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I'm playing on an Xbox 360, with all the available downloads. I've completed the all side and main quests. I'm in the process of completing Shivering Isles. 399 game days passed. 221 Quest Completed. Out of nowhere I notice . . .
The Symptom:
- All flames (Fire places, Wall torches, any fire) look to be frozen throughout the game. I've actually seen the fire freeze to a stop. Although the main characters torch looks okay (my torch).
- Interactive components, like switches and buttons won't activate.
- Gates and immediate opening Doors won't open (Like closets or small rooms, a room that doesn't load when you open the door.)
- Casting "Life detection" spell leaves a pink spot cloud surrounding my characters body. Sometimes it also leaves bubbles in my vision.
- Casting "heal wounds" spell leaves a white spot cloud surrounding my characters body.
- Fire spells hag in the air. When they hit a wall they leave a fire spot. I can keep casting and all the previous spots stay. Kinda like a Lite-Brite.
- Light burst from fire or magic hang frozen in the air like clouds during fights.
- The floating shimmering sparks that are randomly flying around in Shivering Isles are all frozen.
- Any moving trapdoors look choppy.

Resetting the 360's cache by holding down the (A) button on start up until the Bathesda logo, was no help. (Several attempts)

I go back to my last save (Save 978 - Level 46 - Play Time: 590:37:17) and deduce within 12 -15 minutes the glitch kicks in. I load the save again, go to another place and within 12 -15 minutes the glitch kicks in. I load the save prior to the one in question (Save 977 - Level 46 - Play Time: 586:45:45). The game runs okay, until I notice the purple flames at the Arcane University are frozen! Doh!! I cast a fire spell and the fire dot sticks! I look to the last game auto save and it's 591:31:55. I took another save from Save 981 - Level 46 Play Time: 590:44:30. I went to a cave played it to around the 591 mark, going in and out of the cave (auto-saving) and checking the save time vs. the campfire in the entrance of the cave. It froze just after 591:31:24.

The symptoms seem lag-like but all my investigation leads to around Play Time 591:**:**. Regardless of where I am (Cyrodiil or Shivering Isles) or what quest I'm in; the game weirds out just around Play Time hour 591:**:**.

Is anyone aware of anything like this? Any suggestions?

lol at the 360 but sorry about your game

Laughing at someones platform is not appropriate, or acceptable.

Sounds like you have the A-bomb. Make sure that you have all of the latest patches/updates. I'm heading off to work in a few, so don't have time to look it up, but I will after work, unless someone else posts it before me.

Wow, that's a lot of play time! I don't even have 200 hours on any character.

I wonder if it's related to the fact that you've been playing the game for just about 2^32 milliseconds? You may be getting some kind of overflow bug on your particle effects...

Call this brute, but blow on your disc. Then clear the cache again.

The 3 great tips.

1. Clean your disk
2. Go on xbox live (doesn't have to be the pay version) and it will automaticly download every new patch.
3. Try to delete as much useless saves as you can.

I'd put my money on Deandra's answer. Probably some kind of computation that's above the artificial limits of the game engine or your console.

(Kinda like modpca resetting your attribute back to 1 if you try to put it over 255.)

Has anyone ever tried to overload the merchants of the game? AFAIK they don't rid themselves of items you sell to them, so, in theory, you could eventually overload every single merchant with items to the point where you can't even access their inventory. I'm wondering how the game handles the information of each non-respawning storage unit and miscellaneous inventories.

I thought that it was only Aurelinwae who doesn't clear out her inventory? I'm sure all other merchants that I've used do, but then I do tend to stick to the limited range of my fav Merchants.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Hamlof_Red-Tooth

He is one of the only merchants in the game who has all of his available merchandise on his person, which means that you can pickpocket the items from him or kill him and loot his body for everything he has to sell.

The only problem with this, is he will equip any items that are better than what he is wearing, so you can't buy it back later. You could kill him, and then take it though...

The other merchants store there merchandise in chests. The chests are set to respawn off of a Leveled Item List. If you level, and have a new set of items available, then the chest re-sets, to allow you to buy those types of items, 2 levels above where they start to show up. Thus, all of the items you sold them, are gone. Since they are also containers set to respawn, they may clear out the inventory, and only have what the current Leveled List Items are. I have gone back a day or two later, and saw Items I've sold, but have not seen them weeks later.

What happens with non-respawning containers, when they get to many items, is that it drops some items off of the list. It appears that they are gone, but they are there, just not viewable. As you start to take some items out of the container, the items that were not showing will start to show up. I have heard that if you do a quick save, then quick load, you will see all of the items. I've never done that though, as I don't hoard/collect items. I usually only save Artifacts & Special Items.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Aurelinwae

Another disadvantage is that every item you sell her will remain in her inventory. This can lead to long pauses if her inventory gets too full.

Peculiar, I'm fairly certain Rasheda of Fire And Steel had several items in her inventory that'd I'd sold her early in the game. And it's been the equivalent of two months in game.

I know that Sinderion in the Skingrad West Weald Inn Basement never removes potions I sell him. Maybe some other merchants are like that? (Rare exceptions)

Finally found it, but probalby to late. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes4Mod:Mod_Management

Animation Slowing
After around 200 hours of gameplay, many players begin to experience slowing of certain animations (flames, particle effects, opening/closing doors, etc.). This bug is colloquially referred to as the "ABomb". A workaround for this on the PC is to reset a float value within the savegame file. There are several programs that do this. There is no solution for Xbox gamers.

Aw man! Well that sucks...

Eek! I assume that means there's no solution on PS3 either?

On the bright side, it doesn't actually say that it affects PS3, so you might be ok....