Am I alone about Steam?

[madgamer]

Not log ago for some unknown reason I subscribed to steam and bought what i thought was the real Oblivion and could be MODed and made into the game I had before I changed to win 7 Pro. I also bought the id pack and a few other games most of which ran as advertised. All except for Oblivion which right after it was installed and a character created it would just freeze up and got the windows error message about closing the program and looking for solutions.

What was odd was that a young tech who played both steam and Oblivion was able to install MODs from my backup drive and we got the game to run till I decided to try the steam version. I enabled only the files and esm's they sent and it locked up every time and caused a strange sound like a car motor running at a fast idle to emit from the speakers. We had to use task manager to close the game.

I did all the things that the steam team*what a joke!) told me to do and even paid my tech $who is a good friend half of what he usually charges to reinstall the steam but they insisted I change my temp password which I did. None of the got the game to run in there stock install and they warn you if you change or MOD any game your left holding the bag and get no help at all, Not even the same old emails. You can't talk to a real person or get any real help.

Along with Oblivion the 2 mission packs for both Quake and Quake 2 Would not run saying they could not find steam. My tech got the Quake 2 ones to run but no Oblivion or the mission packs for Quake .

In desperation I installed the steam site on a backup computer running xp Pro and SLI and a raid 0 ARRAY. To my surprise everthing ran fine.

In fact we copied the Data file with all the MOD's from my previous game that I bought retail into the steam version and it ran like a charm..

I guess what I want to know is :

 

1. Has anyone else had problems with the steam version of Oblivion and windows 7 Pro?

2. Were you able to get it to work on your own?

 

I have tried to use the Quake series forums on steam to get help for the mission packs but they have a bunch of very smart asses who brag about how they MODed there steam games to work, and i should try this or that MOD. I am careful about MOD's as I had to redo my whole hard drive because one messed up a game that in turn caused some other problems.

 

They tell me that problems running the game should be taken up with the company who sold the game but this does not seem right as it is there version of the game and if it does not work after it is installed right I think they should be held responsible I would cost me more to have my credit card company attempt recovery of the money spent but it just makes me upset when it would appear that win 7 is causing some games not to run on there site and they don't efen let you use compatibility mode.

 

ASo the short of it is have others had experiences like this with Oblivion and steam? I wish I could leave the steam site on the xp pro system but i can't as iot has to be used for other things and it does not have a lot of memory. So I war you to beware of this company. I guess with only three non working games out of the 14 i have is not to bad.

 

any comments or help would be well received, thanks for reading this if you got this far.

 

Madgamer

[lostone1993]

i understand what you mean though not the same game

[Smooth613]

Steam works just fine on multiple versions of Windows and even other OS's for that matter. Since you mention it works fine on XP and not Win 7 I'm inclined to believe UAC is causing your problems. Most likely your issues are created by Win 7's UAC and you need to alter or disable it. Or you can just avoid it mostly since I don't suggest disabling it. You can also try running applications as Admin. Anyway I'm willing to bet you have Steam, and your games, installed inside Program Files, which is bad practice on Win 7 and will cause all kinds of unnecessary headaches. I suggest you reinstall Steam and all games to C:/Games/... for example. This will get you around the UAC problems associated with program files. By the way Steam is an application, not a site as you kept referring to it. They do have a website but that is not what you have installed on you PC that runs the games. Just wanted to clear that up.

 

Games and even modded games work just fine with Steam. I use Steam all the time and love it and will suggest it to many people. Warning people to beware of Steam under a false pretense is obsurd. I have the Steam version of Oblivion, GOTY, and have it fully modded with no problems. It's the exact same as the hard copy. I've had multiple different mod configurations and never once had a problem due to Steam. So your problems are not issues with Steam but more than likely other reasons, such as the Win 7 issues mentioned in the first paragraph. Or you just have conflicting mods or improperly installed mods. The only thing special you have to do for modded Oblivion with Steam is get the Steam version of OBSE. Other than that everything works just fine.

 

It's also possible you have a hardware conflict. In order to know for sure we would need more information on your system. A DXDIAG would do the trick.

 

Hopefully that will clear a few things up and help you get to the root cause of your problems. Good luck. :thumbsup:

[madgamer]

I am aware of the UAC thing and the game is residing in c:\steam. Would putting in in cay C:\Oblivion be a better deal? I am a beginner so how do I send a DXDIAG

file.

I will tell you a little about the system while waiting for some kind soul to tell me how to get the file and upload it. I thought it was odd that it would not wo5rk right after a fresh install. It did mention that it did not recognize my video cards. does that mean I should put oldblivion in the game folder? also the mission packs for Quake and Quake 2 would not run either. Your post was very informative and perhaps with a little more help I can get it done. For reasons I will not mention I can't really use the XP Pro system as a main game system so I have to learn how to use the Win 7 Pro I have on the above mentioned system.

 

Mobo: Asus M3N72-D

CPU: old style phenom2 quad core top of the line

2 X 9800GTX+ video cards in SLI

RAM: 8GB

LG 23" HDMI monitor

Logitech 5.1 speaker system

Asus Xnoar U! external sound card

 

If you will send me how to get the file you mention and up load i or attach it I will do so. Any help would be nice as I am a total non computer person who is old but trying to learn.

 

Madgamer

[Smooth613]

The DXDIAG you attached indicates you are on your XP system with a Geforce 7950 but you mentioned you're trying to get it to work on the Win 7 PC. Run the DXDIAG on your win 7 PC so we can have a look at that system. But if the stats you listed in your post are correct you would exceed the system requirements to run Oblivion, easily. Also the Win XP PC that the DXDIAG is for is capable of running Oblivion, hardware wise. Anyway post a DXDIAG from the Win 7 PC just to be sure.

