So I'm installing Oblivion on my PC after having had it on here previously and I uninstalled it.

So, I pop in my Oblivion CD, which hasn't been put in this computer for quite a while, and I expect the install wizard to pop up prompting me. But that doesn't happen. It takes me to the Oblivion launcher. The window that says "Play" "Options" "Data Files" "Uninstall" "Help" "Exit".

...

Oblivion is NOT installed on my computer. I hit "Play", and it says cannot find any data. I hit "Data Files" and it says "no data files can be found". So, I figure, well I don't even know what to think. So I hit "Uninstall", and that's when I get the error. After I hit it, the window disappears, my PC starts to do something in the background, you know how it does when it's doing something, flashes, jitters, and then it prompts me with this error message:

>SetupDLL/SetupDLL.cpp (390)
PAPP:Oblivion
PVENDOR:Bethesda Softworks (http://www.gamesas.com)
PGUID:35CB6715-41F8-4F99-8881-6FC75BF054B0
$11.0.0.28844
@Windows Xp Service Pack 3 (2600) BT_OTHER 0.0

And it just says "Ok" at the bottom. So I click "Ok", and then another error message pops up, and it says:

InstallShield Wizard
Setup has experienced an error.
Please do the following:
-Close any running programs
-Emtpy your temporary folder
Check your internet connection [Internet-based Setups]

Then try to run the Setup again.
Error code: -5001

I'm just perplexed at this moment, I have no clue what any of this means. Why on Earth does it think I have Oblivion installed on my computer already? I uninstalled it months ago. I did a complete system search for the name "Oblivion", zero results. I went to add/remove programs, Morrowind is there, Oblivion is not. So what's the deal?

Download Revo Uninstaller and see if Oblivion is listed as an uninstall option. If it is, have it uninstall whatever it finds.

It's a good program and it helped me completely uninstall a game that managed only to partially uninstall once, preventing me from re-installing it.

(I was responding to this in Community Discussion as it was being moved)

Downloaded it, searched with it, and Oblivion isn't listed at all.

You have some stray registry entries then. You can use some flavor of registry cleaner (CCleaner is my tool of choice.) to see if it can clear it out, or, you can search thru your registry manually....... and delete what you find. (not recommended though, a stray keystroke at the wrong time can prompt a reinstallation of the O/S.......)

Yep, it was stray registrys. I manually deleted them, although I saw your post just now AFTER I did it, haha. I googled the initial error, found someone else talking about it in another forum from 2006, and they recommended opening up the registry and deleting anything that said Bethesda. I didn't do this however bc I have MW installed, so I just deleted all things that said anything about installation, Oblivion, or anything that would lead me to believe it had to do with OB and now MW.

After I did that, it worked. Thanks for the help guys.

For future reference, Oblivion sometimes has some Install/Uninstall quirks. Sometimes you need to open up the disc and run the Setup from there in order to get things to work correctly again. This usually means reinstalling the game, then choosing the uninstall afterwards.