Retry

My computer is back from Crystech. Apparently the graphics card was "slightly un-housed" and refitting it solved the problem. But when the PC first started acting up I took everything out (graphics card, sound card, RAM, HDD, etc.) and fitted it all back again to make sure there weren't any loose connections. Well I suppose that doesn't really matter. It's fixed now and didn't cost me anything but time (the most precious currency?).

Well... I say "fixed" because it was fine when I unpacked it. Oh, except for the sound card which had become slightly un-housed and had to be pushed back into its slot. I played DMoMM and everything was hunky-dory. I went on the Internet, listened to music, watched some videos, etc., etc.... installed Oblivion and a load of plugins for it, played that... until it stopped working. At first it slowed down every now and then. When entering a new cell (an area outside) or receiving a new message (level-up, journal entry, etc.), or entering the inventory or pause menu, the game would hang for almost half a minute before resuming without any problems. I put up with it for a while thinking that after it had "gotten it all out of its system" the game would be fine. At this point I did not know (and still do not know) if the problem lies with my PC (e.g. newer drivers required) or with a plugin (I installed quite a few, many of which alter things like the game's physics, add huge spells, or change NPC behaviour). Then when I tried to load a game, Oblivion reported the save to be "version 0.0" and incompatible, upon further investigation the file was reported as "corrupted". Urgh. So I deleted all my saves and started anew with a slightly different load order for the plugins. No problems this time. But the last time I played it the game started slowing down again. I desperately saved my character/game and quit. Upon returning to my desktop I got the Microsoft Error Report saying Oblivion had crashed. I shut down the computer and made a mental note to check out the plugins at a later date (like, after work today).

I booted the computer this morning and it won't get past the Windows XP loading screen. Safe Mode won't work either. Arg.

Arg, arg, and double arg. What am I to do? I'll just have to jiggle the hardware again when I get home and hope for the best. If that doesn't work then I'll have to try the good old nigh-on-useless "Windows Repair" function on my XP disc. If that doesn't work then I'll have to format the PC and reinstall Windows. I don't know, can a plugin for Oblivion do something that cataclysmic or is there another fault somewhere? Is there a big vibration within the system that's shaking components loose from their housing?

Find out next time on "WINDY CROSS".