshoot mods. It's also not a bad idea to make sure your graphics driver is up to date. Another thing that can cause this problem surprisingly is too many save game files. If you have too many save game files, try deleting some of them or move them out to a different folder.

If you've been messing with INI files prior to getting pink textures then try deleting the following 2 files:
- Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Fallout4Custom.ini
- Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Fallout4Prefs.ini

Then when you reboot the game, it will probably crash. This is ok, just reboot it again and it will have remade these files with their default settings. It was simply forcing you to restart the game.

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Horrible looking textures?

Sometimes I'll bump into textures that look absolutely horrid, like they never finished loading and I'm looking at a placeholder texture. My settings are on Ultra, by the way. Do I have a problem or are some textures just really bad like this? It's a common problem. I'm going to offer you this suggestion that I use on this rig.

Now put these lines in Fallout4.ini under the General tab:

[General]
bForceUpdateDiffuseOnly=0
iTextureDegradeDistance=1600
iTextureDegradeDistance1=3000
iTextureUpgradeDistance0=1200
iTextureUpgradeDistance1=2400

This has worked for me. The textures always seem loaded now and don't have that fuzzy placeholder look anymore.

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One second you're running through the wasteland, the next second you're staring at your desktop. Joy. This game will typically not be too crashy if you don't use mods. However, the game is quite buggy so the number of people who have run crash-free on vanilla play-throughs is few. You are better off, for example, using the unofficial fallout 4 bugfix patch. It fixes a lot of problems that can lead to a crash.

In the following couple sections I'm going to take a look at some of the reasons Fallout 4 crashes as well as some solutions to the problems so that we can hopefully move on and be able to play our game without always being dumped back to the desktop.

There's a lot of information in this part so I had to split it up into sections. The steam guide has a word limit per section.

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I'm going to post this here because there was one instance where the problem with someone's game crashing was actually a corrupt Windows file, ntdll.dll. You can see this file reported in a Buffout 4 crash log. That's what led one user to update this file using a Microsoft web page and it fixed his crashing problem. Maybe the solution will help you.

For anyone looking, this was how he fixed it:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/app-crash-with-ntdlldll/9aa59f80-99a1-4f3c-b2f0-7eb72df05b2a

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OK, so, we aren't using mods and we just did a CTD. Now what?

1.) First, you should try lowering your graphics settings even if you're on a high-end PC. Sometimes a particular setting just doesn't jive with a particular PC. I would pay close attention to godrays, grass and shadow settings although just about any setting can cause a crash with the right GPU. If you're using an nVidia card (GTX 1600 series or RTX 2000 or 3000 series), try disabling the WEAPONS DEBRIS advanced display setting.

2.) Then, you should try closing other programs that run in the background like Discord, MSI Afterburner or streaming software. Often times a simple program might be having a conflict with Fallout 4 and simply closing that program before playing can be the only solution you need.

3.) You should also be monitoring GPU and CPU temperatures. Crashing is sometimes a sign of processors overheating.

4.) Remove Fallout 4 from antivirus and firewall or create rules to permit the game's activity.

5.) Next, you should see if you need to update your graphics drivers. In steam, click HELP up at the top in the list of menus. Select SYSTEM INFORMATION from the list. Scroll down to the section called "Video Card". Look at the part that says "Driver Date". If it is more than a few months old, check for an updated driver. If you want help doing this, scroll back to the section in this guide called DISPLAY PROBLEMS and read there.

In a few cases, running the latest graphics driver will actually be the problem, not the solution. To find out if you are the exception, look at your system information again. In the "Video Card" section still, what does it say for "DirectX Driver Name"? If it says "nvwgf2umx.dll" or if it says for "Driver" that you're using a 2,000 or 3,000 series nVidia card, then you actually need to use an OLDER driver to run Fallout 4 on your machine.

