Oblivion - Crashes/Lockups/Freezes

[BossDweebe]

Don't know if I'm one of the you two's, but my main reason for re-installing was I didn't have SI or the unofficial

patch in. However, I did have a lot of unused stuff in my game folder as well as I did put in a lot of clothing, and

armour mods, and this and that, that I ended up only using bits of as modding resources.

All part of the learning curve.

[maYuYang]

It's indeed a bit weird. I think a tool which removes deactivated plugin datas would be great, but I also know that such a tool would be way too inaccurate....

 

I also have to update my current performance status:

Yesterday while playing, I experienced random crashes about every 20-30 minutes, always in the Imperial City(only Market District and the Waterfront. Later one quite frequently). I think that at least for me, Extended Imperial City is causing that(that mod adds over 190 new NPCs). However, Quiting a game didn't cause any crash this time^^.

 

UPDATE on Crash-Causing Mods(combinations):

Realistic Fatigue 2.0BETA2

(Note that this one is still Beta! Also, I activated all of it's plugins, fatigue, fatigue-hard, health and running. I also had DA Realistic Running[not sure 'bout the name, but it allows sprinting] activated. Thus, Realistic Fatigue's additional Plugins Health and Running are not compatible with DA Realistic Running!)

 

B&MOBC

(=Blood&Mud+Open Better Cities. Note that this one is EXTREMELY Load Order sensitive!!! Read the Readmes when using those 2. Also, make sure you're using the right OBC plugins for B&M!!!)

 

 

 

Btw, do you really think that Oblivion upon gamestart reads ALL Data files? Wouldn't it make more sense if it only reads Plugin-relative data files? My opinion is that a lot of cluster isn't loaded, but could have an impact on loading times... I also doubt that they cause an instant crash.

 

Let's take another example, F.E.A.R. Yes, completely different game, but similar hunger for resources like Oblivion. FEAR however will almost never crash because the "world" there is limited to the areas you and NPCs can access. Oblivion doesn't have these kind of limitations.

I'm afraid that the CTDs are individual and relate to a specific mod combinations and play style. Thus an universal solution is nearly impossible. Reinstalling seems to solve most problems, but they might appear again after some time. I will try to deactivate those mods which add many moving and animated objects or NPCs. I could imagine that the game will run better then(since it ran almost perfect before^^).

 

BTW, if you know specific mod combinations which cause insta crash or CTD, how 'bout you list them and explain briefly what happens?

[MrCooper2006]

Thanks Mayu, for the list aswell.

 

Tried putting on Beach of Cyrodiil last night and it seemed to work ok, although Anvil and its surrounding area is a bit tempremental. (and started to crash entering anvil) Not sure why tho as theres nothing else affecting Anvil but Better Cities.

 

I had Anvil Bay Expansion but then removed it and the crash entering Anvil was still there, anyway i started a new game and it dissappeared.

 

Also the CTD exiting Oblviion has completely gone after removing REAL LIGHTS. Only after a long session of gameplay sometimes it will do it. However, after instlaling Streamline last night it hasnt done it all yet, maybe something to do with more resources to shut the game down. Who knows?

 

 

 

 

Also -- WEYE-TIC Anyone tried this mod? It makes Weye an actual township rather than 2 buildings, seems to work and everythings there, but everytime ive tried to explore it crashes.

 

Anyone have this working?

 

 

 

Anyway needless to say even tho i had a perfect load order im still downloading and adding more quests like a madman. Think im addicted, will try post back ones that just arent compatible with major ones, or that cause CTDS at any point that the authors may have not picked up on.

 

 

If anyone has anymore please post them

[Shadowcran]

Tricks I've had to learn the hard way (Trial And error)

 

1- FCOM is a demanding b***h that is temperamental at best. I'm currently running the "Big 4" at the same time WITHOUT FCOM. Result? Sometimes creatures fight each other from conflicting mods. Is this a problem? Hell no, it's actually fun to watch and a good strategy when potentially overwhelmed is to lead a monster or group of them into another group. Helps the odds quickly. Sometimes I get 'copies" of the same ingredients from 'conflicting' mods. This means I might get 2 different ingredients with the same name..problems? Hell no, These 2 will actually make a potion with each other. Sometimes I also get an overabundance of items and choices for weapons and armor. Problems? Hell no!, I'm a pack rat and love the possibilities of collecting this brings up.

