Bugs (Oblivion)

No game is perfect and Oblivion is certainly not without its bugs. Before adding a bug, please ensure that a bug is widespread (and not just a problem with your system) among other users, or has been confirmed as a real bug.

Corruption and Conscience
Having problem with Garrus showing up.

Trying to finish the mission by meetin Garrus at the inn, but he's not physically there. His green arrow shows, but he doesn't. Does anyone know if this is a bug??


 * I have the same thing happen to me in the quest When Spirits Have Lease. As far as I can tell, the NPC is supposed to be at that location at that time but is taking a long time getting there. Waiting a bit (real-time, not through the wait/rest menu) and reentering the area should hopefully fix it.


 * Look in the staircase of the inn for When Spirits Have Lease, I found his head in a corner and after talking to him he moved to our meeting place and was unbugged.


 * He says to meet him in a couple of hours. Just be there around two hours after; he will show.

The Sirens Deception
This happened to me recently.

I started the Sirens quest in Anvil. After talking to Maelona and Gogan, I went to the The Flowing Bowl and ran into Signy Home-Wrecker and Faustina Cartia. They told me to meet them at the farmhouse at 11 that evening. I went, but they weren't there. Went back to the Flowing Bowl and they asked me to complete the mission at the Flowing Bowl. They attacked me and I killed them in The Flowing Bowl. I got the basement key but was locked out of the farm to finish the mission. Use the cheat code "player.coc GwedenFarmInterior" without quotes and kill the woman in there and then the mission should finish automatically.

Bravil - The Forlorn Watchman Quest
This just happened to me.

I started the Forlorn Watchman quest in Bravil. After finding out I'd have to investigate the shipwreck I discovered that the phantom enemies in the ship were too strong for me. So I put the quest on hold and kept doing other quests. By this time, the Log of the Emma May was at his place. After some time I decided to continue the Watchman quest.

After killing all of the enemies in the ship, I should have read in the Log of the Emma May about the mutiny wich happened on the ship a long time ago. The problem is, the log disappeared from where it was supposed to be (a small chamber right in front of the entrance to the shipwreck) while the green arrow pointing to it was still there.

This got me stuck. After reading about the mutiny, I should (but didn't) have found a stronger enemy in the lower bridge who carried a key to the room where Grantham Blakeley's skeleton was trapped.

To complete the quest, I had to add the key (Small Key, code 000366BC) to my inventory using cheats. Then I opened the locked door in the lower bridge and freed the skeleton. Adding the Log of the Emma May (code 000366B1) to my inventory, and reading it, did not work.

Bruma - Countess' Akaviri Quest
This has happened to multiple people on the PC version, not sure about the 360.

When you go north to find the Akaviri artifact for the Countess of Bruma, and complete the quest and come back, you may still have "enemies nearby", even in towns and inns, no matter where you go.

To fix this, you must go back to Serpent Trail, to the ruin you found the artifact in, and search it extensively. There are many skeletons in there, and you have to find the one or many that are giving you the message and kill them.

Mages Guild - Chorrol Recommendation
If you opt to go with the "Guild Way" and return the item to the guild, the guildmaster will tell you that you get his recommendation, BUT the green arrow still points to him and you will not have gotten the recommendation. Although no quest pointer points to it, you must then go to the person which gave the location of the item and tell that you gave it to the guild. You get a "part 2" guest and it completes at the same time, thus allowing you to continue. (You effectively get the recommendation only after this.)

Mages Guild - Cheydinhal Recommendation
This has been found on several forums for both PC and Xbox 360 versions.

If this quest is not completed within 3 game days of starting the quest, the item you're looking for will disappear (as part of the normal body removal routine, I suppose) from the place where you are supposed to search, and therefore makes the Mages Guild quest impossible to complete!

You can use the cheat player.additem 0002E5AC 1 to fix this (it gives you the ring - then just walk into the building and talk to deetsan).

Mages Guild - Cheydinhal - Transgenderation
If you listen to the other mages chit-chat in the guild, they will use "he" when referring to Deetsan. But Deetsan is a female character!

Mages Guild - Arcane University - A Mage's Staff
By falling off the island (near the staff) instead of fighting the necromancers, you will be forced to return to Wellspring Cave again to regain access to the island. When you return the necromancers will be gone and you will be unable to finish the quest. More information on the discussion page for this quest.