Now, people say using nVidia driver 441.20 is ok or 442.92 but you need an older version like 442 or before. Also do not use GeForce Experience to install the driver, use Windows instead. You might get registry errors using the GeForce tool. If you have no idea how to get these older drivers, look here:

441.20 driver:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/results/153944/

DRIVER 442.92
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/159680/en-us

6.) Next we should try taking the game out of full-screen mode. Try to set it in your launcher settings. Just set the game up to run on a borderless window and make it to be the same dimensions as your desktop (so it will look like it's full-screen anyways). This method has been the solution for some users and stopping their CTD's.

Go to your game preferences folder. Usually it is located at:
This PC\Documents\My Games\Fallout4
open the file Fallout4Prefs.ini
you can use these settings to change the display

[Display]
bMaximizeWindow=1
bTopMostWindow=1
bBorderless=1
bFull Screen=0
iSize W=1920
iSize H=1080

You can put your desired screen size in iSize W = width, H = height.

7.) Next, you should validate the game files through steam. Validate the files because a corrupt game file will terminate the game process for sure.

8.) If validating the files doesn't stop the crashing then you should probably reinstall the game. Do a full uninstall / reinstall. Please read the section in this guide about it, it will help make sure it works out for you. I don't like suggesting this because it takes so much time, but if your game won't stop crashing then this is what's usually got to be done.

You can move your save games out to a different folder then move them back after the new install and see if they work. If the game still crashes then you need to start a new game because the problem got baked into your save. If you have previously modded your game and uninstalled all the mods or have previously modified the INI files then perhaps a wipe and reinstall is what you need. A fresh start.

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CRASHING WHEN TRAVELING TO THE INSTITUTE

This is a regular problem. I mean, every week almost and someone posts this problem in the forum there for awhile. It is a well-known bug that just happens to people sometimes.

The first suggestion is to try loading an older save, then fast travel to the institute. Your save game file might have become corrupted. If it works, then load back your current save and see if it now works also. This solution has worked for people in the past, but not for everyone.

Another thing that has been reported to be the cause of this, sadly, is the GPU. I would try updating the GPU driver, or tweaking GPU settings. These users said this:

Originally posted by Mortus Certus:

An update on my problem - which may or may not help others:

Now, my problem wasn't a CTD, but a black screen and inability to Alt-tab out or do anything but hard reboot my PC.

Seems it was a GPU problem. Others have complained about this issue elsewhere and the fix was LOWERING THE GPU SPEED IN THE GRAPHIC CARD SETTINGS. Tried that, went back to the save that was giving me problems and Presto! So far, so good and am through the area.

My card is an older one but I've heard of even some newer ones having the black screen problem. Anyway, the problem wasn't Fallout, but my graphics card.

You dodged the bullet, Bethesda. This time. ;)

Originally posted by Jpoopy:

I'm in the bioscience department and i try to use the door that gets me back into the Institute's main commons area, but it crashes every time. I've tried changing the settings to low and also restarting my PC. What do?

UPDATE: Went into windowed mode and it worked. Perhaps a ram/cpu issue.

Another thing you can try is teleporting yourself into the institute using the console. You don't teleport to the main area, you teleport to one of the sub-areas. It was reported for this user that after he did this then entered the main area the crashing stopped. Here is his post:

Originally posted by Boryxion:

So I've been at this for a few days now and just realized that this is a sort of common bug but haven't found any solutions. Basically I'm 100+ hours in already and starting the Institute quest line. Still at Synth Retention when I finished retrieving that synth on the boat. Went back to Sanctuary to store some stuff and now whenever I fast travel my game automatically crashes. All my save files prior to this recent one also crashes at fast travelling to the Institute. Need help please

EDIT: SOLUTION (worked for me and hopefully will work for those who might view this thread)
From @ Jouchebag
Teleporting to these places with the console allowed me to continue my story without having the game crash, although I still use these whenever I do go back to the Institute. It leads you to one of the rooms near the main area. I personally use the InstituteAdvSystems one. They say the problem arises from loading the main area and not these subareas but when you do teleport to these subareas then exit to the main one, everything loads up fine.

