Ok I think I needed to finally make a topic about that, because almost every time someone reports an Oblivion crashes, he does not give out the details about the crash.

The typical type of crash with Oblivion is something who looks like "The instruction at "0x080adf12" referenced memory at "0x00000000".The memory cannot be "read".

So it would be a good idea to tell us what is your particular error, either by taking a screenshot of the Error popup, or by noting it down somewhere and then writing it on the forum.

This would allow to make a list and to spot common/regular same error that would affect different peoples. These errors could be eventually fixed or worked around once for all with an OBSE plugin for example.

By the way, before reporting a crash, please make sure you are running the last updated version of Oblivion version 1.2.0416. I've noticed many players who were running 1.2.0214 and thought it was the last version until they were hinted by someone it was not the last.

Note: This cannot be applied to Direct2Drive Oblivion version because it is encrypted and different than the retail version.

( I've created this topic in the MOD section instead of the Hardware and Software Issues because the topic will be more seen. )

POST UPDATE: How and when to report the details of a crash:

1. Many errors are created by buggy mods or wrong Plugin Load Order. Try to isolate the eventual mod responsable of the crash. There is already lot of related topics on the forum about this stuff.
If you still are experiencing crash after than then go to step 2.

2. Learn to use the Windows Event Viewer. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/, For http://www.petri.co.il/vista-event-viewer.htm
and also http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947321/

3. When Oblivion has just crashed, open the Event Viewer and look for the most recent errors in the Applications Pane.
There you will spot an error like:

Faulting application Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416, time stamp 0x462392c7, faulting module Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416, time stamp 0x462392c7, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x000cee0b, process id 0xa44, application start time 0x01c88abd52effc07

Then what you must report here are
- the 3 green parts I have highlighted
- the general context of where/when it happens ( while exploring a Dungeons, while fighting, while sleeping, etc ... )
- and if the error seems to happen randomly, or if you can easily reproduce it.

DO NOT REPORT ERROR IF:

You are using the Direct2Drive version.
The faulting module IS NOT Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416 ( pay attention to the version number)
If the crash happens when you quit Oblivion.

Hear hear!

Can some help? Oblivion fall down go boom. You fix?

Well am getting crashes but its just not OBLIVION since upgrading to a new home built system. Havent asked here since my me and my Brother inlaw are working on it. Rather fast i should say too thanks to my Brother inlaw being a master computer tech and earning 75,000+ a year thanks to his honed skills.

Will let you know how it turns out though. So far its leaning towards a power supply problem eventhough i thought 550watts would be plenty but thats when my Brother inlaw started talking about ampage and rails and how that can make a difference.

Thanks and hope this takes off as one more resource of very helpful problem solving.

Many crashes can be simply fixed by changing a load order, by removing a buggy mod. ( Of course I'm excluding any hardware or computer software bug that are outside the scope of Oblivion. )
For the other type of crashes, some can be helped.

Personally I've encountered a specific crashing bug before that I could not solve by mod tweaking. So I fixed it with an OBSE plugin. You can read about it http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=857320. And then I was able to continue my savegame instead of simply be forced to abandon it.

Other kind of errors may be worked around too.

You made a workaround for an Oblivion memory crash?

You, my dear lady, are incredible.

Hmm, I've always been interested in the structure of the Oblivion related CTDs...

What I think is that we should distinguish:

1. CTD on start... let's say 90% missing master, 5 % different font (after incomplete uninstalling of Darnified UI and similar mods), 5% others

2. CTD related to corrupted save... especially if you have the bad habit to load autosaves and quicksaves although I must admit I've seen a few corrupted streamsaves and full saves.

3. CTDs related to spawning discrepancies and conflicts I've seen many posts of LO with using different from vanilla timescales having that problem.

4. CTDs related to conflict(s) in Load Order (rarer since release of FCOMHelper)

5. CTDs related to unstable Must-have mods (FCOM, Deadly Reflex)

6. CTDs related to bugged unclean mods. Well, happens sometimes, hence the so many patches and hotfixes.

7. Mystical unexplained CTDs.

8. Faulty hardware as I saw Elys mention of course... for 8 months I had CTDs I classified as mysterious until Software technician ran some tests and said my old 7800GS was completely fried... time to upgrade! Much better with the new 8800GTX...

9. Ignorance, hastiness and negligence related CTDs. My case, most of the time... Didn't read the readme? Here comes wrong installation, missed patch, wrong LO. Because I haven't done my homework. And hastiness - my other vice. Hurry, hurry, omod it, activate it start the game... ooops, clicked on the wrong button of Wrye Bash or OBMM or something else - error of the mouse I call them

Do you agree with this classification?
What did I miss?