Solution: Either re-load a previous save or use "setstage 000e4e14 30" in the console.

Thieves Guild - May the Best Thief Win
On the PC version there is a bug in this quest. Methredhel gets to the diary almost immediately, and although the map indicates that the book is in her chest in her house, it does not appear in the chest when it is opened. It is not possible to pickpocket Methredhel for it since she is not carrying it. Even after 30 days Methredhel never takes the diary to Amantius, and the secondary method of entering the Guild is never triggered. It is therefore impossible to join the Thieves Guild should this bug happen.

Use the cheat player.additem 000355ED or use movetoqt 1 to get the diary and give it to Amantius to complete the quest and join the guild.


 * Or do what I did and learn an invisibility spell, like Deathly Visage from the Dark Brotherhood. If you go invisible as soon as you enter the door, you can sprint past her and get to the book before she can. I've completed said quest this way with all my characters.


 * Another way to complete this that has always worked for me is-- Talk to the beggar and get the location, then fast-travel there. Run full-tilt for the door, she will likely beat you there. Go in after her (having the Tower Stone active on you helps open the door) and she is still in sneak mode, in an empty floor of the house... Just unsneak and dash past her to the desk, where the diary is. She never breaks sneak, the house owner is never downstairs to see you un-sneaking, and Methredehl doesn't care if you are visible to here when you get it. The invisibility is not required.


 * The easiest way I've found to do this, is to pickpocket Methredhel or her "partner" before getting the quest. Steal the house key, start the quest, let her take the book, then just go back to her place and voila!

Infinite Money - Dorian Glitch
This bug reportedly works for both the PC and Xbox 360 version. In order to achieve infinite money, go murder Dorian located in Imperial City Talos Plaza District. Loot him, and take his money. Instead of being removed from his inventory, the money remains and can be taken as long for as you want. After you're tired, save, then when the guards come pay the fine. You should still have the money, minus the fine, in your inventory.

If you cannot kill Dorian before he runs out the door, then either come back when you can or use the difficulty slider. You could also use the Yield exploit to drain a lot of health before he actually starts to run away.

Note: &mdash; This bug is somewhat inconsistent. Often times Dorian will only have 10 gold on him (or another very low amount). In this scenario you will not be able to grab infinite money. Use the sneak ability to pickpocket him and it should show how much money he has (you don't want to actually take his gold at this point). If he does not have a reasonable amount, above 35, use the speechcraft/disposition system and bribe him. This will put money in his pocket and make the glitch viable. If you keep using the Yield exploit, you'll be draining his disposition, making it possible to keep bribing him over and over - we managed to shove over 2000g into him before he ran out of health - that's 2000g every single time you try to grab the money!

His body should stay there for several game days (allowing you to continue stealing infinite money from his corpse), however the game seems to do garbage collection on dead bodies. Note that this bug will NOT ALWAYS work. It has a chance of failing

Example movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og8aJkou-Lk

Infinite Money - Vampire Cure Reward Glitch
After completing the vampire cure quest and getting the potion to the count's wife, come back the next day and ask him for a reward. he'll give you 5000 gold. You can keep asking and clicking 'reward' and he'll give you the reward each time.

Note: ''This is assuming you can give the woman bloodgrass. Many forums are talking about this bug and i have had to start over my game twice. When i become a vampire i can never get cured because she will not recognize that my inventory has bloodgrass. I won't even be prompted for it. It is very aggrevating and many of us are very dissapointed with the vampire quest... it has documented bugs including permanent disfigurement, light sensitivity not following stable rules, infinite money, bloodgrass failure, and many others. Please think twice before becoming a vampire.'' (MC MONTROSE)

Infinite Money - Female Orc - Kvatch
There is an exploit if you can find a person that will buy items that is outside a city while on a horse. The easiest to get to is an orc woman who buys and sells weapons in the camp just outside the main gate to Kvatch. Obtain a very high valued weapon and equip it, go to the camp and while on your horse with the weapon equipped sell this item to her and you will receive the gold for the weapon, however as you are on your horse the game will not allow you to unequip weapons. The result is that you sell the item however it will not leave your inventory so you can sell it again and again until you have the amount of gold you feel happy with. The upside to this exploit is that it is faster than above and you can raise your mercantile skills as you are trading to receive the gold.


