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    Problem opening and closing Oblivion

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by YellowJacket, Aug 3, 2006.

  1. YellowJacket

    YellowJacket Notebook Enthusiast

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    m1210 specs:

    CPU:T2600
    RAM: 2GB 667MHz
    Hard Drive: 100GB 7200rpm
    GPU: Go 7400 Turbocache

    Anyway, when I first turn on my computer and open up Oblivion, it plays smoothly. However, if I close Oblivion and do something else (internet, wc3, etc) and the reopen Oblivion later, it becomes unplayable (same settings as before). If I restart my computer, it plays smoothly again. I don't have any applications running other than Avast! and Oblivion.

    It's REALLY annoying to have to restart my computer in order to play Oblivion (and it's only with this game, not any others).
     
    YellowJacket, Aug 3, 2006
    #1
  2. zicky

    zicky Notebook Evangelist

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    I would guess it's the game itself. I don't think there's much you can do about it unless there's a mod for it. Some games have that issue and it's embedded in their coding. Your only choice is to play on windowed mode (if it can be done) and not in full-screen.
     
    zicky, Aug 3, 2006
    #2
  3. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    What I would suggest is, disabling Avast completely and just run a virus scan every 4-5 days or so.

    And maybe try one of those RAM Freeing programs, maybe Oblivion is causing a memory leak and is stuck in your RAM.


    Im suprised at the number of crashes Oblivion causes overall to anyone...
     
    usapatriot, Aug 3, 2006
    #3
  4. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    Nooooo! Stay away from those RAM "freeing" programs. The only effect they have is *lowering* performance.

    They *might* have had a justification back on Windows 95, but XP is actually a decent OS on its own. And it does a fine job of freeing all memory allocated to a process when that process terminates. No matter how it terminates, and no matter how/when the memory was allocated.

    It is a myth that there's some kind of "left over" memory that doesn't get cleaned up.

    And besides, all the programs do anyway, is dumping a ton of data into memory, forcing everything else to be pushed to the swap file. Yes, it looks like there's more free memory afterwards, but only because all your data is now on the slow HD instead of in fast RAM. Not exactly a great tradeoff.

    And don't even get me started on the utilities that claim to "defragment" your RAM.
     
    Jalf, Aug 3, 2006
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  5. Phil17

    Phil17 Notebook Consultant

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    Have you tried installing the new patch or the unofficial patch(better if you ask me)?
     
    Phil17, Aug 3, 2006
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  6. hydra

    hydra Breaks Laptops

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    Agree. I would still get shutdown crases after the patches. When I went for 1 to 2 gigs, after patch, no problems.

    IMHO, I'm not happy the way Oblivion runs compared to other new games.

    I'm using free Avira AntiVir, never any problems so I don't bother turning it off, FWIW.
     
    hydra, Aug 3, 2006
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  7. Gautam

    Gautam election 2008 NBR Reviewer

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    I know games in the past can dump multiple processes in the memory, and then when you close the program, it doesnt eliminate all the processes. When you attempt to restart the game, the second iteration of the process competes with its former, and causing poor performance.

    As phil17 wrote, get the patches. Sometimes that helps.
     
    Gautam, Aug 6, 2006
    #7