Oblivion Crashing Randomly.

[MrWobblytickle]

Hey everyone :smile:

 

I'm having some trouble with Oblivion crashing at seemingly random times and intervals and i'd like some help.

 

My specs:

AMD FX8350 8 core running at 4.0 GHZ

GTX 680 4GB GPU

12GB RAM

500 GB hard drive

850W PSU

Windows 7 64-bit system.

 

I have the 4GB patch for the oblivion.exe enabled. I have streamline 3.1 running. I have OSR (Oblivion Stutter Remover) running. I tired weOCPS Crash prevention system but that however causes a crash when I attempt to sleep to level up using the Oblivion XP mod. I have done the DEP (Data Execution Prevention) thing to allow Oblivion to use as much memory as it needs. I have made a Bashed patch and used BOSS to sort my load order. I changed my ini setting to make better use of my CPU by changing the amount of cores and threads available. 8 cores and 64 threads. I feel I've tried everything humanly possible to stop these crashes and yet still they occur. It did say in Wyre Bash that some plugins may require cleaning with TES4Edit due to dirty edits and to my surprise all the dirty edits where done in official DLC! I can play for about 20 minutes to half an hour before a crash occurs. I'm also using the Steam GOTY Deluxe Edition.

 

Here is my load order:

Oblivion.esm

All Natural Base.esm

DLCShiveringIsles.esp

Natural_Habitat_by_Max_Tael.esp

All Natural.esp

All Natural - SI.esp

Enhanced Water v2.0 HD.esp

Sounds of Cyrodiil.esp

All Natural - Real Lights.esp

RAEVWD Cities.esp

RAEVWD New Sheoth.esp

RAEVWD Imperial City.esp

Streamline 3.1.esp

DLCHorseArmor.esp

DLCOrrery.esp

DLCVileLair.esp

DLCMehrunesRazor.esp

DLCSpellTomes.esp

DLCThievesDen.esp

DLCBattlehornCastle.esp

DLCFrostcrag.esp

Knights.esp

xuldarkforest.esp

xulStendarrValley.esp

xulTheHeath.esp

XulEntiusGorge.esp

xulFallenleafEverglade.esp

xulColovianHighlands_EV.esp

xulChorrolHinterland.esp

xulBeachesOfCyrodiilLostCoast.esp

xulBravilBarrowfields.esp

xulLushWoodlands.esp

xulAncientYews.esp

xulAncientRedwoods.esp

xulCloudtopMountains.esp

xulArriusCreek.esp

xulPatch_AY_AC.esp

xulRollingHills_EV.esp

xulPantherRiver.esp

xulRiverEthe.esp

xulBrenaRiverRavine.esp

xulImperialIsle.esp

xulBlackwoodForest.esp

xulCheydinhalFalls.esp

xulAspenWood.esp

xulSkingradOutskirts.esp

xulSnowdale.esp

xulCliffsOfAnvil.esp

xulSilverfishRiverValley.esp

xulJerallGlacier.esp

xulTheEasternPeaks.esp

Natural_Vegetation_by_Max_Tael.esp

Grass Overhaul.esp

Oblivion XP.esp

1em_Vilja.esp

Oblivion_Character_Overhaul.esp

ViljaOCO.esp

Bashed Patch, 0.esp

Any and all suggestions and help is very much appreciated! Thank you!

Edited January 25, 2014 by MrWobblytickle

[MrWobblytickle]

I just managed a 142 minute session (Timed by Steam) without a crash. I'm now wondering if the crashing is dictated by what the computer does before or after. Oblivion was the first game I played today and had no issues. What I want to do is play a different game for a while and then see if a crash occurs when I boot Oblivion up later. If so then a fix might be to restart the PC before playing Oblivion to clear the RAM and make it the first thing I do. It'll be interesting to see.

[Striker879]

As you are discovering, the game can be a bit fussy. I always exit to the desktop and restart the game before loading a save, never overwrite a save and never use quicksave (it's a known corrupter of saves). In my old guy's saves I went from being able to play for 10 or 15 minutes between crashes (when I started him out I was a quicksave junky ... cell transitions and load doors were murder) to being able to play 2 or 3 hours without a crash (though I usually save using the Esc menu save option once every 1 to 1.5 hours and exit to desktop and restart every couple of hours). My new guy's save-line has never suffered the same abuse (quicksave) and gets about the same game time (and the same save/restart habits).

