Corrupt Saves...

[colin caesarman]

I learned the hard way autosaves can be a bit unstable. Any autosave at this point automatically crashes my game. I can load it fine. The real problem is, any save at ALL crashes my save. Manual, quicksave, or autosave. I'm dozens of hours deep and I'm level 30. I'd rather not have to throw it all out. The only saves I have now are a working autosave, a corrupt quicksave, and a corrupt manual save ..I always overrwrite so no backups :(...

My only mods are textures and better leveled lists, along with the classic quality of life mods that make small changes. I've had absolutely 0 problems until this. Anyone know what I can do? I can play it fine if I turn off autosaves, but that's it. As soon as I save it crashes. Is this playthrough 'bricked'?

[Squidbob Spongepants]

Well the first thing to check is mods, it's like 80% the cause of problems. What are the quality of life mods you mention?

Next, you said you only got this issue recently. Did you recently install a new mod or begin a new modded quest/area?

Does this issue occur if you make a new account? Not suggesting you delete your account or forsake it, but if it's fine on a new character it helps to know that.

So you said you can't save at all? When you say it works fine with autosave off, do you mean to say you can manually save with autosave off?

How far back in your save list can you go without this issue occuring?

[󰀉tempeh󰀉]

I ran into this problem too, but I kept my old saves so I only lost ~20 hours. I never found a way to fix the corrupted saves, so you're probably out of luck there. On the other hand, I documented my best guesses at what caused corrupted saves and how I worked around them.

• unfinished mages staff in inventory when saving
  
  • finish quest first OK
• talking to Umbra & Barbas
  
  • unprovoked attack on Umbra OK
• Hackdirt keys touch inventory
  
  • keyless OK, brethren inventory untouched, could be anything
• something about collecting parts for the Orrery
  
  • try again OK, may have been using corpse as container? Pirate cove fence problem? (i.e. fencing stolen ingredients)
• sell & buy back stolen ingredients
  
  • other items OK, selling mix of legal & stolen ingredients does it, also fencing stolen items that merchants have in their inventory or that they wear
• the Great Divide pre-Madgod
  
  • starting quest after main quest OK, might have been due to dialogue backout, NPC disarmed fighting Knights of Order, or combat AI lag glitch?
• early Battlehorn Castle quest
  
  • quick resolution OK, OK if anonymous man-at-arms never joins battle? maybe his combat AI package is screwy
• return trip aquanostrum bottle in inventory when saving
  
  • fill & return before saving OK
• free suicide soul stamina blessing
  
  • stand out of range OK
• kill Brithaur for quest
  
  • arrest OK
• endless knights at Split
  
  • avoid until safe OK, is this the same as the crash starting the quest?
• something something Retaking Fringe?
  
  • no talk no steal OK, in corrupted attempts Sheldon swiped a weapon, Dredhwen died, combat AI lag glitch, and I looted already dead knights
• talk to Lord Drad / bleak mine key
  
  • no talk no key OK, also I never attacked the guards, even undetected
• something north of Kvatch?
  
  • try again OK, maybe I screwed up laundering stolen items, or somebody got disarmed?
• something northern Great Forest?
  
  • clear roads first OK, Legion patrol got disarmed maybe?
• something something Bleaker's Way?
  
  • no talking no stealing OK, could have been bandit on road east, could have been keys?
• massive lag on the Upper Niben
  
  • go slow on road OK, probably bandits vs. Legion, goblin war; killing bandits OK, going on water & ignoring them is not
• the assassinated man
  
  • all in one go OK, might have been casting risen flesh during previous mission? languorwine antidote? who knows
• information gathering blackwood mercs
  
  • critical path OK, loot, steal, kill, just don't chitchat with the Argonian any more than absolutely necessary
• necromancer's amulet quest item in inventory
  
  • hand in quest item first OK
• conjurer dungeons & Rowley Eardwulf
  
  • clear roads first OK, there was definitely a guard vs. bear fight at Ceyatatar; don't know about Belda
• Talwinque misadventure (doomed save: 1253)
  
  • revert save, delay, probably combat AI lag glitch triggered by something outside, definitely not M'aiq the Liar
• Wawnet Inn lag same as above (doomed save: 1274)
  
  • M'aiq the Liar says he didn't get into fights with the local wildlife again
• Nothing You Can Possess
  
  • let Maric escape OK, reacquired key or killing Claude Maric caused the problem, prior experience suggests picking up a duplicate of a quest item after it's been removed from inventory and saving with the duplicate in inventory causes problems
• Honour Thy Mother
  
