OK, I already said it before, Morrowind has NEVER crashed for me. In fact, I thought it was one of the most stable games, along with Freespace 2 (which also never crashed even on an unstable computer). Then I ran into this place, and people keep saying they crash to desktop or the game freezes and look in amazement when I say it never happened to me.

So, I wasted this day trying to get Morrowind to crash. First did a thing a lot of games don't like, in this case opened the construction kit with the game running and keep alt-tabbing between them every minute. After a while it took longer to switch back to the game, but when I remained patient it always appeared and didn't crash. So I was once again convinced that Morrowind is a stable game.

If it isn't the game, then it must be the PC. So, I put the game to 1280x1024, enabled the shadows and used FPS optimizer without limits. Sure it went much slower, but after 45 minutes it still hadn't crashed.

There is one thing I always do, and other people usually don't. I don't load programs automatically at startup. So I installed the worst trash imaginable and let them run in the taskbar, scanner software, ICQ, Realplayer startup centre, Zonealarm firewall... Bingo! I had succesfully created my first artificial CTD ever! I continued playing with that for 2 hours, and I had 3 CTDs, 1 freeze, and 2 times the colors messed up, at my paperdoll when I equip stuff it doesn't display it but it displays a blur of colors instead, and the second time it happened to the map and then crashed within 10 minutes.

Satisfied I removed the programs manually from my registry, and Morrowind was back to it's stable nature again.

If it crashes, it's not the game, it's your fault.

What processor do you use?
I think morrowind has a problem with pentium III
I might be wrong

AMD 2200 and 1600 before it.

Full specs here:
http://mml.k-hosting.co.uk/forum/index.php...p?showtopic=986

You're probably the only one who's had no problems with it.

Maybe I have a ton of problems because I'm running it on a TNT2... yes you heard me.

I've had no problems with it, and my system is modest.

1.2 gHZ processor
512MB of RAM (though I have successfully run it on 378.)
GeForce4 MX 440 video card.
60GB HD

Know how I never crash, even with a firewall and a virus scanner on?

1. I keep my computer up to date- I regularly update windows, my video card, and everything else on my computer.

2. This

3. Morrowind FPS Optimizer.

I think ICQ and Realplayer were the worst of what I had running, a firewall is much more passive.

I don't have any updates for windows at all, just the plain basic clean win98se.

I haven't had a lot of CTDs.... but occasionally the game just freezes up, usually when I'm doing something like casting a spell or running while a new sound starts playing. The only thing I can do then is restart the computer...

The only difference I have noticed when running applications in the background is that the game runs a lot slower... I always have the firewall activated, and usually I'm signed into msn and sometimes IRC too. Sometimes I even have internet radio running when playing - adds a little spice when you can't hear the cliffracers :lol:

And my system specs are far from fantastic

AMD Athlon 600MHz
320MB RAm
Geforce4 Ti4200

And Rune...I used to play Morrowind on a TNT2 too. Then I got the Geforce....and kept getting killed repeatedly because all I could do was stare at the water... :lol:

i dont know how 2 stop stuff popping up at start up... if u cud tell me that would be great tho i dont experience that many CTDs i do get 2 or 3 a day. i did stay offline yesterday and had everything shut off except morrowind, i think i only experienced 1 CTD that day, possibly none... so it must be stuff running in the background that destabilises the game the most... interesting

I don't know how it works for other OS, but for win 98 go to start -> run -> type in msconfig

Go to the startup tab, and have a look at all the boxes. Everything which is checked will load on startup. Uncheck everything you don't want, or if you're not sure what the programs do, list them here - hopefully someone will be able to tell you what they are.

The only ones I've got checked are system tray, and the firewall.

great! thanks for the info theta i'll disable all the ones i know i dont need... as for the ones i dont recognize:
NvCpl
nwiz
SOUNDMAN
GSICON
dslagent
remhelp
ccApp
ccRegVfy
NeroCheck
realsched
ctfmon
gwum
SB StartCenter

and ones im not sure about:
GhostStartTrayApp (possibly norton ghost?)
CAMTRAY (possibly webcam control?)

if anyone could tell me what these are, it would be appreciated ^_^

Yeah Ghoststart is part of Norton IIRC.

I have been experimenting a bit, and Morrowind certainly doesn't like the following:

MSN
ICQ
Realplayer
Easy CD Creator
Soundblaster software in tray
Winamp

Things in this list also seem to affect the game if they have been started once and disabled later (like starting when you start windows and then disable manually, so get them out with MSConfig like Theta Orionis said)

Not sure about Kazaa and Norton, mixed results with these, but I just leave it off.

Programs like Internet Explorer, Netscape, basic firewall software, proxy programs, text processors, Excel, DOS command prompts and even simple games like lameboy emulations do not seem to affect stability at all, and can be run in background and alt-tabbed to as much as I like.

thanks for the info but what about the processes i dont recognize? mainly i'd like 2 get rid of this damn thing where i keep getting these ad pop-ups warning me about this and that and 2 go 2 this webpage blah blah blah. they pop up in a message window ive never seen them b4 but they seem 2 find there way onto my computer somehow and pop up at a whim when online. theyre clearly ads not system warnings or anything.

