Fallout: New Vegas bugs

General advice and notes

 * Make sure your game is patched to the latest official patch. If your game is not up-to-date, do not report any bugs you may experience.
 * Save often and in different slots. Do not rely too much on autosave. A frequently overwritten autosave slot can become corrupted.
 * If you are playing on the PC, make sure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements. If any component of your computer falls below the minimum system requirements, do not report any bugs you may experience.

Bethesda's support page
Bethesda's FNV support page offers many simple solutions to common problems.

Mods

 * The Vault does not cover information concerning third-party mods for Fallout: New Vegas.
 * If you have any mods installed, do not report any bugs you may experience, even if it seems to you that your issue is not mod-related. Please visit the Bethesda mod forums for information.

Using the console
On the PC, many NPC, quest, and player-getting-stuck issues can be resolved through the use of console commands.

It should be noted that after using the "Duplicateallitems" command the game can crash when going into your Pipboy.

Crashing, freezing 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 Fallout: New Vegas hardware forums for information regarding these issues. In particular, read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum pages.

Gameplay bugs

 * (PC Version) Certain characters will sometimes (rarely) change "Race" settings, for example from "White" to "African-American" or "Asian". They keep the same voice and conversation options, only their appearance changes. (Examples include Alexander the Gun-Runner at 188 Trading Post and the owner of the Dino-Bite shop in Novac).
 * (PC Version) Switching weapons will sometimes automatically and inexplicably change the ammo type to default, even if a different ammo had been loaded into a weapon. [Not experienced on PS3, at least if weapon is set to a hotkey]
 * (PC Version) Boxes or jars of ammo primer or powder are useless and take up weight until dropped or stored in a container, and then picked up again, at which time the quantity of weightless ingredients is added to the inventory. (This applies to most boxes and jars, with the exception of a few, such as "Ammo Box, Microfusion Cells", which are correctly added as ammo immediately.
 * (PC Version) NPCs will comment on your companion as if they were next to you, even if that companion was set to "wait" in an entirely different area.
 * (PC/360 Versions) In some instances when the player turns on their Pip-Boy's light, the entire sky may glare up, regardless if day or night.
 * (360) For unknown reasons, After a certain point, game freezes whenever hot key is accessed, even when attempting to change hot key items via pipboy, game will still freeze.
 * (360) Sometimes when entering VATS game freezes, possibly due to numerous enemies/large quantity of data beeing processes. The game may unfreeze at some times, others not, requiring console restart.

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.

Quest-specific bugs
For quest-specific bugs, please see the respective quest article page.


 * The unnamed quest to find the food processor parts doesn't allow you to fix the processor even if you have all the parts, one more pot is needed. This was found on the Xbox version, unknown if PS3 is affected. EDIT (different author): I was able to fix the food processor when carrying an extra Pan in my inventory (2 instead of 1). Upon fixing the processor, only 1 Pan was removed from my inventory, however.
 * During I Put a Spell on You, when going to defuse the bomb on the monorail the tram will leave before you can get on it or bomb will explode even if disarmed.
 * If you do Wang Dang Atomic Tango quest before picking up Debt Collector quest, talking to Santiago will automatically add the debt collector quest, but the dialog and the last stage of the Debt Collector quest get messed up.
 * During I Could Make You Care you can explore the terminal stations at the brotherhood bunker. Scribe Ibsen will ask your assistance in isolating a virus on the terminals. There are two methods to complete this mini-quest, a normal attempt at finding the virus on the terminals and a speech check of 70 to partition the terminals. The speech check of 70 method is bugged where all three terminals are found and partitioned but the quest does not complete (not confirmed on PC version) EDIT (different author) This didn't happen to me on the PC version. EDIT (new author), I have three terminals stuck on the "check partition" status and I can't isolate the virus no matter which other terminals I check.
 * During I Could Make You Care, Veronica will walk up to and talk to Elder McNamara to initiate a scripted sequence of dialog. If the player walks up to McNamara thus leading Veronica to engage the scripted dialog and then speak to a NPC (such as a brotherhood of steel knight standing guard at the doorway) right before the scripted sequence, it will bug the sequence and both McNamara and Veronica will stand idle. The player will not be able to engage McNamara or Veronica in dialog and the companion wheel is disabled when talking to Veronica. Console commands of disable then enable, kill then resurrect, will not restore McNamara or Veronica to their previous states.
 * Return to SenderRanger Station Charlie gets wiped out so there is no way to complete the quest.
 * After the guard duty mission for the Van Graffs at Silver Rush, going back outside and stealing the Van Graff armor makes it a permanent item in your inventory that cannot be dropped as it is considered a "Quest Item".

