Issue with Kyoma's Journal Mod not covered in the readme.

[DemonLady]

So, long story short, When I use the mod, it crashes while I'm in the process of typing. Now, I have an alternate start mod, meaning I'm in a non-vanilla location, but i doubt that'd be the cause. Basically, mod comes into my inventory, I immediately open it up, start typing, it crashes. I've tried what the readme says, mainly the thing about the alternate book_menu.xml files. I even stooped to disabling DarkUI'd DarN, but that didn't help. I have yet to try waiting until I get out of the location to see if that fixes it, and if it does, I'll edit this post, but until then, can someone think of anything that could be the problem?

 

And yes, I have Pluggy updated to the latest version, Oblivion's updated, I have the final OBSE ever released, all that jazz. Apparently Load Order didn't matter, but it's the second-to-last mod in my Load Order. Can anyone help? :/

[dubiousintent]

Have you gone through the 'Troubleshooting' section on the download page?

 

What does your 'Journal Log' say?

 

You are hopefully aware that there are some restrictions as to what you can type? (Also on the download page.)

 

The release thread is 'here'. Something there might be of help. It's locked against new posts, and I wasn't able to find a followup thread. There is another thread 'here' and 'here' that might also suggest something. Unfortunately Kyoma hasn't been seen for a while. There were plans for a re-write, but apparently RL got in the way.

 

-Dubious-

[DemonLady]

Yeah, I know there's a restriction to what I can type, but all I'd type were letters. I doubt : or typing Morndas would crash the game...

 

In the thread on the bethsoft forums, someone mentioned a default ini that Kyoma provided; Where is that? Did it come with the download or am I missing something?

 

D'You think it'd help if I posted my Load Order for you? Maybe there's something that conflicts and I'm just unaware...

[dubiousintent]

I'm assuming you are using v3.2.1, and the v3x2x1 Hotfix?

 

And since you have OBSE, are there any logs in the OBSE Plugins folder?

 

As to your LO, do you use BOSS? There are very few (if any) mods that attempt to do what this mod does, and they are the most likely to conflict. They should have been identified in BOSS by this time.

 

Have you followed all of the BOSS recommendations, such as cleaning dirty edits (ITMs and UDRs)? Very important.

 

INI file locations are up to the author. Typical locations are 'Data', 'Data\INI', 'Data\Ini Files', and 'Data\<mod name>'. Don't forget to check both the game install folder and in your profile game subfolders (My Documents\My Games\Oblivion). I don't have it installed at the moment myself, so I'm afraid I can't be more specific. There isn't a 'default ini' in the archive.

* The default ini file will be created when you first start this mod, nothing else needed.

Given the exported text from journals is put into the "My Games\Oblivion\Pluggy\User Files\<journal name>" folder, be sure to check there as well.

 

Is there a possibility you have a hotkey defined that is being triggered when you type? Have you tried defining a 'modifier' key as described in the ReadMe?

 

How about the UI? I know you tried disabling DarkDarn, but it's known to make changes to the Oblivion.ini (in your profile). Disabling it wouldn't remove those changes. Did you rename and rebuild the Oblivion.ini when you disabled DarkDarn?

 

Pluggy is only used for 'Import/Export' of text. Have you tried creating your text outside of the game and then importing it? Or is this crash only occurring in the 'menu journal'?

 

Did the 'Journal Log' have anything?

 

Do you have any Windows error messages from the crashes? Here's some stock information on those:

Windows error messages only superficially look like they are saying 'the usual'. The details in the lower, large box are what are significant and do matter.

 

Typically an Oblivion related error will be an 'Event 1000, Application Error'. These are found in the 'Adminstrative Tools | Event Viewer' tool under your 'Start' button | 'All Programs' folder. Look in the 'Windows Logs | Application' section of the 'Event Viewer'. (If you still can't locate it, Google 'Event Viewer' for your specific Operating System, i.e 'Windows XP', 'Windows Vista', etc.)

 

In particular the following details are of significance in these circumstances:

'Faulting application:' (probably 'Oblivion.exe, version: 1.2.0.416, time stamp: <something>')

'Faulting module name:' (very significant, the actual component source (plugin) of the error)

'Exception code:' (exactly what type of error)

'Fault offset:' (where in the faulting module the error occurred)

 

If any of the remaining lines of information seem pertinent, they should be given as well. In fact, the preferred method of conveying this information is a screenshot, but at least list the above data.

 

-Dubious-

Edited September 6, 2012 by dubiousintent

[DemonLady]

I didn't have the Hotfix, 'cause its download said it was for the Journal not appearing. Maybe that was the cause...

 

Yes, I use BOSS, actually, but I don't really check for conflicts; I just use it to sort my Load Order as best as possible.

 

No offense, but your mention of cleaning those thingies just looks like gibberish to me. I'm not an advanced modder, I just know Mod Managers, Load Orders, Conflicts, bugs and crashes. I don't dare screw with the inis or anything else of a sort.

 

Think I found the ini, but that's not one I can "Replace with a default one" or whatever.

 

Nope, no hotkeys to my knowledge.S'Pose I can tap every character key to find out though.

 

I just returned DarkUI'd DarN because it didn't make any difference, so skip that.

 

It occurs in the menu journal. I don't know how to import text, though I am keeping a temporary journal for Lia [My character] in a Notepad.

 

There's a "Journal Update Log" but iunno what that'd be.

 

I get the obligatory "Oblivion has stopped working...." message.

Edited September 6, 2012 by DemonLady

[dubiousintent]

No offense, but your mention of cleaning those thingies just looks like gibberish to me. I'm not an advanced modder, I just know Mod Managers, Load Orders, Conflicts, bugs and crashes. I don't dare screw with the inis or anything else of a sort.

