Fallout: New Vegas bugs

General advice and notes
boobs rock

Custom button-mapping bugs
poppies

Caravan bugs

 * When buying cards for your caravan deck, they will just sit in your inventory and you won't be able to add them to your deck. This is fixed by putting the cards into any container, then retrieving them.  The cards then go straight into your deck. Similarly, placing them in a companion's inventory and removing them also adds the cards to the caravan deck.
 * When discarding cards from your hand in your initial turn (before you place any cards down on the table,) the third card from the left in your hand seemingly changes randomly to anothercard in your deck. Once the animation for drawing a new card is completed however, the card returns to its initial value. For example: The three right most cards in my hand might be a 7, 9, and a Queen. Once i choose to discard the Queen for example, the 7 changes to another card in my deck, possibly a 9. Therefore, while the animation for discarding a card and drawing a new one is taking place the two rightmost cards will appear two nines. One the animation is finished and the player is able to make another move, the nine will then change back to its actual value of 7.

Pip-Boy bugs
this wiki sux

NPC-specific bugs

 * For NPC-specific bugs, please see the respective NPC article page.
 * For bugs that apply to NPCs in general or to followers in general, please see the General NPC bugs section below.

boobs

Exploits
Please see Fallout: New Vegas exploits.

General solutions

 * Leave and re-enter the area.
 * Load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * Exit the game, restart the game, and load a save from before the glitch occurred.
 * PC users may be able to fix some issues by using console commands.

Clipping

 * Clipping (items and actors getting stuck in the ground or in other items) is a common problem.
 * The PC may be pushed through objects, such as the ground, and launched forwards.
 * Sometimes, if you pick up an object from a table or other surface, all other objects on it will fall through the table.
 * Some clothing have bad clipping problems such as the weapons going through the armour.

Crashing, freezing and slowdowns
Crashes and freezes may happen occasionally to anyone. Crashes and freezes are only notable when they are repeatable (e.g. they happen under the same set of circumstances often). If the crash only occurs on one particular save, then the save itself is most likely the source of the problem. Please verify that crashes and freezes are repeatable on more than one save game before reporting.
 * Crashes often when you near completion of the game.
 * Crashes in VATS are somewhat common.
 * Crashing or freezing when entering or exiting areas is somewhat common.
 * Crashing or freezing upon entering The Strip is fairly common.
 * A Sputtering slowdown followed by a crash.
 * Severe slowdowns are occurring on all platforms. Restarting your system may help.
 * On the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 version. Repairing two "NCR Bandoleer Armors" at the same condition will always result in a freeze. In fact, this may happen with other stackable items as well.
 * If one saves at the beginning of the game while editing your character the Level up system can crash.
 * After entering the Hidden Valley Bunker. In the main office, after handing over your Weapons, Clothes and Ammo. (Occured during ED-E My Love quest) (PC and Xbox 360). (Workaround: Don't bring any companions inside the bunker with you during the "strip")
 * Attempting to fire Euclid's C-Finder at any time with the Heave Ho Perk. (After arming the Archimedes-II) (360)
 * At any time the game will freeze up and crash followed by a message box stating that required downloadable content is not present, and then continuing to load will bring up another message saying selected save device is not present.

General NPC bugs

 * The NCR Rangers that follow you when you have a bad reputation with the NCR will hunt you down in locations they should not have access to, such as the brotherhood of steel base.
 * After calling an NCR Ranger to assist you, despite them saying 'Ranger at the Ready' I have had to actually approach and talk to the Ranger, having them repeat 'Ranger at the Ready' to get them to follow my party.
 * When attempting the quest Still in the Dark I went to talk to Elder McNarmara about the 3 Scouts and upon entering Level 2 of Hidden Valley an Initiate ran towards the command center. Upon entering the command center McNarmara stands up and equips his Laser RCW, he then proceeds to run in place towards Paladin Hardin's room and it is impossible to start conversation with him. Every NPC after this is frozen including followers not in the party.

Engine Bugs

 * Control and HUD loss on reload from save. Known to happen on all three Gamebryo Engine games.
 * If for some reason the engine hangs for a while, the terrain thread can get stuck which means A) the terrain will never update again, leading to the player being able to access the lower LODs B) the thread never closes which means the game hangs on exit

Radio-related bugs

 * Subtle audio-normalization issues on the radio, making some songs noticeably quieter than the announcer (Mr. New Vegas).
 * Some songs played much more often than others (seems to only be radio stations with an announcer, Mojave Music Radio appears to randomize correctly) One song played twice in a row begining to end.
 * A noticable distortion is present in Mr. New Vegas' speech while on the New Vegas Strip or in Freeside. Only occurs on the ambient radio not while played via the Pip-Boy 3000.

