Constant CTD

[dsfargeg]

As the topic stated, something with my mods is causing my oblivion to ctd without even a chance to load. I did do a clean uninstall and reinstall at least 3 times according to the directions found on this website, and I organized my mods as much as possible according to how the load order should be. However, I still seem to crash right away. I don't think it is my computer because I used to play oblivion fine a while ago, but now it seems impossible to fix. Here is a pic of my mod load list:

 

 

 

 

[dezdimona]

General Load-Order Guidelines

 

 

Here are the guidelines that I adhere to, personally.

 

~ Unofficial Oblivon Patch should always be first on the list. The fixes are great, but most aren't essential, so if a mod overwrites them its not a big deal, and the fixes have the potential for screwing up other mods if loaded later.

 

~ Offical Content (DLC's) should be loaded last, until you complete all quests associated with them (that includes buying all furniture for the houses and whatnot). Once they're complete, they can be safely moved up in the list. This is especially important for Knights of the Nine, which will have some fairly major problems unless loaded last (unless you get the UOP for KotN)

 

~ Major overhaul mods (OOO, Frans, MMM) should be loaded near the end. That gives you the most complete experience with any of those particular mods. It also lets you carefully choose which other mods to load afterwards... only move mods that you know will conflict and that you want the changes from. For example, I have Improved Soul Gems below OOO because I know that OOO changes the icons of some of the SG's, and ISG needs to be below to show through.

 

Some people will recommend putting larger mods first, but personally I disagree. There are a number of mods out there that make minor tweaks, and loading after a large mod will end up completely overwriting a chunk from one of the bigger mods because of the way conflicts work in Oblivion (even one minor change will take precedence over the entire record... for example, simply tweaking the speed of a weapon can cause every stat of that weapon to be retained to vanilla levels if loaded later).

 

So basically, it stacks up like this...

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Minor Mods / DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mod/Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

 

 

 

Expanded Load-Order Guidelines

by dev_akm

 

I would extend this to include:

 

Oblivion.esm

Unofficial Oblivion Patch

<Weather/Environment/Sound Mods>

<Minor Mods/New Items/Houses/DLC's (Post-Completion)>

<Major Overhaul Mods>

<Mods that specifically conflict with overhauls and need to take precedence>

<DLC's (Pre-Completion)>

<Quests>

<Compatibility Patches/UOMP/Merged Leveled Lists>

 

And a special-case warning for Knights.esp (Knights of the Nine) -- you may not be able to move it earlier than some other mods (some people have had problems after moving it before OOO, for example).

 

That's basically the structure I use and I have 140+ mods working well together.

 

Another way of describing this (posted by DMan77):

....

Oblivion

unoffical patch

Deeper realism mods that add sights and sounds

added content like weapons/items

gameplay changes, like 'must eat and sleep'

The OOO type

the 'new begining' type mod..

...

 

if this doesn't work,remove all your mods and then add one at a time till you find the one causing it!

[dsfargeg]

Yeah, I followed that guide, and it did solve alot of the initial problems. And also, I just figured out what was wrong using wrye bash. I forgot the horse combat.esm file for deadly reflex, which I didn't realize was such a crucial file. Ah, I feel kind of dumb.

 

Ok, so it no longer crashes right when I enter oblivion, but now it crashes when I attempt to make a game. Could this be an installation problem or a mod conflict?

[dsfargeg]

Ok, so this is going to be my fourth clean re-install and frankly, I'm beginning to lose patience. What could cause my data to become corrupt? Is it when I try to run oblivion without essential add-ons and forces my game to crash that could corrupt my files? I just can't see what could be the problem.

[bben46]

When you uninstall Oblivion it doesn't really uninstall everything.

 

It does not remove your mods, save games or Oblivion.ini. It also does not remove helper programs such as OBSE, OBMM, Wrye Bash, The construction set or any other programs you have installed in the \Oblivion folder or the save game folder. I recommend that you go ahead and delete them, then re download and install the latest version of them again later. After you have verified that the game works.If you can't (or don't want to) remove them, move them into a different folder before removing the Oblivion folders.

 

Then when you start adding mods before you have started the game, some things may not get initialized properly. Here is my recommended procedure for uninstalling and reinstalling.

 

I would appreciate any feedback on this as it is something I expect to post often and I hate to give bogus or useless information.

 

Uninstalling Oblivion

 

My instructions assume you are using Windows XP and have installed Oblivion into the default location. If you are using Vista or Linux, the file locations may be different, however, the procedure will be the same.

 

For a full reinstall, first you can try to preserve your mods and save games. I recommend that you save them in a new folder with a new name. Create the new folder in C:\Program files\Bethesda Softworks. Name it Old Files. So it will be C:\Program Files\Bethesda softworks\Old files.