coc InstituteConcourse
coc InstituteAdvSystems
or
coc InstituteTunnel01

TIP: Going through that secret physical way thru a sewer system mentioned here in the thread and subsequently deactivating that grill/gate does let you progress to another place which I think is part of another quest as there were Synths guarding that area but as I was allied with the Institute, they didn't attack me, It also started the quest "The Nuclear Option" which I think causes another bug as when I finally received that tip to use the console to teleport to a subarea and then go the main area, almost no NPC's were present. Like all of them vanished except for Shaun/Father and X6-88.

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The most my game ever crashed was when I was adding, and especially when I was removing mods from my loadout. Modding causes crashing. This seems to be the case. But modders aren't without tools of the trade. If you are using mods anyways then I would strongly suggest adding Buffout 4 to your loadout because it can tell us which mod is causing the trouble. Every time Fallout 4 crashes, Buffout produces a log file with the entire stack dumped in it for debugging.

If you're already running Buffout then great! Skip ahead to deciphering the crash log. If not then here's the download links. The prerequisites are listed on the Nexus page also but people sometimes miss one so I have them all listed here.

Buffout 4 [PRE-REQ: xSE PluginPreloader, Address Library, TBB Redistributables & F4SE]
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47359

F4SE
https://f4se.silverlock.org/

xSE PluginPreloader F4 (Prerequisite)
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/33946

Address Library for F4SE Plugins (Prerequisite)
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/47327

TBB Redistributables (Prerequisite)
https://www.nexusmods.com/Core/Libs/Common/Widgets/ModRequirementsPopUp?id=215452&game_id=1151

If you need help installing it, I wrote a guide with a detailed section on installing Buffout manually.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2718451026

Once you have Buffout up and running you can find the crash logs here:
Documents\My Games\Fallout4\F4SE

They will be prefixed with the word "crash-" followed by the date and time of the crash.
Example file name: crash-2022-01-22-10-23-08.log

You can open these files in a text editor like notepad and read them.
Now, at the top of the crash log, it will say something like:
Fallout 4 v1.10.163
Buffout 4 v1.24.5

Then an error message that looks like this:
Unhandled exception "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" at 0x7FF65FD1533C Fallout4.exe+0C4533C

This message has your clues. When it says "Fallout4.exe+" then you look at the 2 digits after the plus +. So it was mod slot # 0C that had the malfunction. So scroll all the way to the bottom of the crash log to the section called PLUGINS. It will list your plugins there. The mod in slot (0C) will be the offending mod.

Now this method isn't 100%. Sometimes Buffout tattles on the wrong mod. Also, Buffout is just reporting on one mod that caused the game to crash. If the crash was caused by a conflict between two mods then only one mod would be the reported one.

The solution is to try and disable the mod in question and see if the crashing stops. If it does and you want to keep this mod then you can try re-enabling it, and disabling other mods you added recently one by one and try to find which one it's conflicting with.

If the crashing doesn't stop then the suggested method is to disable all the mods and re-enable them 1-by-1 or a few at a time until the crashing starts back up again, and try to narrow it down to which mod is causing the crash. Do not save your game during this process. Updating your save while mods are disabled is the best way to bork your save file.

If you can't get it to stop crashing then go back a section and read about stopping crashes with no mods. The solutions there will work if you take mods out of the equation also.

It is worth mentioning here that there is a limit of 255 mods that you can add to the game before it will start doing things like crashing or failing to load all the mods. Skip ahead to the section on reaching the mod limit to discover how to get around it.

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There is another program that can help interpret Buffout 4 crash logs.

