Raffer Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I do not think the crash is caused by the oblivion configuration. This would cause glitches or crash the game, but not the entire PC. I know of drivers and hardware errors capable of doing this, and if it is a driver thing, it should happen on a regular basis when the driver is called, which would be at game start or when 3D graphics are initiated. If you can play longer with everything set to minimum, have you ever tried to max. everything out and add even more? Like setting uGridDistantTreeRange=35 and uGridDistantCount=35 in the oblivion.ini? Will it crash faster? The idea behind this is: With the above settings, QTP3 redimized (with reduced resolution) and RAEVWD mod (I did this for outdoor screenshots) I see major slowdowns even at lower settings when new landscape cells are being loaded. Oblivion then has to move a lot of data between RAM, CPU and graphics card. This also causes high load on the Northbridge since it controls memory transfers. If it crashes more often, your crashes are probably related to one of these components. Your RAM seems fine, you tested it. Same with the graphics card, because it also happens with the replacement card it should be something different. You can test your CPU with one of the programs used to test overclocking stability. Just refer to one of the guides on the net and run it at stock speed. Leaves the mainboard, where I have no idea how to do a proper test. Of course this is all speculation combined with some knowledge of PC architecture, there is no guarantee that it is the source of your system crashes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmkennedy Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Those lists weren't bad ... I was expecting a DXDiag sized list. I agree with your assessment that temperatures aren't the issue, and I also think that sound has been eliminated as well. Don't worry, your not alone in the 'grasping at straws' stage. I'm going to suggest that we force shader model 3.0 (your card should support it no problem).Decided to use a stopwatch to see how long it'd take to crash. Just under 7 minutes after forcing 3.0 shaders (which incidentally turned my entire sky black, no doubt thanks to a mod, but otherwise didn't affect anything), so unfortunately this didn't work.The other thing you could check is the line:bFullBrightLighting=0also in the Graphics section of Oblivion.ini. If it is set to 1 it could be causing grief (it's meant for machines that are marginal for playing the game ... that's not your machine).Already set to zero. I do not think the crash is caused by the oblivion configuration. This would cause glitches or crash the game, but not the entire PC. I know of drivers and hardware errors capable of doing this, and if it is a driver thing, it should happen on a regular basis when the driver is called, which would be at game start or when 3D graphics are initiated. If you can play longer with everything set to minimum, have you ever tried to max. everything out and add even more? Like setting uGridDistantTreeRange=35 and uGridDistantCount=35 in the oblivion.ini? Will it crash faster? The idea behind this is: With the above settings, QTP3 redimized (with reduced resolution) and RAEVWD mod (I did this for outdoor screenshots) I see major slowdowns even at lower settings when new landscape cells are being loaded. Oblivion then has to move a lot of data between RAM, CPU and graphics card. This also causes high load on the Northbridge since it controls memory transfers. If it crashes more often, your crashes are probably related to one of these components. Your RAM seems fine, you tested it. Same with the graphics card, because it also happens with the replacement card it should be something different. You can test your CPU with one of the programs used to test overclocking stability. Just refer to one of the guides on the net and run it at stock speed. Leaves the mainboard, where I have no idea how to do a proper test. Of course this is all speculation combined with some knowledge of PC architecture, there is no guarantee that it is the source of your system crashes.Set all graphics options to the max, including the 35 setting for the Grid lines. This time it took just under 4 minutes to crash. I guess I'll look for a reliable CPU stress program and see what happens there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmkennedy Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Boy, that was nerve-wracking. Downloaded Core Damage and ran it for three minutes, monitoring temps with SpeedFan. Core 0 hit 66C and Core 1 hit 64C almost immediately and maintained that temp for the entire three minutes. No oddities, no strange goings-on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 When my SLI rig died and I downgraded to the 9800 GT I had that black sky thing happen. For me it turned out that the game had not detected the video card correctly and applied the wrong shader (can't remember for sure ... may have been shaderpackage015.sdp). When I forced the correct shader (13 in my case) the sky went back to normal. Is there anyone reading who has a GTX 260 and can report what shader package they are using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmkennedy Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) When my SLI rig died and I downgraded to the 9800 GT I had that black sky thing happen. For me it turned out that the game had not detected the video card correctly and applied the wrong shader (can't remember for sure ... may have been shaderpackage015.sdp). When I forced the correct shader (13 in my case) the sky went back to normal. Is there anyone reading who has a GTX 260 and can report what shader package they are using?That was only when I forced package 19 (the 3.0 shaders) by renaming it. The shader package is typically 4. It happened before, with the 8800GT as well when I tried to force package 19. Going back to package 4 fixes it. Edited February 8, 2012 by cmkennedy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmkennedy Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Well, I finally performed the troubleshooting task I was dreading: Putting my wife's 9600 GSO in and firing up Oblivion. Played for about 45 minutes with no crashing and a surprisingly good framerate on the same settings that brought about the crashing on the 8800GT and the GTX 260. Looks like I'm gonna have to spend the cash on yet another GPU. This is exactly what I had hoped was not the problem, but I guess you live and learn. Thanks to everyone for all the help. Mucho kudos for bearing with me through this cluster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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