Game Won't Load

Albromor · Post by **Albromor** » Tue May 27, 2003 10:48 am

Has anyone run into the frustration of being unable to load Morrowind for game play? On Sunday the game was running fine. On Monday the game refused to load. I kept getting messages such as "Cannot find 0" or "such and such bitmap not found" or the infamous "Morrowind has performed an illegal operation blah, blah, blah." So I uninstalled, scanned harddrive, defragged harddrive, reinstalled both Morrowind and Tribunal, patched Tribunal and I get "Cannot find Bethesda Movie." Aaaahhhh!

I have shut down all tasks but Explorer, I have shut down all tasks but Explorer and Systmtray, and various combinations. Does the Game Manual say anything about what tasks are essential for the game to run and what ones need to be closed?
What does it say about loading the game properly?

My operating system is Windows 98SE and the rest of my computer specs are meet and exceed Bethesda's recommended system requirements. Thanks ahead of time.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue May 27, 2003 10:58 am

Uninstall. Then, try typing REGEDIT from your Windows run command. Then, do a find on all lines containing Morrowind. Delete 'em. Do the same for all lines containing Bethesda. Reboot, reinstall, and see if that works.

Note, this will also kill any other games by Bethesda that you've got installed, so don't do it if you're running other Bethesda products. Also, backup your registry *before* you make these changes, just in case something goes wrong.

Albromor · Post by **Albromor** » Tue May 27, 2003 11:08 am

fable, thanks for such a quick reply. When I have time I will do what you recommend. To increase my understanding and experience I need to ask a) Is this a common problem with Morrowind/Tribunal?, b) Are these types of problems common with Bethesda games period?, c) Can you explain what happened that these corruptions took place?, d) To re-install properly what tasks should I close?

Again thanks.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue May 27, 2003 12:43 pm

I haven't seen enough complaints, here, to say one way or the other. You could check out the Bethesda forums for that kind of information.

The problem has arisen before in conjunction with BG2's ToB add-on, however. I think it's just a question of Windows' registry being corrupted over time, which makes it a Microsoft problem--except that, as Microsoft will tell you, it is never their problem.

Albromor · Post by **Albromor** » Tue May 27, 2003 1:30 pm

Well I did as you instructed and I found no lines that listed either Morrowing of Bethesda. Either I really deleted everything (and I sure hope I didn't mess anything up), or some game infor is buried under another name and I can't find it.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue May 27, 2003 1:50 pm

I don't know what to say. I just did a similar search on Bethesda, and came up with more than a dozen registry entries pertaining to the game. If you've already uninstalled, then that implies your registry is clean.

What software are you running in the background while Morrowind is in operation? Screensaver? Anti-virus program? Try to eliminate as much as you can. See if that will help.

Albromor · Post by **Albromor** » Tue May 27, 2003 2:44 pm

fable, I end task on everything. I even uninstalled my Norton stuff to see what is going on. When you play the game, other than Explorer, what tasks do you leave running or do you end task everything else?

Someone on another forum told me he had the same problem and he found the only way he eliminated the problem was to push the reset and reboot so all drivers, configurations, et.al., were reloaded (he even went so far as to plug and unplug his computer while it was running!).

I think you are correct it being something about a registry proble. Windows, UGH! Evil Bill Gates got us by the b*lls.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue May 27, 2003 7:37 pm

At worst, if there's a memory leak, it might help to do a cold boot. That involves shutting down the computer completely, waiting fifteen seconds, then restarting. But a warm boot is usually sufficient for that purpose.

I don't know what else to recommend. The registry is not a user-friendly person, by design. I'm having my own problems at the moment with something in the registry that's screwing up Installshield installations. I suppose we could both try exorcisms. Be sure to the candle is white, though, and bell has no admixture to its silver.