So, im sure many of you have possibly heard this problem before, but i havnt heard any methods that have worked... let me explain, so here i am playing oblivion for the rest of my days untill skyrim comes out, i decide to start the game again and once i complete everything i can and want ill settle down, collect a few books and read up on some lore and stories from around tamriel (im mainly wanting to come across ones about skyrim and the power of thu'um and stuff like that), but there is one obsticale in my way, i have been doing all the main quest oblivion gates and skingrad is one of the last i need to do, but when i reached the top i found the sigil stone was'nt activating, i tried clearing my cache but that didnt work (unlesss i have to clear it and then go back to a very far save) and i havnt tried any other oblivion gates yet so see if its gates as a whole or just this one, and i dont want it happening again in hte future. Out of all the time i have ever played i have NEVER encountered a game breaking glitch like this, anyone give some insight into this?

EDIT: Forgot to mention, this is on Xbox 360

What do you see when you go to the Sigil stone? is there a notification that says Take/activate? or is it blank?

it is just totally blank, no signs of any possible activation

Did you kill the main demon guarding the sigil? I think you have to kill him first.

a few more rhetorical questions please bear with me


How close did you move to the stone?

How many hours old is that Save?

Did you exit the chamber save and come back?

Have you tried reloading the nearest autosave and trying again?

No matter how close i move i can't actually do anything with it, ive tried moving all around it and the only success i have managed to achieve is getting myself blown up by jumping on top of it...

This new save is 22 hours and 30 minutes long... i like to waste time by pretending the floor is lava in multiple citys when im bored and dont want to carry out any quests...

I have exited the chamber, the gate, saved and re loaded multiple times... i should really check other oblivion gates and see if it does the same... ill do that right now...

and to morgus, there isnt always a sigil keeper, and if there is he just holds the key to getting into the sigillum sanguis (sigil chamber) which i can already get into...

alright fill us in on what happens


you dont need to Key to take the Stone, I had this issue before and leaving the area and saving and coming back usually fixed this

Okay, i will try exiting, saving and coming back and fill you in on what happens and what the problem is in more detail if it doesnt work...

Since that didn't work have you tried exiting the game and going back and if that doesn't work reload a save before entering the gate and do it again.

Ughh... no, once again i have exited the oblivion gate, saved, went back in, and moved towards the sigil with unhopeful eyes and once again 'bam', doesnt work... im sure i've tried reloading an older save but i will reload an even earlier one and see if it helps... by the way guys thanks for trying to help me, im sure ill get it, and even if i dont ill be able to sleep knowing there are people out there who are always willing to lend a hand if i encounter a problem where no one else will.

this happened to me the last two times i tried to play oblivion....the second time i was thinking... okay... i'm going to finally take the time to close every single oblivion gate.... but about 7 hours into the game... and about 10 oblivion gates closed... i all the sudden had the same problem... and it wasn't just one gate, but all of them... i worked with save files by reseting the cache and waiting 3 days far away from any oblivion gate....i did manage to get the game to fix itself briefly, but two oblivion gates later and it happened again.... and i never got it to work again.... i was pretty annoyed so i just stopped playing... ... and to this day i still want to play oblivion, but i dread a similar experience...

this is why i am hoping this 5th anniversary edition has a new patch built into it....

No problem. That's what the forums are for.

what i did when i got mine to work again briefly was...

reset the cache..... open save file where you have not entered broken gate.... fast travel away from any oblivion gate... wait for 3 days in game time.....saved my game.... reset the cache again... and then loaded up the game....

this worked briefly.... but then it happened again and i was unable to get this to work again...

Okay thanks guys, i will try your method auruin when i can, right now im just loading up an early save, 2 oblivion gates before the skingrad one (where i encountered the problem) and going straight to the skingrad one to see if it woks, ill let you all soon as.

AAARRHHH! I honestly dont know WHAT it could be then! I've got a feeling its just the Skingrad gate or the whole save is infected no matter how far back i go >_< i dont what to clear the cache because that causes all sorts of problems with DLC resetting on other saves aswell doesnt it?

i don't think it does.. or at least i never experienced a problem... and i played oblivion and both fallouts and all of their dlc with no problem.... and i was reseting the cache every few hours... if i didn't, the load times would keep taking longer and longer...

also, if you try what i suggested, maybe you could also try going into a completely different oblivion gate first before going into the one you know your having problems with.

and i don't know what causes this but i do know that when it happened to me i was doing oblivion gate runs.... and after i grabbed the stone i would jump off the platform to work on my acrobatics... so i'm not sure if somehow my actions during that brief fiery scene somehow corrupted my save so that every sigil stone loaded as "already grabbed".... so i told myself next time i do try to play through, i'm just going to stand and do nothing after i grab the stone....

man this annoys me to even think about... i feel your pain...

yeah, i think im just remembering when i played the game for a while without an internet connection and THAT messed up my saves, im trying your method now

well, i was just eating and checking out the forums as i did so.... i'm going to go back to playing some chrono trigger now.... good luck... i hope this doesn't taint your experience.... oblivion is a fantastic game.... even with all its flaws...

'sigh' that didnt work either, i suppose i'll just have to accept this as a sign that my time with oblivion is coming to a close and that it wants me to keep looking forward to the future, that future is skyrim! Ill happily keep accepting possible solutions to this problem but if nothing can be done then i suppose that's that. Thanks again guys for all the help (but once again more help by other forums member is welcomed with open arms xD)

Don't sweat it, 24hrs is no joke you did do the 3 days wait from all gates right? that resets everything in the game or rather the game resets itself and interiors after 3 days in game.

My game didnt reset... odd... oh well... i've sort of moved on and carried on playing with an older character of mine, i might as well just have some fun before i get bored of it and skyrim comes out. Just want to thank all you guys one last time for helping me out... i guess one thing we fixed was my ability and acceptance to move on and just have fun with the game now... hope to see you guys still in the community!