Too many mods make Skyrim crash

[bben46]

There seems to be some confusion as to what the LAA (4Gig) patch now included in Skyrim actually does. It does not make the game 64 bit - only recoding the entire game could do that.

Skyrim is and will always be a 32 bit game. Any program in windows is automatically limited to using a maximum of 2 Gig of system memory no matter if they are running on 32 bit or 64 bit - at one time that made sense.

 

What the LAA patch does is allow he program it is applied to to use as much RAM as it can get away with. On a 32 bit game - such as Skyrim that is still limited to a maximum of 4 gig.

 

On a 32 bit computer, the entire computer is limited to 4Gig maximum and that has to be divided up for everything that is running. Part of that 4G is used by the BIOS, part is used By windows, and part by the Windows services that must be running for the computer to work. After subtracting all of this you will have about 3.5 (or a little more) available for Skyrim on a 32 bit system that has 4 Gig of physical System Ram. On a laptop, or low end desktop with integrated graphics, that total available Ram can be reduced significantly by the GPU sharing System memory instead of having it's own.

 

On a 64 bit with MORE than 4gig of memory, all of that BIOS shadowing, Windows, services and anything else will be pushed into that extra ram - allowing a full 4G for the game. On most systems with at least 4G the difference will be an extra .5G - not really that much. Also, be sure you don't have any uneeded stuff running in the background - An incoming Skype call or an antivirus deciding it absolutely must download an update right now will crash most games.

 

Any graphic heavy mod will use a lot of video ram, and some system ram also. Skyrim unmodded is limited more by it's CPU than GPU. (a holdover from being a console port) And that is what the automatic setup when you first start the game is looking at. So if you have a reasonably good GPU card, it says you can play at High graphics levels - but then you add in an ENB mod, high res texture mods and several extra companions you are already straining the GPU, and now you start pushing the capability of the CPU also. The harder you push the more crashes you get. - Be sure you are playing at the native resolution of your monitor (GPU runs cooler & smoother) For troubleshooting - Lighten up on the hi rez mods, don't play with a small army of followers, get rid of the ENB and see if your crashes are reduced (you will never get rid of them all) Then add back in what you absolutely must have. :thumbsup:

[deadriclordtaylor]

yeah, my skyrim just cuts out during game play. so i think to many mods maybe the cause. im trying to get skyrim to look more real but still using mininium cpu for the game.

[JASONlinWAShere]

i am having the same problem i tried using the skse and it still crashes

[Unknnnnn]

Have this problem now, don't know how to solve it. I don't understand how people with enb's run with 329428949289 graphic mods! My skyrim crashes with only a few of them like smim ultimate fire effects hd, enhanced lights and pure weather + Purevision enb

[edbgarcia]

Mmm...

 

Perhaps it is not the number of mods, but a mod itself that is missing a pre-requisite mod to enable it. I have close to 200 mods in my system and it is running quite stable, especially after installing all of the Unofficial patches. I urge you to install "LOOT" on your desktop and run it, it is very, very trustworthy. Loot will in general optimize your load order, which is a big thing in this game, but it will also flag for you those mods that have issues with missing pre-requisite mods with a red background, and thus because of that missing requirement you will get a game crash as you try to load the game every time.

 

Some things to be aware of that many mods today require SKSE, or SKYUI or a specific version of SKYRIM V or CCBE or HDT or FNIS. I recommend loot and identify the mods that are having issues, go back to steam or nexus were you got the mod and carefully read the requirements section within the description of the mod and then go after them and install; once again use LOOT to ensure you have the best load order and to verify you did indeed fix the pre-requisite issue with your mod. The other less palatable choice is to simply remove the mods highlighted in red by LOOT.

 

For game stability, once you got in, you need to be very, very, very careful with mods that change city layouts for they often move structures to different places, put things were once there was open space and then when you playing a quest and it tries to send you to a place only to game crash because where you were supposed to go no longer exists or something is already there. One to be very careful is the one were it upgraded Whiterun, puts a map marker to the companions place, which sadly slightly moves the building which has the effect of you can enter, but you will crash upon trying to exit...

 

Another mod to really be careful is the one that upgrades Helgen, that will really ruin your day when you try to start a new character, good practice hint for you if you plan to make multiple characters. Once you get to the portion after the wooz runs away and gets arrowed down, and just before you get addressed next, make sure to do a console save "~" and type "Save Character_001" with out the quotes, so when you are ready to make another alt, then just load the Character_001 file and bingo! you skipped the whole cart thing.

 

By the way, if LOOT marks something with a yellow background it is really not an issue to worry, but may cause on occasion a game crash, so need to panic and then try to figure how to use TES5EDIT; you need only address the red back ground ones.

 

Incidentally my system has a GTX 750 with 4GB memory, 16 GB memory and runs the game splendidly in reasonably high definition (I can see individual leaves on trees) with no FPS issues, the CPU is not that high tech either; so do not panic over your rig, I would suggest to make sure your firewall and virus scanner knows this game is trusted and make sure your system is not updating patches or downloading them, also check for other programs not running in the background, lastly do a virus check to make sure you do not have infection just for good measure.

 

Hope this helps

 

Ed