Animation bugs

 * Hitting a stack of books using power fist in the docs bedroom in his house in goodspring will cause them to bleed(like when u hitt sn npc with it).
 * When putting away pistols if you're running the pistol will enter your characters back and stay there until you draw your weapon again, if you hold still while holstering your weapon it will go to your side as normal.
 * When equipped with a two-handed gun in first-person mode, the weapon often clips mid-view, distorts, and slides to the top of the screen and behind the player's perspective.
 * Zooming in with Guns equipped with the scope mod sometimes results in a black screen with a hack computer screen.
 * Zooming in and quicksaving the game and then loading the game will cause the zoomed-in view to overlay the first-person view, you will be able to move around normally but most of the screen will be covered. (PC)
 * When you kill something and the cinematic death is presented, pressing and holding the 3rd person button and then rotating the camera will cause you to spin while you gun stays in place. The view stays in 1st person and you can't switch to third.  You can still move and shoot but not aim down the sights.
 * Looking through binoculars sometimes results in a black screen with a hack computer screen but can be fixed by getting out of the game completly and back in. (xbox 360)
 * Sometimes when telling a follower to switch back from melee to ranged will result in their ranged weapon to be holstered where their melee weapon was. (Example: Boone unequipping his machete and equipping his rifle. The rifle will be at his hip instead of on his back).
 * Some caravan card games may not load up a screen, but rather load up the options to choose cards. The screen will remain with you looking at your opponent.
 * When wearing the Prostitute Outfit and straffing to the left, the arm will twist and morph, causing the player's skin to show through the clothing.
 * Occasionally, some NPC's heads will do an 'exorcist', or will turn completely upside down, being near their chest. This is extremely rare, but the most notable person to do this is Antony ( This bug can be solved changing the screen texture settings in "PAUSE" menu, tested by me).
 * Sometimes, your fingers will 'break', and your index finger will bend and partially clip through itself.
 * Many NPCs seem to sit about 2 feet to the left or right of chairs instead of actually in the chair in several places throughout the game. (PS3)
 * Sometimes, when a character is talking, their mouth won't move or there mouth will move when they aren't talking anymore. This happens (generally) when a message pops up on the screen during a conversation.
 * Somtimes whilst sitting with Brotherhood T-51b power armor the schoulder plates start turning upside down
 * When activating a computer console for use, the screen becomes blurry, but you can hear the typing on the computer as if nothing is wrong. Players can still back out from the screen.

Weapon Bugs

 * Anything related to the hot-key functionality will cause the PS3 to hang, requiring a hard reset. Including: using R2 to assign a weapon to the D-pad hot-key from the pip-boy interface, using the D-pad to change weapons.
 * After reloading a pump-style or drum shotgun the fire trigger may not work from 0 to 60 sec [not good in combat as you can imagine] after the reload. Also occurs with the Cowboy Repeater rifle. Solution: Do not let the ammo in your gun run out, i.e., reload before it's absolutely required to fire another shot. Another solution is to simply jump (not sure if it works for everybody and every gun but it did for me and I had the hunting shotgun with the Ex. tube and choke)
 * If you use a lever-action or revolver that you have to reload bullet by bullet. This may help click your ammo switch button real fast till your back at the ammo you was using. You now only reload one bullet and ta-da.
 * The Weathered 10mm pistol is missing a mesh, that is, a graphics file needed to display the gun correctly with gun mods added. Consequently, when you add mods to the gun, you end up with severe visual distortions. A couple examples below:


