WinsomeWhaleshark: Hello!

I recently redeemed Oblivion GOTY Deluxe Edition from the Amazon giveaway. Upon installing I was able to open the launcher and get the game loaded just fine (though I was just testing screen settings so I didn't go past the game's start menu). I then closed the game and installed the following patches using OBMM:

xOBSE22.6.1
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Unofficial DLC Patch
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch

As far as I know, these were installed correctly, since I was following a guide written for dummies (that's me).

Upon finishing the install, I loaded the Oblivion launcher and clicked play. A black window briefly appeared as if the game was loading, but immediately closed. A check of GOG showed that I had last played the game for "1 Minute."

Initially I thought I had done something wrong with the mods (this was my first time ever modding something on PC), so I uninstalled the game, deleted the remaining mod files, and then did a completely fresh install of the game. I did not attempt to use mods and went straight to the launcher, then hit play. The same thing happened again: black window appears, then closes immediately, GOG logs me as having played for 1 Minute.

I first searched for a solution to my problem and tried every thing I could find, including GOG's solution of changing the system variables. Nothing has fixed it and I'm left with the same black screen problem.

My only assumption is that one of those mods (maybe xOBSE22.6.1 or OBMM) changed a setting somewhere in my computer for their functions that is causing the problem. I just don't know enough about computers to understand what happened or why.

Help?

Greywolf1: The most common causes for this kind of problem I'm aware of are mods and incomplete deinstallations. In your case it doesn't look like a mod problem. To rule out an incomplete de-installation, I recommend to uninstall Oblivion, and then to delete whatever may be left of the installation manually. This is the game folder, the Oblivion folder in My Games (described in the second post of this thread), and the registry files. The registry leftovers are the main culprits.
To get rid of undesired registry leftovers is not really difficult, but bears the risk to damage the registry and make the PC ununsable, and should therefore be done only by people who know what they are doing.

You mention that "GOG logs me as having played for 1 Minute". Am I right to interpret this as "Galaxy logs me as having played for 1 Minute"? If this is true, Galaxy might be another potential problem cause - but I'm not using Galaxy, so I couldn't help you with that.

Perhaps you try the following approach:
- uninstall Oblivion (and all mods) completely,
- make sure that there is nothing left (no game folders, no registry entries),
- download and install the "direct download" version of Oblivion from GOG,
- and try again.
If Oblivion works, you may try again with the Galaxy version, or continue to play the non-Galaxy installation with or without additional mods installed, which may help you to identify the real problem cause if necessary.
Otherwise perhaps someone else can help you (sorry).

Good luck!

OverlordMactire: how do you mess with the registry

abbayarra: If the registry does not completely empty the Oblivions entries and is messing with your game install the next best thing to do is use a cleaner.

When I'm moving around Oblivion after I've uninstalled it I use ccleaner and that will remove all the Oblivion entries.

Greywolf1: If you don't know, you better don't try to do it - by editing the registry, you may accidentally make your Windows installation unusable.
Technically, the registry is a file which can be edited, the editor is called regedit. As long as you simply view the registry, or preserve its structure, you're probably safe, but it's very easy to do something unintentionally.
For people who want to have a look at the registry, I suggest to run regedit (easy to do - search the internet), to browse the registry, and then to exit it again - without saving! As an exercise, you could try to identify the Oblivion section of the registry and what you would have to delete if necessary (hint: there are several sections mentioning Oblivion, but there is only one of them interesting for the purpose of removing deinstallation garbage).

OverlordMactire: i really want to avoid messing with the registry but is this the kind of thing you have to delete

OverlordMactire: Can you recommend a good cleaner

OverlordMactire: i really want to avoid messing with the registry but is this the kind of thing you have to delete

Greywolf1: The most common causes for this kind of problem I'm aware of are mods and incomplete deinstallations. In your case it doesn't look like a mod problem. To rule out an incomplete de-installation, I recommend to uninstall Oblivion, and then to delete whatever may be left of the installation manually. This is the game folder, the Oblivion folder in My Games (described in the second post of this thread), and the registry files. The registry leftovers are the main culprits.
To get rid of undesired registry leftovers is not really difficult, but bears the risk to damage the registry and make the PC ununsable, and should therefore be done only by people who know what they are doing.

You mention that "GOG logs me as having played for 1 Minute". Am I right to interpret this as "Galaxy logs me as having played for 1 Minute"? If this is true, Galaxy might be another potential problem cause - but I'm not using Galaxy, so I couldn't help you with that.

Perhaps you try the following approach:
- uninstall Oblivion (and all mods) completely,
- make sure that there is nothing left (no game folders, no registry entries),
- download and install the "direct download" version of Oblivion from GOG,
- and try again.
If Oblivion works, you may try again with the Galaxy version, or continue to play the non-Galaxy installation with or without additional mods installed, which may help you to identify the real problem cause if necessary.
Otherwise perhaps someone else can help you (sorry).

Good luck!