Yes that's a good classification.
7. or possibly 5. are crashes that can eventually be worked around. Why it would be nice to build a common a list of addresses where Oblivion crashes. Some same code addresses may be reported often by different players even using various mod configurations. These particular addresses are interesting to anolyze to see if an universal crash workaround can be done on them.

Can you elaborate on how to get the address of the CTD and the error message, Elys?
What utility I run to find report of the error?

I'm all for this, but I never get the message saying what instruction couldn't be read where or whatnot, always just the standard windows error reporting dialog. I could post the dump reports from those if you want... although lately I don't ctd since I just halt to get out

When Oblivion crashes, you usually get a Windows Error Popup.

I don't have an Oblivion crash screenshots at hand but it looks the same for about any application. Below some links with examples:

http://karamail.nerim.net/elys/temp/mcbr01.jpg
http://karamail.nerim.net/elys/temp/mcbr02.jpg
http://karamail.nerim.net/elys/temp/mcbr03.jpg

Now, if it is too late and that you did not look for the error details before closing the popup, there is a place where you might find the same infos:

- Use the Start menu/ Run commands and enter eventvwr
This will launch the Windows Event Viewer.
-Select Application in the left panel, and it will show a list of events on the right panel.
-Browse the list and spot lines that have a Red and White Cross icon. These one are log of errors. Open only the ones named "Application Error". Once opened, you can see in the description if it concerns Oblivion.exe, and the address where the error happend is also indicated in the description.
I just took a http://karamail.nerim.net/elys/temp/eventvwr01.jpg ( Sorry it's in french but the layout is identical in english )




There is a [Show Details] (or alike) button on the first message.
And if its too late, you can always have a look at the Event Viewer like described just above.
Anyway "quitting crashes" are not a big deal, and not something I'm targetting at. As long as you can save your game before quitting, and reload the savegame later.

Hey,

I would Love to Help But I CANT (yeaaa!!!!) Lol Ever since I downloaded FCOMHelper I have no crashes that give a Screen!! The only crashes I get now are ....While playing all of a sudden Im looking at my desktop. No warning , No pause, Nothing, no error screen NaDa. Just a Desktop. I do aslo get the crash on exit, the funny thing is, I have noticed that IF i have Not saved in a particular session It wont crash on exit. Don't matter if i have been in game for a miniute or an Hour if i haven't ever saved it is the only time it will exit normal. Yes I have gone an hour without saving but it was ok as I was just being an ass in game anyway!!!!


One thing I would Like to See Become the Norm is to have everyone posting there load orders in the this order of preference.

Since many people have merged and mangled there orders SO well!!!!

#1) Wrye Bash. (especially IF your load order contains BASH PATCH)

#2) OBMM (This is ok if your not merging any mods into a bash patch.)


This is taken From The FAQ pinned at the top of the forum!!

Written By dev_akm
==============================================================


You can also usually find a good list in your Plugins.txt file, which is typically located here:

C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion\Plugins.txt

Where is your Windows login. You should be able to open this file in Notepad and copy/paste it into your help request, but it will be sorted alphabetically rather than by load order unless you use OBMM to set your load order (Wrye Bash doesn't sort it by load order).

Some of this should be Up-dated??? This is ok but useless as a load order!!!

==============================================================

You can also use the standard Windows CMD prompt (Start->Run->CMD), and the following command sequence:

cd \Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data
dir *.es* /od/b > C:\Mod_List.txt

This will create a new text file (C:\Mod_List.txt) containing a list of all your mods sorted by date. You can then open this file and copy/paste it into your help request.

This one is ok if not a little on the technical side. Not really but looks that way.

Well ok. I'll bite. Here's one from earlier today. If I'd known it was possble to write plugins to block this stuff I'd have screen capped the more detailed version.

From my event viewer:


It was followed 3 seconds later by:


If the fault address is enough to go on, I'm sure I've got more just like these as I can't go more than about 90 minutes in one session without generating a crash.

EDIT: May as well ask while I'm thinking about it. How difficult would it be to cook up an OBSE plugin that simply exits the game when you tell it you want to quit, instead of sitting there for several minutes doing whatever it is Oblivion does when exiting? A plugin that saves the ini then simply quits would really be great.

Almost all of my CTDs do not show this type of error message, only the "we are sorry, report this error to Microsoft" popup, and that's with >150 mods and a five-year-old computer.

Is it just random error you got once or is it always the same error address ?
As for annoying quit time in Oblivion, if you have one of the last http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=853089 Dev (currently Dev099) plugin installed, just type halt in the console and the game quits immediatly



I don't remember where you must click when you have the Windows Error Reporting enabled because I fortunatly don't use it.
And you should disable that useless beast. You can follow the few easy steps to so http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Disable-Error-Reporting-Windows-XP-Server-2003.html.
Anyway you can still find the error in the Event Viewer as I described just before in that topic.

