So for codecs, how exactly does one know which ones to keep and which ones to disable?

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/858/codecs.jpg

There's a lot, and personally I'd rather not mess something up elsewhere just for the sake of the game.

As for codec packs, I was (until earlier) using CCCP; now iv switched to sharks win7 codecs (in case the older ones wer causing crashes)

UPDATE: tried oblivion with BOSS, UOP, SI UOP, OBSE, mod manager etc and capucines character expansion and alternative start mods.

Ran it for roughly an hour, and basically just bolted round the imperial city killing things. Funny thing is, sometimes i got a sharp fps (albeit very quick) drop sometimes when the *battle* music began.

Maybe im jumping at shadows, but now im basically adding all my mods to the game again and praying that it works. If it continues to crash then i assume its a codec/audio issue causing the crashing.

No victory yet, wish me luck =P

Well! I just turned the game off there now. Been playing since 10, and not a single crash =D

Currently hunting for a daedric artefact in the game, and im grand champion of the arena.

Thank you all so much for your assistance, and advice throughout this hectic situation lol.

Just to recap (for others experiencing similar problems) - it was the lack of a codec (Fraunhofer one) which caused my game to crash for some odd reason. After reinstalling the codec the game runs fine now.

Label this as solved anyone? 4 and a half hours without a crash and several mods is an achievement in my books =D

Wishing to know the answer to this too.
Alternately you could just temporarily disable all codecs before playing Oblivion.

Here are a couple methods for this...

http://www.codecguide.com/windows7_preferred_filter_tweaker.htm

I'll check for an XP version for the one above.

Or, try this... A bit more advanced, but this is another method.


http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404892.html


http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404870.html

This tool can help you hunt down what codecs you have installed. Shows installed paths

http://www.updatexp.com/sherlock-codec-detective.html.. lol!

This is interesting, the fact that Oblivion/FO3 use mp3's for their music. This creates a lot of problems for certain people which could all be remedied if they did NOT use mp3's, which would also boost fps as mp3's lower fps.

I had a related issue with my Oblivion music being completely disabled, tried just about everything related to codecs, disabling certain/all codecs, installing K-Lite codec pack. I suspect some codec got corrupted somewhere, somehow (keep in mind, ALL I did was re-install Oblivion and this all happened) and I believe the only way I could fix it is re-installing Win7. I have tried to find a way to reset or re-install the default Win7 codecs and delete all the others but have yet to find a way (not sure if there even is one, short of re-formatting) to do that.

Xenophon, re-installing Windows 7 fixed the issues for you? So you are using ALL default Win7 codecs, or are you using a codec pack as well. I was wondering if that win7 codec pack you speak of did the trick. I have tried CCCP and K-lite, neither of which remedied the issue.

It seems these codec related issues for Oblivion/FO3 are very odd, fairly common, and often unexplainable. You can see all the potential solutions I tried here: http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1075344 . So far, nothing has worked and I KNOW it must be codec related but just cannot find the codec that is causing issues.

There is a neat and easy little program to manage/disable/enable codecs called InstalledCodecs. If your going to check that out I have to say this one has worked the best for me so far: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/installed_codec.html

-J