 * Note &mdash; This will only net you 200g per sale, as she only has 200g on her.

Slaughterfish
During the quest that involves you killing twelve slaughterfish for their scales, the quest markers may be off at times (in locations with no fish). This is a large pain, but if you swim around the lake using Detect Life, you should eventually find the slaughterfish. It will be perfectly still, making no movement at all; once you attack it, the map marker will update and it will start to move and attack as normal.

Deer
When you kill certain deer (I have only tried this on Xbox 360), their body can be "stretched" infinitely. This can be quite fun, as I once managed to make a deer leg a wee bit more than 100 feet once. This bug is rare, though, and seems to occur only in certain places.

I have seen a video of this happening to another animal (a horse, I think?) Crummy 19:00, 10 April 2006 (CDT)

Alt-Tabbing
In the PC version, the game does not take well to ALT-TABing. Often times the video engine will freeze upon re-entering the game and the user must restart the game. It is unclear whether there is just a video driver issue with most people at this point or a problem with the game itself. Similar issues with Morrowind suggests the latter.

I have found that opening a couple other windows, such as Windows Explorer, and then minimizing them and opening Task Manager, choosing Oblivon and clicking "Switch To", will bring you back into the game with no problem most of the time. If there is a problem alt-tabbing back in, alt-tab out and perform this procedure again. Another alternative is to open the extra windows and then just click Oblivion in the taskbar to bring it back up (if Switch To doesn't work).

Personally, I have found that task switching away while in a conversation while cause instability. This first manifests itself with the dialogue being unspoken and the NPC's face being unresponsive, as well as the user being unable to select dialogue responses.

Its probably worth pointing out that this is not unique to Oblivon as many games become unstable when task switched away from fullscreen.

I find pressing ESC to access the menu before ALT+TABbing can help.


 * EDIT

I have found this to work for me. Results may vary.

When I want to alt-tab out of/into my game I first save then press the tab key to open my inventory, after this I press esc. and while my game is paused I alt-tab out/in reversing the process to continue on in my game. I have seen it crash a couple of times doing this but it seems to work well for the most-part.

Using the console
The console should be opened by pressing the key up left to 1 and below escape. It seems it does not work on all systems, and I have found that workaround for mine: It is an HP computer with USB remote controller receiver and USB wireless keyboard. When unplugging the receiver for remote controller before launching Oblivion, the console can be opened. Also, it appears that the console can be opened with @ on other systems.

Cloning Items
Cloning items is a fairly simple process, and requires a bow and a stack of arrows (along with whatever you are trying to clone). Equip them and ready the bow. While readying the bow, open up the inventory, attempt to unequip the arrows (you'll recieve a message saying that you cannot unequip this item), then drop whatever you want to duplicate. If you're dropping a stack it should not prompt a 'How many' window. Upon exiting the inventory, you'll drop the item in an amount equivalent to the number of arrows you have equipped.

Cloning will work with most items, however rare/quest items (like Nirnroot) do not appear to work at all. Stolen items will work, as long as you are also carrying a 'legal' version of the same item (this leads to having two stacks of the same item in your inventory). If you want to duplicate arrows, you will need to have two separate sets (one equipped, one to be cloned). It is currently unknown as to how the game decides whether or not something can be duplicated.

Be careful when duplicating large numbers of items, as it can lag excessively. It is a good idea to pick up previously cloned objects before making more. Using stacks rather than singular items reduces the lag (if you're duping an item with 100 arrows, 100 objects will be rendered and calculated on the screen, if you use a stack of 5, it only needs to render 20 objects).

Some common items may not be duplicated:
 * Boar Meat
 * Mannimarco's Staff
 * Glass War Axe
 * Quest Items (items that cannot be dropped)

Unfriendly Competition
When I killed the guy in the Masoleum, the shovel was not there. I went back to his house found, the shovel, but they still sent me back to the Masoleum to search for "more evidence". I can now not complete the quest
 * Look around, things get sent flying during the battle. It might have been knocked into a dark corner where it would be easy to miss.

Nah, the shovel is in his house. When you bring it with you, you still need more evidence!!
 * That is the wrong shovel. The shovel you need is found in the Mausoleum where you fought him, and it has his name on it.

I simply reset the quest, and the shovel appeared in the masoleum.

