Fallout 4 Bugs

Weapon mods

 * When you want to Modify/make a weapon/armor/item but you don't have the perk, you can build the previously available mod/item then quickly move the mouse of the next mod. If done successfully, the information popup following the crafting of the mod will display the lower level mod, however upon confirmation the higher level mod will be placed onto the weapon.
 * When trying to craft a weapon mod, the game will display the notification telling you that you lack the necessary items, even though it shows you have the right perks and a sufficient amount of crafting materials.
 * Pistol grips add 100 more range then rifle grips.

Using the console
To access the in-game console, press the tilde (~) key usually located on the top left of the keyboard, this may differ depending on the system language however, see Fallout 4 console commands for methods of accessing the console with different system languages.

Crashing, freezing and other hardware- or software-related issues

 * When walking slightly past the East Boston Preparatory School in the direction of the Boston Airport, the game crashes to desktop.
 * Upon returning to the game window after tabbing out, the screen may turn black. Audio can be heard but the game is otherwise unresponsive and requires a restart.
 * When talking under water the game crashes.
 * When using multiple monitors with Nvidia SLI, the lower half of the view will have a dark band.
 * Custom resolutions for multiple monitor setups require editing Falloutpref.ini file.
 * Disabling "Windowed" mode in settings with NVidia SLI enabled and using multiple monitors will cause crash on loading screen.
 * Moving Power Armor without parts to a Power Armor workbench then exiting and attempting to work on the Power Armor rig will cause a CTD
 * During the quest "Shadow of Steel," the game will crash onboard the Vertibird during the flight to the Prydwen. - This was fixed in patch 1.2.37.0.0
 * High FPS (110<) can cause the character to become un-movable requiring a save reload after exiting a terminal. This bug may still occur with framerates under 110, but much less frequently. Some terminals are more inclined to produce this bug than others.
 * Might be caused by exiting a terminal quickly.
 * Happens less often if you cap the FPS with a video card utility. Start at 105FPS and try lower values if this persists.  One way to do this is using nVidia Inspector, editing the xml file for custom FPS cap settings.
 * Game freezes when entering the Workshop Menu, forcing you to quit the game without saving.

Power Armor Bugs

 * When a Power Armor of any kind is left within a settlement with a fusion core in it or a fusion core is in a nearby container, a settler might don it when that settlement is attacked. It can now happen that the settler is displayed in his usual attire without the Power Armor, but with elongated/malformed hands and feet (a bit like the werewolf in Harry Potter). If the settler is spoken to, the Sole Survivor will be heard ordering him "I need you to get out of your Power Armor", but the settler does not respond. Also, the settler is frozen in spot even though he can be seen moving/twitching, e.g. after ordering him to move in Building Mode. A reload does not seem to fix this. Screenshot available Saradoc (talk) 17:42, December 16, 2015 (UTC).


 * A companion in Power Armor will sometimes be displayed without hands, both epaulets of the armor floating a good meter aside him. Fixes itself, no problems otherwise. Occurred after Nick Valentine as a companion was ordered to don Power Armor when on the Eddie Winters quest and the Talk option would only trigger a dialogue pertaining to that quest and the holotapes, so he could not be ordered to exit the armor. Screenshot available Saradoc (talk) 17:42, December 16, 2015 (UTC).

