Fallout 3 bugs Add - on - specific bugs . For add - on specific bugs , please see the following pages : Quest - specific bugs . For quest - specific bugs , please see the respective quest article page . Location - specific bugs . For location - specific bugs , please see the respective location article page . General advice and notes . Mods . " Nukapedia does not cover information concerning third - party mods for Fallout 3 " . 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 . Alternatively , you can visit The Nexus website which is the home of many mods and utilities that can help you further solve your issues . Using the console . On the PC , many non - player character , quest , and player - getting - stuck issues can be resolved through the use of console commands . 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 3 hardware forums for information regarding these issues . In particular , read through the stickied threads at the top of the forum pages . Physics engine glitches . Stuck . The player character is stuck . There are locations in the game world where the player character can get stuck - in the landscape , behind furniture , etc . The following are commonly known locations where the player character can get stuck . In locations where fast - travel is not an option , it is possible to get unstuck by utilizing frag grenades or mines to get dislodged with force . It is also possible to stand on dropped items , which will allow a flat plane from which to jump free . Also , if there are enemies nearby , using unarmed or melee VATS attacks may reposition the player in such a way that they are no longer trapped . If these measures fail to dislodge the player , then reloading a prior game save may be the only remaining option for non - PC users . For PC users , simply press the " ~ " key to open up the console and type " tcl " to toggle clipping , then simply pass through whatever you ' re stuck in to an empty spot in the room . Once there , just open the console again and type " tcl " once more to toggle clipping off . Commonly stuck non - player characters include : Floating in the air . Due to clipping and pathing issues , non - player characters , creatures , and items will sometimes appear to float in the air . The following are some common instances : Falling out of the map . Non - player characters and the player character may occasionally fall through the map or into a wall or other object . Following are some commonly known locations where this is likely to happen . Graphics glitches . Heads spinning around . Sometimes non - player characters ' heads spin around and upside - down . Some NPCs when they get up from a bed , or are interacted with can make them sometimes tilt perfectly horizontally , but the head ( s ) return to normal after they get up . Head spinning can be triggered specifically by speaking to an NPC who is swimming - dialogue will continue as normal and upon exiting the conversation , their heads will spin back . Multiple skin tones on non - player characters . Sometimes non - player characters ' various body parts are of different ethnicities . This is most common in Talon Company mercs and Regulators , but may be seen in any class of " randomized " NPCs if examined closely , such as Raiders and Wastelander s . PC users can fix this issue by opening Fallout . ini ( found in My Documents \ My Games \ Fallout 3 ) , searching for the line and setting the number following it to 1 . If this line is not present in Fallout . ini , should be added to the end of the " < nowiki > [ General ] < / nowiki > " section , just above the line that reads " < nowiki > [ Display ] < / nowiki > " . Upside - down gun . Non - player characters sometimes wield , fire and / or holster their gun upside - down . Stretching everywhere . Sometimes when roaming the wasteland all textures and models will stretch themselves and cover the screen making a strobe effect while moving and looking at the sun . This is fixed when moving out of the certain area , either by walking or fast traveling , however you can still be attacked while walking making it very difficult to attack back . Crashing and freezing . 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 . Following are some reported circumstances under which crashing and freezing occurred . Non - player character bugs . Megaton residents missing or dead . Any non - player character in Megaton may fall off the various high places in town and die or disappear from the town . Please see Recovering missing NPC in Fallout 3 for more details . Non - player characters referring to the player character or other non - player characters by the wrong gender . There are many instances of spoken dialogue not taking into account the proper gender of a character . Common occurrences follow : Non - player characters still talking after death . After an non - player character dies , they may still speak , especially giving the warnings about not stealing things . Speaking to male children will crash the game . Strangely , speaking to young boys can crash the game shortly after dialogue begins in certain playthroughs . This includes Derek Pacion , Bryan Wilks , and all of the Little Lamplight residents with the exception of Mayor MacCready . Respawning NPCs ' ash piles can be used to remotely pickpocket . When most respawning NPCs are killed by critical hits with certain weapons , they leave behind ash piles or goo piles that " don ' t " disappear when the area resets . You can return to the area after the NPCs respawn , and use the ash piles to talk to them or pickpocket them from extreme distances . The ash piles are effectively synchronized with the newly - spawned NPCs . This is especially noticeable with Rivet City guards , though the glitch will not work if a guard has become separated from their ash pile ( which usually occurs when their patrol patterns take them to a different part of the ship ) . Quest bugs . Quest items remain in inventory permanently . Any quest item may get stuck permanently in the inventory . However , even though the item displays a weight on the Pip - Boy screen , that weight does not count toward the total carry weight . Menu - , HUD - , inventory - , and radio - related bugs . V . A . T . S . Targeting error . Occasionally when going into V . A . T . S . the camera will move down and to the left , usually only able to see the PC ' s legs and lower torso . V . A . T . S . can still be used while glitched like this but target selection cannot be visually confirmed . This can be fixed by exiting V . A . T . S . and re - targeting the enemy . Exploits . Please see Fallout 3 exploits . PC - specific bugs and issues . 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 . Common PC - only crashes and freezes occur under the following circumstances : PlayStation 3 specific bugs and issues . Also when trading with companions the game may cause the screen to go black only revealing names , actions , subtitles and the hud but will hide the crosshair . To fix this quit the game and reload an old save .