On the quest The House always Wins If you open the Doors to Mr. House's Cryo Pod and KILL him and revert your save you will be unable to talk to him making you unable to complete the quest.

Location-specific bugs
For location-specific bugs, please see the respective location article page.
 * At Helios One, just north of scrap yard when going out the back door (to the solar panels). Old Lady Gibson and her dogs will spawn and attack you. Reloading the autosave will fix this.
 * (PC Version) In the Lucky 38 Presidential Suite the terminal used for purchasing extra features does not have the items properly mapped and you must click of to the right of the right of the item to select it.
 * An ammo box inside a tent at Helios One shows a computer hack screen over the normal lockpick mini-game screen while hacking. Picking the lock is still possible but more of a challenge. The same bug occurs on a locked door next to a computer terminal in Vault 3, reloading a save game does not rectify but quitting the game completely and reloading does.
 * At Buffalo Bill's Casino and Hotel in Primm, the computer terminal will blur w/sound but the screen will not appear. At the Lockpick later on on the first floor the computer screen will appear over the lockpick interface. (Resolved with a restart of the console, reverting a save did not fix)
 * North of the cove location towards the south, standing on the highest rock will result in becoming stuck and unable to move.
 * At the Gomorrah, the dealer may talk to a Gomorrah floor manager like he is a visitor of the casino
 * It's possible to go outside of the map due to a ledge southeast of Morning Star Cavern.
 * In the city Primm, saving the deputy from the escaped convicts. The deputy has appeared running halfway through the ceiling. (360 version)
 * When loading in Freeside on PC version IE entering/exiting buildings or loading save; game will eject to black screen and fail, requiring restart. Immediately saving after load seems to help.
 * In Nipton, in certain circumstances the Powder gangers might be sstanding against the crosses and when talked to they jump on the crosses and crucify themselves! Video and instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcWXEpovC0Y
 * On the Xbox 360 version, sometimes entering the Strip will cause the screen to go black and the game to cash. This will corrupt your auto save.
 * In No-Bark's house, if you jump in between the fridge, the wall, and the bed area, you will be stuck. Reloading the last save is the only way to get out.

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
 * Players can also spot floating objects. For example; a fork in cottonwood grove, floating powder charge (S,SE of NCR correctional Facility).

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.
 * Unknown cause, but in The Tops and Ultra-Luxe casinos, the game freezes after the last line of dialogue "Enjoy your stay" when handing over weapons to the greeters. Taking the violent approach and leaving allows the game to keep running, but may cause permanent relationship damage with that casino. (Works fine here on 360)
 * Severe slowdowns are occurring on all platforms. Restarting your system may help.
 * On the Playstation 3 and xbox version. Repairing two "NCR Bandoleer Armors" at the same condition will always result in a freeze
 * In Primm, there are some tents that the NCR forces stationed there use as their field HQ. In one of the tents, it is empty except for a bedroll and a shelf with a few containers. One of the containers holds two NCR facemasks. The game will crash fairly soon after trying to use these masks in any way after picking them up. Combining them to repair them causes the item to disappear from your inventory. The only safe method to interact with them seems to be to avoid that tent entirely or drop the masks after finding them. This bug was found on the Xbox 360 version and verified on the PS3; also when wearing or repairing NCR Trooper Armor.
 * While playing, it is not uncommon to have a "black screen" crash upon exiting a building. The exact cause of this is unknown, but there is a quick work around. The player simply needs to eject the disc from the PS3/360 and then restart the game once it returns to the main dashboard menu/XMB. So far this is the only known way to prevent corrupted save data.
 * If one saves at the beginning of the game while editing your character the Level up system can crash.
 * Upon load up, the screen may turn into vertical lines of black and orangish colors, and your Xbox will freeze up.Game_freeze.jpg
 * Confirmed cause unknown, there is a bug where entering the New Vegas Strip will cause the game to freeze and the autosave to be corrupted.
 * Occasionally, when attempting to Quit from the Pause menu, game will freeze after "Loading DLC" notice pops up. (Observed with Classic Pack pre-order bonus)
 * PS3 (possibly all platforms): A crash to XMB During the quest Beyond the Beef is possible. If you go the quest route where you serve fake human meat at the banquet and bouncers have gone hostile before you talk to Mortimer to expose his plan, the bouncers will flag non-hostile, but some generic White Glove patrons will duplicate standing on their seats, Marjorie may disappear entirely, and the game will crash out about a minute after Mortimer escapes. The easiest way to avoid this (short of going a different quest route) is to sneak into the room in the first place, sneak up behind Mortimer and stand up and talk to him the moment he finishes his speech.

