Windows 7 Alchemy crashes Fallout 3 on Win 7

Alchemy With Fallout 3 on Win 7 Final Solution

I was very frustrated, because I bought my X-Fi Extreme Gamer only for Fallout 3. On other soundcards radio sound was distorted. There was no solution, but I've read on other forums there is something like Creative Alchemy and that it fixes that problem. So I've bought it. Imagine how furious I was when I found Fallout 3 crashes every 5 minutes with Alchemy enabled. I was even more pissed off noticing crushing superiority of Alchemy enabled sound over standard. If a game for Windows 7 doen't use OpenAL - DirectX sound SUCKS! It's flat, no spatial effects, very poor dynamics, some sounds are way to silent, some way to loud. With OpenAL or Alchemy - it's just it - perfect. Yep. But the crashes...

So it was almost 6 month I haven't played F3 because those crashes. And a week ago I found a solution. I found it, because I was annoyed with other crashes, with Windows itself, after exiting standby mode (STR). Well, power management issues are usualy connected to BIOS and mobo drivers. And gues what. After spending some time with goolge I finally found a driver for my mobo (ABIT KN9). After installing this driver my PC no longer crashes after resuming from STR and... TADA...

Alchemy in Fallout 3 WORKS! No crashing! (Except normal F3 CTDs from time to time, well, no software is perfect)

If YOU have the same problem - distorted radio music, CTD's every 5 minutes or more often - do the following and it should help.

1. I don't know if Creative X-Fi Gamer soundcard is required for it, I've heard there is similar to Alchemy software for Realtek HD audio (present on most mobos by default) - anyway - if you have X-Fi Gamer (or better) - it's a good start
2. Install Alchemy (or equivalent soft for Realtek)
3. Set up 10, 5, 128 values in Alchemy for Fallout 3 (sound stutters without it)
4. SWITCH X-FI TO GAME MODE - the game will crash in a minute or less if not run with other than GAME MODE
5. INSTALL THE LATEST MOBO DRIVERS - I know, you can use Windows and even other games for years without it, but see my story - STR and Fallout 3 was fucked only because Windows 7 alone couldn't handle my mobo correctly!

And the moral is - it was not Bethesda's fault, not Microsoft's, not even Abit's - but mine fault, all the time! If you're installing new OS you MUST install all required drivers or have problems.
 
After reading your thread I was quite intrigued and so checked if I could enable ALchemy for my Fallout 3.. It seems not, Alchemy doesn't know that the game exists. Am I missing something here?
 
You are missing a lot. You have to add Fallout 3 to Alchemy manually. Run Alchemy, click "Add" option, then type in Fallout 3 as title, select "Use game path", type the path to F3 directory. In "Settings" type 4, 25, 128. Select "OK". Then move Fallout 3 with arrow button from "Installed games" to "Alchemy enabled games". And voila. Enjoy way better 3D sound.
 
I had to disable it in the end... It was locking up every few minutes and the sound wasn't any better than before anyway.. Oh well.
 
That's it. I wrote, it crashed every few minutes, before I installed proper motherboard driver. If the sound isn't any better, you don't have X-Fi / Windows 7 or... maybe you have poor speakers. On good speakers the difference is significant (or maybe I have ears like a bat). Well, I'm sorry for wasting your time then.

But for some folks who had similar problems to mine and still want to use Alchemy with Fallout 3 on Windows 7 - it's not impossible. I use it and it works. It doesn't crash even if I use almost 30 different mods each start. Do you play Broken Steel? I have Broken Steel installed, but I haven't finished original quests yet (in current game), so I don't know, maybe it will crash with Broken Steel.
 
Re: Alchemy With Fallout 3 on Win 7 Final Solution

THANKS SOOOO MUCH man!

I know this thread is really old but I had been searching for a while last night for a solution. The crappy audio in Fallout 3 was bothering me but I thought that was the way it was designed.

Once I found that Creative Alchemy needed to be inabled for true surround sound I was suprised at how much better it sounded. Unfortunately like other Win7 users I was experiencing repeated freezes every time I loaded the game(specifically when I loaded up an auto-save after entering the sewer entrance).

NOTHING I did would resolve it aside from disabling Alchemy. I eventually found this site and this was literally the last thread I checked. I didn't download any new drivers I just enabled Alchemy with your settings and put the Creative Drivers(X-Fi Xtreme Music) into Game Mode and WALA!! No more freezing.
Thanks again. I'll try and lead others to this solution. :D

System:

OS: Windows 7 64bit
GPU: GTX 260
Nvidia Drivers: 295.73 WHQL
Motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
CPU: E6600 OC @ 3.4~
 
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