 

Then copy the data folder where your mods are to the new folder - do not erase them, copy them. And in the new folder, rename the \data folder to \olddata. Then copy and rename the folder that has your saved games and Oblivion.ini, C:\documents and settings\your user name\my documents\My Games\oblivion to something like \My games\Old Oblivion - this saves your saved games and the oblivion.ini file.

 

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 original Oblivion.

 

This would be the time to erase all of the helper programs you have in the \Oblivion folder. Such as OBMM, OBSE and some others. The simplest way is to erase the folder completely. The new install will re create the folder for you along with a fresh oblivion.ini and when you start the game and make a save, a new save folder and new \data folder.

 

This would also be a good time to do a file clean up and defragment your hard drive.

 

If you are worried about the registry entries that were left behind. There are several good programs for removing left behind entries. The one I use is ccleaner. Be sure to reboot before using it, and again after. It is available here: http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

 

 

Now to Reinstall.

 

Again using the original CD, install Oblivion.

 

Special instructions for Vista only: Do not install to the default location - make a new folder such as C:\Games and install there. That way you will not be bothered by the problems caused by the Vista UAC security not allowing mods to work.

 

Before adding any mods, patches, helper programs, Shivering Isles or anything else, start the game and make a save. This initializes some stuff that needs to be initialized.

 

If you are using the Game of the Year version of Oblivion you should not need any patches, skip the patching part.

 

Now, If you DO NOT use Shivering Isles, patch the game using ONLY the latest Oblivion patch. All of the stuff from the earlier patches is included.

 

Be sure you use the proper language patch. If you use the wrong one it may work, but with a strange mixture of languages. (Germanglish?) Or it may crash.

 

NOTE: there are two English Patches UK & US and they are different. (Some people actually think we speak the same language) Use the one that matches your original disk.

 

If you use Shivering Isles, Install it now. DO NOT install the Oblivion patch. Install Shivering Isles, then ONLY the latest Shivering Isles patch. All of the updates for Oblivion are included. There is only one Shivering Isles patch for both US & UK English (Sometimes we do speak the same language)

 

Now, again start the game and make a save. Test to be sure everything is working right (No purple objects or yellow blocks) Play the game a while to be sure it works.

 

Before adding any mods, back up both your \data folder and the save game folder. Copy them, don't move or rename them, to a different folder - such as \Bethesda\Clean Oblivion\data and \Bethesda\clean Oblivion\saves. Note that this is a different folder than the one used for your old data and saves.

 

Note, Your Oblivion.ini file is in the same folder, but separate from, the save game folder.

 

Now, if you want to try to run with your old mods, first rename the original folders. The \data folder to \newdata and the \oldata back to \data. this restores all of your mods. You should now have 2 data folders \data, and \newdata in your \oblivion folder

 

To restore your original saves and ini file, 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.

 

DO NOT erase the files you renamed. These are your backup files in case the original mods do not work or give you the same problem.

 

If you have the same problem, it is most likely caused by a mod. However, you now have a clean install to fall back on. You can rename the files back to what they were and be back to your clean install without having to reinstall again.

 

Sounds like lots of work, but you will have a clean install and a back up clean install when you are finished.

 

Post your comments here: http://s1.zetaboards.com/TheStormRavenLibrary/forum/236320/

[dsfargeg]

Ok, so I followed the direction on both posts regarding clean re-installs, but I'm still crashing at the loading screen with and without mods. Wrye bash doesn't detect any major conflicts with my mods either, it just sort of crashes out.

[Levee Breaker]

What's your hardware?

[dezdimona]

have you done a recent de-frag and disk clean?

are you running your game thru your security programming?

[bben46]

Did you do the registry cleaning part? If a normal reinstall doesn't fix the problem, that almost always does. When a program such as Oblivion is installed, Windows writes several entries in the registry that tell windows how to handle the program. When you reinstall, those entries are not removed, and not replaced with new ones. If your problem is caused by a corrupted registry entry, it will not be fixed unless those entries are removed first.

 

After you have uninstalled Oblivion using the CD, AND Before running a registry cleaner, reboot your computer. This releases those entries and marks them as orphans - entries that are not associated with any program. A registry cleaner program like CCleaner finds those orphan entries and removes them as part of its cleaning process. Then you need to reboot again after running the cleaner to reinitialize the registry and make it ready to accept new entries when you reinstall.

 

There is a post at the official Bethesda site that identifies those registry entries if you need to remove them manually. I don't recommend making changes in the registry yourself unless you know what you are doing, as a wrong change such as deleting the wrong line could make your computer unbootable.

 

Let me know how this works out.

[billyyin]

if clean uninstall didn't do it, then thats not the problem

1delete oblivion.ini?

2run this? wonderful ultility http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20516

3use this? wrye bash incase you haven't, it detects a lot of conflicts