If I remove a mod - as in open OBMM, deactivate the package in the right pane and then right click and delete it - and then click on my Oblivion shortcut and the game completely fails to load until I put the package back and activate it, what is the likely cause of that?

By "Completely refuses to load" I assume you mean the window comes up for a second, and then vanishes?

If so, its a missing master issue. What mod is it, specifically?

And would it be too much to assume you have Wrye Bash installed?

It could be suddenly missing master files.
Did you rebuild the bashed patch after removal of this one mod?

I don't have a bashed patch, because I haven't been using Wrye Bash - (a situation which is liable to change soon I suspect).

As for which mod it is it's the Chorrol Maid one - (yes, I know) - I only DL'd it because it looked briefly amusing. Suffice to say it's not amusing, it's not for me and I want rid of it from my game sharpish.

I don't have a save from before I actually activated it. If I deactivate the package in OBMM then the game still won't load. It will load if I activate the package but deactivate the ESP.
If I do that however then from the save I have I can still see the entry for the mod's initialisation in my quest journal which is clearly going to cause a problem...

I'm about a hair's breadth away from admitting I have learnt a valuable lesson about being rather more circumspect about what mods I add and reinstalling Oblivion, but I'd rather not because I have got it how I like it.

Is there a way round it without just reinstalling? - (I fear I am going to have to actually start the game from scratch as well, as all the saves contain references to the mod)... Gah!

Any particular reason you can't just deactivate the ESP? Thats more than enough for removing the mod.

I like to keep things tidy.
In my universe all of the forks in the cutlery drawer of my life are the right way round and the right way up, this is not only the wrong way round, it's a spoon.
Also, even if I did that:
1. the quest journal entry would still exist
2. it would mean that my game would effectively be dependant upon a mod I don't want
3. I would refer you to my initial comment

Ah f**k it, I'm just gonna start again!

That'll teach me...

Is there any uninstall information in the readme of that mod?

This I find rather surprising. I would think you had to be out of the game, install and activate the mod, then restart the game. Whenever you last exited the game (prior to the mod), you do not have a save around? Not a sound practice anyway.

I still think it is a missing master issue. Does the mod come with more files than just an .esp?

Maybe contact the mod author, he may know something we don't.

Ah, well - I do take backups of saves, and I normally have plenty in fairness - in fact I have backups of EVERYTHING. Unfortunately however on this occasion I'm missing saves from before this mod was installed - it was a while ago that I stuck it on.

Anyway I've wasted enough pixels on this so I reckon I'll just give it the heave-ho and start over. It'll be liberating...

I've not needed it, but doesn't Wrye Bash have the tools to fix most 'missing masters' issues? Someone more knowledgeable on the matter will surely know. You need Wrye Bash for Bashed Patches in any case, and it is a better mod installer/manager than OBMM. More of a learning curve to be sure, but worth it. These days almost everything can be installed via BAIN (in the past this wasn't quite true). My primary install has not one single OMOD or manual mod install (excepting OBSE). Even my secondary install, which used to be mostly OMODs plus some manual installs from early on, is being gradually converted to all BAIN. (I think Im down to seven or so OMODs.)

Did you check the mod readme for uninstall instructions? Some mods need more than simple removal.

-Decrepit-

Do you have another mod that depends on it installed? A quick look at the description suggests that Claudias Little Secret has an optional esp that depends on the Chorrol Maid, SMVtoyCross.esp (under the recommended mods section). Check for that one.

Nope not got that.
TBH I wish I'd never installed the damn thing to start with...

I did check the readme, and there aren't any.
Thing is I've never had any trouble before so I got a bit cocky about it.
I think I might have to investigate a bashed patch in future.

Stupid thing is - it's entirely my own fault, I just skimmed it before I installed it, but missed several important points which would have put me right off ever installing it. Normally I'm more careful than that...

Hmm, you may want to go through your esps and see if there's one that depends on the Maid one, or even just looks suspicious. Maybe an optional race esp or something?
Or you could deactivate your mod esps one at a time until the game starts working to give you an idea which is the problem.

[EDIT] - Sorted it.

Not to rub salt in the wound, but if you're starting again it would be a good time to install Wrye Bash and stop using OBMM. Though it has a pretty steep learning curve, Bash is far superior and has tools that are required to make mods play nicely together.

With Bash's list of mods it would be easy to pick up on a missing master issue - just look for the big red check box beside a mod.

Not to mention the BAIN installers feature: the important difference between OBMM and Bash's installers is that with OBMM, you install package A, then install package B which overwrites some files from package A. Fine and dandy. Then you remove package B, and the files you overwrote are now missing from package A - OBMM does not know enough to pull the missing files out of A and reinstall them. You could disable and reenable A, if you knew about the issue, but it starts getting greatly compounded with large numbers of packages. This is perhaps the most important feature of BAIN: being able to "anneal" compromised installs.

I second that. I thought I could use OBMM and Wrye Bash together but found out that BAIN was way more convenient to use than OMODs. I only have a UI mod installed as OMOD at the moment. It took me quite some time to figure out BAIN is a superior install method. Speaking of which... if you decide to start over with a new install, make a backup of that somewhere safe to avoid uninstalling and reinstalling. Also, if you are not sure about a particular mod, make a backup of your install first. That way there's something that you can go back to if it does not work out.

THIS
It was actually due to the fact that DLL had not been reflashed so whenever I loaded without SMC present, it errored.
I picked this up in Wrye Bash.
I take back everything I ever said about Wrye Bash.
I still like to use OBMM because it's more intuitive for me, but I think I shall be making more use of Wrye Bash in the future.

/embarrassed cough.

Thank you all for your help.

Mat

That's just the thing I did make backups, and thankfully I found all my archived backups as well "just in case"...

Frankly, Wrye Bash is not really that difficult. Does an end user really need to know what a bashed patch is? Not really, just follow instructions on how to make one, and it should be fine.If you like digging in how it is made etc., that's when we are out of Kansas.

WB is really a blessing when you have to troubleshoot. I had to make that transition from OBMM to WB about 2 years ago. Thanks to Psymon and Tomlong's great advice. Best thing I ever did. The only time requirement would be to repackage one's mods in to a BAIN-friendly format. Most mod authors do that these days, and older mods with manual installs are usually already OK. Many authors now create BAIN packages up front for complex mods (EE, Frans, BC, All Natural, UL etc.), and there are many BCFs available.

Plus, there is a great guide (alternity's) to walk you through the process now.

Where do I get that guide?

Ask and ye shall recieve: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35230

Awesome, thank you!
Mat