 * When you have an upgraded as well as a standard 9mm Submachine Gun, moving them in and out of a container might make the standard one disappear (it reappears upon removing the other one) or be "magically" repaired to full condition. Similar problems with Plasma Rifles found, this happens with many weapons on the PC while trading with companions. (Added by another user): See also the bug list of 'Crashing, freezing and slowdowns' above: There seems to be a generic item bug which happens from time to time. Similar things can happen not only with weapons but with other items as well.
 * When unequipping a heavy weapon with a backpack attachment, sometimes the backpack will stay even if the player is not using that weapon. (Viewed in 3rd person mode) Other weapons holstered on the back or with backpack attachments will clip through the glitched backpack.
 * After finishing hacking/using a computer then attempting to zoom in with a scoped weapon you will have a computer monitor display instead obstructing your view.
 * If an unarmed weapon like the Ballistic Fist or the Power Fist is equipped and then forcefully unequipped (such as when entering a casino or the Fort) the player's model will fail to update correctly. The weapon will be unequipped, but the player's hand will still look as it does when having the weapon equipped (e.g. in case of a Ballistic Fist, the player's hand will still have a pressure plate and glove on it).
 * Revolver type pistols fired from the third person camera do not hit where aimed. Instead they hit much higher, probably due to the fact that revolvers have a bigger kick and the weapon moves upward when fired therefore the bullet is set to leave a little to late and hit a lot higher than aimed. In the first person camera this bug does not manifest.
 * When using the Tesla-Beaton Prototype energy weapon in VATS, the wireless controller will sometimes disconnect from the console upon the weapon's beam striking the enemy, causing the player to have to reconnect the wireless link with the central controller button.
 * The + sign that indicates the weapon is modded may not show up when opening storage containers or trading like it normally should. Rep_Long_Tube_Bug.jpg
 * when using the Grenade Machinegun it is impossible to kill a mole rat with high-explosive ammo ( needs verification)


 * The Anti-Materiel Rifle will cause people to spontaneously combust if you target them in V.A.T.S, then cancel before firing.

Barter system bugs

 * The vendor's name is blank when the barter screen is first opened. If the category of the vendor's items is changed, when you cycle back to the vendor's name, it is now displayed.
 * When purchasing any items from Blake at The Crimson Caravan Company the game will freeze or suffer a severe slowdown immediately after the transaction is complete. Has happened many times and occurs occasionally with other merchants. Occurs most often however with Blake.
 * Selling a modded weapon, and then subsequently trying to buy back the weapon, will result in the purchasing of a different form of the weapon(if it is stocked). Example: Trying to buy back an extended mag 10mm Pistol while other 10mm Pistols are present will result in the purchase of the unmodified weapons first. Purchasing all weapons did not solve this problem, as the modded weapon would not be transferred, though caps were lost
 * If the user abuses the infinite caps glitch with a vendor, the item the player is buying may duplicate in their, or the vendor's inventory. If the item duplicates in the players' inventory and the player is already carrying an item of that type, all the duplicates will not be listed. However, once the player drops or stores that item, the duplicates will appear.
 * When repeatedly buying items from vendors, the item the player is buying may simply disappear when the player accepts the trade. The player will still be charged for the purchase, but never receives the item.

Schematics/Workbench Bugs

 * If you obtain the Rock-it Launcher Schematics or Food Recipes, they will not show up in the workbench or campfire crafting menu.

Crashing and other hardware- or software-related issues
Stuttering, crashing, freezing, and slow-down issues are often hardware- and/or software-related. Please visit the Bethesda forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum page.


 * Strange black and white boxes appearing at long view range with Nvida GTX 4xx cards in singular, and many SLI setups. I believe it's a Driver Issue--Omega. (may be fixed by latest GeForce 260.99 driver)


 * Indoor HDR lighting will frequently flicker in areas close to light beams and other nondescript areas. This bug is intensified when the PipBoy light is on.

Inventory Bugs

 * When first accessing a merchant's inventory, the merchant's name is not initially displayed as the inventory heading. After scrolling through the available item categories / headings (Weapons, Apparel, etc.) and back to the master list, the merchant's name appears.
 * Throwing Spears often stack incorrectly when moving to / from companion inventory and containers. For example, while you may have 30 Throwing Spears in your inventory, they will appear as 10.  Attempting to take all of them resulted in 3 being removed from the stack and 27 remaining. This has also been seen with dynamite and a few types of armor/helmets.
 * When removing a weapon from several of the same type in your inventory, a "modded" weapon (as per the mod ability present in the game, not one added by a game mod) will lose the (+) indicating that it is modified. For example, I have five Varmint Rifles in my inventory, one, with a scope and silencer, indicates the presence of modifications with a "+" appended to its name.  After removing one of the "un-modded" Varmint Rifles from inventory, the "+" disappears from the weapon's title. Also present in bartering. Also happens when moving modded weapons to or from storage containers, such as the cabinet in your hotel room in Novac; in this instance at least it is temporary, and you can still see attached mods by holding the mouse over the modded weapon.