So today, after suffering my 4th random CTD in ten minutes I decided I was gonna do everything proper. I was gonna clean out all my mods, download and tests mods one at a time, get Wrye Mash & clean it all out, like everyone always says.
So I did, I cleaned it all out, re-installed my mods one at a time, downloaded Wrye Mash, and you know what it did?

It made me hate you all. You made it sound so easy. Seriously. This is bull. I tried reading through the readme guide thing that comes with it. And that made me hate you more.
I just about worked out how to 'maintain my load order' which did nothing. And now I want to kill somebody.

Why can't somebody make something like the old Freelancer Mod Manager?

So uhh, can someone just tell me how to make this thing clean my game before I go on a rampage?

well just for starters, telling everyone you hate them for somethign that isn't our fault, and asking ofr help isn't a very nice way to make friends here.

as for your save game, i suggest you re-read the readme and any other documents that came with. the instructions on how to clean the game are very clear and by using mash with a few other tools your game will be almost CTD free.

I was kidding. It was supposed to be a joke about how everyone seems to find all this stuff so easy, yet I'm here near tearing my hair out. But nevermind.

& I've read through the readme several times & I'm still none the wiser. Hence, me coming here for help.

Tough crowd...

Alright. First of all I think that Bob meant you should read the readme's of the mod files you installed not just Mash. I'll go a step farther and admonish you sternly for installing them all without rereading the readme's and testing as you went :nono:

Now, for load order I prefer Mlox. It's a one button push wonderkind of a program. Where Mash really shines is it's ability to clean your save game not your load order (if you don't know what a load order is and how to create one properly from the ground up it's kind of hard to use) and the creation of a merged leveled list. Read Mash's readme, it's pretty simple to keep your save files current with load order and the proper purple color simply with three or four button pushes. The mashed list (merged leveled list esp) is also super simple and easy to create when done through the readme. If your still having problems, before you come back I would also suggest making a merged objects file with TesTool. At that point if you still have a problem, use Mash to make a copy of all the mods your using in their current load order and past it here.

No one can help you if you can't tell us succinctly and precisely whats wrong that's where the load order will come in if your still having problems after those three steps outlined above.

I've been doing this for a long time and I find the entire CTD phenomenon to be completely random and without pattern, logic, or remorse. There are things that you can do to reduce them, and doing the wrong things pretty much guarantees them frequently, but I find in the end you are at the mercy of the Morrowind Gods.

--Assuming a heavily modded game, it's pretty much a rock without mods. I think the main problem is most people get a lot of scripts firing at once because of mods that all affect something at the same time. Things like combat, leveling, etc. I think as CPU's get faster maybe the rate of CTDS will go down as the raw speed begins to make up for the less than acceptable scripting engine. The reason progress is moving so slow, I think, is because CPU technology doesn't seem to be advancing clock speeds very fast which is what all these scripts need. The community sure is trying their best to work around it though. Props.

First off make sure your mods are OK:
(1) On the Mods tab all mods should have a green checkbox.
(2) If any mods have a yellow checkbox, select them and then look for the Save button in the bottom right. Click that and the mod file will be updated and the error removed. The error just means that the mod was created with an earlier version of Morrowind to the one you're using. Saving in Mash will update this version info.
(3) If you have any mods with red checkboxes then you do not have a ESM file needed by that mod loaded. Check the mod's readme.
Now saves:
(4) Onto the Saves tab, select the save you want to fix.
(5) When the save is selected the list in the bottom right will be populated with the mods currently associated with the save.
(6) Right click the column headers ("File" and "Num") and choose Sync to Load List (this will change the mods associated with the save to match those currently selected on the Mods tab)
(7) Click Save
(8) Right click the save game and choose Repair All
(9) Optionally, right click the save and choose Remove > Debris Cells
(10) The checkbox for the save should now be purple.

Other ways of reducing CTDs: patch your EXE. Firstly with Hrnchamd's Morrowind Code Patch, then (optionally) with Timeslip's EXE Optimiser.

Just to be sure, you're opening the 'Wrye Mash.html' file, correct? Not the 'Wrye Mash.txt' - the txt file is the source file for generating the html.

Once Wrye Mash is installed, you can also access the correct help file by clicking on the question-mark icon in the lower left of the Wrye Mash app's bottom status bar.

BINGO! I think I've CTD'ed once or twice with this new build in the whole year I've had it playing MW heavily modded
with MGE and a handful of shaders. Me also thinks its my 4.2GHz quad core which helps. :nod: