DDR2 is fairly new. What I meant was... Get some more.

Let us know how your testing goes.

Ok, I did the test and was watching when it crashed.

This is what it looks like now, idling (this is after the crash.) (Note that before the crash when it was idling, the "paged" kernel memory was lower than it is now.)
http://i51.tinypic.com/1j672x.png


And unfortunately during the crash, the computer was focused on the game screen so for some reason I pressed prntscrn a couple times but later I found out it didn't work... I had planned on screencapping the whole thing, but in fact all I know is what the "available" physical memory was, which is I think the key stat.

As you can see, by "default" or while idling the physical memory has about 500000 (mb?) available, according to task manager. When it crashed it was about 80000, I think. Weirdly it didn't seem to be "draining" really, it had gone below that near the beginning of my play (if I'm not mistaken down to 1000 only?!! Is that even possible? Perhaps I'm mistaken), and it had also gone higher. It didn't suddenly funnel down to 0 and crash. I think 80000 was about standard.

I was in Cheydinhaal about to go get my reward from Oreyn (or Ordreyn or something) in the Fighter's Guild for wiping out the townsfolk murdering trolls (sorry for spoilers.) I was hopping all the way.

So, those are the results of my testing. Hopefully you guys can help. I know I need more RAM, it's just I don't know if I want to spend that much on THIS computer...
I guess if I got a new one I could re-use it or something.

PS: When the game sort of froze for a second or two (not crashed) my cpu usage would go to about 5-7%. I assume that's normal since the game isn't doing anything for a sec?

Your system IS a bit dated...... similar to my old system..... There are a few things you can do to improve stability though. More RAM is right at the top of the list.... but, as you said, that would be an investment in a machine that is several generations behind the curve. Building a new one might be a better investment. But, that requires money......

In the meantime..... You could optimize your system for performance, and free up some more resources for the game. Check out http://www.blackviper.com/. Eliminating some of the overhead that you don't use/don't need, will help. (I run XP64, and after the machine comes up, and settles down, I have a whopping 16 processes running..... and have a fully functional computer.) Turning off things like Themes, and system sounds also frees up resources. Makes your machine look like you are running windows 98 though.

If you wanted to spend a bit of money, 2 gig of RAM would go a long way toward increasing stability, and play time, and a hardware accelerated sound card can be picked up for about 25 bucks, which will further reduce the CPU loading. Sound card won't give you more time before a crash, but, it WILL increase your framerate every where.

A few weeks ago I actually did use Black Viper's website, but I still have 43 processes always running. There were 3 categories you could tweak according to. I think it was Safe, Tweaked and like, Super or Gamer or something. I put most of my stuff in the second option. I'll give it another shot, though.

Pretty disappointing that this would happen though. I guess I might go for RAM... depending how much I think I'll be able to stand this computer if I have to use it for much longer. It's not that bad or anything, it's a trooper (as evidenced by me playing Oblivion and Fo3 on it) but I'm always running out of hard drive space. That probably slows it down further... I can never decide what to uninstall. I just have way too many games. Right now I have about 16 gigs free. Two months ago I would have considered that a lot, but I went and uninstalled and deleted some huge things.

Harddrive space is getting dirt cheap of late as well.... I saw an external 1TB drive at Radio Shack (of all places...) for 100 bucks. I was quite surprised. IDE drives are becoming a thing of the past though. I am using four, and had to pick up a controller card for two of them, as my system board would only support two.... everything else is going to SATA.... Such fun.

Looking on newegg... you can pick up a pair of 1gig ram sticks for under 50 bucks....... That may extend the life of your machine a bit..... Get a cheap hardware accelerated sound card from amazon for under 25. (sound blaster audigy II?)

Might wanna turn off music in your oblivion.ini as well, that is always a nice performance boost. Find the setting:

bmusicenabled=1

change the one to a zero, and save. Easy as that.

But the performance is fine. (Unless you mean crashing). I managed to beat the whole game -even the Battle of Bruma wasn't that bad (think I turned down shadows). I've got textures, water, draw distance all on high settings. My single problem is crashing... when I'm actually IN the game, it's very playable. That's why I'm so annoyed... I was just about to finish up the Fighter's Guild and then do Shivering Isles, but now it's either upgrade my (admittedly crap) computer or abandon this character. (Well I guess I could transfer the saves to my new computer when I get it).

I'll check newegg, but I have to use the Canadian version and any website that has a Canadian "version" automatically has worse prices.

I might actually go with your advice. RAM + soundcard. I really want to finish up the game + expansions on this computer. Thanks.