Unable to find reference object

[cjstart]

I just got Morrowind for the first time. I'm playing on Windows 10 and running Morrowind in compatability mode for Windows XP (tried both "Service Pack 2" and "Service Pack 3" option that were available. No "Service Pack 1"). Upon loading the game and clicking "New", I get a series of error messages:

"Unable to find reference object "ascended_sleeper" in script SixthHouseCheck."

"Unable to find reference object "ascended_sleeper" in script SixthHouseExpell."

"Unable to find reference object "ascended_sleeper" in script CalmCorprus."

"Unable to find reference object "mel_tpp_name" in script cdc_companion_call_script."

Though this is my first playthrough, I like immersion mods and general hi-jinks so I do have mods downloaded (most through manual then through Nexus (though a few that were .rars were put straight into the data folder once extracted), but as far as I can tell, there shouldn't be any compatibility issues between themselves and between them and the main game. I also reinstalled Morrowind and all the mods, this time clicking "no to all" when it asked for replacements to make certain nothing from the main game got deleted, but am still getting the same error messages. I've been wanting to play Morrowind for so long and I'd really like this to have a solution.

 

Update: well, despite what it looked like, it was mods. Deactivated everything except a few tweak mods and wasn't getting anything. Working now to find the problem mod(s) by trial and error.

Edited July 2, 2018 by cjstart

[abot]

the error/warning messages usually include information needed to find origin of problems

 

it is useful to be able to search for a certain character string inside certain kind of files. In theory you can do it from file search tool included in Windows operative system, but it is different in various windows version so it's
easier if you learn/use a separate program for this (e.g. wingrep, total commander, double commander...)

Regardless of search program, usually you can use DOS meta characters to define where/in what files you want to search, e.g.
if I want to search in mod files, I will look in
Morrowind\Data Files folder,
skip searching in subfolders
look for *.es? files (* means any character 0 or more times, . (dot) is the filename/extension separator, ? means any character exactly one time so it would cover e.g. foo.esm, foobar.esp ...)
and finally you could look for strings like
begin SixthHouseExpel
inside of this kind of files

e.g. if you are looking for textures in .nif model files you could search in
Morrowind\Data Files\Meshes folder and its subfolders
for *.nif files
containing the missingtexturename string

[EDIT] having said that, sometimes errors related to references may be only in the save, so they may disappear if you save/reload. if not, then it is probably some .esp/.esm problem which you should fix

Edited July 3, 2018 by abot

[leonardo2]

One doesn't need to use Wingrep as TESPCD is a lot better tool when searching for mod related errors.

 

Install TESPCD and load the entire loadorder as it were when the errors appeared for the first time.

 

The next step is to take one error at the time from the Warnings.txt and search for the error in TESPCD and I know that should work as I once had an issue with Ajira in RoTH.

 

Back then I searched for a script IIRC, and TESPCD detected that the script was part of RoTH.