Which means you have adware/spyware on your system. n00b!

Here you go:
http://spybot.eon.net.au/index.php?lang=en...n&page=download

Now get rid of 'em.

and you can just re-enable your the disabled programs whenever you like, so when unsure, disable, when something stops working, re-enable.

gimme some credit. im not that much of a n00b. i use spybot search & destroy to kill spyware all the time, ive done it since ive got these pop-ups and they still keep coming... any other suggestions?

You've probably done that, but for the processes you don't recognize, have you looked at the complete filepath? Sometimes that gives you a clue which program it belongs to.


I think (but I'm not sure at all :lol: ) the ccApp and ccRegVfy could be part of Norton - check if it says 'Symantec' somewhere in the file path

NvCpl.... have you got an Nvidia graphics card?

realsched - Realplayer related? Realplayer is a real nuisance for starting itself up

SB Startcentre - soundblaster?


You could try getting rid of all the unrecognized processes and see what happens... though I take no responsibility if that activates your computer's self-destruct mechanism.

Yes, take a shovel and start shoveling the poo out of your registry manually...

What OS do you use? If you have 98SE I can load a copy of your registry into my machine and clear it out for you...

NvCpl - yes, i have a Nvidia GeForce4 Ti4200

realsched - funny, realplayer isnt in the taskbar.

SB Startcentre - true, could be soundblaster.

how do i check the full path names of stuff? in the msconfig window, it just goes into ...s and i cant see all the path. also in the task manager it just says stuff in capitals like SYSTEM etc.

also Shakkara, no i dont have 98SE i use XP and have no idea how 2 "clean the sh*t out of my registry" im not even sure what the registry is.

and i dont fancy de-activating any processes if i dont know what they are. i dont have a deathwish

The bit of the filepath you can see in msconfig startup might be enough...at least in 98 it let me identify a lot of stuff.


NvCpl & nwiz - I'm 99.99% sure that you can safely disable these. I've got a Geforce Ti 4200 too, and I've disabled NvCplDaemon, and whatever nwiz (Nvidia install wizard perhaps ?) is, it's also disabled on my comp. Of course, every time you want to change any of your advanced graphics card settings you might actually have to start the Nvidia control panel yourself.... :lol:


Realplayer might not be in the taskbar, but IIRC there's a component to realplayer which wants to connect to the internet to search for updates - perhaps realsched is that? Should be safe to disable

SB startcentre - I would assume it's similar to the graphics card control panel. Try disabling it, and if you get any problems with the sound, just enable it again. Soundman sounds link a soundcard related function too.

GSICON... could it have anything at all to do with the popups you get (ICON) or your internet connection (CON)? Just guessing here....


remhelp??? sounds unlikely that this is critical to your computer startup


AS for the others, check which icons appear next the clock in the bottom right hand corner and see if that gives you further clues.


None of the processes you mention sound essential - but I'm not familiar with XP.


Out of a list of 14 startup processes I have 3 checked - System Tray (that, I think, is essential), and 2 x Smc Service - two slightly different files relating to my firewall....one of which is the .exe

A lot of these programs add themselves to the start up folder when you install them.... so you have to wait ages for all the programs to load...and for their pop-up splash screens to flicker across your desktop. Perhaps the software developers want to save their customers the effort of actually having to start a program when they want to run it....:lol:

Well you can always bring them back online if things stop working properly...

You get into the registry by running regedit, however, if you don't have a deathwish, don't touch it, one mistake and things can go *boom* and I don't know how to load a backup registry for winXP.

lol well thanks theta, i trust u know more about this stuff than me so i disabled all the ones u mentioned

and thanks for the warning shakkara, i'll stay away from the registry ^^

Lol, I don't know THAT much about computers - I'm still not convinced that there isn't a self-destruct mechanism which is activated by pressing the wrong button - but I've had things like msconfig explained to me in IRC.

But I've been infuriated for a long time by all those nanny programs which load themselves....my particular pet hate is word auto-format.... :angry:



I'd agree with Shakkara on the regedit....don't touch it UNLESS while you're doing that you're also communicating with someone who absolutely knows what they're doing and can confirm that whatever you're deleting is safe to delete.



As a matter of interest, how many programs do you have loading on startup? I find stuff like task manager and calendar reminders a total nuisance, and also find that having anti-virus running in the background really slows my computer down.

erm currently i got norton ghost, norton personal firewall 2003, norton antivirus auto-protect

as for the rest i dont know as i havent rebooted since i altered msconfig

I only have two things in the MSConfig start panel. Scanregistry (for my valuable autobackups) and SystemTray. I even took out the powermanagement things...

NvCpl- Nvidia
Nwiz- Also Nvidia
Soundman- soundmanager
GSICON- Unsure, is your internet run by someone with initials GS?
dslagent- internet connection
remhelp- real media help, close it, it does nothing but waste resources (IIRC.)
ccApp- Required windows process
ccRegVfy- Required windows process
NeroCheck- Nero CD thing.
realsched- real media scheduler thing, I believe its safe to close.
cfmon- I'm guessing it has something to do with your monitor, other than that, I'm unsure.
gwum- unsure.
SB StartCenter- Soundblaster

You're on the money on the other two.