Very confusing and frustrating problem.

[Zenislev]

Start with the basics. Be sure you are starting with OBSE and not the Oblivion Launcher. Be sure you have the latest patch. Be sure you have no missing masters. Be sure you are not running more than 254 mods.

 

Having too many mods in your data folder - even if they are not being used can cause crashes. I'm not sure about the exact number but is over 400. Move any unused mods out to another folder outside of Oblivion.

 

Here is a troubleshooting trick to see if it is mods or something in the game itself causing the problem. Bben's Oblivion Revert to Vanilla game

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=340

 

I double checked that my game, OBSE, OBMM, wrye bash and python were ALL completely up to date as well as all my cross-mod patches. I'm nowhere near 254 active mods, I was able to merge so many mods once I upgraded wrye bash to archive 285 that I had substantially decreased my active mod count. There were 426 mods in my data folder lol... But cutting the number down to 343 didn't do the trick... I suppose I'll try your revert to vanilla game method once I have the time bben, if only I knew such a method even existed since the last 10 times I've had to start from scratch thanks to problems like this, thank you.

 

... This so inconveniently happened right after I had perfected my own companion sound set, I decompiled Leliana's voice over dialogue from Dragon Age and quite successfully integrated it into the companion sound sets mod (actually i saved over Jaheira's sound set... because it was so annoying). I even generated the lip synch files for it and everything! And this is why I'm so desperate to get my oblivion back online so I can continue perfecting this project of mine.

[Zenislev]

Here is a troubleshooting trick to see if it is mods or something in the game itself causing the problem. Bben's Oblivion Revert to Vanilla game

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=340

 

I've tried this method several times over and found the same results, menu screen - no music - quickly CTDs. I remember updating my sound drivers lately... I didn't think it could be that since I have no problems what so ever with any of my other games, and I also can't find old drivers for my striker 7.1 sound card.... Also I'm trying to find a windows 7 guide on deleting unneeded sound codecs but I'm having some difficulty, if someone has the time could they please link me a guide? Otherwise I'm certain I'll find one eventually, my patience with this is already stretched so thin lol.

[Zenislev]

PROBLEM SOLVED. Damn superfluous audio codecs caused the problem - I should've known about this cuz I've had this problem before - years ago! While downloading sound editors to work on my Leliana companion sound set I must have downloaded a bad codec! This codec reset utility in this link fixed all my problems http://nightmare2013.brashendeavors.net/

 

Thank you bben, your revert to vanilla method was the key to my success! As a token of my gratitude, I'll let you try out my Leliana companion sound set mod, send me a PM if you're interested.