Sooo, Bethesda, you released a game that was more or less a glorified hunk of plastic for a month...completely unplayable...but then you released your first patch and all was well (for me atleast). I was able to do a complete playthrough including the dead money dlc without any major issues. Two days ago I begin a second playthough, downloading the new updates as the xbox 360 suggested, having made the fatal mistake of blindly trusting you to know what you're doing...I should have checked the forum before installing that dang update.

NOW, at level 20 I find my rangefinder malfunctioning (playing the firing animation repeatedly without the boom and ammunition failing to refill after 24 hours). Really not a big deal for me...I can live without one gun (teleporting seemed to have stopped the animation from repeating endlessly), but I go to the brotherhood bunker to try and initiate Dead money only to find it won't start. Everything seems to be working correctly inside there, the door prompts me if I want to pursue the signal, the radio is playing, but approaching it does nothing...nada...nilche.

Oh, but here's the kicker. If I walk up to the radio and then either talk to a companion or try and access my pipboy, it lets the follow the signal quest complete for 100 xp, locks my view on the radio and plays the ominous music that's suppose to play when you get gassed and pass out, but that's IT. It just holds on that one view, focusing on the area where the passed out player character is suppose to be. I can pause the game, save, load, so it's not a freeze, but i have no control and am stuck looking at that dang radio with that annoying voice until I decide to load a previous save.


I have tried clearing my system cache, but without the update the game freezes at the start menu when it says "loading downloadable content". I've tried re downloading all my DLC after having cleared the system cache, but the same thing happens. I've tried rolling back to an earlier save and entering the bunker again. I've tried everything I can think of to get it to work to no avail. It's like the latest update has effected every file in the game, making it impossible for me to remove it without rendering the game unplayable.

Help would be appreciated.

for initial trials, I had the t51b armor and helmet and the big boomer equipped.
for latter trials, I had nothing equipped.

Everything below was done WITH the latest patch. I did not clear my system cache at any point when i was doing any of the below.


OK, so I had an idea and think i may have found a work around.

1. I deleted the dead money dlc and loaded my working save, telling it to anyway even tho the dlc is missing.
2. exited the bos bunker and made a new save.
3. downloaded dead money...again.
4. loaded the new save I made, the one without the dead money dlc.
5. teleported to one of the bos bunkers in hidden valley and dumped ALL my stuff in the suitcase. Told veronica and ed-e to take a hike, exited bunker. I received the message that the sierra madre signal had been found and quest again initialized.
6. teleported back to the abandoned bos bunker...again...while completely naked...and was greeted by a LONG delayed rangefinder laser blast.
7. quest seems to have initialized now as im currently viewing the sierra madre intro.


Curiosity peaked, I reloaded the save from step 4, kicked veronica and ed-e and waited until i received the message saying the radio signal had been found.
I unequipped everything I had on, but kept it all in my inventory, and entered the bunker naked, starting dead money without issue.

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And I did one final probing to try and determine where the problem was.
1. I reloaded the save from step 4
2. Teleported to goodsprings (just because its a friendly location), was greeted by a long delayed blast from the c-finder.
3. noted that the c-finder was once again working and I was given a new charge. Waited for the message saying the sierra madre signal had been found.
4. teleported to the abandoned bos bunker WITH veronica and ed-e, t-51b armor and helmet and big boomer equipped, all my stuff in my inventory.
5. entered bunker and dead money initalized without issue.

I hypothesize that the issue never was what I had equipped or who my companions were, but rather stemmed from having both the latest patch AND dead money installed when I started a new game, because it seems that removing dead money, making a new save without dead money installed, and reloading dead money mid-game fixed (for now) every major issue I had been having with this playthrough.


UPDATE
I've completed the dlc without issue, but now find that ed-e is hostile towards me...work around one problem and find another...