Menu-, HUD-, inventory-, and radio-related bugs

 * Targeting Hud mod and Berry Mentats that have the effect of highlighting creatures may turn some NPCs, such as Paladin Brandis, Bobbi, Fahrenheit, Sinjin and the robots at General Atomics Galleria, hostile.
 * Occasionally the Pip-Boy texture will fail to load, rendering the in-game menu invisible, but tooltips and keyboard controls continue to work. This can be fixed by reloading from a quicksave. Hitting the escape key twice on a PC also works.
 * If the Pip-Boy becomes invisible after you exit power armor, you can fix this by exiting the power armor, going to a workbench, transferring over whatever clothes your character is currently wearing, then get back into the power armor and exit it again. Your Pip-Boy should now start working again and you can re-equip your clothes from the workstation.
 * While using controller, in the pip boy's map, the cursor gets stuck in the edge of the screen. The only solution is to change from a controller to a mouse and keyboard.
 * In first-person view the player character's weapon may disappear from the screen, even though the weapon isn't holstered. The PipBoy interface may be invisible at this time as well.
 * Holstering/unholstering sometimes fixes it
 * Switching to third-person the first-person will usually fix it
 * Switching to another weapon will fix it
 * Using V.A.T.S. on an enemy with any weapon can fix it as well.
 * Using a scoped weapon (i.e. sniper) and looking down the scopes usually fixes it.
 * When having any weapon viewed in the weapons tab like Experiment 18-A or Frag Grenade the item rendering will rarely persist on the background in the Pip-Boy when you switch to other tabs or sections.
 * If you have a lot of save files the intro movie and main menu may run at a low FPS (<10FPS), opening the load/save menus in-game may also lag the game until the menu is closed. Culling the amount of save files can remedy this.
 * When saving, the last save file at the bottom of the list of save files will appear invisible. The second to last save will also appear duplicated.
 * Interacting with a usable settlement object (ie. the Sole Survivor using a water pump) while in the command mode of a NPC, may result in it being impossible to cancel out of both the command mode and the animation. This UI-locked state persists through saving and loading, and the Pip-Boy cannot be used to fast travel away. Loading an earlier save will fix this.
 * Sometimes when opening up the pip-boy the tabs aside from Stats become unusable. Using keyboard hotkeys brings up specific tabs but they cannot be interacted with. Saving and reloading multiple times seems to fix the issue.
 * Equipping the targeting hud to your power armor helmet then exiting the power armor causes the targeting hud mod to still be active, highlighting living beings red outside of the armor. This persists even if the targeting mod is removed from the power armor.
 * Sometimes when bartering, only the interface will show up but wont list any items and attempting to exit may not work..
 * When using an Xbox 360 controller, holding [BACK] to enter the workshop disables the ability to look up or down until [BACK] is released
 * Diamond City Radio may stop playing, fixes include: waiting it off, tuning on another station, reloading a save via either quitting or pausing and turning the radio off. Sleeping for 24 hours in a bed.
 * For seemingly no reason your character will not proceed to a crafting bench after activating it, instead the game will go into third person and your character will just stand there for a moment. If this happens while you are in third person it will render you unable to go back into first person unless you reload a save.
 * After exiting terminals, the player MAY be stuck and will only be able to turn their head. This occurs whenever the frame rate exceeds 120fps during the exit animation. Capping framerate manually or enabling V-Sync may help.
 * Note that the in-game, vsync implementation (iPresentInterval) is inaccurate, and will occasionally exceed its sync limit (eg. with a 115Hz screen mode, the frame rate can still briefly spike above 120). One workaround is to press TAB rapidly after exiting from the terminal, to bring up the Pip-Boy. This will skip the "terminal exit" animation.
 * When accessing a terminal on a desk, the camera will sometimes move forward too much and cause the player to clip through the terminal and stare at the inside of the machine. Exiting the terminal will resolve this.
 * When picking up legendary items you already have an exact duplicate of in your inventory, the 'showcase' screen will not appear (When picking up multiple legendary items, only one 'showcase' screen is shown)
 * Pressing enter just when you exit on a terminal while in power armor will make the camera zoom to much so you cant see the screen.
 * When subtitles are on, conversations can become 'stuck' on screen with part of the conversation subtitle remaining while the conversation continues. Text is removed from screen when conversation is complete.
 * When you use your pipboy, sometimes it won't allow you to exit out.

Physics engine glitches

 * When talking to a companion in a moving elevator it is possible for player character to fall through the floor and die.
 * Additionally, changing clothes or armor whilst in an elevator may generate the same fatal effect.
 * Dogmeat is able to push any non-static object out of the way when dashing to follow its master, including cars, which cannot be moved by the player even when wearing power armor.
 * Being melee hit by an enemy from underneath may cause the player, companion, or NPC to fly off at high velocity, usually stopping when a solid object is hit.

