Tips and trouble-shooting - companion mods

I HAVE UPGRADED TO A NEW VERSION OF MY COMPANION, BUT IT HAS NO NOTICEABLE EFFECT.
This can happen if you upgrade your companion in your ongoing game. It’s caused by the fact that Morrowind sometimes stores an extra NPC-line in your saved game with data of your companion. What you should do is follow this step-by-step-instruction (by Fernelf) for cleaning your saved game:
a) MAKE A SAFETY COPY OF YOUR SAVED GAME!!!
b) Place the copy of your savedgame in the Morrowind data files folder. Rename your saved game from an ess-file to an esp-file (right-click on the save and hit rename.Exchange the letters ".ess" with ".esp", hit enter).
c) open up TES Construction set, highlight your renamed esp-file and mark it with "X". Hit the "details"-button (don't load the esp, just hit details).
d) In the details-list, look for and highlight a line called “NPC”+the ID-name of your npc, for instance "NPC-1AA_Morgana". DELETE this line. Use the "delete"-tab. You will get a question if you really want to delete the line, say OK to this. If you look in the details list, you will now see a "|" in front of the NPC-1AA_Morgana-line. This means that you have successfully deleted the line. Please note: there is also a line called "NPCC-1AA_Morgana". DON'T touch this line.
e) Close the TES Construction set (do not save or load the esp-file, just close TES construction set)
f) Go back to your data files folder and find the saved game esp. Right click and hit rename. Exchange the letters ".esp" with ".ess".
g) place your updated ess-file among your saved games. Now, you are ready to play.
Please note: this is rare, but some people may have to do one extra step, as they have problems to revert their new esp back to an ess. This is how to fix it:
go to “start”
hit my computer
hit tools
hit view and uncheck the last line "hide file extensions"
hit apply
now go back and now right click on the esp and hit rename and place the s where your p was.

I WANT TO GIVE MY COMPANION A NEW HEAD/A NEW RACE. HOW CAN I CHANGE THIS?
So, you have seen Elric Melnibone's beautiful new Angelina Jolie face and want to change Laura Craft into Lara Croft? Or you have decided that Witchgirl Morgana should be a darkelf? Very well, that's easy to fix. Open up the mod in the constrution set. To the left, you will see a couple of tabs. One of them is called "npc". Click here. At the very top of the list, you should find my companions (I generally use the prefix 11A or 11AA). Let's say that you will alter Laura. Double-click on the line with her ID-name. That will bring up the NPC-infobox. Here, you can change her race, her looks and even her name (just DO NOT change her ID-name). To the very right, you will find a list of heads and hairs. Just pick your choice and hit the OK button. Her race is listed below her name, you can change her into anything you want. But, her voice will remain the same, as it is programmed in the dialog.
If you go to the Vivec-cell where she is (list of cells below the render window, there's a * at the Vivec cell where she is), you can see her change her appearance each time you click "OK" on her npc-info-box.
Once she looks as you want her to look, just save the mod.
One thing, though: If you are already using Laura in your game, you will probably (but not always) have to clean your saved game in order to make the changes show up ingame (see instructions above). This should only take you a couple of minutes.

I WANT TO DRESS UP MY COMPANION IN ARMOR AND WHIGS, BUT SHE REFUSES TO WEAR WHAT I GIVE TO HER.
Hehe, you have probably choosen Morgana de Hex as your companion. Yes, she is incredibly stubborn, and she will only wear the very best armor. The reason is that her unarmored skill is much higher than her armor skills. Therefore, she is better protected without armor than with armor. Whigs are concerned as “light armor” with very little protection. Therefore, she won’t use whigs, either.
What you can do is this: Open up witchgirl mod in TESCS. Go to the npc-tab. Double-click on Morgana. To the left, you will find all her skills. Lower her unarmored skill and raise her armor skills so that they are higher than her unarmored skills.
If you are already using Morgana in your ongoing game, you might have to clean the saved game, following the instructions above, in order to update her skills.
(Please note: I have made a mod that makes unarmored fighters wear the outfits and wigs from "old" Metal Queen Boutique, and it can be downloaded either here or from my site. The mod is however dependant on CanadianIce's old version of Metal Queen Boutique, and hasn't been updated with the outfits in the new version. I haven't yet tested if my "fix" works together with the new MQB, but if anyone knows the answer, please let me know)

MY COMPANION SEEMS TO LOSE STRENGTH ALL THE TIME!!

The most common reason for this is that you have given your companion an enchanted item. Many enchantments, for instance fortify and feather, works reversed on companions and will instead drain or burden. This usually doesn't happen instantly, but as soon as you start to move around in the game-world and changes cells, this is bound to happen.
So, keep these kind of enchanted items for yourself, and give your companion good, non-enchanted items instead!
You can read more about companions and enchantment side-effects here:
rethan-manor.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=189

Your companion can also have a disease.
The companions I have made have either an option to cure themselves, or their attributes will be set each time you talk to them.
So, if your companion loses strength and has no enchanted items, tell him/her to cast a cure spell and a restore attributes spell. That should help!
(Other companion mods might not have this option - in that case, you can buy scrolls or spells to heal them).