Oblivion Crashes......a lot

josh6079

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2006
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I love this game and it looks great, but I can't figure out why it freezes after playing for about 20 min. or so. I've heard that it crashes a lot, but within this small of a time frame? I thought for some it would crash after an hour and a half or something.

Does anyone know how to fix/reduce this from happening? Is there a patch out that I'm missing? The last thing I did was put in the Chuck patch.

(Note: It also seems to do this with Far Cry. I don't know if it is the Chuck patch since it messes with how the HDR is ran.)
 

CLohre

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Sep 15, 2005
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Oblivion doesn't like overclocking at all. I have a AMD 64 3700+ @ 2.6 (from 2.2) and I got constant freezes and crashes in about the same time frame. I could go from 20 min to 1 1/2 before it would crash. I set my settings back to stock and it ran slightly smoother (odd I know) and it didn't crash at all.

It may be different for each system but thats all I can think of. Try that and if it works then kudos, if not try something else :?
 

josh6079

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Mar 17, 2006
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I love the game, but I still play other ones that would benefit from my overclockings. I couldn't justify underclocking to meet just one of the games I play. Did you set your video card clocks back or everything back just out of curiousity?
 

CLohre

Member
Sep 15, 2005
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I could never get my PowerColor X1900XT to overclock without losing stability. I guess it got to hot. So my Video cards out of that equation.

I just set my CPU and ram back to stock timings. The video card seems to be fast enough for me. I bet i just got bad ram... never took off the heatsink to check.
 

rise

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2004
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i think its single core bugged :p

seriously though, i can run my oc'd cpu or card all day and only have an occasional error when exiting.

i wish they'd release a damn patch though as i feel your pain. 20 mins? i'd play something else rather than put up with that.
 

Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
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Oblivion heats up the video card like no other game, and it may be causing your x1900xtx to overheat. I had my x1900xt flashed to xtx specs, and it could run 3dmock all day, but when I ran Oblivion, I also had it crash every 10-20 minutes until I flashed it back to xt specs. Try manually setting your video card fan to higher speed, and see if it solves the crashing. Note that Oblivion is still buggy, and it sometimes crashes to the desktop with a "program must close" error message for no apparent reason, but if it freezes and/or the screen turns black, then it's your card overheating.
 

43st

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
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Try out the ATI Tool Beta version. It has a fan control section where you can custom set triggers for fan increases. My X850XT PE maxed out at 37% fan speed at default... I now have it set 50% max with an emergency rate of 100% at temps over 90. Oblivion has been much more stable since then.
 

Amplifier

Banned
Dec 25, 2004
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Oblivion crashed on my a lot as well. For me it was a memory/overclocking issue. I loosened my timings to 3-3-3-8 and dropped down to *gasp* stock speed. This solved the problem.
 

kingdomwinds

Member
Dec 18, 2004
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My pc is overclocked. Opteron 148 at 2.75ghz and no problems. I only get that application error when i quit oblivion
 

wanderer27

Platinum Member
Aug 6, 2005
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I've had this problem before as well - and so far the solution is so simple it's almost stupid.

First, Defrag your HD. This game does a ton of I/O and seems to have issues when things start getting fragmented.

Second, do a Diskscan (minus recover bad Sectors - quicker) to make sure all the files are indexed correctly.

That's it.

I had this happen just shy of 100Hrs, did this and was good to around 150Hrs, then did it again and so far things are still fine.
 

allies

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2002
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Uhm... more information on how it crashes... does it come up with an error message and a "send to microsoft" thingy or just freeze and you have to close out manually? I might have your solution if it's the former.
 

josh6079

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2006
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Most of the time it is the "Error Message", however, I have had the "freeze" issue a couple of times.

How exactly do you defrag your system. I thought I knew how to do it, (type "defrag" in the "Run" section of your Widows Start tab) but it never required me to wait as long as I've heard others wait. That and instructions to the disk scan thing would be helpful.

