Oblivion; Failiure to launch past a black screen.

[Beavusbeavus]

As the description says, I have tried continuously for about 2 days to fix the error after my GOTY edition was found. I can say the disc is perfectly fine, no scratches and that it is not linked to the disc, as I wouldn't let that happen, and I have checked.

 

After I installed, I had so many ideas to create immersion in my head, and soon downloaded the likes of OBSE, OBMM, NifSE, etc. I also got a couple of mods I liked to have. I tested Oblivion, it didn't work. A directX error.

 

I re-installed directX, and upgraded to 10, still not working.

I then installed directX 9.0c as-well as 10 being there, and it worked, that error had gone. It was d3dsx_43 or something. A missing dll.

Anyway, thats over now.

 

I was like "Woop, great." So I tried to launch oblivion again. Nothing happened. I was calm at the time, tried to find some solutions, failed at most ideas. (This is when I did the mod check.) After the check, no luck, so I was just letting out some sighs. I saw the error report, every time. The error now, was Oblivion starting up to where the "Bethesda" loading screen is up, but just before, when it is pitch black. It fades to a screen black, minimizes and says the Microsoft win report. I click "Don't send."

Although I saw a lot of those, and decided to check some info, but no luck in anything I could understand.

 

I get to the point, realising that this is my old computer, thinking its to do with my hardware, (will show in a bit) as this card is ancient. When I checked up on it, "CYRI" and the Oblivion Wiki, it said my card was fine, and all my other items were recommended or higher.

 

I will show my details now:

 

 

CPU: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.00GHz

CPU speed: 3.0 GHz

RAM: 1 gB.

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3.

VC: GeForce 6200 TurboCache

DirectX version: 10

 

I really want to get back into Oblivion now, so reply as soon as possible, I'm willing to try anything that sounds like it will work, thanks.

[eric31415]

From the info you give, i think you are experiencing a couple of problems;

 

Problem A; You need to run the vanilla game and create a new save before adding ANYTHING. This is when Oblivion generates an ini file and render info. Some mods/utilities edit the ini. If you haven't generated one yet the game can refuse to run.

 

Problem B; You said the game refused to run on DirectX 10.0. Speaking from personal experience, the vanilla game runs just fine on DX10. The only thing i can think of that would require DX9.0 is OBGE or it's components, such as OBGE Liquid Water. There could be a couple issues here, Either a botched OBGE install or you may not have the RAM or video card to handle it. With only 1gb RAM and an old VC, i would strongly advise against any graphical enhancements, even if you get it to run the performance will be abyssmal. If all you want to do is take screenshots you may not care, but if you want to engage in combat it will be very frustrating.

 

Keep in mind that background processes will also use a fair bit of RAM, so your actual available RAM will be well under 1gb. When you exceed the limits, the game will use your hard drive to load resources. This will cause serious lag and frequent crashing. You can help a lot with this by inserting a good sized flash drive and dedicating it to ReadyBoost. This will be used as a memory cache that is nearly as fast as actual RAM that your machine will automatically use instead of the hard drive. If you want to run even a lightly modded game you will probably find this necessary.

 

It's also possible that you just have mod conflicts or load order issues; post your load order.

 

It sounds like you had Oblivion running at some point, if so, was it on this machine?

 

Here are my specs; judging from my performance i'd call this the minimum for a modded Oblivion.

CPU - Intel Core i3 duo 2.4Ghz dual-core

RAM - 4gb, Oblivion exe patched to use all 4gb

VC - Intel HD Graphics 1.7gb, integrated into CPU

Edited July 31, 2011 by eric31415

[Beavusbeavus]

Alright, thanks a lot for replying.

Anyway, know that it isn't really a priority to run Oblivion on this PC, as it isn't really "great" in the technical aspect, and was bought in 2003... Great thanks.

 

A: I'll go ahead and try that now, thanks for the suggestion.

Result: Vanilla Oblivion didn't launch up. (it was the same as before)

 

B: When it didn't run, I was trying to fix the dll error, but the error wasn't fixed, only when 9.0c was installed, then it removed the dll error, but the non launching still occurred. Might I say, I forgot to earlier, even when I had the dll error, I could launch up the game? Only when 10 was installed, it stopped working, 9 carrying the trend on. "you may not have the RAM or video card to handle it." I think that may be the cause, as I do not have OBGE, and my specs are quite low on this PC.

 

Load order is pretty messed up, never had to deal with it before:

 

D = Deactivated

A = Activated

If on its own, it was meant to be activated at the time.

I.e.

"OblivionCowNPCincrease - D" means that the mod was meant

 

to be activated, but isn't due to the error and me trying

 

to fix it.

