Woe is Me. I may have killed Oblivion (on my computer).

[Inafog]

My concern, posted earlier today, over Nord faces has been superceded by something a bit more serious.

 

Yesterday, when I went into Oblivion to try to make a face for a new game character, all worked fine.

 

Today, when I inserted the disc (GOTY) and clicked the desktop icon, the usual rectangle came up and music played, but when I clicked play the screen went black and returned me to the desktop. There were no error messages or text of any kind. This has happened several times.

 

Also, I cannot find the .esm file. It has either been annihilated or is hiding.

 

What could have happened? I may have done something unwise. I use NMM, which has always worked well for me. In preparing to play the game again, after two years, NMM offered me the chance, when I clicked on it, to update to the latest version. I did so, and AFAIK this succeeded and version 0.63.14 is now on my computer. The problem started after that. (All the mods are disabled, but I expected that.) The .esm file is still listed as item 1 and is checked (although it stays faint black instead of bold black). The .esm is missing from the directory, but nothing else seems to be. I am flummoxed.

 

Any suggestions? It is hard to believe that whatever the new NMM installation did, it utterly destroyed the .esm, but, as I say, I cannot find the .esm, and the game, she don’t start at all.

 

This is vexing. Only with difficulty do I refrain from rending my garments, pouring ashes on my head, etc. :-)

 

PS - If the worst has happened and I have to delete everything and reinstall everything, ought I to use the GOTY disc or buy the game from Steam?

 

Thanks much for any suggestions. I will continue my search for the shy .esm and the solution to other problems. Usually these things solve themselves somehow, but if this one doesn't... well, maybe it's time I finally try playing Skyrim. (I'm a little slow.)

Edited July 8, 2017 by Inafog

[Colovari]

NMM isn't really the best manager for Oblivion, I've seen many other posts concerning issues with NMM and Oblivion.

 

Lots of people including myself would suggest switching to Wrye Bash, or at least OBMM.

 

If you still can't find the esm and have to reinstall, stick to the GOTY disc unless you wanna spend money.