aracadag Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 With any saves made after February 5th, I get this odd flickering problem. Whenever I try to load a save file, the loading screen will display and the loading progress bar will fill up, but right when the loading screen should disappear and the game world displays, the screen instead freezes on the loading screen and I get an extreme flickering effect, like my monitor has a bad case of veritcal un-sync. In this state, I can hit Esc and I hear the menu pop up, but I don't see it; the screen is still frozen on the loading screen and flickering. I can also access the console, but again blindly, without it displaying. On one rare occasion I could hear my character running when I hit W. I've no clue how to fix this...the odd thing is it only occurs on saves after February 05th (around 10am to be exact, the last save I made before the problem starts occuring). I don't have V-sync on, and I haven't installed/uninstalled any mods recently. I haven't jerked about in the tinkerings of the Oblivion config file either recently, at least not directly prior to this problem (the last time I messed with it was Saturday, February 3rd). Help! I'm at a loss... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramul Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 What happens if you start a new character? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tessera Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Hmm. A few questions: (1) If you create a brand-new character, do you still get this flickering problem..? Or does it only happen to saved characters..? (2) Have you installed any texture mods in the past month, such as increased level-of-detail (LOD) mods or enhanced character models..? (3) Is any part of your computer (RAM, CPU, and/or video card) overclocked..? (4) Exactly which brand/model of video card are you using..? Also, which driver version..? (5) How long have you owned your video card..? The fact that you can trace this problem down to a specific date and time is suggesting the possibility of some sort of event... such as the intrusion of a virus, a corrupted file (or group of files), or even a failing hardware component (such as system RAM or VPU). Test it out first on a brand-new character and then let me know what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aracadag Posted February 8, 2007 Author Share Posted February 8, 2007 1. I created a new character and saved while still in the dungeon cell. I then loaded one of my save games that I made ages ago, which worked, then tried loading back to the new character, which ended in success. When I then tried to load the save that seems to not work, instead of flickering, I get a Windows message "Oblivion has encountered a problem and needs to close..." etc. 2. No, I have not installed anything like that in the past month. I installed a TimeMod maybe a month and a half ago. 3. No part of my PC is overclocked right now. 4. I am using an ATI Radeon X800 GTO 128MB. My driver version is Catalyst version 6.5, because anything later than this version causes unworkable gamma problems for Natural Selection, a Half-Life mod. 5. I have been using my X800 GTO since mid-April 2006. I hope this helps. From reviewing my answers, it seems like a save file problem, although I can't imagine why this would happen. See, when I first ran into this problem earlier this week I just loaded an earlier save and worked back to where I was; it pissed me off some but it was better than nothing. Then I try to continue and the same thing happened again. Also, another note: I've also tried disabling all my mods, excluding texture files and LOD replacements. Same problem still. I'll try getting rid of all my texture replacements that I've had for a few months and see what happens (this will take a while, I've got a bunch). Another another note: The save file, or files rather (a regular save and a quicksave taken 2 in-game minutes later) are saved inside of Chorrol's castle, where I'm trying to complete the quest where the Countess' painting has been stolen. I'm standing outside the Countess' private chamber and I am wearing a Ring of Detect Life. EDIT: I just tried removing all the custom textures and meshes. Same thing still happens, save for some graphical weirdness in the save files that are not affected by the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramul Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 What's the play time for the files that aren't working? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tessera Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 Sounds like corrupted saves, or else they were saved when you had a different version of Oblivion. This can sometimes happen with mods like Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, for example. It can also sometimes happen through misuse of the Oblivion Mod Manager and similar utilities that mess with things like the timestamps on file headers. If you can start new characters without any problems, but only your older saves are not working, then those save files must contain data that Oblivion no longer considers workable or valid. This could happen for any number of reasons -- but the "fix" pretty much comes down to the same thing: Delete them and start over -- yer saved games are fubar. I -truly- wish I had better advice, but based upon the info that you've provided here, I can't see anything else that would be causing this. :( Maybe someone else has a better idea, because it sucks to have to trash a character that you worked so hard upon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramul Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I would suggest seeing if you can use a game saved before the corruption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aracadag Posted February 8, 2007 Author Share Posted February 8, 2007 Thanks, sounds like there's one way to go, and that's loading an earlier non-messed up save. However, how do I stop this from happening again? Like I said, this has happened twice so far the past week, and I have a feeling it'll happen again. I do use Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and Oblivion Mod Manager. The time stamps on my saves are: Save 1 - Thesedes - Cloud Ruler Temple, Level 2, Playing Time 02.50.28.essSave 2 - Krade - The Great Forest, Level 2, Playing Time 01.16.53.essSave 3 - Januss'on - Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, Level 14, Playing Time 33.40.30.essSave 4 - Januss'on - Castle Chorrol Private Quarters, Level 14, Playing Time 35.40.47.esrSave 5 - Joojee - Imperial Prison, Level 1, Playing Time 00.03.19.ess Save 4 is the save that does not work. I just noticed, why is Save 4 an .esr file and not an .ess file? Maybe some tinkering in Bash would help? I haven't done anything to change these files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tessera Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I do use Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul and Oblivion Mod Manager. Ahh, well, now you know why I mentioned them. I've heard of this sort of thing happening before and it involved both of those mods. I'm not saying that they're definitely responsible for YOUR problem, however. They're just a couple of possible suspects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aracadag Posted February 8, 2007 Author Share Posted February 8, 2007 Thanks again for your input. What about the difference between .esr and .ess files? Is it critical? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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