Crashes and crashes

[xachan86]

Okay, so i reinstalled Oblivion. With lots of mods. With lots of time to make it work correctly. Then I play. Then, all a sudden, i get the crash to desktop...

 

I mean, i play and then i save my game. Next time i load it, it's impossible to load. I mean, i can load it, but when i arrive in the game, it only takes something like one second and pooof, back to desktop.

 

More annoying, i can't create a new game either. As soon as i arrive on th screen where i can select the race i want to play, it crashes...

 

Does anybody know why? Or am i bound to deactivate my mods one by one to find the one responsible?

[myrmaad]

Okay, so i reinstalled Oblivion. With lots of mods. With lots of time to make it work correctly. Then I play. Then, all a sudden, i get the crash to desktop...

 

I mean, i play and then i save my game. Next time i load it, it's impossible to load. I mean, i can load it, but when i arrive in the game, it only takes something like one second and pooof, back to desktop.

 

More annoying, i can't create a new game either. As soon as i arrive on th screen where i can select the race i want to play, it crashes...

 

Does anybody know why? Or am i bound to deactivate my mods one by one to find the one responsible?

 

 

If you're using Wrye Bash, do you have any working save games you can compare mod lists?

 

Did you play after each mod was added?

 

There could be hundreds of different reasons..

 

Post your mod list.

[xachan86]

The thing is that, Wrye Bash doesn't say that any save is corrupted. And I have just one save, the one which i was playing, unfortunately and for the moment i can't make a new one, it seems.

 

I did the load order with BOSS and some additional tweaking for the few unrecognized mods, then TESLodGen made me do some additional tweaking by indicating me some mods should be before or after others. Then i could run TESLodGen without any problem.

 

I'll try to post my modlist a little later or tomorrow.

[dezdimona]

always save your complete game before adding mods.Adding a bunch of mods without trying to see if they work is a sure way to disaster.

This is from bben a moderator here

 

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

 

It does not remove your mods, save games or Oblivion.ini or the entries that the original installation of Oblivion placed in your Windows registry. 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.

 

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.

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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 thae 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 Softeworks. 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 delete 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.

 

To remove 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 free and available here: http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

 

Now that everything is cleaned up, do a full defrag on your hard drive to leave a large uncluttered area to reinstall to. This prevents your game from installing in a fragmented way, with parts scattered all over the drive. It also will speed up the install a little.

 

 

 

Now to Reinstall.

 

Again using the original CD, install Oblivion.

 

NOTE: If you are using Vista, DO NOT install to the default directory. Instead make a new directory I recommend C:\Games. Install Oblivion there to avoid the hassle with Vista UAC blocking mods.

 

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 (Maybe sometimes we do speak the same language.)

 

Now, again start the game, make sure it looks right, move around a little to test it, and make a save. Test to be sure everything is working right (No purple objects or yellow blocks)

 

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.

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This is probably the most common problem in mods. It is caused when the game cannot find the mesh called for by a mod. It uses the yellow block as a placeholder to keep from crashing.

 

All except the simplest mods have new textures and usually Meshes. If you look at the zipped files (expand them to see what is there before installing) you will usually see several types of files. The filename.esp is the actual mod, it goes into the Oblivion\Data folder.

 

A filname.txt or Readme.txt file - this is the read me file that you should read to see if there are any special instructions for this file, such as it may need another mod to work or need OBSE, or need the Shivering Isles expansion, or Need the latest patch.

 

Textures folder. this contains the texture files (.dds) for the mod. this should be copied to the Oblivion\data\textures folder

Meshes folder. This contains the meshes for the mod, it should be copied to the Oblivion\data\meshes folder

Sounds folder. This contains any new sounds needed by the mod. it should be copied into the Oblivion\data\sounds folder

 

.bsa files these are compressed files that may contain all of the different files. Any .bsa file should be copied without change into the Oblivion\data folder

 

There may be other files or folders included, but those are the most common.

 

If you look in the Oblivion/data folder and see a bunch of .dds files, .nif files, .mp3 files they are in the wrong place. You need to MOVE them to the proper folders.

.dds to the textures folder

.nif to the meshes folder

.mp3 to the sounds folder

.wav to the sounds folder

 

In a mod with meshes and textures, they are usually in their own folder - look in the zipped file, extract the meshes folder to the Oblivion\data\meshes folder and the textures folder to the Oblivion\data\textures folder. Do the same with any other folder in the zipped file. Usually only the esp file and if present .bsa files go into the \Data folder

 

One of the most common things I have seen is a folder inside of the data folder with the name of the mod. It may have the texture and mesh files you need. Example Oblivion\Data\mod_xyz.

Then inside the \mod_xyz You may find \Mod_xyz\textures and mod_xyz\meshes folder

 

These folders Meshes and textures inside of the \data\mod_xyz folder need to be moved into the \data\textures and \data\meshes folders.

The easiest way to do this is to right click and hold the folder you want to move, then drag it into the \data folder.

You will probably get a message that you will overwrite files. Actually it will not overwrite, but append to the original folder.

[xachan86]

Well, almost all my mods were running fine together last time i installed Oblivion. Now they don't and i don't know why... Plus i follow the steps you describe every time i uninstall and reinstall Oblivion. Got lots of trouble the first time when i didn't follow that steps, so i've lerned my lesson ;)