Oblivion GOTY crashes in start-up nothing works to fix

[sushichic]

I have oblivion GOTY downloaded off steam. I downloaded it when I got my new laptop, and It crashes in start-up, directly after the copyright agreement, it goes to a black screen and freezes indefinitely. with the oblivion.ini modified, this happens at the very end of the load bar, never getting to thee main menu

I have a Thinkpad Edge, Windows 7 professional 64-bit,Intel Core i5-2410M CPU, intel HD graphics card. I'm sorry I'm not great with specs, I'm not really a huge computer person.
I have tried:
Deleting, as well as modifying the oblivion.ini containing folder and file

Changing the game visuals to lower
Changing the compatibility mode to windows XP service pack 2, disabled desktop composition, and had it run as an admin.
The entire (nexus or elder scrolls wiki, I can't remember) troubleshooting guide
Install of all unofficial patch mods, and double-checking of their load order, as well as turning them off

Changing the settings in steam (no ingame community, and no cloud sync)
My anti-virus is Avast, and I have it on game mode, so no frequent pop-ups.
I've checked for any HP programs running, or printers, and there are none.

Also, verifying game chache integrity through steam.
It doesn't matter what game options I change, windowed, etc, there is no change, it always freezes right there

I think I've covered all the typical fixes except the codecs, and re-installing the game. I reinstalled the game in the past and it didn't help, so I'm not keen to try it again. I have no idea how to do the codecs, and I can't find the program on my laptop, so I didn't really try on that. I've tried everything I've come across with no change. I know it can work on my laptop, since Skyrim runs. I'm out of ideas, and might try an uninstall and reinstall tonight. If I missed covering any info, please ask.

Edited January 19, 2014 by sushichic

[Striker879]

First you need to be certain that nothing from your previous installs is still present and causing problems. You may have already seen the Oblivion reinstall procedure. Use it to make sure your uninstall doesn't leave any traces (the registry cleaning step) and you get the game re-installed in the correct location (and as you're using the Steam version of the game make sure you don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location ... C:\Games is the recommended location). Do all the troubleshooting without any mods, including the unofficial patches ... just the base game.

 

I think you are correct to suspect the codec/sound issues as the root problem. Once you have the game re-installed open Oblivion.ini (found in Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion ... NOT Oblivion_default.ini found in the game's Oblivion folder). Search for the following entries bDSoundHWAcceleration=1, bMusicEnabled=1 and bSoundEnabled=1 and change all three to =0 (=zero). If the game runs fine with those setting turn them back on (change to =1) one at a time. I'd leave bDSoundHWAcceleration to last, but if it's the cause then you could try with it enabled and turn off the other two. It will take some experimenting.

[sushichic]

SOLVED!

 

First you need to be certain that nothing from your previous installs is still present and causing problems. You may have already seen the Oblivion reinstall procedure. Use it to make sure your uninstall doesn't leave any traces (the registry cleaning step) and you get the game re-installed in the correct location (and as you're using the Steam version of the game make sure you don't miss the link near the top of the page about moving your Steam install location ... C:\Games is the recommended location). Do all the troubleshooting without any mods, including the unofficial patches ... just the base game.

 

I think you are correct to suspect the codec/sound issues as the root problem. Once you have the game re-installed open Oblivion.ini (found in Users\[username]\Documents\My Games\Oblivion ... NOT Oblivion_default.ini found in the game's Oblivion folder). Search for the following entries bDSoundHWAcceleration=1, bMusicEnabled=1 and bSoundEnabled=1 and change all three to =0 (=zero). If the game runs fine with those setting turn them back on (change to =1) one at a time. I'd leave bDSoundHWAcceleration to last, but if it's the cause then you could try with it enabled and turn off the other two. It will take some experimenting.

The codec reset fixed it! Thank you so much, I had almost given up!!

Edited January 20, 2014 by sushichic