A Guide to preventing bugs and crashes in Oblivion

[XJDHDR]

As of 17 May 2009 19:55 (GMT+2), this topic's contents have been moved to a seperate website, where I can more easily update and format the information (it is much easier to update one website than it is to update a number of articles and topics). I hope everyone can bear with me on this. I am sure that the new website will make the information much easier to access than this post.

 

Anyway, the new location of this information is: http://preventcrashesinoblivion.page.tl/

[BossDweebe]

I had a lot of trouble with the NVidia 180.48 drivers. Frequent crashes of all descriptions.

The 178.13 weren't as smooth, but were more stable.

I have just installed the 181.22 drivers. They run smoothly, and I have had only one CTD in 15 hrs

- a record for my machine. (Opteron 180 - 8800 GT - 2 Gig RAM)

 

I have found that Streamline will occasionally turn off my distant LOD and I have to

reset it in the options panel. This seems to happen when riding round and round looking

for new caves etc. Other than that it works well, but I don't use the auto save.

 

EDIT: May 15 - A while (a week or 3) after the above post I found that turning the

- Terrain - setting off (0) in the - Details - that Streamline no longer caused my distant

land settings to turn off in the game options.

Also I have read several post since my post above in which people had un installed Streamline because

of the distants lands issue. Not necessary - Streamline is a good thing for those of us with less RAM,

and otherwise less powerful machines.

My comment on the auto save was only in relation to personal preference.

[XJDHDR]

I have found that streamline will occasionally turn off my distant LOD and I have to

reset it in the options panel. This seems to happen when riding round and round looking

for new caves etc. Other than that it works well, but I don't use the auto save.

 

Streamline allows you to modify what graphics settings it is allowed to change. You just have to browse through Streamline's options menu. All graphics settings are modified by default (or those that don't require you to restart the game). As I said above, the save system is very useful.

 

EDIT:

EDIT: May 15 - A while (a week or 3) after the above post I found that turning the

- Terrain - setting off (0) in the - Details - that Streamline no longer caused my distant

land settings to turn off in the game options.

Also I have read several post since my post above in which people had un installed Streamline because

of the distants lands issue. Not necessary - Streamline is a good thing for those of us with less RAM,

and otherwise less powerful machines.

My comment on the auto save was only in relation to personal preference.

 

That what I was talking about in this post. Maybe you should tell those people about Streamline's extra options. I had the "disappearing distant land" problem with Streamline for a few minutes as well. Luckily, I read the readme of every mod I download before using.

 

Personal preference is perfectly understandable. I have found more info about the save game bugs since you last posted.

[LHammonds]

Nice set of suggestions. I would recommend copying this into the Article Database for further exposure.

 

LHammonds

[XJDHDR]

Nice set of suggestions. I would recommend copying this into the Article Database for further exposure.

 

LHammonds

 

Thank you for pinning this topic LHammond.

 

I have followed your suggestion and copied this topic into an article (not a perfect copy though, I had to make a few edits to make it more suitable for an article).

[flystar1999]

Hi,

 

Thank you very much for this handy summary for preventing crashes.

 

I’d greatly appreciate if you would consider add step-by-step instructions on how to use mod management tools such as OBMM, Wyre Bash, or BOSS. And here is why:

As a mods-novice, I’ve searched heatedly on the Internet for tutorials on OBMM, Wyre Bash, or the combined use of OBMM, WB, and BOSS. To my surprise, this kind of information is not too abundant on the Internet. The instructions posted on the software makers’ official sites or included in the software package are too technical and vague at the same time, giving an extremely hard time to new game players like myself. For instance, these are SOME of the questions I have after reading the instructions on several famous authoritative websites/forums:

 

 

In OBMM:

 

1. How do I know whether I should select the “Archive Invalidation” option or not when I add a new mod?

2. OBMM will check if conflicts exist between mods. What should I do if I see conflicts (marked with red text) in the conflict report?

 

In WB:

1. In order to use the Balo feature, do I have to manually assign each mod to a group (i.e. clothing, place, etc) for load order? In my case none of the mods I added will get groups assigned automatically.

2. Bash Patch: This is the most confusing part. If I am adding a new mod for adding a new armor, should I rebuild patch? In addition, when I click on the Rebuild Patch option, should I ALWAYS select the “Merge Patch” option if I want to keep things simple, that is, giving up the advanced feature of individually selecting what features to be imported from mods? If no checkboxes are checked, what is the point of doing a rebuild patch? On the other hand, it seems that the mods who contain new stuff won’t be identified as “mergeable” and thus wouldn’t be “merged” by performing the “Merge Patch” option under “Rebuild Patch”.

 

Ultimately my question becomes how to use the Bash Patch for various kinds of mods, I guess.

 

These kinds of "Idiot's Series: How to use TES 4 Mod Managers" is in high demand and currently no supply exists whatsoever. Would you be able to help those of us who are struggling on these issues?

 

Sincerely,

[XJDHDR]

I’d greatly appreciate if you would consider add step-by-step instructions on how to use mod management tools such as OBMM, Wyre Bash, or BOSS. And here is why:

As a mods-novice, I’ve searched heatedly on the Internet for tutorials on OBMM, Wyre Bash, or the combined use of OBMM, WB, and BOSS. To my surprise, this kind of information is not too abundant on the Internet. The instructions posted on the software makers’ official sites or included in the software package are too technical and vague at the same time, giving an extremely hard time to new game players like myself. For instance, these are SOME of the questions I have after reading the instructions on several famous authoritative websites/forums:

 

 

In OBMM:

 

1. How do I know whether I should select the “Archive Invalidation” option or not when I add a new mod?

2. OBMM will check if conflicts exist between mods. What should I do if I see conflicts (marked with red text) in the conflict report?

