OBSE not working

[Iconian]

I've been scouring the internet for any information on how to get the Oblivion Script Extender working. In short, Oblivion has not been able to detect OBSE repeatedly.

I've now installed and uninstalled Oblivion and OBSE about four times in the last week or so. The Steam overlay is enabled in Steam Settings as well as in Oblivion's Properties. I've tried running Steam and Oblivion as administrator. I've tried different versions of OBSE. I tried to get Steam to install Oblivion to a new directory, but for some reason Steam is obstinately still installing it in Program Files (x86).

In June 2018 I installed Oblivion on this computer and had OBSE working fine, but since then I've reformatted the machine, and I gather this might have something to do with the problem. As was the case then though, I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Any ideas about what I might be missing to get OBSE working right?

[Azmodeus]

check the installer(meaning files that you need to copy not a executable) of the OBSE youre using im new to obse but i know some versions ask to enable overlay or it will not work while others ask to disable overlay.

Mine for instance is a OBSE that requires to disable Steam overlay. its disabled and is working because on save folder theres 2 files your save file and another file with same name of the save but with extension .obse ow and my mods that requires it is working as well.

[m0k]

OBSE has no installer. Copy/paste files is all there is to it.

OP, try installing Steam on an entirely different drive if you can. Steam will always default to its own drive location. I have my Steam folder on E:\ and I never had any problems with things not getting recognized or not being able to get access to files and/or folders.

[Dustin81]

Make sure you have the .dll files in addition to the .exe

[Iconian]

Thank you to everyone that's tried to help me out with this. I really don't understand what's going on here, but maybe someone can help me figure it out.

First of all, I once again uninstalled Oblivion, for about the sixth time, and reinstalled it. This time though I decided to start off again by first installing OBSE, and then Storage Sacks, which is a very small mod that I'd been trying to get to work that requires OBSE. Up until today I had not gotten Storage Sacks to work (though I did have it working in previous years, just not in my attempts in the last week). But this time I went straight ahead and installed OBSE and then Storage Sacks and booted up Oblivion, and lo and behold, for some reason Storage Sacks was working.

Every time previously I had first installed the Unofficial Oblivion Patch, the Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch, and the Unofficial DLC Patches from the Nexus mods site. Then OBMM, then OBSE, then Storage Sacks. So apparently just changing the order of installation got it working . . .

Anyway, having installed OBSE and Storage Sacks and seeing that they were working, I then installed the three unofficial patches and OBMM and booted the game up. Storage Sacks still works, confirming that OBSE is still working. When I tried to exit the game did crash though, which I hope isn't some bad omen, but OBSE definitely was working.



As to everything else: it's OBSE version 0021 that is working, which I had installed previously, and it said to make sure the Steam overlay is turned on.

And I can't install Oblivion on a different drive. I'm using a laptop with only one hard drive, so that's what I'm stuck with.

And finally, I put the three .dll files in my Oblivion folder, and then also merged the OBSE Data folder with Oblivion's Data folder, as described by OBSE's instructions. The OBSE instructions said nothing about putting the .exe file in there though, so I didn't (at least not this time--on a couple of the previous Oblivion installations I did put everything from the OBSE data file in the Oblivion folder, but it didn't work).


So anyway, why did it work this time? Why didn't work previous times? And will it continue working into the future? Somehow or another this does seem to have something to do with installation order. Does anyone know how installing the unofficial patches or OBMM afterwards would change the outcome? OBSE is working right now, but I want to make sure I don't do anything that might cause that to change in the future.

Does anyone have thoughts about what happened here? Again, thank you to all that have replied.

[StreamWhenGuy]

My guess is the last time you just did everything right. The latest version to use with Steam is 0021. Everything else is for GOG. Unofficial patches have nothing to do with OBSE and its load mechanisms whatsoever.
Grab OBSE Test Plugin on Nexus to see if OBSE is truly working. As for Steam overlay, whether it should be enabled or disabled, I think it's situational or the description is rather unclear, because for me it works regardless of the overlay is being disabled or not.

[Dingbat]

OP- perhaps try going into your Steam directory (wherever you have it installed) and also adding admin privs to GameOverlayUI.exe. OBSE can be a tricky nut to crack sometimes. Also, I can't stress enough how useful it's been for me to have Steam installed in a non-default directory. For example, mine is installed in C:/games/Steam/..... I don't think it needs to be on a different drive, but that may be helpful too. On the Nexus there is an OBSE Test Plugin mod that you may find useful.
HTH!

[Iconian]

I just tried the OBSE test plug and it informed me that I have OBSE version 0021 and that it was installed correctly.

Still not really sure why it didn't work in the first place. Nevertheless, thank you all for your help and advice.

[dcitrigno]

@Iconian, your laptop should be able to accept USB External harddisk you can get a SSD and a adpater cable and use that for your steam install and games (just a suggestion )

[Iconian]

Alright, so now the mystery deepens. Actually, we just never really figured out what the problem was in the first place, and now it's a problem again.

So my computer ended up freezing a few hours ago and I had to hard boot it (not while in Oblivion). Then a few minutes ago I went into Oblivion, where I had previously been busily loading up mods and testing and configuring them all to make sure they all work right. This time though I started getting messages that OBSE wasn't working. I also used the OBSE test plugin, and it said OBSE isn't installed.

Of course, I know that OBSE is installed. It was working with Oblivion just a few hours ago, though I hadn't shut down the computer since I'd gotten OBSE working up until the computer frozen.

So what gives here? OBSE is installed properly, was working just a little while ago--and yet I'm getting messages claiming it's not. What's going on here?

[Iconian]

And once again I got OBSE working right. I ended up setting both Oblivion.exe and OblivionLauncher.exe to NOT run as an administrator. Still not sure why it stopped working exactly.

[DMC1973]

likely the hampster is asleep but that is just a guess.

[Landstander]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6jKcFrmNdA

[Pogchamp]

Hello i dont know if this is a dead thread or not but i have a this point tried everything suggested.(even the youtube video tutorial) and still don't have obse working. i don't know what im doing wrong here i have steam overlay enabled and all the bells and whistles and still. nothing. i have no idea where i'm messing up so any help would be met with a kind thank you.

[Iconian]

I still don't really know what my problem was, but it does look like I figured out how to work around it. Go to your Oblivion folder, which should be under Program Files (x86)>Steam>Steamapps>common. Once in your Oblivion folder find Oblivionlauncher.exe. Right click on that and make sure you're NOT running it as an administrator.

Next go to Steam and try to boot up Oblivion. It probably shouldn't boot up, so go back to your Oblivion folder and double click Oblivionlauncher.exe. Oblivion should boot up but tell you it can't find OBSE. Exit the game, but as it exits the game should crash and you should get an error screen. When this comes up hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Just close out the little error dialogue. Now return to Steam and try to run Oblivion. It should boot right up.

Anyway, that's the process that's required for me to play Oblivion. Perhaps it will work for you.

[Noah]

Just follow the instructions, its very simple.