It only happens with Oblivion and Far Cry, two of the most intensive HDR games I have. Is anyone sure there isn't something with the driver/Chuck patch?
 

Markbnj

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Sep 16, 2005
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Originally posted by: kingdomwinds
My pc is overclocked. Opteron 148 at 2.75ghz and no problems. I only get that application error when i quit oblivion

A lot of people get that error, especially after playing for a long time. The program isn't shutting down properly, but it doesn't seem to cause any harm.
 

Dainas

Senior member
Aug 5, 2005
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My computer is currently at its limit for no Oblivion crashes. Its really wierd but nomatter how much I relax my memory timings or voltages or whatever, 2.55ghz is the limit with my CPU(2.6ghz with everything else). There is something else tough, if you have a audigy, or another stand alone soundcard there are some tweaks you can do that supposedly stop 90% of non-overclocked related crashes.

I do get the application error when exiting Oblivion, but only if I've saved my game within 10 seconds of exiting(my install and savegames are on differnt HDs)
 

mrkun

Platinum Member
Jul 17, 2005
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I've never had Oblivion crash while gaming. I occassionally get the improper shutdown though.
 

allies

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2002
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search your computer for this file:
mpeg2dmx.ax
and rename it to mpeg2dmx.ax.old
solved my problems.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
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Sounds like overclock in sig is'nt really stable. Loop 3dmark and prime for four hours and see.
 

framerateuk

Senior member
Apr 16, 2002
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I had problems with Oblivion crashing when i had ATI's overclocking utility turned up full. it used to crash when i had my shuttle motherboard and case.

Since ive got a new mboard and case, oblivion just crashses and then CCC pops up and reports that the card wasnt responding to commands. Turning the sliders down a bit and using less of an overclock worked perfectly. It causes no problems in other games, just looks like oblivion throttles the card more than anything else!
 

krotchy

Golden Member
Mar 29, 2006
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Originally posted by: allies
search your computer for this file:
mpeg2dmx.ax
and rename it to mpeg2dmx.ax.old
solved my problems.


Agreed, I had tons upon tons of crashes in oblivion until someone on this forum said to do a windows search for mpeg2data.ax. I renamed it, windows has since made a new version of the file, but I havent crashed since.
 

josh6079

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2006
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Thanks for all of the advice guys. I'm going to try all of them and see what happens. I'll post back with any results.
 

josh6079

Diamond Member
Mar 17, 2006
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Oh, one more quick thing.

which overclocking prgram is better/safer/stable to use ccc or ati tools?
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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mine crashes randomly - i can see no pattern. Doesn't matter if my system is O/C'd or not.

sometimes it is fine for hours . . . sometimes it crashes several times in a row
[which is about when i go to bed] :p

it just needs a patch [but it is not so buggy as most new games] ;)
 

framerateuk

Senior member
Apr 16, 2002
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Originally posted by: josh6079
Oh, one more quick thing.

which overclocking prgram is better/safer/stable to use ccc or ati tools?

CCC is better for the card as it only sets the higher speed when your in games, and just uses the slower 2d speeds during normal use (also keeps the card quieter).

With ATI tools your car will stay at the overclocked speed constantly and will generate a lot more heat when its idle.
 

Yreka

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2005
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Originally posted by: framerateuk
Originally posted by: josh6079
Oh, one more quick thing.

which overclocking prgram is better/safer/stable to use ccc or ati tools?

CCC is better for the card as it only sets the higher speed when your in games, and just uses the slower 2d speeds during normal use (also keeps the card quieter).

With ATI tools your car will stay at the overclocked speed constantly and will generate a lot more heat when its idle.

Not exactly true. You can make separate 2d and 3d profiles *including fanspeed* with ATI tool. Further, you can tell it to load your 2d profile on startup, and 3d profile when you start a 3d app.

Its a PITA, but doable.

That being said, I use CCC to OC. Personal opinion really, and not a popular one I'm sure. I just haven't had good luck with ATI Tool.

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