General NPC bugs

 * When you enter a casino with Boone as a companion they take all your weapons and when you leave they give them back along with Boone's Rifle. When you try to give it back to him it will not show up in your inventory and if you drop it you can't pick it back up(PS3).
 * 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.
 * Sometimes, NPCs can be found typing on broken computers. Additionally they will type in mid-air because the broken computer is not aligned correctly with their hands. The sounds of keys clattering will still be heard though.
 * A few times, specifically when exiting Helios One to the courtyard with the solar panels, a loud crashing sound happens, and then Old Lady Gibson and her pack of dogs spawned in the doorway. One time this happened, she became hostile and Boone killed her and the dogs.

Missing NPC bugs

 * If you give Arcade Gannon the Wait command and leave the area (i.e. fast travel) he can disappear from the location from where you left him and will not be back in the location where you recruited him. You also cannot change your Humanoid companion while this is happening. (Xbox 360)
 * If you tell ED-E to return to Primm from anywhere but very near Primm, he may disappear entirely. This does not, however, lock your robot companion slot as the leave confirmation has already gone through. (PS3)
 * If you wait 24 hours in the shop in Primm he may return.

Engine Bugs

 * Control and HUD loss on reload from save. Known to happen on all three Gamebryo Engine games.
 * (Seen on Xbox 360) Hacking in Bison Steve's casino sees the gameworld blur, then brings up only the audio of the hacking minigame. This can be repaired by quitting to the console dashboard and restarting and reloading, but is likely to recur.  Similarly, attempting to lockpick in Bison Steve's may result in a blank hacking minigame console appearing instead of the correct minigame.  Again, this can be solved by restarting and reloading, but again may recur. (Did not happen for me on Xbox 360)
 * At times when unholstering your weapon the attempting to fire it using iron sites the weapon will not fire in spite of clicking the mouse button to do so. Dropping your weapon to hip fire then back to iron sites will allow you to fire again
 * After reloading a pump-style or drum shotgun the fire trigger may not work from 0 to 60 sec (avg. 3-5) [not good in combat as you can imagine] after the reload for the PS3. Solution: Do not let the ammo in your gun run out, ie, reload before its absolutely necessary to fire another shot.

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, Mohave Music Radio appears to randomize correctly)

Animation bugs

 * When putting away pistols (9mm and such) 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.
 * 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).
 * When using the Varmint Rifle (possibly others) with the night vision scope, if you get a cinematic kill while looking down the sights (not in VATS), the cinematic camera will be in night vision if you continue to hold the left trigger
 * When in casinos, the dealers at blackjack tables may be passing out and collecting invisible cards. This happens when you watch the dealers, but do not play
 * 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.
 * Occasionally when a follower is given a non-default weapon and uses it in combat, they may get "stuck" while reloading and just stand there constantly looping the reload animation. Telling the follower to switch to melee and then back to ranged breaks the loop and allows the player to continue as normal. (Observed on Xbox 360 with Cass using a Cowboy Repeater and Lever-Action Shotgun)

Weathered 10mm pistol missing mesh bug
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:

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. [observed on PS3 and 360]
 * Confirmed on PC, as well.

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 (seen with a 480, 470, 460 and 450 GTS so far).


 * With trait selected with 20% slower firing speed gun at time "spasms" firing multiple times, possibly due to stacked fire commands. (Not seen here on 360, so far)


 * 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.


 * 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. (Note: There is a workaround for this bug. If you place the cards in a container and then remove them from the container one at a time, they are then added to your caravan deck. Similarly, placing them in a companion's inventory and removing them also adds the cards to your deck.)