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First things first...

If you have trouble or not, you should make sure your game is fully patched and that your drivers are up to date.


Installation Order

If the game is messing up and giving errors, first check you installed everything in the right order: first Morrowind, then Tribunal, and Bloodmoon last. It is important to do it like this.


Morrowind and Vista

...seem to be arch enemies. You need to do everything with admin permissions.
To install properly, go into the disk and right click on the setup.exe. A drop box will then appear: one of the boxes you can select is 'Run As Administrator', click it and accept the next thing that comes up. Then just go through the installation process as normal. When this is done and you're ready to play the game you have to right click the shortcut on your desktop and 'Run As Administrator' again. You have to do this EVERY single time you want to play them game or it wont work.

If you are reinstalling the game you need to clean the registry and defrag and also make sure that every file relating to Morrowind is deleted.


Console not working?

...and you're on vista? Deinstall your IR drivers. Instructions are here. (IR is infrared. Mainly found on laptops, but also sometimes on desktops)


ERROR: Failed to load snowflake: Meshes\BM_Snow_01.nif

Run as admin. Check this option under the compatibility mode tab in the properties for your Morrowind shortcut. If that doesn't work, it actually sometimes has to be fixed by copying your texture and mesh files from your CD into the there right places in the data files (This last part suggested by Dean) The spoiler describes another way of fixing it.



Black Sun?
This typically occurs on computers using ATI video cards. There is a fix for it here. Otherwise, you could do what Andere suggested and change the Morrowind.ini setting "Sun Glare Fader Max" from the default 0.5 to 0 the problem gets better. It doesn't disappear entirely but becomes far less noticeable (Andere).

I cannot quicksave my games. When I try, it says: "Unable to remove temp file. Temp file still remains. Continue running executable?"
It seems I can't replace save files.
Overwriting a save game too often can cause them to corrupt. Find your save game files, manually delete it and when you make a new quicksave the game does it automatically for you (Rohugh). Also, for Vista/7 users, disabling UAC can fix this. For 7, go to Control Panel>System and Security>Change user control settings, under Action Center, change and restart! And this could also be due to previous files existing after you deleted the game.

For mod users:
Wrye Mash is INCREDIBLY useful. It prevents all of those errors at start up when you install or delete mods and it keeps the missing mesh error occuring!
The guide here shows how to install it on WinXP. For Windows 7 (or XP) you can also download the standalone of Wrye Mash. The standalone is slightly different than the actual Wrye Mash, but it works the same. The standalone comes with the Python Files necessary for Wrye Mash to work so you don't have to download the actual Python programs. The standalone is located here. For Vista, I do not own any computer with Vista so I have no knowledge of how these programs work with it. If you are a Vista user, PM me or post directions to solve certain Vista problems

Music Error?
Okay, this problem is for those that have a Music Error called: Data Files/Music/Special/morrowind title.mp3

You need to Google this issue and find something called a CODEC fixer.

Nightmare's CODEC Reset Utility, extract it (DON'T FORGET TO EXTRACT IT!), and run the file "MP3FIX.BAT

Google this, and download the Reset Utility. I ran the file MP3FIX.BAT and the problem went away instantly. (Shotgun Steve)


Also, be sure to visit the engine bugs page.

Missing files?
If you are a Vista or Windows 7 user, you may have trouble finding certain files, most notably your screenshots. For Windows 7 users (not so sure about Vista) go to your Morrowind directory. Once there, at the top you should see a tab which says "Compatibility Files". Click on it and you should see all of your screenshots. This also works with missing esm. or esp. files that don't show up up in the normal Morrowind Directory


Where's Erranil
If Erranil, the guild guide in Ald'ruhn, vanished and the RA console command (RA stands for Reset Actors) doesn't work then use the following console command and she should show up. NOTE: This must be done in the Ald'Ruhn Mage's Guild for her to appear

"erranil00000000"->Position 68000, 157900, 230, North

(Note: That's 8 zeros in the name.)


P.S. If any user has a problem with Morrowind, post your problem as a separate thread in the correct section. (Mod issues go in MOD-Morrowind, hardware issues and anything else belong in the normal Morrowind forum.)

Glad everyone likes it And thanks Newsound for the help.

If anyone has anything to add, post it here or pm me and I'll edit the first post (so people don't have to go looking)

A very good thing, Caz, thanks for it.

I've been sharing

http://morrowind2009.wordpress.com/

although there are mods "not necessary" to involve. For beginners it would be very important to get some "exact" information, and such can only be made with the authority of UESP, or someone else like that. Don't know what to say, exactly, but sometimes "official recommandations" are quite due.

Good post. Some things to mention might be:

The patches and their abilites to fix certain problems

The need for updated drivers

The missing snowflake mesh is fixed by running as an admin, on all systems

Thanks VT, I updated the first post to include the first two. The last is a bit specific so I left it out...

Andere, that page is good but I believe it would fit better in the Mod Morrowind forum...?

Actually sometimes this has to be fixed by copying your texture and mesh files from your CD into the there right places in the data files.

Never knew that I do know it's one of the most encountered MW problems.

Does it hurt the computer much?

Don't know if this is the right place, but a lot of the technical problems I was having with Morrowind were fixed by this mod.

Why, does it sound painful? Nah, it's just some drivers you're getting rid of and naturally you can't do anything with IR after that without reinstalling them, but who uses them?

What's IR?

Infrared

Oh, that... Indeed, who used it?

It is something you find in laptops mainly. I uninstalled it a few months back with the help of Caz, it completely stops the console from working on your computer for some reason.

Hm, I am playing on the laptop and the console is working just fine (well, I've only used tcl for a couple of times). Maybe it doesn't have this IR thing at all... I never checked. Bluetooth ftw!

Well if your laptop is relatively new then it shouldn't have it, I have blue-tooth but they still decided to jam IR in there aswell for some reason.

Just wanted to say if can help someone (although probably everyone knows about this):

if you are playing on Windows 7 and you see the sun "black", try running morrowind on win XP Sp2/3 compatibility mode.

I think this is a fairly common problem, I've heard of it a lot.

i have followed your advice yet the sun is still black........do black people live on the sun?

There's quite a lot of info about the black sun, just google it. It seems to be highly system = hardware bound, not only a Windows problem, but a combination of both.

If you want more advice, please give system specs. It's the only way anyone can help you, with the zillion variables out there!

windows vista home premium
amd athlonX2
ATI raedeon. not sure which model

Start>computer (right click)>properties>hardware tab>device manage>Display adapters

@beny15:

I found this: "In the Official TES forum, a member named Aviloff has posted a solution that worked for him. He made these alternate textures which seem to work correctly for ATI cards and Windows Vista:"

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IX6I7D4B

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And this: "If you change the Morrowind.ini setting "Sun Glare Fader Max" from the default 0.5 to 0 the problem gets better. It doesn't disappear entirely but becomes far less noticeable (at least for me)."

You can find and change the Morrowind.ini in your Morrowind folder.

=================================

You can, of course, try other video card drivers. The latest one are usually to prefer, but sometimes older work better.

Best of luck.

I cannot quicksave my games. When I try, it says: "Unable to remove temp file. Temp file still remains. Continue running executable?"
It seems I can't replace save files. HELP!

Overwriting a save game too often can cause them to corrupt. Find your save game files, manually delete it and when you make a new quicksave the game does it automatically for you.