Game Stuck

[Eolath]

Okay guys, I've got a huge problem with my new PC.

First of all, let me start by noting my system and DXDiag.

 

the shop I bought this PC at checked everything yesterday, they ran all kind of hardware tests for about one day, even leaving oblivion on for 8 hours. Having no issues, I come back home. plug everything in, 10 minutes later.. voila, first Graphic bug already there. today I'm suffering from sudden stuck bugs a lot more then the ordinary graphic bugs.

 

Secondly, I'm having two kind of issues with oblivion/games, The first one is a graphical glitch.

Bugs out my graphics and sound stutters too (It is possibly one issue all together)

Screenshot: Very weird I know, I've got the latest drivers. Though I had some NV4_DISP.DLL errors (My main driver) before, I tried downloading different versions - all in vain.

 

The other error is a lot more serious, though the graphical error is bad enough. this one just runs my game's stuck (Hellgate:London, CoH:Opposing fronts have this too, though they do NOT have the graphical glitch), I even tested my FPS rate with 3DMark06, all the graphical tests did pretty well (37-47 FPS) untill I came at my CPU test, I was running around 0.5 FPS there - I don't know if this is usual, and if it isn't - what could cause this?

 

I'm with my hands in my hair at the moment, I can't figure out what the real problem is - I trust the shop enough to stop considering it's not the hardware - Though I think the chances software does this are pretty slim, I tried a lot to resolve this issue. I might try a different PC screen, or mabye different cables. I hope any of you knows what's happening, I've already been to the 8800 GT/G92 chip thread, most of those issues were with Oblivion running on AA+HDR. I've tried HDR only, Bloom+AA and only Bloom. nothing worked and solved my errors/graphical issues.

 

I really hope any of you have any solution to this.. pretty annoying problem.

Thanks,

 

Eolath

[dyfed99]

Did you overclocked any hardware..?

[nosisab]

The image you posted is really weird, but your post makes clear it is not a graphical issue only, so I'm inclined to think is the PSU the culprit. yet your vendor kept the game running for hours, I don't think he tested it under dynamic conditions, actually playing the game.

 

the 8800 series is highly power hungry and demanding, Most PSU without at least real 500W of good and stable characteristics, mainly in the 12V lines will fail badly under the most pressuring situations and Oblivion is one of these situations.

 

Depending on the whole hardware you have, even 500W 'real' may be not enough.

[Carah]

I found out on a tech site for Oblivion. That what could help stop stuttering on video is to turn off all the auto-saves in options. I've done this, and it helped me a little bit.

[bben46]

It looks like something may have overwritten some of your meshes. That's what usually caused things to turn purple, I don't think I have seen so many different things purple though. First try disabling the latest mods you have installed. If you end up disabling all mods and its still there you may have to reinstall.

 

For a full reinstall, first you should try to preserve your mods and save games. the easiest way is to rename the data folder where your mods are stored to something else such as olddata. Then rename the folder in the documents and settings ...\My Games\oblivion to somthing like \My games\Old Oblivion - this saves your saved games.

 

Then, using the original CD, NOT the Launcher on your Hard drive. select uninstall.

 

After it completes the uninstall, reboot your computer - this is important as it allows windows to remove some references to the Oblivion.

 

Now, again using the original CD, reinstall Oblivion.

 

Before adding any mods, patches or even SI, start the game and make a save. This initializes some stuff that needs to be initialized.

 

Now, If you DO NOT use SI, patch the game using ONLY the latest patch. Be sure you use the proper language patch - NOTE: there are two English Patches UK & US and they are different. Use the one that matches your original disk.

 

If you use SI, DO NOT install the Oblivion patch. Install SI, then ONLY the latest SI patch. all of the updates for Oblivion are included.

 

Now, again start the game and make a save. Test to be sure everything is working right (No purple objects)

 

Now, before adding any mods, back up both your \data folder and the save game folder. Copy them to a different folder - such as Bethesda\Clean Oblivion\data and Bethesda\clean Oblivion\saves.

