Installing Oblivion

[NickG]

Today I uninstalled my Oblivion, when I went to reinstall t, nothing happened.

So I went into my computer to open it fomr there but when I go to open it I get an error saying:

 

"E:\ is not a valid Win32 Application."

 

So I went to remove the whole Bethesda folder and when I did now I can't open the launcher to install the game.

It just says that theres an error and if I want to send an error report or not.

 

So basically I can't install the game.

I went into Microsoft to find out what it might be but it tells me I might have a broken drive, but that's not possible seeing as how I can run all of my other games.

& My Battlefield 2 is also a DVD Rom game, that also runs.

 

 

Any ideas?

[Guest Tessera]

Yep... this happens to people quite often and it can be a pain to fix.

 

 

Assuming that you don't simply have a dirty or damaged installation disk...

 

First, the safer, easier method...

 

Open up Windows Explorer and find the following folder:

 

C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion

 

This is where the working copy of the Oblivion.ini file is located, as well as a sub-folder containing your old game save files. Rename the Oblivion folder to "Oblivion.old" so that the install program can't find it. Renaming it (rather than simply deleting it) will allow you to keep the old files inside (just in case you ever want them in the future, for whatever reason).

 

The above "fix" seems to work for some people and no other action is necessary.

Cross your fingers and try re-installing Oblivion.

 

However...

 

For others, something more drastic may be required, before Oblivion will properly re-install itself.

 

 

The scary, Pain-In-The-Neck method:

 

First let me state that if you aren't familiar with how to edit your Windows system registry, you're gonna have a bit of trouble with this.

 

Oblivion has a nasty habit of leaving about 20 orphaned registry entries behind... even after you run its uninstall program. When you then try to re-install the game, it sometimes thinks it's already installed and keeps asking you if you'd like to uninstall it (instead).

 

First thing to do:

 

Open up the system registry. To do this, go to Start > Run and type "regedit" (minus the quotes). Hit the enter key and this will launch the built-in Windows registry editor.

 

Using the Edit > Find function, search for all references to "Bethesda" and "Oblivion." In each case, the various strings that you find will have to be manually deleted. If you have never done this before, then I don't recommend proceeding any further... especially if you have some other Bethesda game installed (like Morrowind). If you can't figure out which entries are specific to Oblivion, you could wind up disabling ALL of your Bethesda games (assuming you have any others).

 

If the above warning is not a problem for you, then go ahead and manually clean out all references to Oblivion from your system registry. Between cleaning out the registry and renaming the folder mentioned at the beginning of this post, you have effectively obliterated all traces of Oblivion from your computer. It should re-install itself without any further problems.

 

 

I must stress once again that editing the Windows system registry is not a task for inexperienced users to undertake. If you screwed something up by accident, your entire Windows installation could possibly be damaged to the point of being unable to load.... rendering your entire computer inoperable. Please do not attempt this, unless you are quite sure that you are comfortable with what you are doing.

 

For what it's worth, I have no idea why Bethesda did such a sloppy job on their uninstall program. You are far from being the first person to encounter this particular problem.

[NickG]

Well..

I already deleted the folder from wherever I can find it, so I can't do the first one.

 

So time to try the second FIX OF DOOM thing.

Thanks.

I'll keep ya posted.

 

 

*EDIT*

So I found a couple of files in the registry with the name Oblivion & Bethesda.

Should I eliminate the whole folder?

Because there's 2 one called:

"TES.MASTER"

&

"TES.Plugin"

 

 

Should I delete both folders completly?

[Guest Tessera]

I understand that you deleted the main folder where the actual Oblivion game was located. What I was referring to is a SECOND folder that the game creates, under Documents and Settings on your boot drive.

 

Be sure that you removed that folder, also... before you start messing with the registry.

[Abramul]

What about C:\Documents and Settings\*USERNAME*\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion ?

( Contents are DLCList.txt and Plugins.txt )

[NickG]

I deleted the second suggestion you gave.

and I still get the same message.

 

Also: I doubt my CD is scratched because it was working fine before I did the uninstall.

 

 

 

Can't I just do a search on 'Oblivion' or 'Bethesda'

And anything that appears erase?

 

What about C:\Documents and Settings\*USERNAME*\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion ?

( Contents are DLCList.txt and Plugins.txt )

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but when I did it I had nothing Obivion.

[Guest Tessera]

The system registry is broken down into "Keys" and "Strings."

 

What you wanna search for is any and all keywords and strings that say either "Bethesda" or "Oblivion" in them, using the search function. In each case, you want to delete those entries... one at a time. Just highlight each one, cross your fingers and then hit your Delete key. This procedure will effectively erase every existing reference to Oblivion from your entire Windows installation.

 

It's a pain.... so as I've said, if you aren't sure of exactly what it is that you're looking at, then I wouldn't touch your Windows system registry. Also (and I need to say this), I accept no responsibility for anything that you might do incorrectly. The system registry is the High Holy of Holies, so far as Windows goes and if you accidentally delete the wrong string, key or keyword value, your entire Windows installation could (potentially) be ruined.

 

If you decide to go ahead and try all of that stuff... and you STILL can't re-install your game... then you either have (1) a hacked or illegally copied version of Oblivion or (2) a bad or dirty disk or (3) a hardware problem pertaining to your DVD-ROM drive or (4) a virus or (5) all of the above (unlikely).

 

Let us know how it works out for ya. Good luck. 8)

[NickG]

Yeah still not working.

I deleted everything Oblivion or Bethesda in the registry.

 

But let's cut it down to the problems I might be having.

1. I don't have a hacked or illegal copy of th game, I bought it.

 

2. The disk might be done for, although I dont see anythingt too bad with it, it was running before I uninstalled it, and I didn't take it out of my computer.

 

3. This is what I'm thinking the problem is except my Battlefield 2 is a DVD rom and it runs, so I'm not sure.

 

4. Possibly.

 

5. I hope not.

 

I hope nothings busted.

That would suck.

[Guest Tessera]

Do you have a second computer available, where you could test the Oblivion install disk..?

 

In other words, do you (or a friend of yours) have another computer that you could try installing Oblivion onto... using your disk..???

 

This would help us to narrow it down. If you can install it on a different computer without any troubles, then we'd know that it's not your disk at fault... and that there's some other problem on your machine.

[NickG]

do I have to actually install all of it or just see if the screen pops up?

Becuase the only other one i have is my moms trashy laptop, and I dont really want to flly install it on there.