Graphics glitches

 * When using unsupported resolutions, such as a 5:4 monitor with 1280x1024 resolution, the lockpicking interface will be invisible.
 * When using ultra wide resolutions, such as a 21:9 monitor with 3440x1440 resolution many of the games menus and hud rendering elements will be either streched or chopped off, of note is the power armor UI which will only cover 60% of the screen. This makes the game unplayable for those with a triple monitor setup, because it is impossible to name the character during the playable prologue (the "name" section is offscreen, therefore you cannot continue).
 * Rain will some times only show up when facing a certain direction. Example, while walking north rain effects were present, but facing south and there is no visible rain.
 * Sometimes, graphics in certain spots will simply become very low quality
 * During conversations (particularly if wearing power-armour) the camera will be inside the player, making the conversation impossible to see
 * when mirelurk eggs hatch in close quarters, the hatchling might clip through obstacles and appear in other rooms, or fall out of the map

Effect bugs

 * The shader effect associated with cloaking can become permanently stuck in active mode, leaving everything with a green tint. (This cannot be fixed with the ResetShaders command, because ResetShaders crashes the game)
 * To fix type in command console : rimod 00094636 for the night-vision glitch and/or rimod 002041B6 for recon scope vision glitch.
 * Two outfits might overlap. You will be unable to remove one of them causing you to look weird when equipping another.
 * Sometimes a secondary vignetted blur (a blurring of the corners and edges of the screen) will occur in addition to the main background blur during dialog with characters.
 * The effect will remain stuck throughout play, but will go away if the player enters a suit of power armor and then leaves.
 * Using a jet-pack occasionally results in a 'carpet' of exhaust fumes getting stuck below the player, or around them. To fix the view simply exit and re-enter your power armor.
 * Upon seeing the Prydwen during the quest Reunions and fast traveling, a "spotlight" will follow the player while they are outdoors.
 * The Geiger Counter crackling sound with the power armor sound filter effect, may play constantly in the absence of any radiation. Only going away briefly upon using a crafting station or reloading a save to which it will soon return. A work around is to completely lower effects volume in the sound menu. Must load saved game prior to bug's occurrence otherwise.
 * After repositioning a Mid size generator, the generator sound may constantly play in the original location.

Non-player character-specific bugs
''NOTE: Please place bugs specific to individual characters on their respective pages. This section is meant for bugs that apply broadly.'' Fallout 4 characters
 * Recruiting the level 4 settlement vendor found in Goodneighbor can result in glitching the vendor. He becomes unable to interact with the player and is stuck in a loop repeating the same line.  Possible cause: not talking to him in Sanctuary Hills and assigning him a job, or sending him to Sanctuary Hills then sending him to another location when he arrives.
 * On PC latest patch, equipping Settlement NPC's with armor then equipping them with the exact same armor that they are already wearing will cause an instant crash to desktop.
 * Companions may encounter issues where they will follow, but not run or fast travel. If they are too far from the player when entering a door, they will not follow through the door. The player can initiate speech but will not be able to enter companions inventory.
 * NPC's will sometimes walk away from the player mid conversation even mid sentence. this will cause the conversation to end.
 * Companions may begin to emit a sound loop as if they were using the sewing machine from the armor workbench. Save/load might solve the problem for around 20 seconds, then it returns. To fix it for now, command the companion to use an armor workbench and the sound should vanish.
 * After a raider or wild animal attack, certain settlers will get stuck in the "thank you" mode. Constantly thanking you when you try to talk to them, locking out all other options such as trading and shops.
 * Can be fixed by talking to a settler / shop-owner from another settlement.