Crash Log Auto-Scanner [REQ: Buffout4, Python]
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/56255

It requires Python
https://www.python.org/downloads

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When running power lines crashes the game and Buffout says "+01"

Backup your save and try this mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17777

Just install "0005. Power grid tools" it is a F4SE plugin, and when you are in the game, go to the crash location, open up the console and type;

cpg 1

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In a couple cases, the crashing wasn't because of the game at all, but because of a faulty Windows DLL. Fallout 4 uses ntdll.dll and KERNEL32.DLL and their use is reported in the Buffout 4 crash log. One user reported his crashing stopped when he updated the ntdll.dll file by removing then reinstalling it. Instructions on how to do that in a simple way through Windows can be found here:

App crash with ntdll.dll
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/app-crash-with-ntdlldll/9aa59f80-99a1-4f3c-b2f0-7eb72df05b2a

---

In-game mods not working for me:

When I try to enable mods through the in-game mod page it keeps telling me I'm missing the required DLC's, but I have all of the DLC's.

A possible solution that is a little time consuming is to unselect all the DLCs in the add on menu then verify the files. Go back to reselect the DLC you have then again verify the files.

https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/3194745954526123679/

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I want to talk about removing the high-res texture pack because so many people suggest against using it. It's been attributed to huge FPS drops with very little visual upgrade. There are better alternatives on the Nexus. You can just search for the word texture. It was said to me that you don't have to install 4k texture packs. He said the 2k ones are perfectly acceptable. You get more performance and the 4k doesn't really look all that much better than the 2k anyways.

---

Now, let's talk about getting rid of the DLC that we don't need. For most of us, simply disabling this or not ever installing it is good enough. For some people however, it loads even when disabled, and some people who installed it can't get it removed. Some people also reported that they are still missing 50 GB of disk space even after uninstalling this. So I'm providing these instructions for people struggling to be rid of this and just want it gone, as well as get their disk space back.

In steam, go to your LIBRARY, right-click on fallout 4 and select PROPERTIES then at the bottom of the menu select DLC then un-check the box next to the high-res texture pack. For most of us this will disable it and you can stop here. If disabling doesn't work, you can try removing it permanently from your library.

Permanently removing the Bethesda texture pack DLC:

1. Go to your Steam Library
   
2. Click on Fallout 4
   
3. Click on the Support button
   
4. Click "Show all DLC"
   
5. Click on "High Resolution Texture Pack"
   
6. Click on "I want to permanently remove this game from my account"
   
7. Make sure It says High Resolution Texture Pack, Don't accidentally remove the entire game with no refund
   
8. Click "OK, remove the listed games from my account permanently"

After doing this procedure, the 50 GB probably remains in your Steam folder. To solve this, do the following:

1. Go to your Steam Library
2. Right click on Fallout 4 and select "Properties"
3. Click on "Local Files"
4. Click "Verify integrity of game files..."

After completing the scan, all "DLC High Res Texture Pack.ba2" files should have been deleted and you should have your 50GB back. Otherwise, I assume you can just delete the "DLC High Res Texture Pack.ba2" files that you find in the Fallout 4\Data folder. There's like 10 of them.

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The amount of sounds problems you can experience in Fallout 4 is kind of limited, which is good. Most sound related problems can be resolved rather easily. Let's first take a look at what you can do if you don't hear any sound at all in the game.

First check the basics, I'm sure you already did, but make sure your speakers or headphones are connected and turned on. Make sure the sound on your PC isn't muted. If you've already done the checks then try this:

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Make sure your audio output is set for 16-bit 48,000 Hz (CD quality).
1. Right click the little speaker icon in the System Tray and choose SOUNDS
2. Click the PLAYBACK tab
3. Right click on the active device (the one with the green check) and choose PROPERTIES
4. Click the ADVANCED tab
5. Choose the DEFAULT FORMAT from the drop down

Doing this has fixed the sound for a lot of users. Problem lies in the high-frequency settings. This old game just wasn't sampled in that high of a rate.

---

Some people report hearing only part of the game. Like, the background sounds only but not the foreground sounds, for example. This type of problem is usually the result of using a surround sound setup that isn't compatible with your speakers. An example would be having a 5.1 surround sound setup but having it set to a 7.1 output.

