FruFruHM

I've not got any mods installed right now. There's now nothing in my scripts folder, nor saves folders. Each time I create a new character, spawn outside the main gate to Solitude, then enter it (its nothing related to the character creation process as far as I can tell). So it shouldn't be anything related to that questlne, I think rather it may be related to NPCs, or just a radiant quest. =/ I donno, I'm trying to strip out everything that isn't vanilla content one by one, but its still some niggling script error that's causing the issue it seems.

Changing terrain textures may be the case, but if the textures were especially blocky it would have been a lod issue (which wouldn't be related to a texture replacer). If its gone now it probably won't come back even with downloading the same mods (....yeah, that's the way.... =/). If it does you'll at least know this time what's causing it. ^^ You'll have wonderful new errors with this latest install, so never bother about the old ones.

Probably, I wouldn't know, but I doubt changing the game into windowed mode is going to effect any of the internal workings too much.Really the error shouldn't come back with a clean install, even if you replace the textures again. If it does this time you'll at least know what mods you've installed to cause the error hopefully (presumably it was something effect lod, visuals, as in enb, or that particular location, not a script). =P

6450? 8000's around the minimum if you don't want to be running textures at below their smallest size to get decent fps. Install the mod Optimizer Textures from the Nexus, perhaps FPS Booster, 6Gb enabler, and the one that cuts down on the number of pixels (someone help me out with the name of it, it was a file of the month) as well. It may be the case that the rest of your system can handle the game, but your graphics card can't. Less likely cause would be a hardware conflict other than this, but I doubt it. Run the FPS boosting mods and the texture optimizer, then see if you get anything better. I'm running the game on a Nvidia 8800 and I get stuttering all the time, but I'm used to it with Bethesda games (I rarely get it in anything outside of open world games though). =/

You mean you load a particular save and then the game crashes? As in you load one in say Helgen and then the crash? Is it the case with all your save files, or just that one? If its just one then its a script error related to something in that location, if its all the files then its something related your character (race, spells), or the game itself. Make a clean save, enable papyrus logs, and if there's still a crash when starting a new game with no mods turned on then post the log here. ^^

Allow Papyrus logs and find out what the last script run is. Is it before the main menu, or do you not even get to the Bethesda logo? It could be an issue with your exe file, but I doubt that. Do you have any saves in your MyGames\Skyrim folder, as it may be one of those that's causing the issue (if you had previously install the game and are now reinstalling it it could be that one of these is corrupted). =/

So are you still having the issue? Post a screenshot as there's different kind of issues that this could be. It could be that the lod version of the smoke is being displayed instead, or that the normal texture itself is messed up. Try installing a smoke replacer for one thing and see if the problem persists (and if it doesn't you've still got nicer looking smoke), otherwise as always run a clean save and it persists you'll need to do some script hunting. =/

The crash happens when entering the main gate, ie up from the carriage. I had had custom races install, but I've removed every mod that I have from the game (including bsa, exe files etc). My scripts\source folder is pretty much empty now, but yet it seems that my crashes are related to something altering the races. It may be the case that for some reason a script related to custom races still exists, but I don't know why it would be referring to it with a clean save. I do have PEX files still in my root scripts folder, which I'll try removing to see if that's causing any issues (it may crash the game by doing this, but incremental testing seems to be the only way to sort this out) Before making these changes it was the case where I was receiving crashes around Riften, Dawnstar, Windhelm, a few dungeons and exterior areas, but these disappeared afterwards (related to SkyTest I concluded). =/

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Data Paste that into the top bar when on any of your computer's interface windows. Your documents\MyGames\Skyrim folder's just where your saves and some ini files are located. The program files one's where everything else game related is stored (and if your installing mods you should make a shortcut on your desktop just for ease of access).=P Just go to the Steam website and click sign up and install steam, or whatever variant of that's there. Though when you run Skyrim it should be through Steam, so there should be a Steam shortcut and folder if you've ever played Skyrim before. 0.o

I'd say its something related to either one of the interface files being changed (found in your data folder) or a mod changing or adding a spell. If its a menu change then do you have mods that do change this (font included)? If so then backup and delete your interface folder and see if there's still a crash (yes, this does mean having a clean save with no mods installed). If its not an immediate crash you get it could be a hardware issue (I sometimes suffer stuttering on the skills menu when testing things) in this case. Otherwise it may a change to a spell or power that's messing things up. This could be a mod that adds a new race, or one of the many overhaul mods. You really should start a clean save with no mods turned on (you don't have to uninstall them completely, or delete any of your saves), if it isn't a mod that's causing it, and you have uninstalled them (or just moved them to another folder), then it may be a patch related issue. Try my suggestions, failing that allow papyrus logs and post them here. (They show the last scripts that were run, so should highlight what caused the crash. Read them even if it is a mod issue though so you don't have to move everything). ^^

0.o Yeah, the installer should prompt you to register the game through steam and then you'd be taken to your steam account and see the normal steam install process begin there... It would be odd if that wasn' the case (you need Steam to run the game). Anyhow, are you looking in your My Document's folder or Program Files? ....That seems to be your issue if your not suffering from a falty install.

Is the ground fully textured or not, as it could be a lod issue? If the ground's got a terrible texture and can be walked through (as in your character's sunken into it a bit), this probably would be the case and a mod's altered one of the game's lod files (which should be in your data folder). I don't think there's hardcoded files for actual land heights in the data folder, so it may the official patch itself that's conflicting with your own version of your files (which just resintalling some files should fix). I haven't had such an issue with Skyrim, but I recall this is the way I fixed lod issue errors with Fallout: New Vegas. =/

I've also came across this issue with male characters. I had it form females too, and with the odd magic casting one at times. I managed to fix the females by resetting the files in the animations folder (deleting them altogether has the same effect), though I don't recall if that was just the female animations I did this for, or all of the animations. Presumably deleting every animation file and redownloading the patch would solve the issue (which should only cause you a problem if you have custom animations or body types, which could just be downloaded again). This may not solve the error, but its as far as I can tell as at the moment worth a try. =/

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Data , should be the location of your data folder. It isn't one of those things that are created by a user, its where all your meshes, textures, sounds, esms, etc are located, so it should exist if you can actually run your game. Make sure your looking in your program files\steam folder, not your documents\my games, which seems to be the case if you can see the saves folder. =P

Wouldn't this reduce performance in general on anything but high end machines? It was my understanding that adding to the number of objects being loaded at any distance will take up memory, so increasing the display distance of all objects to a few miles presumably would lead to less stuttering as they load, but more as the computer tries to handle the number of objects now in the world. Sorry if I'm not getting the concept or not, but will these changes have drastic effects on general performance or not, or is it the case that they're just one of those little "set to minimum just in case" things that can be messed around with at leisure? ^^'