Weird loading problem with a game (Fallout: New Vegas)

**Reverend Joe** · 02-22-2011, 01:17

Okay, so here's the deal: I got Fallout: New Vegas recently, and aside from the occasional crash I had not problems with it... for a while. After about 20 hours (non-consecutive, I do have a life) of gameplay, the loading speed started slowing down. I don't just mean scene loads, I mean everything -- opening containers, going into VATS, hell, even bringing up the main menu takes a minimum of 3-5 minutes. And the weird part is, the computer isn't being overtaxed. In fact, it's actually cooling off during the loading periods, which is remarkable because I'm playing from a laptop and heating issues are a big problem for me. Also, the loading problems don't really start until I've loaded a save, so the game itself loads fine, but as soon as I'm in the world everything is unacceptably slow.

Does anybody know what could be causing something like this? It seems like some sort of obscure but simple problem to fix, like with a .ini file or something, but it's killed my ability to play the game, so I'm really anxious for all the help I can get. I'll post a DxDiag report below, although I'm not sure how much it will help.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Lemur** · 02-22-2011, 06:12

Did a mild bit of Googling on the subject. Possibilities:

Have you tried forcing the game to run in DX9? That's supposed to address some performance issues, esp. in Vista. Have you defragmented the game cache? Sounds dumb, but it does help sometimes. In extreme cases, it can be worth it to delete all of your Steam games, uninstall Steam, and re-download. I have done this. It worked. Not on FNV, but another game that was getting really buggy on me.

Last thought, make sure you have the latest drivers on that Nvidia card. Looks like there have been several "known issues" with Nvidia drivers and FNV.

**Reverend Joe** · 02-22-2011, 07:24

I downloaded the latest NVidia drivers yesterday thinking it would help; it helped with the lag I was getting in-game, but not with the actual loads. I'm going to try the defragging thing next, because I have a feeling that could be it; I feel like the DirectX problems would have been there to begin with.

Edit: could you recommend a way to defrag a specific folder so I don't have to do the whole disc, and don't end up downloading something with a virus in it?

**Husar** · 02-22-2011, 12:10

I don't know about defragging a folder, I think Steam does this if you let it defrag a certain game, but to defrag your whole HDD you can use MyDefrag.

Perhaps it can even defrag a folder only if you dive into the world of command line commands or scripts for it but I can't say I've done that.

**LeftEyeNine** · 02-22-2011, 15:06

Fallout patched to 1.2 ?

**Lemur** · 02-22-2011, 15:52

Originally Posted by Reverend Joe

could you recommend a way to defrag a specific folder so I don't have to do the whole disc, and don't end up downloading something with a virus in it?

Steam has a defrag function that you can use to derfag its games without having to mess with your entire C: drive.

Steam → Library → Fallout: New Vegas →Right-click → Properties → Local Files → Defragment Cache Files

And like I said, if that doesn't yield the desired results, consider uninstalling Steam entirely and re-installing it from scratch.

**Reverend Joe** · 02-22-2011, 17:50

Defragmenting didn't work. God, I knew I was gonna have to delete everything and reinstall, I just had a feeling. Thanks a lot for the help, though, you've been much more helpful than the actual Bethesda forums.

Also, would you recommend deleting the installation files if I still have those sitting around? I don't want to have the same problems all over again, but those took HOURS to download, even on a high-speed connection.

**Lemur** · 02-22-2011, 18:14

A complete uninstall/reinstall is not guaranteed to work, but it has in the past, and it's not a bad gamble.

**LeftEyeNine** · 02-22-2011, 21:15

Give it a night over.

Backup your savegames, delete local files, re-install.

**Reverend Joe** · 02-23-2011, 21:24

Yeah, I reinstalled everything, took all of two and a half hours (not as bad as I thought). Game's working just fine now. I deleted all my saves just in case, even though I probably didn't have to.