Again, right-click on the little speaker icon in your system tray (bottom-right part of the Windows task bar) and select SOUND MANAGER. This will pop open your sound management software, where you should be able to specify different output types such as: Headphones, Stereo, Quadrophonic, 3.1, 5.1, 7.1 and etc. I can't tell you exactly how to do it because it depends on your sound system software. You'll have to explore the options in the speaker icon.

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Now I want to talk about a very common sound bug in this game. Settlers making machine gun sounds, or sound looping problem. People often call it the sewing machine sound. I've heard it follow settlers around, NPC's, even myself. One time I heard it happen to a turret after it had just fired rounds. Someone once reported that it was the elevator sound that got stuck and followed them around forever looping.

So really, it seems like it can happen to almost any sound, and it might be a sound you produced so it follows you around but if your companion or a NPC produced the sound it might follow them around instead.

This looping sound bug is annoying because you can't get it to stop. Fast travel doesn't work, waiting in a chair doesn't work, sleeping doesn't work, waiting around doesn't work. Nothing seems to work short of rebooting your computer and I've even heard of the bug persisting even after a system reboot.

So I did a little digging and found that it's a sound stuck in the buffer. It can get saved with your saved game and continue looping when you reload the save. Joy. Luckily I found a simple console command that can stop it immediately.

fks

fks just kills all sounds and clears the buffer. You may notice a moment of dead silence after typing it, don't worry, when you produce sounds again they will work like normal. Just fire your weapon or jump to test it.

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To those who have the 'NO AUDIO' bug, with headset, on Windows 10:
Go into Sound Settings.
Select your Output.
Click Device Properties.
Click Additional Device Properties.
Disable Spatial Sound.

Fixed it for a USB headset user.

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Aaaah, my least favorite section, bugged quests. Quests bugging in Fallout 4 is so bad that we all know the main ways to fix them by now. We all know the codes to hack and crack. But I want to start by looking at a quest which so often bugs out and usually doesn't need a code to correct it. Just some common sense. :)

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The_Molecular_Level: Teleporter built, quest won't progress.

Molecular level not working: I’m siding with the minutemen and built the first platform component. The quest doesn’t seem to register and won’t prompt me to talk to Sturges for further instructions. I tried talking to him and all he wants to do is trade.

So, this quest is bugged. You pretty much have to assemble the thing in the order they tell you to during the quest. If you assemble it out of order it won't work.

To fix it, you have to store all the pieces to the teleporter machine in the workshop, then place them onto the scene in exactly the order they want.

The order is this:
1.) Reflector platform
2.) Molecular beam emitter
3.) Relay dish
4.) Control console

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/The_Molecular_Level

^ although this page doesn't even mention the bug even though it's a really common problem people have in this game.

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Emogene Takes A Lover:
Emogene isn't in the room that Thomas unlocks, type these commands into the console to spawn her in that room.

ssq ms09
prid 47ec4
ForceRefIntoAlias emogeneOld
ForceRefIntoAlias emogene
MoveTo 518ce

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Want to skip the DIMA's memory quests?

There's a mod supposed to help you simply bypass the DIMA's memory missions:

Skip DIMA memories - Far Harbor
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/16157

It can also be done using console commands.
What you are skipping is the Best Left Forgotten quest
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Best_Left_Forgotten

setstage dlc03mq04 150
setstage dlc03mq04 250
setstage dlc03mq04 350
setstage dlc03mq04 450
setstage dlc03mq04 550

* You have to enter all 5 lines in order to get all 5 memory holotapes. If you just enter the last line it will only give you the last tape. You CAN copy and paste this into the console.

---

The "setstage" command is useful for nudging any quest forward if it gets bugged. This technique usually works and it's not the only option for completing quests. There is also a "CompleteQuest" command in case you're quest is really bugged and you just want it off your list but I'm not going to go into detail on that one because you shouldn't end quests that way. It can bug other quests.