[madgamer]

I am aware of the UAC thing and the game is residing in c:\steam. Would putting in in cay C:\Oblivion be a better deal? I am a beginner so how do I send a DXDIAG

file.

I will tell you a little about the system while waiting for some kind soul to tell me how to get the file and upload it. I thought it was odd that it would not wo5rk right after a fresh install. It did mention that it did not recognize my video cards. does that mean I should put oldblivion in the game folder? also the mission packs for Quake and Quake 2 would not run either. Your post was very informative and perhaps with a little more help I can get it done. For reasons I will not mention I can't really use the XP Pro system as a main game system so I have to learn how to use the Win 7 Pro I have on the above mentioned system.

 

Mobo: Asus M3N72-D

CPU: old style phenom2 quad core top of the line

2 X 9800GTX+ video cards in SLI

RAM: 8GB

LG 23" HDMI monitor

Logitech 5.1 speaker system

Asus Xnoar U! external sound card

 

If you will send me how to get the file you mention and up load i or attach it I will do so. Any help would be nice as I am a total non computer person who is old but trying to learn.

 

Madgamer

 

thanks I realized that. One thing you could answer is I currently have steam in a C:\steam as mentioned and you are suggesting that a directory like C:\games\oblivion would work better but just creating the directory and copping the game from its present location. Is this a bad idea? Would this require a total reinstall of the steam page? Will send the file for my win 7 Pro later today and I thank you for your continued help as you are much more helpful than the players that hang out in the steam forums.

 

Madgamer

[erszebet]

Whoa whoa whoa. Don't move the game out of the Steamapps folder, or it definitely won't behave properly in Steam. What Smooth613 is telling you to do is uninstall Steam and reinstall it in a different directory.

 

If you want to move a program - any program, your best bet is to uninstall it and then reinstall it in a new directory. Just moving the files will cause all sorts of headaches.

[madgamer]

Whoa whoa whoa. Don't move the game out of the Steamapps folder, or it definitely won't behave properly in Steam. What Smooth613 is telling you to do is uninstall Steam and reinstall it in a different directory.

 

If you want to move a program - any program, your best bet is to uninstall it and then reinstall it in a new directory. Just moving the files will cause all sorts of headaches.

 

I understand this steam is currently installed in win 7 Pro as C:\steam. as my original post stated the install on my xp Pro system went off alright except to get some games like Quake 2 to install I had to run the intro all the way through, but getting back to Oblivion. in win 7 I have reinstalled the page twice and when I down load steam Oblivion fresh, create a character it will freeze up with the usual windows message about windows encountering an error and having to close the program.

one odd thing is even though I have 2 9800GTX+ video cards(see my original post) it says it does not recognize my video cards.. One crazy thought was if it runs fine fully out video wise on a pair of 7950's with xp Pro and 2 GB ram why will it not recognize the 9800's?

I had a young tech who is no longer available reinstall it with all the MOD's from my old xp Pro game and he put in oldblivion and it ran to conclusion but when I went into the data file and started a game with just the files they include (With and without oldblivion) it locks up and you do not even have to move just wait a few seconds and zap. I will send an email to all who wish to read it with my dxdiag file onboard and maybe we can figure out how to get it going. The people on the forums on steam are not very nice and seem a bit like a private club and questions from average computer people like me get smart assed answers that I do not understand or to use this MOD or that MOD but I am a bit more careful about such things.

So if interested I will post the dxdiag file shortly after reading the rest of the posters here and we might come up with something

I hope so as I would like to MOD it like before but do not have the skill.

 

Madgamer

[madgamer]

I thank you all and I hope we can find a way to get oblivion to run BTW where do you put the oldoblivion file as it wants to extract to the oblivion folder rather than the where the MOD's and data are. Oblivion is the only game on my win 7 steam page not currently installed. The tech that did it before is available I found out but I cant afford to pay him even the minimum he has to charge as the manager of the shop is a good friend. I have Oblivion installed on my XP system the normal way not steam but the system is not really mine but my friend has let me have it and for those who looked at the dxdiag file can see it is a decent system but when xp service pack 3 is no longer supported by MS I want to have most everything running on win 7.

Someone mentioned the possibility of disabling the UAL or whatever it is called, is this possible let alone a good idea? I can not figure out why Oblivion will not recognize my 9800GTX+ video cards and so I am hoping someone comes up with a way

or it will stay the only uninstalled game on my steam game.

The dxdiag file will show you there is nothing strange about the system except perhaps that oblivion does not like quad core CPU's but when the game is enabled it will not let me into the manager program that can change it to 2 CPU's for some reason.

there must be a way to run&MOD this thing as there are lots of folks that are indeed running it on steam even as we speak....but why not me? (SIGH)

 

at this point I would make a deal with the devil....well maybe not that far but someone has to have an answer At any rate here is the dxdiag file

[bben46]

Oldblivion is for use with OLD computers that do not have the minimum resources for the regular game. Yours is well above those minimums - get rid of Oldblivion as it is not needed and may cause problems.

 

It's not going to recognize your video cards because they are too new - they came out after Oblivion was released. All that message about not recognizing the video card means is you have to set the parameters manually. Lots of people run 9800s and a few even dual 9800s.

 

The location you have steam in is fine - as long as it is NOT in the program files folders UAC will not bother it.

 

Quite a few people run Oblivion in Win7 with quad core CPUs. Most have little or no problems with it. I cant help much there as I have a dual core,