 

In WB:

1. In order to use the Balo feature, do I have to manually assign each mod to a group (i.e. clothing, place, etc) for load order? In my case none of the mods I added will get groups assigned automatically.

2. Bash Patch: This is the most confusing part. If I am adding a new mod for adding a new armor, should I rebuild patch? In addition, when I click on the Rebuild Patch option, should I ALWAYS select the “Merge Patch” option if I want to keep things simple, that is, giving up the advanced feature of individually selecting what features to be imported from mods? If no checkboxes are checked, what is the point of doing a rebuild patch? On the other hand, it seems that the mods who contain new stuff won’t be identified as “mergeable” and thus wouldn’t be “merged” by performing the “Merge Patch” option under “Rebuild Patch”.

 

Ultimately my question becomes how to use the Bash Patch for various kinds of mods, I guess.

 

These kinds of "Idiot's Series: How to use TES 4 Mod Managers" is in high demand and currently no supply exists whatsoever. Would you be able to help those of us who are struggling on these issues?

 

Thank you for your post and sorry for the delay in this reply. I'll consider a guide to use OBMM, Wrye Bash and BOSS. I just need the time and opportuntiy to do so.

In the meantime, I can try answer your questions.

 

OBMM:

1 ) You must most certainly activate Archive Invalidation in OBMM. Failure to do so can cause major graphical problems in your game (purple and invisible objects mainly). I recommend you choose the "BSA Redirection" option as it is the newest, seems to work and is the least intrusive and lowest maintenance option present. The global option doesn't work at all, according to what I have read and "BSA Alteration" and "ArchiveInvalidation" require a lot of maintenance and can cause their own problems.

 

2 ) Don't worry about green and yellow conflicts. Red conflicts mean that two mods modify exactly the same item, setting, quest, script, etc. This will cause the mod loaded latest to "win the conflict war". For example, if two mods both modify the price of an iron sword, the mod loaded latest will set the price. A good knowledge of what exactly a mod changes and BOSS will fix this problem. I have read that TES4Edit's conflict detecter is better than OBMM's one though and I only downloaded TES4Edit last night so I haven't found out how to find the conflict detecter yet.

 

Wrye Bash:

1 ) I don't use Balo so I can't tell you how to use it. I prefer using BOSS to set my load order.

 

2 ) I don't completely understand all the bashed patch's features myself but I will try to help

 

Wrye recommends you rebuild the patch every time you install or update a new mod. For new armour though, I think it depends how the mod adds the armour to the game. Is it in a quest? Levelled list? Merchant's store? For these situations or if you aren't sure, you probably should rebuild the patch. But rebuilding only takes around 3 minutes for my setup (around 100 plugins, 1.5GB RAM, 2.6 GHz Celeron, 80GB SATA Hard Drive and Psycho installed) so there shouldn't be too much trouble.

 

You can't really select what parts of a mod are merged into a bashed patch. This is determined by "Bash Tags" (key words inserted into a mod's description to tell Bash how to handle the merging of that mod) which is beyond the scope of what I would trust a novice with. Another reason to use BOSS is because if a mod needs tags, they will either already be there or BOSS will have a list of the tags required by a mod (this is done automatically so no configuration on your part necessary other than making sure BOSS is properly installed). I recommend checking all the mods under "Merge Patch".

 

If you don't select an option under the Bashed Patch configuration, then I would think that there isn't any reason to (re)build the patch except that I recently found out about some features of the patch I never knew about. I don't completely understand it but it seems that the Bashed Patch has a use even if you don't select any configuration options. Mods which add new items aren't mergable with the bahed patch. My guess is that the reason is because the Bashed Patch is to try sort out conflicts between mods. Mods with new items are unlikely to conflict with any mods except in minor ways but as I said, I don't completely understand the bashed patch. I could be wrong.

 

That should answer your questions. If you have any future questions about Wrye Bash, OBMM or BOSS; try read the tools' readmes or website documents first, then ask the tool creaters (Random007 for BOSS, Timeslip for OBMM and Wrye for Wrye Bash (Wrye prefers being contacted on the Official forums. When I asked him some questions, his reply was in a forum post so his latest forum topic concerning Wrye Bash might be the proper place to ask him questions, otherwise, you can try a PM but don't blame me for what might happen.)).

 

If your question still isn't answered, I am willing to respond to PMs or emails if you can prove that you contacted the creater (copy of question and reply, etc). Or you could create a forum topic. Don't make a post in this topic though.

[LegoManIAm94]

Does this happen when you put your disk in and your computer then it restarts. Then try to uninstall your disk drive then restart your computer and log in to your account then once the disk drive reinstalls try putting oblivion in and see if it works. To uninstall your disk drive for windows XP click start, control panel, performance and maintenance, system, hardware, device manager, dvd/cd rom drives, then right click it then click uninstall. BE CAREFUL THAT YOU DO NOT UNINSTALL ANYTHING ELSE SUCH AS YOUR MONITOR

[XJDHDR]

That sounds like a problem which is caused by a bad hardware or software configuration (most likely damaged hardware) rather than a problem caused by Oblivion specifically.

 

The best advice I could probably give you is to borrow a friend's optical drive and replace your current one with the friend's one then test whether you get the same restarting problem with your friend's drive. If not, take your drive to a computer repair shop to get it thoroughly tested (and possibly be prepared to spend some money on a new drive).

 

If you still get restarts with your friend's drive, try visiting www.TweakGuides.com and download the relevant "Tweakguides Tweaking Companion" (maybe also click on an ad or two to show your support) then read the guide to make sure there isn't something wrong with your system which is causing these problems. Again though, I can't accept the notion that it is Oblivion that is causing this problem.

[skullkid22]

Hmm..broken link?

 

I receive the "Server not found" error.