For example, let's say we want to completely skip the Dangerous Minds quest and just mark it complete. The quest is actually 2 quests. By entering code into the console it should complete the quests and prevent you from having to sit in the memory lounger and walk through Kellogg's memories.

So a more tactical way to skip the memories (let's say they're bugged and you always crash or something), is to use the "setstage" command.

Talk to Doctor Amari and when she asks you to sit in the memory lounger just type this in the console instead:


If you read the wiki page for this quest you will see that this will skip you right past doing the memory sequence. Now you should be able to talk to Dr. Amari again and move on.

You may notice I didn't setstage 320 on the first one to end the quest, I set it to 310 so you can talk to Dr. Amari and end the quest properly. When you do it this way, it will properly begin your new quest objective also. Sometimes if you simply end a quest, the next one in the series will not start.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Dangerous_Minds

Also take note of the fact that the EDITOR ID and FORM ID are listed on the wiki page for each quest. The FORM ID is what we use for these console commands. You can get the FORM ID from any quest and progress it in this way. The complete list of quests can be found here:

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_4_quests

Perception got borked. Supposed to be 6, instead it's -5 (or something similar):
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/3194745954528713284/

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If you ever decide to do an uninstall, make sure you navigate to the Fallout4 folder and manually delete any leftover files in there because the steam uninstaller doesn't uninstall files that it didn't put there itself (like mods and files you edited). So start with a clean slate if you do it. Delete those old files and folders and let the installer re-create them from scratch.

Full Uninstall = 4 folders to delete:

C:\Users\%username%\Documents\My Games\Fallout4
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Fallout4
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4
C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\<longnumber>\377160

So if you're reinstalling to defeat a problem, the problem won't go away unless you manually delete everything after uninstall, before reinstall.

---

* My <longnumber> is 455068847. That's the name of the folder on my machine. It should be different for you. If you have multiple folders in there with long numbers as names then just search each of them until you find the one named "377160". 377160 Fallout 4's ID number on Steam.

* Replace %username% with the name of your PC.

* If you installed Steam on different drives than C:\ then look there.

* If you don't see the APPDATA folder then it is hidden and you need to 'show hidden files and folders' in your explorer settings. In windows explorer click VIEW then to the far right, click OPTIONS. On the window that pops up click the VIEW tab. Where it says "Hidden files and folders", select SHOW HIDDEN FILES, FOLDERS AND DRIVES.

---

Also, if you need to reinstall the game, just do a backup of your main game files, then do the uninstall, then wipe the folders clean of all leftover files, then copy over your backup files, then do a VALIDATE INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES rather than reinstall and it will reinstall faster since you kept a bulk of the files on your drive.

First find your fallout 4 installation location, sub DATA folder, similar to mine perhaps:
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\

Make a new folder somewhere above the fallout 4 folder, maybe make one in the common folder named F4_BACKUP. Then copy these files to there:

- any file that starts with "cc". (it's your creation club content, it gets reinstalled anyways)
- any file that starts with "DLC". (it's your DLC content)
- any file that starts with "Fallout 4". (it's the main game files)

the rest of it should be mods and anything you shouldn't have deleted will get replaced with the VALIDATOR. backing up these files will save you lots of download time on bad internet connection.

---

I'd like to give thanks to the Steam community for all their help in learning how to debug and fix Fallout 4. I'd like to give special thanks to them all, for contributing the most to my learning and understanding of the game engine.

---

I would like to think of this guide as a "work in progress" for as long as I'm able to work on it. This means the guide may change at any time. I will try to add some new problem -> solutions tot he guide as time goes on. I know that there are a lot of problems out there that I did not cover.

---

I want to remind you that you should always save your game before trying any console commands just in case they bork your game, you can load back like it never happened.

Also, nothing in this guide is guaranteed. Everything offered here is a suggestion to a problem. For some people, the suggestion resulted in a solution. For others, it did not. The problem with computers is that there are so many different hardware configurations and software configurations. Each computer sort of takes on a life of its own and what works well on one machine may be devastating to another machine's configuration.