 

 

HorseCombatMaster - D

Oblivion - A

BDBS Chapel Memorial - D

DLCFrostCrag - A

AltStartwMQCutOff - D

All normal clothese buyable - D

KireBlackLeather - D

Knights - A

DRSplatter - D

cidnothump - D

cidnothumpMMversion - D

DLCShiveringIsles - A

Enhanced Water v2.0 ND- D

DavesBluntWeaponStaffs - D

CurseOfHircine - D

DropLitTorchOBSE - D

SP1stPLegs - D

JumpModifier - D

Deadly Reflex Timed Block - D ( and always will be )

Deadly Reflex Timed Block 2 - D ( and always will be )

Deadly Reflex Timed Block 3 - D ( and always will be )

Roughintg it - D

Werewolf Legends - D

TFE magic costs - D

TFE - D

DiveRockHouse - D

betterArena - D

Populated Prisons - D

BDBS - See you when you sleep - D

Mounted Spellcasting deadly reflex - D

DeadlyReflex 6 - Combat moves - D

Aspen Lodge - D

Spartan legacy - D

Better Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary - D

Jail Break Escape Routes - D

300ft Crime detection - D

 

Hope that is useful :).

 

 

This computer has never run oblivion, no. But I am on holiday, so all is not lost if it doesn't work, can't wait to return.

 

Thanks for the minimum recommendations :).

 

Anyway, great thanks for helping me out here.

I would really like to get to Oblivion on this PC however, as Skyrim is coming out pretty soon, its been pre-ordered by me, and I hate waiting.

Again, sorry for the "over thanking" but thanks.

[MarkInMKUK]

I'd go with BBen46's reinstall guide, and get the out-of-the-box Oblivion functioning before trying to mod it again. Being on XP, you can't use the Readyboost suggestion as that's Windows 7 onwards - unless someone has a utility to create a readyboost for XP? More RAM will certainly speed stuff up though.

[SavageArtistry]

Just for kicks and giggles, I'd suggest going down that mod list in the launcher and look to see if any of those mods depend on any .esm files other than Oblivion.esm. Insta-crash upon launch is also a symptom of missing master files and the fix is to either remove the offending mod or install the needed master file.

[MarkInMKUK]

I'm also willing to bet the load order wasn't sorted using BOSS, which will (for the files it has liosted) sort Masters and dependents into the correct order so they work.

[eric31415]

If the problem is related to your load order, the most likely culprit would be Horse Combat Master esm. Even if you don't use horse combat, this needs to be active. Make sure to move it so it loads after the Oblivion esm (never place anything before the Oblivion esm).

 

Before you do a full re-install, open C:/Documents/MyGames/Oblivion and see if you have an ini file. If you do, rename it (doesn't matter what name you use) and run the game from the vanilla launcher (not the OBSE loader). This will force the game to re-detect your hardware and generate a fresh ini file. This will only take a few minutes and MAY fix the problem, so it's always worth trying.

 

If you do end up doing a re-install, make sure you never have to do this again by following these steps;

1. After following bben's guide (link in above post), stop before installing any utilities (OBMM, OBSE, etc.). Make sure the game works at this point.

2. Install mTES4 Manager and use it to create a new clone of the game. Name the original something like "vanilla backup". Name the new one anything you like, this will be the clone you actually play.

3. Use mTES4 Manager to switch the active clone to the one you just created. Run this clone thru the Oblivion launcher, start a new game and make a save (you will have to do this for each new clone you create, mTES4 Manager does not copy the ini or render info files).

4. Now install any utilities you intend to use to the new clone only. Never install anything to the vanilla backup. Run the game again (this time from the OBSE launcher) and make a new save. At this point you are ready to start adding mods, run BOSS after each, always running the game between installing each mod, so if you have issues you will know that it was the last mod you installed.

5. Once you are happy with your mod list, create another new clone (always from the vanilla backup... i have had issues cloning modded setups), and repeat steps 3 and 4. Add all the mods you installed to the previous clone (you want two identical setups). This clone will be used for testing new mods before installing them to your main game. That way, if you break something, or just don't like the mod, it will never affect the clone you actually play. If you do break a clone, use mTES4 Manager to delete it and create a new one from the backup instead of re-installing everything.

 

To give you some idea of the possibilities, here are the clones i currently run;

Vanilla backup

Primary - my playable game, prioritizes performance over prettiness

Test - identical to primary, i install and test mods here before installing to primary

Construction set - i find it very useful to have a clone just for modding

Screenshooter - all the graphical improvements i want, throw performance out the window

 

Be careful to not get carried away with creating unique clones, the file that contains all my clones is now over 60gb.

Edited July 31, 2011 by eric31415

[Beavusbeavus]

Thanks to everyone who commented, especially anyone who said anything about the load order.

 

Eric, thank you so damn much, it was the horse combat master, oh my god, I cannot express my happiness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

 

I guess I'll try to get a flash drive, but still, thank you a damn lot.

Its working now.

You are my saviour.

[eric31415]

Thanks to everyone who commented, especially anyone who said anything about the load order.

 

Eric, thank you so damn much, it was the horse combat master, oh my god, I cannot express my happiness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

 

I guess I'll try to get a flash drive, but still, thank you a damn lot.

Its working now.

You are my saviour.

 

I'm just glad it was an easy fix. :dance:

[Beavusbeavus]

Yeah, been playing for a while now, getting my char up, FPS is about 13-15 which is considerate considering the mods I'm using. Curse of Hircine and Legends of the North were my main. Skyrim here we come.

 

Thank god it was an easy fix. ^^^