Severe Problem - Game Crashes Instantly

[Yonmaja]

I have been running Oblivion for about a week. I downloaded some mods and they have been working fine. Today however, the game just won't open. I uninstalled and then reinstalled it twice, and the game won't work. It is definately not my computer, as it was running on it before. I think the problem is that I might have replaced some files in the menus folder under Data, but after reinstalling it still doesn't work.

Computer Specs:

1 GB Ram

32-bit Vista OS

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+ 2.21 GHz

GeForce 8400

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[bben46]

We probably could have fixed you without reinstalling. However now that you have, you will probably have to do it again to clean the registry entries that were left behind.

 

Here is a link to my complete uninstall/reinstall procedure located in the articles section of the Nexus

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=240

 

This has worked for better than 90% of the people who tried it. It leaves you with a clean install and a backup of a clean install. And saves anything in your saves and data folders if you want to risk trying to put them back.

[Yonmaja]

Didn't work. I did everything in the article. I totally deleted all Oblivion files on my computer. I reinstalled it, and it still doesn't work. Something is majorly wrong, and I don't know what it is...

[bben46]

Did you clean the registry? You MUST cycle power both before and after running the registry cleaner.

[Yonmaja]

I did everything to the letter.

[bben46]

What version do you have?

 

What is it doing when you reinstall and try to run?

 

You must be logged on as an administrator.

 

Also note that vista dosn't like Oblivion. If you install outside of the programs folder it helps.

 

I use a 64 bit system, But Win7 instead of Vista, so I know it works on 64 bit.

[Yonmaja]

If by version you mean of the game, it's GOTY. If by version you mean version of Windows, it's Vista 32-bit.

 

It reinstalls fine, but when I try to run it , it just closes itself instantly and informs me that it's crashed.

 

I'm logged on as administrator.

 

I installed it under D:\Games\Oblivion

 

I think I know what might be the problem. CCleaner doesn't get rid of all the files. I downloaded a trial of Registry Mechanic and it detected over 200 errors that CCleaner did nothing to, many of which where about Oblivion. If I just put it on a different computer, would that solve the problem (the problem being me not playing Oblivion) or is it the disc?

[bben46]

It's possible that the registry entries are the problem. If you feel brave you can go into the registry and delete them manually. However, deleting a wrong entry can make your computer unbootable.

 

First, Uninstall Oblivion using the disk. This gets rid of many Oblivion related registry entries.

Then reboot.

Then run a cleaner, such as CCleaner. Under the tools section of CCleaner look to see if there is anything related to Oblivion listed. if so, Use the uninstall function in CCleaner to remove it.

Reboot again

 

Now run the disk cleanup on ALL hard drives to get rid of any junk files that may be left over from bad installs (ccleaner should get most of these)

 

Before touching the registry, you MUST create a system restore point to back up the current registry. DO NOT depend on the automatic system restore it may not be turned on!

How to use system restore: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial143.html

 

Now to edit the registry

Start > Run > Type regedit into the box and hit enter.

 

Use the search function to find each Oblivion reference.

delete any entry that is related to Oblivion, and nothing else.

Be sure to save when you are finished

[Yonmaja]

I can't delete the files from the registry. I tried to to delete it and it said "Unable to delete all specified values"