Worst case scenario you end up having to uninstall and reinstall the game, and you don't get to use your previous save files. In the worst case this almost always works in bringing the game back from the dead once you've killed it with mods or something.

---

If you're having a problem that wasn't addressed in this guide, post about it on the steam forum for Fallout 4. Chances are, someone already had that problem before and knows how to fix it already. This game did come out in 2015 after all. If your game is crashing they say that you can contact Bethesda support but I don't know how far that will get you. There really is no official support for this game, nowhere to submit a support ticket. The forum is where most people turn.

---

Thanks for reading and I hope you were able to find some resolutions to your problems with the game. This game engine is a bear and the number of problems I've seen either directly or indirectly (through the stories of forum users) far exceeds the number of problems I addressed in this guide.

---

I disabled comments for this guide because I don't want people asking for help here. If you want to ask for help, ask in the forum. There's more activity there and many more people besides me who can help you. I'm no guru, I learned from those people too! :D

Fallout 4 discussion forum:
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/

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This is not all of them but I wanted to list some sources of where I got my information from, for further reading or referencing material. Also, putting the links in this section spared some space in the guide, by not having to call up the links in the other sections.

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnSSTnAdYBM
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AnSSTnAdYBM

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA6_HYgMSz0
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZA6_HYgMSz0

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQX-F_zBGGM
youtube.com/ watch?v=yQX-F_zBGGM

---

ENB: Fallout 4
http://enbdev.com/download_mod_fallout4.htm

A list of suggested fps fixes.
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/1483235412199833409/

FPS fix for PC version of Fallout 4
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/comments/96bcir/fps_fix_for_pc_version_of_fallout_4/

Fallout 4 Load Order Framework: A Vault Dweller's Load Order Survival Guide
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aknl_ze1hHUCiTBgz55dSzBBsfvG7iGXlRNIGWObyME/edit

Fix: Low FPS and Stutters While Gaming on Windows 11
https://appuals.com/fix-low-fps-while-gaming-windows-11/

STUTTERING IN ALL GAMES RTX 3090
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/454143/stuttering-in-all-games-rtx-3090/?topicPage=10

Fallout-4-script-extender-not-working
https://tencomputer.com/fallout-4-script-extender-not-working/

How to "Uninstall" the HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/135508489638353033/

What killed my process?
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ask-the-performance-team/what-killed-my-process/ba-p/375329

Fallout 4 Keeps Crashing: Best Methods To Stop Fallout 4 Crashes
https://exputer.com/guides/errors/fallout-4-keeps-crashing/

Fast Travelling to the Institute causes a crash (2021)
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/2959418287754126741/

Here is a page with detailed instructions for Buffout
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/3115

App crash with ntdll.dll
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/app-crash-with-ntdlldll/9aa59f80-99a1-4f3c-b2f0-7eb72df05b2a

Help with crashes in modded game
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/3201496916523401754/?tscn=1642067373

Fallout 4 Companions
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_4_companions

Dismiss a companion using the console
https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/5079995-dismiss-companion/

Plugin Files And You (ESM/ESL/ESP)
https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/5079-plugin-files-and-you-esmeslesp/

xEdit Managing Mod Files
https://tes5edit.github.io/docs/8-managing-mod-files.html

Black screen issue
https://exputer.com/guides/errors/fallout-4-black-screen-issue/

Fallout 4 runs on what's called the Creation Engine
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Creation_Engine

How_to_create_your_own_legendary_items
https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3sp58m/guide_how_to_create_your_own_legendary_items_with/

This game doesn't get updated anymore:
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/3189118358000440859/

Steam FPS fixes thread:
https://steamproxy.net/app/377160/discussions/0/1483235412199833409/

Reddit comments - FPS fixes thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/comments/96bcir/fps_fix_for_pc_version_of_fallout_4/