 

Now rename the data folder to newdata and the oldata back to data. this restores all of your mods. then rename the new My Games\Oblivion to something like new Oblivion. and the old oblivion to oblivion - this restores all of your saved games and your original Oblivion.ini file.

 

If the purple returns, it is probably caused by a mod. and you have a clean install to fall back on.

 

Sounds like lots of work, but it's easier than trying one little mod at a time just to find out what you have is a corrupted bsa file.

[nosisab]

to me is clear it's not a specific game problem, as reported to have some trouble at least with two others, Hellgate and CoH. So seems to be a hardware problem, and the most common I have seem around in new machines is the PSU (Power Supply Unity) being insufficient to newer hardware demands. Mainly the ones that accompany the case.

 

for a time all will look alright, so the system goes abruptly at high demand and the power rails will go down and corruptions will be prone to manifest (exactly the scenery games dynamicly presents to the machine). This situation can be just 'boring' as the reported symptoms but can be worse leading to data loss, damage of the PSU itself or even the peripherals.

 

edit: Continuous and fixed load not aways show the problem, it will show up more easily with the demand variating quick and wildly.

[bben46]

Yes, what nosisab said, if the problem, or something similar is happening in more than one game, it is not the game. The power supply or graphics card are most likely.

[Eolath]

The funny thing is, I first had that problem for ~3 days.. then it got worse and now it runs stuck after ~5 minutes with a stuttering sound, with each game I play. the shop keeps denying it's a hardware problem, while I reinstalled each of my drivers and connected it to two different PC screens & mouses, keyboards..

 

Edit: The DXDiag shows my hardware, But I'll post it anyway.

 

-8800 GT 512 MB(Doh :P)

-E6400 Dual core processor (I ordered a E8400 dual core one, it should be arriving closely - I don't know if this would fix it though)

-4GB RAM

-160 MB storage room (Not the download type :thumbsup: )

-P5N-E SLI motherboard.

 

Just out of curiousity - Like I said, I didn't built this PC myself (The vendor built it + installed it)

where should I find my PSU? In my processor aye?.. or that's CPU :unsure:

 

PS: No overclocking, I tried underclocking.. but that didn't help either.. even a game from 2000 (D2, Warcraft 3) runs the PC stuck.

[bben46]

Your PSU (Power supply unit) is where you plug in the power cord. it is a box shaped unit about 6 inches (150mm) wide by 3.25 inches (80mm) high and about 5.5 inches (140mm) deep. There will be a bundle of multi colored wires coming out to the inside of your computer case and going to various parts of the computer such as mother board, hard drives, CD & DVD drives, and fans. The PSU will also have a fan mounted in it.

 

If you can, look to see how many watts your PSU is rated at. It may be printed on a label near the power connector, but You may have to open up the case to find the label that will tell you. Many computers that are built for general office use will have a 300 W (300 watt) rating. While those made for gaming should have at least 400 and preferably more - Mine is 600 Watts, double what an office computer needs.

 

The video card manufacturer, Nvidia who makes the 8800 recommends a 450 Watt PSU with a combined 12V current rating of 30 Amps or more as the minimum acceptable.

 

Most Nvdia 8800 boards require a direct hook up to the Power supply - something earlier boards didn't need. they usually use the same connector as a hard drive (4 connector white molex type plug with a yellow, red and 2 black wires) or come with a special adapter to hook up to the hard drive power connector

[Eolath]

Well, me and my mate (Who knows a lot more about PCs then I do, luckily) opened the case and removed all of the hardware which was in it (Or most of it atleast, what we could get out) my mate also said the vendor who placed the PC just junked in the wires while they were floating above the vent and lots of other stuff weren't very clean (Placed atleast) so we replaced most of the hardware and did a whole clean install after that.

 

I'm overjoyed to tell that Oblivion has been running smooth for ~5 hours, I really do hope the bug is solved. ofcourse I can't be certain, we will see further tomorrow when the PC has cooled down - to see if it still works OK.

 

Thanks for all the help so far,

 

Eolath

 

PS: I have a 500W PSU