Skyrim CDTing after so much play time

[cunhamarchi]

Hey folks. I got a situation here that I can't seem to understand, and would like some help. Sorry for the wall of text and anything wrong, english isn't my main language.

 

Short story is: Skyrim CTDs after a, apparently, regular amount of play time. It happens in towns, out of towns, in houses, out of houses, near NPCs, alone in the woods, I couldn't associate with anything particular. And it doesn't seem to be because hardware or script overload.

 

I just got a new laptop with Windows 10 and decided to make a fresh install, with some chosen mods, so that I would not change them during the playtrough. This machine isn't top notch, but since I'm not running on Ultra, it seemed okay: i5-5200U @ 2.2GHz x4, 8g RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 920M 2g VRAM, 1t SATA.

So, I installed Skyrim (on F:, a HD I use only for games), all DLC, updated it, read some tutorials on Mod Organizer, picked up and downloaded my mod choices. Leaned how to use and downloaded MO, SKSE, LOOT, Ted5Edit, FNIS and WryeBash. Installed all the latest versions (as of 02/03/2016) following guides, mostly from STEP wiki.

To better make use of my hardware as well, downloaded and installed TopWinPrio, Razer Cortex (for the Boost option) and CleanMem, also following several different performance guides.

I had some compatibility problems with some mods, but solved without much trouble (My Modwatch).

Adjusted my .ini settings, double-checked everything and started the game.

My first problem was with infinite loading screens on the first map change. Read some more guides, installed SSME and it went away.

Played almost perfectly for 2 hours. Suddenly, CTD. I got no warning, no stuttering, no broken textures, nothing. i had already downloaded and installed Skyrim Performance Monitor when I had the infinite loading screen problem, and I was running it. But even examining the logs I found nothing different. GPU load was fairly high, but it had been so at other moments and didn't seem like the source of the problem (Screenshot of the run on SPM).

Reloaded to the last save, running SPM. Played for 5 minutes and CTD. Again, no visible changes to the logs (Screenshot). Tried 3 more times, doing different things in game (entering and exiting Solitude, entering and exiting the inn, crafting, sleeping), but whatever I did, the game CTDed after about 4~5 minutes of playing.

Tried running the script tester from Convenient Horses. Even though from time to time my latency spiked (usually when changing areas), it remained fairly constant between 30~40, and didn't seem to be related to the CTDs.

Loaded an older save, from before getting to Solitude, and went the other way. Managed to play for 28 minutes, with the same results. Again, didn't see anything weird either on SPM (Screenshot) or on the Script Test, both running. Tried again, same save, different game actions. Same result, CTD after 27 minutes. I can't be sure, but I think that it amounts to about the same play time of 2 hours in that run.

 

So, that's my problem. It seems that my CTDs happen after some arbitrary amount of play time. But it seems very odd, at least to me. I had Skyrim crash on my previous laptop because of overheating, script overload, mod incompatibility and probably other reasons, but never like this.

 

There are 2 more tests I'm planning on doing:

First, reloading my first save, the safety one just after character creation, and playing with it for at least 3 hours.

Second, try running Skyrim with no mods, also for at least 3 hours, and comparing the results. (I believe since I'm using MO there is an easy way of doing this, but I don't know how yet. I will research later).

 

I'm not very experienced on modding, this being my second attempt, and would like any insights on what might be happening. Thanks on advance.

Edited February 5, 2016 by cunhamarchi

[jones177]

On a 2gb Vram system ENBoost & skse memory patch is a must.

 

It is a sad truth that it is easier to mod this game with a 4gb card than it is with 2. It was a big challenge for me with 150 mods to keep it running 20 minutes with 2gbs. The same game would run for 6 hours when I upgraded to 4. That was before ENBoost. On my 2gb card SPM never reported over 1.7 gb vram but the same game reported 2.1 on a 4gb card. You are doing better than I did when I used 2gbs VRAM.

 

Some mods cause CTDs & some mods conflict with other mods causing CTDs as well. These conflicts will not show up in the papyrus log because they are resource related.

 

You have most of the mods that CTD my game.

 

1) Skyrim Immersive Creatures crashes my game more than any other mod. Switch off random spawn in the MCM menu & 50% of your CTD may disappear.

2) SkyTEST. This is not for the weak. Using ugridstoload over 5 with this mod is rough on any system.

3) WetandCold along with Frostfall cause 90% of my none spawning mod CTDs.

4) PopulatedSkyrim. If these are the mods by RS you need the skse memory patch to run them without lots of CTDs.

 

These mods I would remove if I were you.

