Fallout 3 crashes

I am playing Fallout 3 on a new PC with Windows 8 and it crashes frequently. I went to the download section of Bethesda and downloaded a patch to make my version upgrade to V.317. I cannot find out what Version it already was and the patch does not help anyway. Any suggestions? This game ran very well on my older Vista. Frankly, I HATE Windows 8, but that's another story.

Atheen, I'm going to transfer you to Glitches, where our teckies hang out.

Maybe this would work
http://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/864956555011164413/

or this
http://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/828937546147175081/

If you don't have the Steam version, some of those instructions may not apply.

Thank you for your answer, but I do not have the Steam version and cannot put it on Steam.

The second link recommends reinstalling. As I am about 1/3 of the way thru, I hate to do this unless I can save my games.

????

Check the folder mentioned in this thread
http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?p=764916

Thank you! I found the Save games, now to try to figure out the rest of the explanation.

I will probably be back. This is my favorite game so far and I don't want to give up on it.