 * Sometimes settlers will get stuck in the "trade" mode. Constantly opening a trade window when you try to talk to them, locking out all other options.
 * Sometimes this bug will trigger when simply walking near the relevant NPC or shopkeeper. If the trade window opens while the player is already in another menu, such as a crafting window, both will be open at once. Attempting to exit the window will crash the game to the desktop. If you are experiencing the trade mode bug, exercise caution and save often.
 * Can also affect Companions who have been set as Shop Keepers when returning to the relevant settlement, even when this companion is active.
 * All NPC's in a settlement (including inactive companions, Brahmin, traders) will occasionally become stuck in an idle standing position, not moving through the map or attending to their tasks. Ringing the bell seems to fix this.
 * Caravan Brahmin with large cargo will occasionally spawn inside houses, and are too large to fit through the doorway to exit, blocking the path through the door.
 * Brahmin--caravan or otherwise--may also get stuck on a roof of one of the houses and remain stuck.
 * Defending a settlement can fail to resolve even when the enemies are defeated. This makes it impossible to leave the settlement you just defended without all of your settlers dying.
 * Some caravan guards spawn without clothes and end up escorting brahmin caravans in their undies with leather armor.
 * Explosions can cause NPCs to be stuck at an angle instead of standing up straight, saving and reloading can fix this.
 * All settlers in a settlement will congregate at a random point, ignoring shops, crops and other duties assigned to them
 * All settlers in a settlement will congregate at a random point. It seems like the crops are still managed but shop keepers sometimes don't return to their shop. It is still possible to shop with them.
 * If you build shack floors (the ones with the concrete) where they sometimes gather some settlers will get stuck inside. Removing the shack floor will set them free.
 * Sometimes, a settlement will show as having 0 beds and 0 defence (and happiness will drop accordingly) even if the player has built many defenses and beds. Being in the settlement will temporarily correct this, but upon travelling away, the bug manifests again. Additionally, this can result in a settlement having more than the maximum capacity of settlers if the radio beacon is activate.
 * Your companion will sometimes teleport to another floor of the building you are on
 * Deathclaws in the glowing sea might clip through the ground (along with all their loot) if they are crouched low when killed, or curled up on the floor.
 * Most special trader settlers in some instances refuse to be recruited or go to a settlement. Using console commands they can be teleported into a settlement and assigned, but will wander off unless fenced into the trading area.
 * Companions will occasionally walk away while you are in a cinematic conversation with them, interrupting the dialogue.
 * Humanoid Companions (Ex: Curie and Piper) sometimes disappear from the settlement they have been sent to, apparently vanishing from the map, requiring them to be teleported to the player with console commands. This may also occur when sending a settler to a settlement (Ex: Vault-Tec Rep)
 * Companion kills result in the 'cash register' sound, but no XP is shown to be gained
 * A humanoid companion receiving incapacitating damage from falling while enemies are near may not regenerate health when the enemies are dispatched, but will be able to talk with the player as normal. Can be solved by: Entering combat and surviving. Reloading a previous save. Fast-traveling away to another location. Shooting/hitting companion until they collapse again, then stimpacking them.
 * if you instruct your companion to enter a power-armour suit that has a stealth-boy upgrade while wearing power-armour with life-detect, you will still see your companion's outline
 * Followers pathing is incorrect in side several buildings, not allowing them to move in or out of certain areas. Vault 81 radiation room would not allow any followers that went in, out.

Quest-specific bugs
Please place quest specific bugs on their respective pages. (Fallout 4 quests)
 * If a quest updates with a step you have already done, it renders the step impossible, and thus, the quest. If the step is to retrieve an item, it might be fixed by dropping the item and picking it up, but quest items cannot be dropped. An example is Killing Slag in the Saugus Ironworks and collecting Shishkebab, then speaking to Jake to begin Out of the Fire. The first objective is to retrieve the sword. If you already have Shiskebab, the next step will begin, but the step to retrieve the the sword will not complete.

Location-specific bugs
Please place location specific bugs on their respective page (Fallout 4 locations)
 * A shed on the pier behind the Nahant Oceanological Society can't be opened. The door can't be interacted with. Inside there are several junk items of low worth