 

Even with my meticulous save habits I'll still occasionally run into a situation. Example, my new guy just recently finally got around to saving the world (finishing the main quest). I started CTDing for no apparent reason. If I went back to an earlier save I'd be OK for a while and then crash. I used the coc center and wait trick and found out the cause ... my Imperial Dragon armor was ready, and the notification combined with the current state of whatever conditions in my save line resulted in CTD. By using the coc center trick my character was outside of the game world and using wait allowed the game scripts to sort themselves out. Keeps the game interesting.

[MrWobblytickle]

I agree this game is very fussy. I've taken note of your advice to not overwrite or quicksave and it is very much appreciated :) Just to add to my above point. I played L4D2 and watched some stuff online and went to play Oblivion. Went into a cave and ran down a road and then crash. This time I was pleased it crashed and I know that sounds weird but it backed up my theory about other games or applications doing something to my RAM. They are being stored for some reason I assume. I shut down the PC. Waited a few minutes. Re-booted and then was able to play Oblivion for 100 minutes before I took a break from it. I'm now convinced that is the issue. Also having to play from a fresh re-boot isn't a massive inconvenience if it means I can enjoy the game without thinking "Better keep saving because a crash is going to happen any moment now!"

 

Wow I must say I've never heard of coc Centre and wait trick before! Pleased to hear you found a fix for your CTD though and I will keep that fix in mind for when I finish the main quest and then I am plagued with CTD's! I agree the technical aspects of making Oblivion work certainly make it interesting. Thanks again!

[Striker879]

Crashes can happen any time, especially after you start modding the game. I haven't turned off autosaves in my game as I'm not plagued by crashing during saving (you will find some who recommend turning off all autosaves). I still avoid using an autosave to continue my game if I do get caught by a crash even if it means redoing more than I'd like to, but I must admit I have used an autosave in the past more than once to no known ill effect.

 

The details on the coc center trick is ... open the console using the tilde (~) key and at the console prompt type "coc center" (without the quote marks) and hit Enter. You will be transported to an open plain with some trees in the distance. Open the wait menu (default is the "t" key) and wait for 72 hours plus a bit (that's three full days and then a bit for good measure). Open the console again and "coc weye" (or another location providing you know the correct location code for it ... the UESP Wiki Oblivion: Places page can come in handy). You be transported to the fisherman's shack at Weye, just outside of the IC. From there you can go to where you were running into trouble and see if the problem is resolved.

[discovery1]

I note you have osr, try playing with the heap settings for instance mine is 1000. This seems to work well with the 4gb patch and cuts out the fast travel ctd. Also if you have a lot of graphic intense mods you will get a ctd when the card gets swamped. I found the heap setting helped. You have a 4gb card but what is the bus width? I would expect to have at least 256 mb to handle all that memory flow. To be honest 142 minutes with out a ctd is pretty good on a modded out game.

[MrWobblytickle]

Ok cool thanks guys really appreciate your tips and tricks. Just had a a crash even after a fresh re-boot and 55 minute session so it seems i'm really not safe from the CTD it seems. I'll give the heap thing a try so thanks for that :) I have this weather mod http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/18305/? and when it crashed the forest was foggy and the frame rate dropped moments before the crash. Not sure if it has anything to do with the crash though.

[xrayy]

My answer is a little bit late but maybe others read this content so one thing shoud be taken into account:

oblivion runs in 32Bit, even with the 4 GB patch. So free memory for oblivion depends on the free mem in your Win 32bit box (maximum 4GB), in detail on how many 32bit-programs which how much use of mem are already sharing in this 32 bit box and when oblivion.exe reaches the available mem limit (max about 3,5 GB with applied 64bit patch and stock win tasks). e.g if you run a 32-bit-browser and a bunch of other 32bit tasks simultaniously with oblivion, oblivion.exe will crash earlier as if you close the browser before running oblivion because the memory limit is reached earlier, depending on how much memory "is eaten up" by the bowser. you can check this with the windows task manager. 32bit tasks (in a 64 bit windows) are signed with *32.

Edited August 27, 2014 by xrayy