None taken. Mod Cleaning is a necessary step to reducing conflicts. Unintentional 'Dirty Edits' are time-bombs waiting to happen. The BOSS report provides a link to the detailed description of what the issues are and exactly how to go about cleaning mods. It's actually quire simple. And TES4Edit makes a backup of the files it changes, so it's pretty fool-proof.

 

Think I found the ini, but that's not one I can "Replace with a default one" or whatever.

All you do is rename it, and it will be recreated automatically. I recommend just adding '.old' to the end, but you could use any extension. Or move it to another folder. I don't recommend deleting as you may want to compare the old and new versions.

 

Nope, no hotkeys to my knowledge.S'Pose I can tap every character key to find out though.

That's sort of too bad, as a hotkey conflict would be easy to sort out. You might try a 'quick brown fox' test (or just type lines with all the characters (upper and lower case), numbers, and punctuation) to see if a particular key causes the crash. Repeatability or randomness is data in and of itself. If you can't force a crash, then we are looking for another cause (such as failing RAM or power dips).

 

It occurs in the menu journal. I don't know how to import text, though I am keeping a temporary journal for Lia [My character] in a Notepad.

The menu journal has a limit of only seven entries per page. Any chance you were exceeding that?

 

Importing text is in the ReadMe; section 3, "Advanced Features". Once this is straightened out you can use it to import your Notepad file.

 

There's a "Journal Update Log" but iunno what that'd be.

If you have found the 'Journal Update.log' file, open it in Notepad, skip down to the bottom and you should see some error messages. Post those and the 5 lines above them here inside of code tags (i.e. start with '[' "code' ']' and end with '[' '/code' ']', without the quotes). If there aren't any error messages, post the last 5-10 lines in the log.

 

-Dubious-

[DemonLady]

I'll skip the first bit and go right to the limit here...

 

No. I couldn't even get the first damn line, let alone seven entires.

 

As for those lines, here. These look like compelte friggin' gibberish to me, though...

 

Begin updating process for Lia. Current version is 0.00 - Update index is 1.

Pre-update array variables

JrnlArrMain ID: 0 Count: -1

JrnlArrSearch ID: 0 Count: -1

JrnlArrCategories ID: 0 Count: -1

JrnlArrBooks ID: 0 Count: -1

JrnlArrTexts ID: 0 Count: -1

JrnlArrImages ID: 0 Count: -1

JrnlArrMain == 0. Create array.

JrnlArrSearch == 0. Create array.

JrnlArrCategories == 0. Create array.

JrnlArrBooks == 0. Create array.

JrnlArrImages == 0. Create array.

Version is below 2.0.0 - Update and convert 'spell' entries. Count is: -1.

Creating default 'Journal Book'.

Adding misc item +[Menu Journal].

Post-update array variables

JrnlArrMain ID: 1 Count: 1

JrnlArrSearch ID: 2 Count: 1

JrnlArrCategories ID: 3 Count: 0

JrnlArrBooks ID: 4 Count: 0

JrnlArrImages ID: 5 Count: 26

Finished update process for Lia. New version is 3.21.

 

I don't see anything "Error" either.

[dubiousintent]

Yes, the absence of an obvious error is unfortunate. While I am not familiar with the internals of this mod, the log looks to me like the mod initialized just fine. That leaves me with either a conflict of some sort or something wrong with the install to investigate. Let's start with the latter possibility. But just to confirm (I know you said 'latest' but that is always subject to when you got it), you are using OBSE v20 stable? Anything from v16 or later should be fine.

 

How did you install: manually unpacking the archive into (which?) folder, or using OBMM, or BAIN or something else?

 

The archive has OMOD conversion data, the script of which is pretty simple. It just replaces the vanilla version of the 'book_menu.xml' file in the 'Data\menus' folder with a specialized version depending upon which UI mod you tell it you are using. Did that get accomplished? (As in, you recall being asked about that or taking care of it manually?) You can tell by opening the 'Data\menus\book_menu.xml' file in Notepad and looking at the second line. That is usually a comment indicating which UI it is for, except in the case of the two Dark UI versions. The DarkUI'd DarN version says:

''<!-- DarN Version 1.0 -->" and the 'DarkUI by Darkbirdy' version just has a blank line. They both have the words 'Textures\DarkUI' in line 36.

 

When you tested by removing the ' DarkUI'd DarN ' mod, did you replace the 'book_menu.xml' file with the vanilla version? If not, that test was invalid for ruling out a UI problem. But using the correct xml file is a better test.

 

-Dubious-

[DemonLady]

Yeah, I have that OBSE.

 

I used OBMM, and I DID get that option, but that still didn't stop it from crashing, alas. I still have yet to try try the hotfix and button mashing to see if I do or don't have a hotkey that causes it, so maybe I oughta try those later on.

 

 

MAJOR EDIT:

 

I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT. It's the A key! I have a mod that does a Fallout-style "Take All" using the A key. Thing is, it ALSO takes BOOKS. I'll edit this if I'm wrong, but I'm 99% sure I'm right.

Edited September 9, 2012 by DemonLady

[DemonLady]

Yeah, I have that OBSE.

 

I used OBMM, and I DID get that option, but that still didn't stop it from crashing, alas. I still have yet to try try the hotfix and button mashing to see if I do or don't have a hotkey that causes it, so maybe I oughta try those later on.

 

 

MAJOR EDIT:

 

I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT. It's the A key! I have a mod that does a Fallout-style "Take All" using the A key. Thing is, it ALSO takes BOOKS. I'll edit this if I'm wrong, but I'm 99% sure I'm right.

 

Major Edit 2:

 

Indeed it was. Can't believe how stupid I was. Thanks for your help, Dubious, even if it was something as stupid as this.