[SOLVED] Trapped in Sewers by Crashes to Desktop

[Harin Boldlee]

When I completed everything in the beginner sewers, I would crash every time I clicked on the exit door. I tried:

Reinstalling
Updating and retrograding my graphic driver
Checked file integrity (in Steam)
Reducing graphic settings to the lowest possible setting on every option
Tried full screen, windowed, etc...
Started over, in the off chance the save file was bad, but it was not
Deleted or renamed certain files so shaders, and other things could reset.
Assigned administrative rights to two executables listed in these discussions
Rebooting my computer
With all the above done, I then tried to leave the sewers over and over, in the off chance the bug was inconsistent and would let me out eventually.
Recompiled shader cache with a command line script
Deleted the save_settings.sav file
Ran the UEPrereqSetup_x64 app in the Oblivion install directory
Deleted the sp.pci.dll file
I DID NOT update my bios, just FYI
Went to Nexus to find mods claiming to fix graphic issues, since that seemed to be what most thought was the problem. I downloaded Vortex and starting with one mod at a time, each failing to get me out of the sewers.

Then I tried the mod 'A Painted World - Remastered'. It was not a simple click and you are done install, but thankfully the install instructions provided are excellent. The instructions looked complicated, but that was only because the author gave very detailed steps. I followed them and within a few minutes it was running. I logged back in and clicked that exit door....and it let me out! I was ecstatic. The world on the other side of that door is worth exploring.

I then found a dungeon and clicked on the door....and crashed to desktop....with no way to escape it. I was trapped again just like I had been in the sewers, but now the game crashed when I tried to log in on last save.

Desperate and about to give up, I went through multiple web sights and discussions here and cut and pasted all the help being offered. The next day, I decided to read this huge document one more time, but this time very slowly. That is when I found this single sentence among 21 pages of typed advice. It simply said;

"Came back to say I fixed my issue by disabling Intel Boosters in BIOS menu. Good luck all."

I wished I had the person's name, but all I had was his advice.

I turned off my computer. Waited about 30 seconds, then started it up while hitting F2 to open the BIOS at start up. I went through the BIOS windows and finally found something that said something about Intel Booster Technology. I turned it off and saved my change. My computer booted up and I logged into the game and I have not had any trouble going through any doors or zones. I had one crash in hours of play, but that was in a large goblin fight, where about 5 imperial soldiers and myself were fighting over a dozen goblins in close quarters.

My advice is to try to disable the Intel Boosters in BIOS first. If that does not fix it by itself, then I recommend downloading that mod. It proved it helps since it got me out of the sewers. Then clear the cache. Then run in admin. I will assume you already did the elementary things like reinstalled, checked file integrity, etc...

I know this is a wall of words, but it took me days to get out of the sewers. I noticed that the achievement to get out of the sewers was close to 90%. That means about 10% of players have not been able to get out of the tutorial starter zone. All these words are for them, because they know the frustration and may need some assurance that everything has been tried.

For FYI, my rig has i9 13k CPU, a 4090 GPU with 24 RAM and the system has 32 gigs of RAM. I have an SSD. I have been building and configuring computers for decades and this one fooled me in thinking it was a graphic issue, because Oblivion is known to have multiple graphic problems.

Now that the Intel Booster setting is turned off, I am running the game with Ultra settings on every detail and have no stutters, tearing, etc... I just had that one crash, which I assume was due to graphic overload, which should be impossible on my rig. That is an issue UE5 needs to fix.

If this helps even one person, it was worth typing. I think I was so eager to share this that I wrote more words than I meant to. My apologies. I hope you find your way out of the sewers. What is beyond that door is worth the effort.