Gameplay bugs

 * Issue when in build mode you may not be able to place many or all of the items you have access to even though you have required perks and plenty of resources and the build limit is not reached. Once you have this issue it affects all settlements. Deleting items makes Little difference. Almost as though the game is sharing one invisible build limit for all settlements.
 * While in 3rd Person any small movement either with the left stick of a controller or with walk enabled on PC will cause any camera/crosshair movement to freeze for a moment.
 * Sometimes text options do not show up in dialogue and NPC comments that the player character has not responded. A response can be selected by pressing the correct button but the text doesn't appear.
 * If player character changes their name inside Vault 111 before taking the lift to the surface, the player character can not walk off platform or enter the Pip-Boy. Looking, jumping, and shooting functions still work.
 * Unable to draw a weapon, use grenades, or pull up VATS after fast traveling. Fixed by zooming out into 3rd person view then back into 1st person view.
 * When leaving Sanctuary Hills, Oberland station or Sunshine Tidings co-op settlement resources will decrease until the player character comes back to the area. This can be avoided by leaving on foot, instead of fast traveling, but many players are reporting that this does not work after a while. Another option is to ensure that no TV's or jukeboxes are connected to electricity in the settlement, and this has resolved the issue for a number of players. Since Fallout 4 patch 1.02, this bug has appeared again when fast traveling to Abernathy, even with the electricity fix, but does not happen as often. Fast traveling back to Sanctuary and restarting the game appears to help.
 * The player character can randomly teleport a short distance when aiming down a guns sight (or using VATS).
 * Assigning Settlers to a Shop can cause the whole settlement to reset forcing you to reassign everything, because your settlers will not self assign.
 * Loading a save at the same time as your character would become crippled (for example by an explosion) will result in the player character also being crippled. If reloading the save again, they are no longer crippled.
 * The player character stops moving in 3rd person camera after walking or running.
 * Random issue with being unable to reload weapons. Switching to a different weapon and back automatically reloads the weapon. Fix: Fire a bolt action weapon (such as a bolt-action pipe pistol or a hunting rifle) and reload the weapon. All weapons should be able to reload after that.
 * When putting down items in Workshop if the item flips around too much it will become blurry and can also cause your whole field of vision to become blurry, to fix delete the item and try to put it down again without flipping it around.
 * The Data>Settlements Tab of the Pip-Boy shows that settlements have missing resources (food, beds, power, water, or defense) but the Workshop menu shows true values. Settlers reflect the incorrect values and lose happiness until player returns to the settlement.
 * Food resource structures will become un-clickable and useless, and settlers will not acknowledge the item as a food source. Seems to only happen if placed too close to a another structure or food source and may clear on its own to reoccur later.
 * Items may levitate off the ground and become unplaceable in the settlement workbench. This may be corrected by reinstalling Fallout 4.
 * After the cryo-chamber opens the player may be unable to move. This is not fixed by reloading any prior save, and often new games will have the same issue.
 * It appears that exiting to the desktop fixes this issue.
 * This can be fixed by holding the power button until the console turns off then loading it back up and entering the game.
 * Zooming in with scopes or using VATS will occasionally produce a teleport bug instantly teleporting the player somewhere in the vicinity. This may be correlated with higher framerates.
 * When reloading while moving in third-person, your character occasionally will continuously restart the reload animation until you stop moving or switch to first-person view. If this happens with a laser musket, the laser musket will continue to be cranked after each animation restart.
 * Ammo may disappear from the player's inventory if the ammo duplication glitch is performed. Even after buying the ammo back from the trader, it may disappear again. (Note: Glitch may appear on other platforms and may occur even if the player has not used the duplication glitch.)


 * The Two Shot affix for legendary weapons has no accuracy penalty when aiming down ironsights but it does when firing from the hip. This makes the affix too strong.
 * Settlement NPCs will not stand at their store/trade post but will still sell goods when found.
 * Falling and immediately landing (e.g. walking off a ledge) while throwing a grenade can cause the landing animation to happen (often) while walking, interrupting grenades/mines and melee attacks.
 * Radiation storms interfere with bombardment causing them to have no effect.
 * When loading a saved game, a loud gun shot noise will sound just as you enter your saved game.
 * In some rare instances the player will receive continuous health drop damage and be unable to fast travel/sleep/wait. This happened after fighting enemies with flamethrower at Saugus Ironworks. Fixed by getting self on fire type of damage again and get off.
 * Glow-sighted weapons sometimes activate the same 'target tracking' as a recon scope if the enemy is sighted down it at close range
 * Sometimes in build mode, if the player has resources to build just one of the selected item, it may not display nor a option to build it will appear. Getting enough resources to build a second one will fix it.
 * When in conversation with a NPC, no options are displayed and conversation is frozen for a short period of time.
 * When in workshop mode the images in the build menu don't appear.

Companion App bugs

 * Local map is not shown at all.
 * App will not progress past "PIPBOY" logo on Galaxy Tab 10.1 after being installed.