That particular one is extremely consistent. It's my #1 error address, going back at least a month so far and I'm not done hunting yet. I was going to post with all of the ones I've got as far back as the log goes on the off chance any of it can be identified.

I wasn't aware pluggy could do that, I'll have to grab that at some point. I don't suppose that since you can hook the console with it that it could be prodded into hooking the menu quit instead? It's slightly more convenient to be able to click to exit after saving

Faulting application Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416,
time stamp 0x462392c7, faulting module Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416,
time stamp 0x462392c7, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x000cee0b,
process id 0xae0c,
application start time 0x01c8c8e5476c7f90.

There are Hundreds of these!!!! this must be the on exit one??
Also Mass Effect has the same exception code listed BUT i only have 3 total for that game and I have Already beat the Game once and am continueing on thru again!!


Faulting application Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416,
time stamp 0x462392c7, faulting module Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416,
time stamp 0x462392c7, exception code 0xc000000d, fault offset 0x005920f3,
process id 0x9d4,
application start time 0x01c8b167ff914f00.

About a Dozen of these!


Faulting application Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416,
time stamp 0x462392c7, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0,
time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc000001d, fault offset 0x42374044,
process id 0x17a8,
application start time 0x01c8d48e248c5c7f.

20 or better


Faulting application Oblivion.exe, version 1.2.0.416,
time stamp 0x462392c7, faulting module binkw32.dll, version 6.0.6001.18000,
time stamp 0x4791a783, exception code 0xc0000135, fault offset 0x0006ecfb,
process id 0x1314,
application start time 0x01c8afde37cb8aab.

May have noticed 3 or 4 of this one.



The program Oblivion.exe version 1.2.0.416 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Problem Reports and Solutions control panel. Process ID: 3ac0 Start Time: 01c8d95a2741a260 Termination Time: 104

3 of this hang type!

holler if you need OR want any more Info.

Edit: Was Mass effect not Bio Shock..lol
Edit 2: guess it would help to know this is Vista X64

From my backlogged event viewer which went clear back to the beginning of May:



@Camaro: 0x000cee0b is one we have in common, but as my game tends to simply hang vs crash at exit, you may be right.

Sproaty Scanti have done something like that I think. You might check the "official" last OBSE topic, he talked about it recently. Or contact Sproaty Scanti by PM


Crashes that happend when quitting are not critical since you can still save your game and reload it later. I'm more interested in critical crashes during game that prevent a player from continuing his current game.
Also the best way to report the error is just after it happens because you can talk about the context (where/when/action going on) when the crash happend.
Non-random errors, the crash that you get systematically/ is reproducible within a context are the more interesting and also the easier to test/work on.

I see 0x0018b258 in common in the list. It's a random crash I got once while exploring a Dungeon.

My WIP will add a FastQuit action which will:
save your game in a new slot (optional)
save the ini file
quit using halt from pluggy

The FastQuit action can be accessed from my mod's menu, or bound to a hotkey (such as right-shift + Q).

You'll never want to use the menu to quit again .

---------------------------------

Elys, here's a simple crash that would benefit from a 'hotfix' -- the CTD on startup if you have a file depending on an .esm that isn't activated. Obviously the fix would not be to ignore the missing .esm, but rather to popup a window saying which .esm is missing and which .esm/.esp is dependent on the missing .esm.

I don't plan to do 'complex/interactive' fixes. Also that's something that can be fixed easily by activating the necessary ESM.

Well half my problem I guess is that these aren't repeatable, even though some clearly do REPEAT. None of them prevent saving and then reloading, and almost none of what I've logged is exit crashing since my game tends to just get stuck, or I get impatient waiting on it and kill it with task manager.

Although the other day I did have one very annoying crash that would hit right as the character finished loading and just before the screen should have been displayed. Very much repeatable. Until I reverted to a save far enough back to allow him to sidestep the issue. It may have been spawn related, I'm not sure yet, because I haven't finished off everything he'd done before it began happening. But he hid in a house for 4 days and rested and hasn't had issue yet, but we'll see once I've finished off the next quest he has to recover.

I think you're thinking of someone else, I haven't done any oblivion scripting work (yet)

Oups, sorry. Indeed it was a post made by Scanti:





Well next time you get thet crash after your "finish loading", you can report here the error details about it (And do not delete the savegame as it might be used to test an eventual fix )

I just wanted to chime in with some general troubleshooting tips that are helpful.

Things to ask yourself:
What changed recently?
What happened before the crash? / What was I doing at the time?
Can I repeat the crash?
^-If you do things slightly different, does the problem persist? (only try one different thing at a time)


If you've gotten an error message, try running that exact message through google, this works wonders.