Alright,

I had a buggy version of Oblivion on my PC from about two years ago. So, I moved the entire folder from the C:/ drive to the D:/ drive. I then re-installed Oblivion on the C:/ Drive and deleted all of the old Oblivion saves/.ini files. The re-install worked, however, I think a few mods conflicted on the new installation and even if I turned off EVERY mod and omod, it would still crash when I loaded up a save game. I re-reinstalled it, and it worked again. However, after installing mods again, it crashed upon load. I could find nothing wrong with that I was doing and insured compatibility was evident.

Mods I was using:

Qarl's TP3
Unofficial Oblivion/Shivering Isles Patch
Knights of the Nine/Shivering Isles
Unique Landscapes - Whole omod
Qarl's TP3/UOP Compatibility patch
4096x4096 and 2048x2048 LOD views
Darnified UI/Immersive Interface
More Immersive Sounds
Atmospheric Weather System
Advanced Water Modification
Atmospheric Oblivion
Ayleid Loot Extended [non-COBL version]

That's pretty much all I can think of. So, since it kept crashing, I tried re-re-reinstalling it, however, even with just Oblivion and no mods at all installed, it still crashes when I try to load a save. If I make a new game, it will allow me to edit the character in character selection and all of that, but, about five seconds after I hit the "finish" button in the prison cell... Crash to Desktop! Keep in mind, I deleted the old .ini files and folders.

Interestingly enough, Oblivion won't let me uninstall it via the uninstallation launcher or whatever. I have to manually delete the whole folder and recycle it, then, re-install Oblivion in its place. Could this have something to do with the fact I did not uninstall my old-old Oblivion installation and merely cut and pasted it to my D:/ Drive?

Clearly, something is amiss. It's REALLY pissing me off. Sorry if I'm at all unclear, any other questions, please ask. I will worship you forever as King if you can solve this conundrum. I do want to play Oblivion again.

Necifix

What OS are you using? If Win7, did you set the Compatibility settings to "Disable desktop composition"? Also, have you tried uninstalling via the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs if the launcher isn't working? If you do a "manual" uninstall, don't forget that Oblivion does leave registry entries that would also need to be cleaned.

Yes to all of that. I've also tried re-installing it AGAIN with my friends' mint condition, unscratched disk. No go, Joe. Any ideas? Probably not... I cleaned all registry entries.

I'm using Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

Does Oblivion work with the clean install with NO mods, e.g., completely clean install? I had to do a reinstall lately to troubleshoot a video issue, and here's what I did that worked:

• Backed up the existing Oblivion install (C drive on mine)
  
• Backed up the Oblivion saves in My Games (D drive on mine)
  
• Complete uninstall, including directory removal for all on C/D
  
• Fresh (re)install of Oblivion, SI from GOTY edition
  
• Set compatibility settings for Win7 and reran video config
  
• Loaded game to do test, created char, moved around, saved/reloaded
  
• Backed up the "clean", working install
  
• Reapplied my original backed-up files on top and everything worked

If this general process doesn't work for you, my guess is that there's a conflict with one or more of your mods, possibly with load order (try BOSS). You can enable/disable one at a time to identify the conflicts once you have your "clean" working.

Indeed. I deleted and fully uninstalled/cleaned registry entries of all old Oblivion files or related files. I even cleared the Oblivion.ini and deleted all of my old saves and the old saves folder. I did a completely clean, fresh install of Oblivion with absolutely no mods and it still crashes upon loading a game. Should I try installing Oblivion in a different directory?

I've tried installing it to a completely different directory. I can't load a game. If I start a new game, it allows me to create a new character. But, after finishing the character and walking around in my jail cell for approximately 5-10 seconds, the game crashes to desktop. Every time, on every fresh install.

I've also defragmented my hard drive, which has done nothing. What is going on?!

This is so stupid. I'm angered past redemption. I've COMPLETELY re-installed everything, head to toe, again. NOTHING was spared from my rampage and it STILL crashes. To say I'm enraged is a VAST understatement. I am clearly being held back by some divine force, as there is no other explanation as to why it was working a few days ago, then, after having some mod incapabilities, it stops working, despite fresh re-installs and a complete vanilla Oblivion.

Crysis loads fine and does not glitch, so, I don't think it's my video drivers. What am I missing?! I'm going insane. *swears profusely*

Here's my error code in the Windows solutions center:

Product
Oblivion

Problem
Stopped working

Date
3/2/2011 10:54 PM

Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Oblivion.exe
Application Version: 1.2.0.416
Application Timestamp: 462392c7
Fault Module Name: StackHash_2ccd
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 55c3ffff
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 2ccd
Additional Information 2: b7a25245ecd6b36b9d66fa98ae9b5ff2
Additional Information 3: 76df
Additional Information 4: 28d43f286554e99dc5f4c3e1ba865179

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 509207382

...Yep, what does that mean? This guy hasn't a clue. I googled the exception code for Oblivion and I actually found quite a few people with the same problem as me, however, I only found one guy with the EXACT same scenario, where he could get in, play for 5-10 seconds then it quit out on him. However, my "fault module name" is far different from others' error. Mine is "StackHash_2ccd", while everyone else's appears to be just "Oblivion.exe".

I have a Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor, 6GB of RAM, Asus Xonar DX sound card (5.2 system) and a HIS HD 6870 GPU. Any ideas? This is obviously driver or codec related at this point, I would think.

In a desperate attempt to alleviate the issue, I installed OBSE 0019b and a crash prevention mod, which did nothing. So, that option is out of the window, too.

Edit again: I have identified the root of this problem. I went into my Oblivion.ini after an in-depth Google search and set the bMusicEnabled = 0 and bSoundEnabled = 0.

It loaded just fine.

This is clearly an audio problem. Shall I try re-installing my drivers first? If that doesn't work, what other options should I take? I adore my Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 system. I'm not playing soundless, though, the game loaded perfectly fine without sound enabled.

I am an idiot.

I typed in "Xonar DX Oblivion" and found out that there is a small button in the Xonar DX control panel that is automatically highlighted to be turned on: DS3D GX mode. By simply unchecking it, Oblivion played with sound.

Fourteen re-installs, hours of work installing and uninstalling codecs and updating drivers and all I had to do was click one little button.

I'm going to go cry in a corner and punch a baby. Meanwhile, anyone else who has the Xonar DX and has this problem, you're stupid too. Uncheck the button. It'll work.

The problem is that they removed DirectMusic and DirectSound from DirectX, effectivly disabling any form of hardware acceleration making your soundcard useless, unless you have a utility that translates DirectX calls to OpenAL ones: which you have discovered for the Asus Xonar cards. There is a similar utility for Creative X-Fi cards (Creative alchemy).

Glad you figured it out.

By the way, the solution IS obscure, and not well documented anywhere.

You did good :celebration:

Indeed, great effort troubleshooting and I'm glad to hear you got it working!