Xbox One only bugs

 * If you lose health in Survival mode, then use a health item (Such as Purified Water), then switch back into Normal mode before it completely heals you, your health will still appear to regenerate slowly as if in Survival, but it will actually become negative. Any further effect on your character will kill them, negative or not. This includes eating food, taking a new perk, or acquiring a bobble head.
 * This can be avoided by staying in Survival mode until the health item finishes its effect, then switching back after it's finished.
 * The player character doesn't speak, his/her dialogue is skipped entirely. Happened during a conversation with Preston garvey, the animation turned to the player character but no animation or dialogue cam out of him.
 * Controls/input freeze when exiting cryo-chamber during introduction sequence. Can sometimes be fixed by hard resetting the console.
 * Often found that this is caused by the Vault-Tec doctor not moving off the screen, causing him to stay spawned during the cryogenic process.
 * If you try and start a new game while another one is still active, freezing will occur.
 * Can be fixed by erasing all of the saved data for the profile that was freezing, then restarting the Xbox and start a new game with 1 account open.
 * Go to the Xbox One home, then when highlighting the game press the menu button then close the app, sign all profiles out then play normally with 1 account active
 * Randomly, your XBOX ONE may freeze or kick you out to the load screen upon approach to General Atomics Galleria (usually when walking around the north side of the lake and coming upon the Galleria from the north). Often happens when there is a random enemy nearby to fight.
 * Damage can be miscalculated in VATS while hidden when sneaking. VATS will ignore the fact that the player is likely to be seen after the first hit and adds the sneak damage bonus to every hit in VATS. The real damage may actually be less than VATS calculates.
 * If you use 'pick pocket' to look at an NPC's inventory, it still counts in the stats as a pick-pocket, even if no items are taken
 * There is a VATS glitch that allows you to engage VATS even when there are no targetable enemies. It slows time as normal, but you can also pan around without targeting anything. This glitch may be caused by simultaneously killing an enemy while engaging VATS.

bugs

 * Pressing Circle while the Workshop is open, as if trying to view the Pip-Boy, and then quickly exiting the Workshop will cause circle to lock up, making the Pip-boy unusable.
 * Enter Power Armor, use VATS then exit to fix this issue.
 * Toggle between first and third person view to fix this issue.
 * Unable to use Triangle, even after remapping.
 * You can create the supply line, but items from other settlements will not show in the supply list when transferring items, other settlements connected down the supply link will also be affected. It seems it occurs either when over 8 supply lines are connected to one another and or if you have a lot of items , it affects some of the settlements
 * A gun weapon with a melee attachment, the action of the melee attack is different in first person that in third person. One sweeps the other lunges.

PC only bugs

 * Tab key stops working when accessing the Steam overlay (Shift + Tab), you cannot access your Pipboy (or exit it). Accessing Steam overlay and exiting with Shift + Tab fixes this.
 * Going into the trade menu and clicking the "TAB)EXIT" button on the bottom can fix this.
 * Inability to access PipBoy may be caused by Steam Overlay on PC version. If one accesses the Steam Overlay using a combination that includes the tab key, but exits the overlay with a different key combination (such as hitting the Esc key), the tab key will become unresponsive in-game. This can be fixed by opening, and then closing, the Steam Overlay with the selected key bindings.
 * For some users when using VATS, Workshop, or upgrading the power armor, the outline glow of a highlighted object will be replaced with a static glitch that takes up the whole screen and displays the same color as the normal outline would show.
 * For some users, this bug can be fixed by updating video card graphics drivers.
 * Volume shorts out at random times during gameplay.
 * Inability to shoot after exiting build menu too fast.
 * Invisible Body Protection. (verified)
 * Occasionally when Alt+Tab/Esced out of the game after returning menus will occupy a smaller area of the screen and the cursor will be off point, also affects iron sights (points to the right of center). Quitting to desktop and reloading fixes.
 * This occurs when using Fullscreen, a second alt tab out/in cycle should fix this, and using borderless window should prevent it from happening in the first place.
 * Mouse pointer fails to appear on main menu screen if a controller is plugged in, keyboard cannot be used, and disabling controller has no effect ("no" switches back to "yes" on the controller option in the menu). Can be remedied by unplugging the controller or changing bGamepadEnable=1 to 0 in Fallout4Prefs.ini.
 * There's a slight chance the game will delete your quicksave making you load an earlier quicksave when quickloading. This might happen if you try to load too fast after saving or load too many times from the same save.
 * There is a chance when using a terminal, you can become stuck. The character will not be able to move, but can look around and jump. In order to avoid this glitch quicksave before using any terminal. There are some places that require terminals to open not accessible because of this glitch.
 * Or just turn off clipping in console: "tcl"
 * There is a chance when in settlements, any movement commands you try to give your follower will be unreachable.
 * After defeating a group of powered raiders and trying to repair the raider armor.  UI would glitch and not allow repairs of items that it 'auto' selected after finish repairs on another item.  This glitch did not always persist if one selected another piece to fix, but sometimes a piece remained forever unable to be fixed until you reloaded from a save.