Oblivion Desktop Crash - Standard XP "End Program" Window

[thebaronjocelin]

I bought Oblivion about two weeks ago, and I had read the reviews of the press beta and such, saying that it crashes to desktop. But from the rave reviews that came out when it was released, I thought that problem had been resolved in the 1.0. Apparently I was wrong, because mine still crashes.

It starts out just fine, but after about an hour of play it slows down and dies, or comes to a standstill and crashes. System specs are listed below, and I've checked under the Processes tab in Task Manager for resource hogs, and found none.

My X1900GT should be able to max all settings, I was pretty sure. I've got them set pretty high: 1280x1024, HDR, max indoor shadows, 3/4 outdoor shadows, and full view distance. It handles it well at first. Most often it crashes without any apparent load whatsoever. Ideas?

 

[MetalX]

Try updating the game to the newest version. I don't know which version that is because mine doesn't crash and therefore, I don't update it.

 

[Route44]

Have you checked temperature readings? It could be a heat issue.

 

[thebaronjocelin]

Air from the rear 120 mm and side 80 mm fans are cool. Card is cool to the touch. Heatsink microvents are clear of dust, lint, and debris. I'm going back to take an everest reading very soon. Will report.

It's sort of worrisome that the audio is beginning to crackle. The AC'97 controller is located just above the GPU, so I'm wondering if it isn't overheating and taking the onboard sound with it.

 

[almcneil]

Are you running anti-spyware scans regularly? Spyware is my #1 service call and can cause all kinds of different problems. I recommend using the following 3:

• Ad-Aware 2007
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• AVG Anti-Spyware

 

[thebaronjocelin]

The rig it's running on has never opened a browser. No chance of a virus. Given, I have installed patches, but only patches and apps I download from filefront.

 

[Route44]

When your system crashes is it going back to the desktop screen or are you receiving Blue Screens of Death (BSOD)? If the latter, can you attach your minidumps?

 

[thebaronjocelin]

Crashing to desktop. Sorry, forgot to clarify.

 

[noiz]

Here's the deal. Oblivion is well-known for issues of this nature. There is no logic reason behind this, not to my knowledge so far, it just tends to work or not work, regardless of the OS, hardware, processes, etc. It works just fine on my pc most of the time, while on my friend's pc it crashes to desktop often. It really makes no sense at all. And this is a global problem, involving thousands of users and their distinct hardware specs.

Bethesda was working on a patch for this, but now that Shivering Isles (expansion) got out I got a slight feeling that they've lost interest in dealing with this problem.

However, here is a transcript of probable reasons from their latest patch:
"Frequent Crashing possibly due to old system file
Some users may experience frequent crashing due to an older system file. These crashes may be attributed to the 'mpeg2dmx.ax' file. Simply renaming the file to "mpeg2dmx.ax.old" may correct this issue.

Frequent Crashing possibly due to connected HP printer
A program related to HP printers may cause Oblivion to crash. Before running Oblivion: Press Ctr-Alt-Del to bring up the task manager. Go to the Processes Tab. Right click on any process starting with the letters HP and select End. Running Oblivion at this point may have this issue corrected. Note: The PC will need to be restarted to reinitialize printing or imaging."
You can find the patch here:http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_patches.htm
Scroll down a bit and you'll find the oblivion patches, and make sure you've downloaded the right patch as there are a few versions of them.
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And now a bit of blind guessing:
I've noticed that your specs easily might be overwhelmed by the graphical details you've made them process. We're talking about HDR which is a very demanding feature, and when combined with 3/4 shadows (very, very memory hungry feature) plus full distance view, I'd place an at least 50-50 bet that lowering one (or possibly all) of those features might help. HDR isn't all that cool, because while it improves colors and makes them more vivid, the edges (antialiasing) suffer. Full distance view is unnecessary because enemies/npcs/creatures appear just about 10 meters in front of you, so it doesn't have such a strong effect (except it's visually impressive). Shadows are one thing you really don't need, and they're the one thing you pay the least attention to. Even in full detail, they look, to be honest- crappy. It's only with DirectX 10 that shadows have been really polished and look nice.

Thanks for reading such a big post, please notify me if any of the above did the trick.

 

[thebaronjocelin]

Thanks for the post. I'll rename that file. I don't have an HP printer. In fact, I have no printer, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Thinking about upgrading again now.
Maybe C2D, 2 GB DDR2 800, nice PSU. Then, when the DX10 cards become cheaper, I'll check them out.

 

[noiz]

Don't want to go off-topic, but you can buy some fine working dx10 cards for low prices now, but you probably should wait for the 8800gtx to become cheaper as it's a beast that should really server you well^^

 

[thebaronjocelin]

I'm aware the 8600s and 8500s are quite affordable now, but while they're DX10-capable, they're generally crap, and a lot of DX9 cards can do better. So I'll just wait until DX10 becomes the mainstream. Then demand will be much higher and the price will have to come down.