Radeon HD 4850 black screen crash in shops/houses

[Neurosis]

SPOILERS AHEAD

 

Hi there

 

Hopefully someone can help me with my Oblivion problem. I first noticed it when I was in the Three Brothers shop. After being in there for a few seconds, the screen went completely black but the music continued playing. The keyboard would not respond and I had to switch off my PC manually. When turning my PC back on, the display settings had been changed and had to be readjusted. I didn't come across this problem anywhere else during my first few hours of playing while doing stuff around the Imperial City. It happened a couple more times in the Three Brothers so I put it down to a bug with that particualr location.

 

I next noticed it when I went to meet the vampire hunters and was told to follow downstairs. The character I was following was interrupted by another and they started having a chat and the game crashed in the same way. I put this down to maybe a script being interrupted.

 

However, when I started to branch out I found the same problem repeatedly. Once in an inn in Skingrad and, now I have joined the Fighter's Guild in Anvil, it keeps happening in shops and inns. Most recently it happened during the second contract with the Fighter's Guild when I was apprehending the 3 robbers in the shop on the harbour. This time the crash was slightly different in that the audio seemed to be looping very fast creating a buzzing sound.

 

I've been scouring online and have seen a lot about nvidia black screen crashes where some of the interface remains but this doesn't apply to me. I get the feeling that there's too much going on for my system to cope with when in a small space, however I haven't had any problems in caves, dungeons, forts, ships or other small spaces so I'm not sure.

 

My specs are as follows (apologies if any of these are irrelevant, I'm not very technically aware):

 

Windows XP

EX58-UD3R

Award Modular Bios v6.00PG

Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz (8 CPUs)

3326MB Ram

463 MB used, 4746MB available

Direct X 9.0

ATI Radeon HD 4850

 

Also: I have the latest Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.2 installed.

 

Could anyone please help me with this?

 

Thanks!

Edited January 30, 2011 by Neurosis

[Hickory]

If it's only happening in shops and houses it will probably help to have your mod list, preferably taken from Wrye Bash. And please wrap your list in spoiler / code tags.

[Neurosis]

The only things I have in place are the Unoffical Patch and the fix-follower double face bug. I'm not very familiar with Wrye Bash, are you able to talk me through how to provide more information?

 

Thanks for your reply

[Hickory]

The only things I have in place are the Unoffical Patch and the fix-follower double face bug. I'm not very familiar with Wrye Bash, are you able to talk me through how to provide more information?

 

Thanks for your reply

 

If you only have those two mods, then firstly you can dispense with the follower double face fix, because that is included (as a spell) in the latest UOP. There is also no point in installing Wrye Bash or providing a mod list, so forget about that, too.

 

So next I have to ask if you have OBSE or any OBSE plugins installed? Also, have your tried deleting your oblivion.ini and run the game from OblivionLaucher.exe, so that your hardware gets re-detected and your ini file rebuilt?

 

You should also check that none of your internal components are clogged up with dust or overheating. Open up your case and use a can of compressed air to blow out all the dust bunnies, especially around gpu/cpu, fans and grills.

[Neurosis]

I forgot to add that I also have the Citadel Door Fix and Vampire Aging Fix mods as well. Apologies, my friend set these up for me.

 

Is it OK to just delete unnecessary mod files directly from the 'Data' parent file?

 

I don't have any OBSE plugins installed.

 

I can't find the .ini file and I'm not too sure how to go about doing as you suggest. Where can I find it?

 

I'll check for dust too.

[Hickory]

The citadel door fix and vampire aging fix are also part of the UOP.

 

You should uninstall mods in the reverse order of the installation instructions, so that no files like meshes and textures get left behind. But if it's just an esp, then it's safe to just delete it.

 

The oblivion.ini is located in \Documents\My Games\Oblivion\

[Neurosis]

OK I deleted the .ini file and the system said it couldn't recognise my hardware, but I could then choose my card from the drop down list. I chose a higher resolution than before and I entered a shop. As soon as I did so the screen went into white strips like a corduroy pattern, then went black and didn't respond to anything just as before. The music was still playing.

 

My system was whirring a lot, does this suggest overheating?

[Qwaxalot]

I think it likely that your video card is failing, and/or your Power Supply is inadequate.

 

You can check your power supply performance with: PC Wizard: http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

 

And, yes, this does suggest overheating.

[Hickory]

As Qwaxalot said. Also, did you clean out the inside of your case thoroughly? And have you made sure that the vents have plenty of room for air circulation, ie. not placed up against objects?

[Neurosis]

OK, thanks for all of your help so far.

 

I have cleaned out the inside of my PC. There wasn't a lot of dust but the fan blades needed a good brush.

 

I have also installed PC Wizard and the power specs say as follows:

 

Processor Voltage : 1.30 V

Memory Voltage : 1.65 V

+3.3V Voltage : 3.38 V

+5V Voltage : 4.97 V

+12V Voltage : 12.16 V

VBAT : 3.09 V

PCH : 30 °C

Processor Temperature : 33 °C

 

I've not gone back to Oblivion since cleaning my fans as I wanted to check the above first. Does this suggest an inadequate Power Supply?

 

Thanks