Freezing before black screen

[jmcdonald]

So I'm posting here as a result of over a week's worth of frustrations and issues with Skyrim (the latest Steam version) and my attempts to mod it successfully. I recently decided to get back into Skyrim and having never had a PC capable of running it well until recently, I thought it was time to throw some mods in as well.

 

Initially, I began added mods that improved the visuals of the game (textures, SMIM, W.A.T.E.R, fire effects etc) and dealt with numerous crashes, error messages and so forth until I achieved stability (or so I thought).

 

Next, I moved into adding a few gameplay/immersion mods (Interesting NPCs, Cloaks of Skyrim etc) and have now discovered an issue that I've been unable to resolve with any methods I can think of.

 

Every time I enter a relatively busy area (this has happened upon entering both Whiterun and Solitude but Dawnstar works fine), the game will freeze, staying that way for about 3-5 seconds before the screen turns black for a second. When the screen comes back on, the game is running like normal. This freeze, black screen process will continue intermittently until either I leave the busy area (sometimes it will continue no matter what) OR the game goes to a black screen and becomes unresponsive, forcing me to kill the process via. the task manager.

 

I've tried various things, such as cleaning the master files via. TES5Edit, playing around with the load order in LOOT, trying different combinations of mods, running Skyrim in a compatibility mode, returning to a fresh install of the game and more.

 

Currently, the mods I have in the game are (listed by load order as determined by LOOT):

 

LOOT Log:

Summary

Details

Filters



Skyrim.esm

CRC: C665FD56


Update.esm

CRC: 1FDAB215

C.Location, Delev, Invent, Relev


Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

CRC: 23BBAC1C

Version: 2.0.7

C.Acoustic, C.Climate, C.Encounter, C.ImageSpace, C.Light, C.Location, C.LTemplate, C.Music, C.Name, C.Owner, C.Water, Delev, Graphics, Invent, Names, Relev, Sound, Stats


Dawnguard.esm

CRC: 31FEA081

C.Location, Delev, Graphics, Invent, Names, Sound
•Warning: Contains 6 ITM records. Clean with TES5Edit.


Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp

CRC: 2F92E911

Version: 2.0.7

C.Climate, C.Encounter, C.Location, C.Name, Delev, Graphics, Invent, Names, Sound, Stats


HearthFires.esm

CRC: F4DDC851

C.Location, Graphics, Invent


Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp

CRC: 909C478E

Version: 2.0.7

C.Climate, C.Location, C.Owner, Graphics, Invent, Names, Sound


Dragonborn.esm

CRC: A46CA360

C.Location, Graphics, Invent, Names


Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp

CRC: 697829D7

Version: 2.0.7

C.Climate, C.Encounter, C.Location, C.Music, C.Name, Delev, Graphics, Invent, Names, Sound, Stats


Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main.esm

CRC: AC4A653A


HighResTexturePack01.esp

CRC: D596F02A


HighResTexturePack02.esp

CRC: D596F02A


HighResTexturePack03.esp

CRC: D596F02A


Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp

CRC: 7EBC542

Version: 1.1.9


3DNPC.esp

CRC: 548CAEA9

Version: 3.08


Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp

CRC: 56988D38


dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp

CRC: 674C05BC


RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp

CRC: B74B21DA

Delev, Relev


Inconsequential NPCs.esp

CRC: E8A4F39C


Cloaks.esp

CRC: D8F94C02
•Warning: Contains 2 ITM records. Clean with TES5Edit.


SMIM-Merged-All.esp

CRC: 46D0D2C0


Chesko_Frostfall.esp

CRC: E3704311


RND_HearthFires-Patch.esp

CRC: E3E62E4


CampingKitNorthernRanger.esp

CRC: 21A8DEC9
•Note: Use only one CampingKitNorthernRanger esp.


dD-Reduced Splatter Size.esp

CRC: 8840345E


DeadlyMutilation.esp

CRC: 8562BE96


dD-Dragonborn-Dawnguard-EBT Patch.esp

CRC: FB51E4FC


RND_USKP-Patch.esp

CRC: A9317018

Relev


RND_Dawnguard-Patch.esp

CRC: A554A56D


RND_Dragonborn-Patch.esp

CRC: 72A698CB


SkyUI.esp

CRC: 9330CAF7

Version: 4.1


Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp

CRC: F8F3B96

Version: 2.5.3

C.Location

 

 

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch

Lanterns of Skyrim - All In One

Unofficial High Resolution Patch

Interesting NPCs

Cloaks of Skyrim - Dawnguard

Enhanced Blood Textures

Realistic Needs & Diseases

Inconsequential NPCs

Cloaks of Skyrim

SMIM

Frostfall

Realistic Needs & Diseases (Hearthfire Patch)

Camping Kit of the Northern Ranger

Enhanced Blood Textures - Reduced Splatter Size

Deadly Mutilation

Enhanced Blood Textures - Dawnguard & Dragonborn Patch

Realistic Needs & Diseases - USKP Patch

Realistic Needs & Diseases - Dawnguard Patch

Realistic Needs & Diseases - Dragonborn Patch

SkyUI

Alternate Start - Live Another Life

 

This is all running on a system with an i7-4770k, GTX780 3GB and 16GB DDR3 RAM on Windows 8.1. I've been using SKSE to run Skyrim and have the 'memory patch' set to:

 

[Memory]

DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768

ScrapHeapSizeMB=256

As you can probably tell by the mod list, I'm running Skyrim with all of the official DLCs and the High Resolution Textures from Bethesda.

If there's any further information that's needed, please let me know. I'm desperate to work out what the hell is going on here and how I can fix it.

[gromulos]

try this guide and let me know if you need more help, it's easy and step by step :) http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/2235394-beginners-guide-to-modding/