 

2-LEARN TO USE WRYE BASH!!! Even if you only learn a little more a day, this utility, when learned, blows the Oblivion Mod Manager to hell and back. I've had crashes fixed simply by readjusting saves using Wrye Bash's utility for this. Using this in tandem WITH OBMM and FCOMhelper and there's very little error. In truth, I've encountered ONE, Only ONE that the FCOMhelper put in the wrong spot(MMM for FCOM).

2-continued- Wrye Bash also has a fix for the NVIDIA Fogs. How hard is it to utilize this feature? easy as pie. Every mod on your list can be fixed at once by clicking them all(select top, then go to bottom, select shift) and just using the NVIDIA fox fix feature. In less than 30 seconds, it'll fix them. Then for every new mod you add, do the NVidia fix on it.

2 Continued-The Bashed Patch is your friend!. Merges tons of mods into itself. I've currently 40 other mods incorporated into mine. Plus, The Bashed Patch itself has the features of about 25-50 different single mods right inside it.

Also, using the Wrye Bash it's a snap to fix load orders.

**yes, Keep making OMOD's out of every mod, but don't rely solely on the Manager for everything. My Wrye Bash overrides whatever I select for the OMOD, so I can select and unselect it from the list at my leisure.

 

3-This, I found out by sheer accident. Ok, I had a ton of mods, about 535 in my data folder, of which I'd select the one's I was using. Most were all 'zipped up" or archived...the one's I wasn't using. I decided on this day of accident to Open them all Up and do some testing. Before I had even clicked the first one on, I went ahead and ran Oblivion....It wouldn't start...crash immediately. What the Devil!!! I hadn't changed a damned thing since the night before EXCEPT HAD A BUNCH MORE PLUGINS AND MASTERS IN MY DATA FOLDER!. Since then, I put unused mods into a folder inside my data directory called "rainy day mods".

 

4- some mods are just problematic. Seems all sites about modding do not want to cast blame on anyone. Well, that's a good policy, as the problem mods are probably NOT MALICIOUS IN THEIR PROBLEMS. However, I've encountered a few that made me think" This was a deliberate attempt to ruin my gameplay experience." Here's a list of mods that were problematic and are archived(probably permanently) in my Rainy Day Mods folder.

These are:

Altessian(no matter where I put it, it won't let the game load

BD&R Deepgrave(this mod crashed me whenever I would hit exit after selecting attributes after level up)

BD&R Laughing Maw(this one wanted to conflict with a lot of other mods)

300_White Stallion (naming problems with the mod itself, I suspect my own idiocy on this one)

2.0 Final Lair of the Hydra

Dej Flora WIth 100%Harvest Chance(this doesn't crash the game, just one doesn't work with the other one present in the game)

Ancient Towers(I think this is due to me currently using so many mods)

Crypt of Decay

Duke Patrick's Old man of the Mountain

Equinox Order

Gaelyndril

Helm's Deep

Wrath of the Fallen Heroes(WOTFH)

Kvatch Aftermath

Treasure Maps-Revenge of the Nords(This mod actually duplicated itself in front of my eyes without me touching one thing)

Meracaish the Transcended Lich

Melle Island

The Pilgrim's Path(very, very buggy mod that adds annoying 'extras"..I suspect malicious)

Trial of Achilles

Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch(for some damned reason, my game won't even pretend to TRY to start with this one on it)

Watchtower

Aletregan Shrine

Anvil_Mazecave(Anvil, even in vanilla Oblivion, is buggy as hell, be careful of any additions to this area)

Dark brotherhood Dungeon

Edolsian's Furnace

HouseMiyoto

Silver_Manor

The Beast of Legend

The Dawn of Death

XaerthJa

*I've only counted ONE conflict out of all the mods I've tried where the two mods caused the game to crash due to 2 of the main things in them being close to each other. Each mod works great without the other one in it due to this. Abacean Pirates and Memories of Daggerfall. The Guild office for Pirates is too close to where the 'waiting ship' is for Daggerfall.

