So I received New Vegas today for my laptop.
Had been playing New Vegas on my 360 and have had no troubles, but after hours of fighting the game just for it to be installed, it's incredibly disappointing.
Anything above a "Medium" on my graphical detail quality and the game freezes up, and worse still, there is like a 3 second delay between any command in action and actual results on-screen.
It's insane.
I've heard so many great things about Fallout on PC because of "the GECK" (equally frustrating and unwelcoming for those with only a basic knowledge of computers)
But so far, Vegas on PC has been a terrible experience.
Don't even get me started on trying to add mods..

Your computer may not be very much above the minimum spec requirements to run New Vegas. Laptops generally are not very useful for gaming unless they are specifically built for such.

What might help figure out what the problem exactly is - post your dxdiag (start menu -> run -> then type "dxdiag" without the quotes and hit enter -> after it loads choose the save to clipboard button, open a post reply here and Ctrl-V to paste it). Keep in mind FO:NV is a pretty intense game as far as its requirements can go, if your computer is more than a couple years old you may have some visible issues.

I don't seem to have a clipboard tab within that program.
Perhaps if you told me what pieces of information should be showing, I could copy and paste that for you.

Sorry didn't have it open at the time - the button should be along the bottom "Save All Information" (or similar if you are on an older dxdiag).

More specifically we are looking first for your processor, memory, what version of Windows, video card, sound card, and such. The other info is more helpful for diagnosing problems more directly, but this will help start to determine whether the problem is with Fallout itself or the hardware you are running it on.

Anything else?


System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/25/2010, 23:15:56
Machine name: ANDREW-VAIO
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100618-1621)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
System Model: VGN-NW270F
BIOS: BIOS Date: 05/09/08 11:12:06 Ver: 08.00.10
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T6600 @ 2.20GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3936MB RAM
Page File: 1521MB used, 6346MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode

Click on the Display tab at the top, then copy what is in the Device box there.

At a glance so far, your processor meets the minimum, but is on the very low end, so that may be part of the problem. You have enough RAM, and Windows7 64bit is taking advantage of it all, so that shouldn't be causing it.

I certainly hope this is what your referring to.

Card name: Mobile Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Mobile Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_906B104D&REV_07
Display Memory: 1759 MB
Dedicated Memory: 128 MB
Shared Memory: 1631 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (59Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: unknown
Monitor Id: SNY05FA
Native Mode: 1366 x 768(p) (59.940Hz)
Output Type: Internal
Driver Name: igdumd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igdumdx32,igd10umd32
Driver File Version: 8.15.0010.1855 (English)
Driver Version: 8.15.10.1855
DDI Version: 10
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 8/4/2009 19:21:26, 5616128 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: {D7B78E66-6902-11CF-C274-61B0A7C2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x8086
Device ID: 0x2A42
SubSys ID: 0x906B104D
Revision ID: 0x0007
Driver Strong Name: oem2.inf:Intel.Mfg.NTamd64:iCNT0:8.15.10.1855:pci\ven_8086&dev_2a42&subsys_906b104d
Rank Of Driver: 00E60001

Pretty much, yes. And it's also very likely the source of your problems. Onboard video cards (Intel is not a major video card manufacturer, they make CPUs primarily) tend to be very bad for most gaming purposes. The two biggest video card manufacturers that are supported by most games (New Vegas included) are ATI and Nvidia - simply because they are capable of handling more stress and drawing far more things on your screen at once.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news there, but unless you have a way to get your video card in the laptop upgraded - which is questionable at best with a VAIO - you will not be able to run New Vegas very well on anything but the lowest settings on that laptop.

I appreciate your help.
I suppose I'm willing to sacrifice graphics for the the ability to play it smoothly, for instance, having my player character move as soon as I command it to.
I hope that's possible

Merry Christmas!

A couple quick suggestions that might allow you to at least turn up some of the graphics options - be certain to, through the launcher settings option, turn off AA (Anti-Aliasing), and disable all options related to Shadows and Water. Those tend to be some of the bigger system hogs, and might allow you to crank up the textures a bit. Also from the ingame settings menu, move the Grass bar all the way to the left so it's gone, and you can play around with the other bars a bit, tending toward the left of center to see what works and what makes everything bog down horribly.

Glad to have been of some help for you! Merry Xmas (even if it is the 26th here already :whistling: )