 

1)HighResTexturePacks. They are just not worth the overhead & they sometimes cause CTDs. Go vanilla & replace textures that you don't like with ones you do. You can get them from loose file packs or from individual pages on the Nexus.

2)Convenient Horses. If you are not a horse fan get rid of it. I have used it for testing but every time I install it I get more CTDs.

3) Immersive NPC in the dark. This is a nice mod but it competes for recourses with WetandCold & Frostfall.

4)Remodeled Armor. This is great as stand alone but having it on lots of NPCs will impact your game. It is best not to allow any spawned NPCs to have hires textures or meshes. I only use them on rare armors.

 

You may not think so but I think you are doing well with what you have. I would be happy if I could play for 2 hours with your mod setup.

 

It looks like your GPU is handling your lighting & climate mods just fine. I don't know why you need "Remove Interior Fog" unless you are loosing FPS.

 

To me your SPM screens looks strange because mine always had VRAM over RAM and your max I/o load-in is almost as high as mine & I use high performance HDs that have large cache & high burst read speeds. I hope you have a SSD or 7200rpm HD with 64mb cache in that laptop.

 

Later

[cunhamarchi]

Thanks for the quick answer. I will follow your suggestions and report here.

 

For now I'm just posting the report of another test (without these proposed changes). I started over from my safety save (before choosing on Alternate Start) and played with it. This time I ran the game for 2h and had to stop. No problem whatsoever then. Got back home, started playing again. CTD in 48 min. Loaded last save, CTD in 4 min. Tried again, CTD in 5 min.

So, same results.

 

I also turned on Papyrus logging, but since no Log folder appeared, I assume it wasn't a Papyrus error.

 

I'm also surprised on how well this setup is handling lightning and climate. Skyrim is only the second game I play in this laptop. But I'm pretty sure that it has no SSD, only old good SATA. I don't know if what you said is a good or a bad thing.

 

Also, not all of those mods are dear to me or anything. As I said, I'm playing with most of them for the first time. Removing some of them such as SkyTEST and Wet and Cold shouldn't bother me much.

One question: is it enough to disable them trough MO, or should I delete them already?

 

@EDIT: Just found out I had forgotten to install SKSE memory patch. My bad.

Another question: if I disable a mod that had me install compatibility patches for other mods, do I need to reinstall those?

Edited February 5, 2016 by cunhamarchi

[Shivala]

Hey enjoy your new rig, about the CTDs, I like to chip in that Convenient Horses has given me nothing but trouble. I switched to the much lighter Immersive Horses, I argue that is better too.

[cunhamarchi]

I followed the suggestions and did some other changes:

 

- Installed SKSE memory patch.

- Removed the High Res texture pack, and the Unofficial High resolution patch.

- Removed Footprints, SkyTEST, Convenient Horses, Immersive NPC in the dark, Remodeled armor.

- Added Immersive horses.

- Ran all the utilities again: Loot, FNIS, Wrye bash, Dual seath redux patch.

- Loaded everything on Tes5Edit, no errors.

- Started a new game.

 

But apparently things got worse. Now I can't play 5 minutes without a random CTD. And I still don't see anything different on the logs.

Maybe I forgot to remove another mod associated with the ones above? Is there any way for me to check this?

 

@EDIT:

 

Just found out 2 files that might be causing the trouble: "Bethesda Hi-Res DLC Optimized", a mod that depends on the DLC, but shows no visible conflicts on load order, Loot or Tes5Edit; and a patch to SkyTEST that is a separate mod.

I will try again.

 

@EDIT 2:

 

No such luck, the game still CTDs.

But I noticed now that it appears to do so every time I make my choice of new life from "Alternate Start", couple of seconds after my character wakes up. I disabled it and started a new game, but the cart went crazy, bouncing everywhere for a minute and then CTDing.

If I can't make it work tomorrow, I'm gonna reinstall everything, game and mods.

Edited February 6, 2016 by cunhamarchi

[Shivala]

Did you start a new game? Going back to the same savegames that have the error might be part of the problem.

Anyway GL hope you solve it!

[cunhamarchi]

All is well now, I hope.

I disabled all my mods on MO, and enabled only the ones I liked the most, started another game.

Ta-dah, problem solved. Played over 10 hours already, with no CTD whatsoever.

Didn't find out the source, though.

Some of the mods that might had been the culprits: Interesting NPC, Convenient Horses, SkyTEST, MonsterMod, Moonlight Tales, Vilja.

[Shivala]

Cunhamarchi : on my system at least, I can vouch for Interesting NPCs. Tons and tons of hours of play with no problem. Convenient Horses though always gave me problems.