 

 

5-ALWAYS TRY TO GET THE LATEST VERSIONS OF OOO, MMM, Frans, and Warcry(warcry actually has only added a patch since it's creation as far as I know)

 

Hope this helps

[MrCooper2006]

Thanks for the replies guys, these do help.

 

 

Guess the bottom line here is: Mods = Crashes.

 

Suppose even if you have it perfect, after a certain amount are loaded into the game its gonna cause a crash at some time, at some place, doing a certain thing.

 

Only thing we can do is to get it working as well as possible, and just live with it.

 

Like my missing meshes and occasional crash in Anvil i can live with, much better than the crashing every 5-10mins

[Shadowcran]

Thanks for the replies guys, these do help.

 

 

Guess the bottom line here is: Mods = Crashes.

 

Suppose even if you have it perfect, after a certain amount are loaded into the game its gonna cause a crash at some time, at some place, doing a certain thing.

 

Only thing we can do is to get it working as well as possible, and just live with it.

 

Like my missing meshes and occasional crash in Anvil i can live with, much better than the crashing every 5-10mins

 

 

I don't know why Anvil in particular is so buggy. The Benirus quest has 2 bugs: 1)sometimes the benirus guy won't go through the front door 2)and I've read him being in front of the portal sometimes doesn't work

 

The Mages Guild recommendation taking you to the Brina Cross Inn. Depending on particulars this can cause a lot of crashes if you don't do it almost exactly. More bugs in this than I care to list.

 

The Waterfront area. Even without mods, wierd glitches happen.

 

The areas and water around it are all extremely buggy and will crash often for no reason. You can usually just go back to the same place it crashed via a saved game and nothing will happen next time.

 

I suspect Bethesda rushed this area or didn't sufficiently play test it before release. ALl the above bugs I've mentioned ARE NOT CAUSED BY MODS!. These happened before I even knew there were mods out there.

 

The unofficial Oblivion Patch fixes a lot of these but don't rely on the OFFICIAL patch to do it.

[Varus Torvyn]

Over on the Bethesda Forum, Elys (Pluggy, Uncapper) has a nice little OBSE .dll plugin for a crash. She calls her topic "Workaround Fix for CTD 00240fc4".

 

The download link is in her topic at OBSE Plugin: CrashShield

[maYuYang]

OH MY GOSH!!!

 

I could become religious, Thank you Varus Torvyn!!! Very Good!! The 1st CTD cause she listed is exactly that one which causes my problem!!

 

I'll try it at home this evening(yay, already expecting^^ :biggrin: )

 

 

 

BTW, I was goofing around yesterday and now can varify this:

 

Realistic Fatigue 2.0BETA2

(Crash when using either RealisticHealth and/or RealisticRunning. Dunno why though...)

 

 

 

One more thing, I'm not sure if only I noticed that: When I play and exit Oblivion after a specific time, there those Weird double Fs on the active Aplication bar(right side of the task bar of windows). White Icons with light blue FF on it(and something written below the FF, but too small to read). Now normally, when exiting the game without any crash there about 3 to 5 of those Icons, but when the game crashes there're about 10 or even more. Any Idea what those are?

[Varus Torvyn]

You're very welcome. I've never seen that on the Taskbar before. What version of Windows are you using?

[MrCooper2006]

Ive also never seen them, usually just "Oblivion".

 

Only thing i could think of is FFD Show... but thats like a video codec cant see why it would affect Oblivion.

 

Maybe you have some spyware/malware etc interferring with the game. Seems unlikely tho.

 

 

 

Yeah, Anvil is notoriously buggy for me anyway, usually always get a crash near Fort Strand (?).... I follow the Anvil Militia around Anvil, get to near Fort Strand, and it will crash. Then i reload, go back and its fine.

 

Also usually crashing on entry into Anvil, although doing it constantly was linked to a mod(s). It does still do it occasionally in Vanilla.

 

Although the surrounding countryside/grass in this area is poor so maybe they did just rush it. (Compared to places like Chorrol or The Swamplands near Bravil/Leyawiin)