  • something after entering the Night Mother's tomb, no work-around found
    
  • attempted solutions that failed:
    • minimum conversation, critical path
      
    • don't touch anything
      
    • don't lay a finger on Mathieu Bellamont
      
    • save before talking to Arquen the last time
      
    • make one visit to the Night Mother for quests
• Exhausted Mine / Revenge Served Cold
  
  • never redo, probably the quest-tied jade amulet on the netherboss
• Imperial City Return Trip
  
  • probably dog food or another SI quest ingredient duplicate in inventory

[ralphtobybob]

I've seen two types of corrupt files from saves. I think one cause is exiting to desktop instead of quitting to menu. It is possible that there are open file handles or cached data isn't being written to disk.
.
I've played a game with atuosave off and got the corrupt file problem. Sometimes the previous save, ending in .bak is salvageable, but if you play online, Steam will overwrite it when you exit the game. It's a good idea to do a slot save after a quest or level up, or after you've paid for training or scored some major loot. If you're lucky, it won't be corrupt.

The other type of corrupt save is due to bad cells. The usual advice is to wait three game days and go back. A problem I had was at Anvil Castle. I had to interact with an NPC. I was able to quick save before the interaction but not after. The save would crash as well as the autosave exiting the castle. Even after 2 game weeks. So I finally saved before entering the castle, turned off autosave, completed the interaction, then exited the castle. Then I fast traveled to another city and successfully saved. Then turned autosave back on.

I"ve had several crashes to desktop within the game, and the last save still works.



You might also want to read the release notes for any mods you're using to see if there are any known problems or conflicts with them.
.

[Bomb Bloke]

Do you have these problems with a new character, or are they specific to your current playthrough?

Are you using the 4GB RAM patch?

[colin caesarman]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Originally posted by Sheogorath:

Well the first thing to check is mods, it's like 80% the cause of problems. What are the quality of life mods you mention?

Next, you said you only got this issue recently. Did you recently install a new mod or begin a new modded quest/area?

Does this issue occur if you make a new account? Not suggesting you delete your account or forsake it, but if it's fine on a new character it helps to know that.

So you said you can't save at all? When you say it works fine with autosave off, do you mean to say you can manually save with autosave off?

How far back in your save list can you go without this issue occuring?

I haven't added any mods since I started my playthrough. I have the unofficial patches, engine bux fixes, stutter removal, texture mods, and better leveled lists. That' is. I did just come across the Strange Door (Shivering Isles DLC) literally right before the first save/crash problem started. Might stem from there?

I made a new character and there is no problem. Loads and saves fine.

I can't save at all. If autosave is off, I can continue to play because the game won't save. But with autosave on, I can't enter new cells or sleep or wait or whatever triggers an autosave. If I do I get a CTD.

Unfortunately I have no viable saves on this character now, save for the autosave that I can load up. I overrwrite the same slot continously on manual and quicksave and those are both corrupt. Bad save habits. Whoops...

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Do you have these problems with a new character, or are they specific to your current playthrough?

Are you using the 4GB RAM patch?

I'm not. I've had no problems 26 odd hours in, could that be it?

Originally posted by ralphtobybob:

The other type of corrupt save is due to bad cells. The usual advice is to wait three game days and go back. A problem I had was at Anvil Castle. I had to interact with an NPC. I was able to quick save before the interaction but not after. The save would crash as well as the autosave exiting the castle. Even after 2 game weeks. So I finally saved before entering the castle, turned off autosave, completed the interaction, then exited the castle. Then I fast traveled to another city and successfully saved. Then turned autosave back on.

I'll try this!
EDIT: Didn't work :(

[< blank >]

Rarely happens to me..It only gets corrupted sometimes randomly when i fast travel. It is easily fixed tho just go into your Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Saves and delete corrupted save and rename backup save extension to be .ess

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by colin caesarman:

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Do you have these problems with a new character, or are they specific to your current playthrough?

Are you using the 4GB RAM patch?

I'm not. I've had no problems 26 odd hours in, could that be it?

As you progress in the game and make more changes to the world, your saves become more complex and the game requires more RAM to work with them. In its released state it can only use about a gig and a half before bombing out, but it can be patched to allow quite a bit more.

[colin caesarman]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Originally posted by colin caesarman:

I'm not. I've had no problems 26 odd hours in, could that be it?

As you progress in the game and make more changes to the world, your saves become more complex and the game requires more RAM to work with them. In its released state it can only use about a gig and a half before bombing out, but it can be patched to allow quite a bit more.

This actually worked! Thanks so much. You're a life saver