Re-installed XP, game, now it's unplayable

[fredfredrickson2]

After playing a long, long time on my old install for windows, I backed up all my files and re-installed Windows. I put the game back on my hard drive, and put all the save files back in (after making sure all my drivers were updated). I then attempted to play, and now it seems that every time I try to quick travel to or load a save game from certain areas of the map, the game will crash.

 

It also seems to just crash randomly when I am walking around, or when I enter / exit towns. I am no stranger to Elder Scrolls games crashing; it used to crash every now and then anyway, but since I expected it, I learned to save a lot. Now, it seems to crash without fail every 1-2 minutes of playtime.

 

Has anyone else had this problem? Are save games "touchy" about being loaded onto a new configuration? Any info that could help me out would be greatly appreciated. :)

 

Also, is there any way I can checka log file or anything that may indicate to me why my game keeps crashing?

[Dark0ne]

Have you tried doing the obvious and starting a new game just to see whether it crashes or not. That way you can see whether it's something with the new XP install or something with your saves.

[fredfredrickson2]

As a matter of fact, I am just now starting a new game, and as soon as I can I will try quick travelling to the "troubled" areas and see if the game crashes.

 

EDIT:

Alright, just started a new game, and yes, it is still crashing whenever I try to quick travel, load, or travel from outside the city to the area of in the south west part of the island the main city is on. Unless this can get fixed, I don't think I'm going to be able to play this game, unfortunately. has anyone else ever had any problems like this? And again, is there any kind of log file I can read to see what the problem might be? Thanks!

[Abramul]

A few ideas...

 

Did you install the patch?

Were you using any plugins before reinstalling? If so, are they listed in the "plugins.???" file? (Not sure of the extension, think it's .TXT. It's somewhere in your \Documents and Settings\$UserName\ folder.)

Were you using a non-default oblivion.ini? IF so, did you restore it?

Did you back up your LevelUpData_1.txt? (This is in the Oblivion root directory. A new character *should* have fixed this, but I suppose the pre-existing one might have messed it up.)

 

Most of these probably wouldn't actually be problematic, but who knows?

[fredfredrickson2]

A few ideas...

 

Did you install the patch?

Were you using any plugins before reinstalling? If so, are they listed in the "plugins.???" file? (Not sure of the extension, think it's .TXT. It's somewhere in your \Documents and Settings\$UserName\ folder.)

Were you using a non-default oblivion.ini? IF so, did you restore it?

Did you back up your LevelUpData_1.txt? (This is in the Oblivion root directory. A new character *should* have fixed this, but I suppose the pre-existing one might have messed it up.)

 

Most of these probably wouldn't actually be problematic, but who knows?

 

Yes, the patch was installed before I even ran the game. I was using plug-ins before re-installing (only one actually, Better Water), but I have tried it with and without this plug-in and neither way works.

 

I was not using a non-default ini file, just the one that gets made when I start the game up. As for the LevelUpData_1.txt, I did not back this up... should I have?

[mogster]

Have you tried re-installing it??

I've had a couple of dodgy Oblivion installations in the past... Don't do anything whilst it installs.

 

Update your video drivers too

[batesmotel34]

After playing a long, long time on my old install for windows, I backed up all my files and re-installed Windows. I put the game back on my hard drive, and put all the save files back in (after making sure all my drivers were updated). I then attempted to play, and now it seems that every time I try to quick travel to or load a save game from certain areas of the map, the game will crash.

 

It also seems to just crash randomly when I am walking around, or when I enter / exit towns. I am no stranger to Elder Scrolls games crashing; it used to crash every now and then anyway, but since I expected it, I learned to save a lot. Now, it seems to crash without fail every 1-2 minutes of playtime.

 

Has anyone else had this problem? Are save games "touchy" about being loaded onto a new configuration? Any info that could help me out would be greatly appreciated. :)

 

Also, is there any way I can checka log file or anything that may indicate to me why my game keeps crashing?

Do you know if you have installed the same patch level of Windows XP? If your original version of Windows XP was patched from its original version, your re-installation would be back at the original version unless you have re-installed the Windows patches as well, e.g. SP1 and SP2. Especially if you have an AGP video adapter, there can be problems with drivers and patches installed in the wrong order. I ran into that problem with my system with a VIA motherboard.

 

Have you seen any unexpected crashes in other games or in normal Windows applications in addition to the ones in Oblivion?

 

You could check the Windows System Event Log to see if there are any issues logged there.

[lurchman]

ALWAYS back up files that you replace.

[Guest Tessera]

When someone re-installs a fresh copy of the operating system, it's important to note something that is often overlooked:

 

The system can be senstitive to which order you used when you re-installed everything else. Things are far more stable if you re-install everything in a specific order. The reason is because service packs, Windows updates and other such crap can overwrite data and change registry entries that some driver or application was using and the different versions of the files can mess up the whole deal... or make it unstable.

 

If you're quite sure that this doesn't apply to you, then you can stop reading here. Otherwise...

 

Basically, I do this:

 

(1) Install Windows. Reboot.

(2) Install motherboard chipset drivers. Reboot.

(3) Install any Windows service packs. Reboot.

(4) Install DirectX. Reboot, even if it doesn't tell you to.

(5) Install video drivers. Yep, reboot again.

(6) Install any modem or LAN drivers. Shouldn't need to reboot, usually.

 

Then...

 

(7) Install any and all Windows Updates manually, by repeatedly logging into the Windows Update site until they simply run out of new things to offer. You'll have to reboot quite a few times. Keep in mind that just because there was nothing left to download on your last visit, that doesn't mean that there won't be something new after you've rebooted. Keep repeating this procedure until you absolutely run out of updates from MicroSoft.

 

(8 Install audio drivers. The reason I wait until this stage is because frankly, a lot of audio drivers are not very well-behaved and they seem to settle down a little better if you wait until all of that other crap was installed and updated first... BEFORE installing the audio.

 

(9) Install any printer drivers and other junk that you have left.

 

 

I know all of that looks kinda anal, but the fact is that following a sequence like the one above seems to prevent any badly behaved drivers from screwing up your entire installation.

 

After you've survived this torturous experience, you can then re-install all of your software, including Oblivion and your other games. It *should* be okay. Be sure to defrag your hard disks afterwards... they're gonna be a fragmented mess after all of this stuff.

 

Just a few pointers from your's truly. Later. :D