Lost Histories
When I click "map," it shows no arrow for Shum gro-Yarug. Also, I have click map for the housing quest to find Shum for this quest, and the arrow just points me to a road. I go to the arrow, and nothing is there. Therefore I can't finish either quest.

He actually falls off of the bridge and dies, and where his body landed is where the arrow is pointing for the house quest.

Is there any way to get the key or house without him?

This happened to me as well. Turns out he had fallen off a bridge and killed himself. The way I solved this was to find his NPC HEX id (google helped), point to it and use the resurrect command. After some time he showed up walking on the road. Enter the console, and type the following:

prid 00028FB6 resurrect

Wrong Voice
My female wood elf has a distinctly male voice (Xbox 360). The female wood elf has a male voice on PC also.

Shadowmere Disappearing
Issue &mdash; Shadowmere 'disappears'. Even after fast traveling he is not in stables, and nowhere to be found.

Solution &mdash; Return to Fort Farragut. You'll receive a message stating that Shadowmere has returned as well.

Mankar Camaren's Paradise
Issue Mankar Camaren does not appear in the building at the end of the "paradise" mission. Instead, he seems to be wandering around the inside of Cloud Ruler Temple, and I'm unable to attack or pickpocket him. He just asks me, without voice acting, to "enter the hall" to challenge him. I cannot complete the Paradise mission because of this. Can I spawn him?

Had the same problem. I think its because he never got to leave Tamriel in the first place.

Clavicus Vile Quest Bug
When attempting to return the Umbra Sword to Clavicus Vile's shrine for his quest, both PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game crash. The crash has something to do with the statue that Clavicus Vile will give you to carry with while you do his quest. The crash occurs when this statue has to be placed back onto the shrine pedestal from your inventory. At the end of the quest when you go back and talk to the shrine again, whether you give the sword, or keep it, when the statue gets removed from your inventory, the game crashes. This is confirmed on the PC version as well.

Solution: Before ever talking to the Shrine of Clavicus Vile, goto Vindasel, here you can find Umbra with her sword. Defeat her and take the sword, then go talk to the Khajiit worshipper by the shrine. This will add the Clavicus Vile quest to your journal. You can then speak with the shrine, and he will immediately say, "You've found the sword!". He will take the sword and you won't have to do his quest. Do this and you won't have the glitch with the statue having to get removed from your inventory.

It may also be possible to get around the bug by making sure that the sword Umbra is not currently equipped. This seems to have worked for at least one user on the PC version of the game. It is recommended that you try this method first, as another lucrative quest may hinge on the completion of this line.

For those who do not want to have to reach level 20 this is a good alternative. One simply has to receive the quest and activate the shrine without the loss of gold.

Additionally, for the path of keeping the sword, you can try and warp to the waterfront district. The seller's words should interrupt those of Baucus (the dog) and allow you to continue (tested only on 360). This doesn't seem to work when you accept the Masque.

Crash on exit leading to crash on running/Loading
Some players find that Oblivion crashes sometimes on exit. They also find that Oblivion will crash on startup after one of these crashes. While we don't know the cause of the crash on exit, a cause of the crash on startup has been found.

Apparently Oblivion corrupts the Oblivion - meshes.bsa file when it crashes on exit, and this causes it to crash on startup. To fix the problem, replace the current meshes.bsa with an original copy form the DVD by copying it out of the Installshield .cab files on the DVD, or by reinstalling the game.

Seemingly endless "enemy nearby" of "guards pursuing you" messages
If when you try to wait, you get either of the aforementioned messages, commit a crime and pay the fine (a petty crime, obviously) and you should be able to wait and fast travel again. or you COULD just use save/load.

See this thread for more details, including how to extract from the proprietory Installshield .cab files: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=368389&view=findpost&p=5669613

Revenge Served Cold
At Harm's Folly, there is a bug in the PC version where Corrick will not talk to you to begin the quest, and even if you go and get the amulet first, will not talk to you to complete it either.

If there is a solution to this bug please post it.

A Brush with Death
Don't know what happened here but I when through this quest killed all of the painted ogres, retrieved the brush, and returned it to Rythe for him to paint the portal home. Rythe then does his little painting in the air bit...and then nothing. If I talked to Rythe he says something like "No time to talk. Let's go home", but there's no portal. I had to load to a previous game and redo the quest for the portal home to appear. Fortunately, I was able to jump over the rocks that time and only have to deal with two ogres...