Hey, so I got FO:NV about two-three days after the game came out, since my friend had gifted it to me on Steam.

I had looked over google over and over, hundreds of threads on different forums were about the same problem: The tilde ( ~ ) key, won't open the console in-game.

Here are a few things you should note:

` or ~, usually works to open the console in every OTHER game I have.

I have no infared drivers, which I should uninstall.

I set bAllowConsole 1 to 0 then back to 1, since it was already set on that.

I did -console in prefrences.

Defraged, and verified game cache.

None of these worked, if ANYONE has any idea on how to help me, please reply.

From gamefaqs (posted by QuietBoy1234567):
With some resolutions, the console does not actually show. It is to the left of the screen, past the edge. To check if this is the case, press ~ then type about 20 letters in. If you see something on the bottom left of the screen, it is your resolution.

One way around it is to change your resolution to a widescreen resolution, do whatever you want with the console, save, return to your normal resolution.

You could also type in the cheats blindly. As long as they are typed correctly, there will be no problem with them. This is what I have been doing sense I found out that the console was off screen.

if it's like FO3 the .ini can be altered to have the text show

I'd look for a a line like

iConsoleTextXPos=30

changing the value to 200 works for me running & 1280x1024 (in Fallout3)

I am experiencing the same problem with the ~ or ` key not working to open the console. It is not just hidden off screen; the console is not opening!

I don't know what information about my system may be important so I will include everything I can think of. My HP m9040n is running Window Vista Home Premium (32-bit) SP2 with a Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.4GHz, 3GB RAM, an RADEON HD 5850 video card (1024MB), my keyboard driver is set to "Enhanced Multimedia PS/2 Keyboard", human interface devices only list "USB Human Interface Device", and my resolution is 1920x1080 for windows and fallout new vegas.

I have already tried the following based on my google searches:
1. Checked device manager for IR drivers and found none.
2. Checked Regional and Language Options/Keyboards and languages are are set to English (Canada) - US and deleted the multi-language stuff
3. Checked the .ini file and found bAllowConsole was set to 1.
4. I entered -console into the steam preferences

I am starting to get frustrated. I don't want to use the console commands to cheat, I just want to be able to use it to get around some of the bugs this game has.

Here is the Vault Wiki page on console problems. One of these should solve your problem. Please try the easiest first before hacking the registry.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Fallout_3_console_commands#Troubleshooting

Thanks! I was able to get one of the solutions on that page to work. It was the use regedit to change OverrideKeyboardSubtype to zero that did it for me!