CTD on any save during Battle of Whiterun

[1GeraldTheHerald1]

As the title says.

I'm about 22 hours in on this save - at first I got a CTD when exiting the gates of the city at the start of the battle. The loading screen would disappear and I'd hear sound effects of unsheathing weapons and such, and then CTD. The same would occur when I tried to save the game through quicksave or a regular save in the pause menu - both would result in the game freezing momentarily, then crashing.

If I reentered Dragonsreach, I could quicksave and save as normal once again, though the stutter/freeze was still present(and I wonder if that's just a product of the game).

Exiting Dragonsreach results in a normal autosave, but quicksaves and the like still caused a CTD.

I haven't uninstalled any mods this playthrough, though I've added a few(which, after doing so, I learned was a no-no). Some of what I read seemed like "Diverse Dragons Collection SE" was the culprit, but disabling that mod and cleaning my save didn't do any good.

I re-enabled Diverse Dragons and then tried disabling "Dawn of Skyrim Director's Cut", which had been impacting my performance in most of the cities. That allowed me to quicksave outside of Dragonsreach, a save I then cleaned. I managed to complete the quest for battle of whiterun, but Skyrim then froze immediately after.

 

Load order is below. I'm sure it's not terribly good, but my save has been stable until now: these are the first CTDs I've had with this character.

 

 

# Automatically generated by Vortex

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Dawnguard.esm

HearthFires.esm

Dragonborn.esm

Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main.esm

Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp

BSAssets.esm

BSHeartland.esm

BS_DLC_patch.esp

arnima.esm

EFFCore.esm

Falskaar.esm

Gray Fox Cowl.esm

SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp

ELFX - Exteriors.esp

Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul - Skyrim.esp

Qw_BeyondReach_USSEP Patch.esp

Qw_BeyondSkyrimBruma_USSEP Hotfix Patch.esp

EnhancedLightsandFX.esp

TouringCarriages.esp

Weapons Armor Clothing & Clutter Fixes.esp

Cutting Room Floor.esp

Book Covers Skyrim.esp

ELFX - Weathers.esp

Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp

Cloaks.esp

Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp

dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp

ELFX - NoPlayerHomes.esp

ELFX - NoHjerim.esp

ELFX - NoBreezehome.esp

ELFX - NoProudspireManor.esp

ELFX - NoHoneyside.esp

ELFX - NoSeverinManor.esp

ELFX - NoVlindrelHall.esp

Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp

konahrik_accoutrements.esp

SkyUI_SE.esp

UNP Vanilla Outfits.esp

Qw_CloaksOfSkyrim_CRF Patch.esp

Qw_BookCoversSkyrim_CRF Patch.esp

Qw_WACCF_CRF Patch.esp

20 More Perk Points.esp

AcquisitiveSoulGemMultithreaded.esp

CynnsProudspire.esp

Blues Skyrim.esp

Hjerim.esp

BlackthornManor.esp

Eli_Breezehome.esp

LC_BuildYourNobleHouse.esp

Settlements Expanded SE.esp

SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp

Ars Metallica.esp

Kato's Falkreath.esp

Immersive Encounters.esp

Inigo.esp

SkyfallEstate.esp

Immersive Patrols II.esp

Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp

Eli_RiverwoodShack.esp

Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim.esp

ZIA_Ancient Pack.esp

ElysiumEstate.esp

Falskaar - Boat Location.esp

Settlements Expanded SE - Blackthorn Patch.esp

notice board.esp

ZWJ.esp

Artifact_Update_SE_v_1.0.esp

CC'sEnhancedOreVeinsSSE-HearthfirePatch.esp

CynnsProudspire-USSEPPatch.esp

Settlements Expanded SE - Lanterns of Skyrim Patch.esp

Ravengate.esp

moonpath.esp

CynnsProudspireArmory.esp

dD-No Spinning Death Animation Merged.esp

Eli_Breezehome - Ars Metallica Patch 3.0.esp

EquivalentSoulGems.esp

MBW Dragon Souls to Perk Points.esp

HARODATH_ImmersiveSoulgems.esp

HearthfireMultiKid.esp

HearthfireMultiKid_LastName.esp

iHUD.esp

Immersive Weapons.esp

Improved Eyes Skyrim.esp

Improved Eyes Skyrim - Serana.esp

Improved Eyes Skyrim - Vamp.esp

KS Hairdo's.esp

Men of Winter.esp

Men of Winter - Compatibility Patch.esp

Men of Winter - Skills&Perks Module.esp

NoBSAIProjectileDodge.esp

Perk Points and More Gold for Bounty Quests.esp

Perk Points at Skill Levels 50-75-100.esp

The Ordinary Women.esp

RaceMenu.esp

RaceMenuPlugin.esp

RAO - ELFX Patch.esp

RichMerchantsSkyrim_x2.esp

Runed_Nordic_Weapons.esp

SGEyebrows.esp

SkyHUD.esp

TimingIsEverything.esp

UIExtensions.esp

ZAS.esp

ZCV.esp

ZDB.esp

ZEB.esp

ZEM.esp

ZMB.esp

ZMR.esp

ZMS.esp

ZNI.esp

ZOI.esp

ZRA.esp

ZRH.esp

ZRN.esp

ZSB.esp

ZSC.esp

ZSH.esp

ZSK.esp

ZSR.esp

ZTH.esp

ZVD.esp

GQJ_DG_vampireamuletfix.esp

Blackthorn - Hearthfire Fix.esp

Thief skills rebalance for Ordinator.esp

Falskaar - Fast Travel.esp

Falskaar - Bug Fixes.esp

Falskaar - SkyTEST and Bruma Patch.esp

Falskaar - Unique Region Names.esp

Immersive Weapons_WACCF_Patch.esp

Unique Uniques.esp

WACCF_KonahriksAccoutrements.esp

Qw_TheOrdinaryWomen_CRF Patch.esp

Qw_WACCF_BSHeartland Patch.esp

Qw_WACCF_CloaksOfSkyrim Patch.esp

Qw_WACCF_arnima Patch.esp

Imperious - Races of Skyrim.esp

Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp

CACO_Falskaar_Patch.esp

CACO_USSEP_Patch.esp

SkyfallEstate_CACO_Patch.esp

Qw_CACO_ArsMetallica Patch.esp

Qw_CACO_BookCoversSkyrim Patch.esp

CACO_Beyond Skyrim Bruma_Patch.esp

CACO_GrayCowl_Patch.esp

ElysiumEstate_CACO_Patch.esp

Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp

Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim.esp

Apocalypse - Ordinator Compatibility Patch.esp

Ordinator - Beyond Skyrim Bruma Patch.esp

CACO_Ordinator_Patch.esp

Ordinator_WACCF_Patch.esp

Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp

RAO - Alternate Start Patch.esp

Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul.esp

CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive.esp

Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp

EFFDialogue.esp

Immersive Citizens - TC patch.esp

RDO - EFF v4.0.2 Patch.esp

RDO - CRF + USSEP Patch.esp

RDO - USSEP Patch.esp

CWIEnLFXSEPatch.esp

CWICRFSEPatch.esp

CWIOrdinatorPatchSSE.esp

ICOW_MOW_Patch.esp

Qw_BeyondReach_RDO Patch.esp

Qw_CACO_RDO Patch.esp

Qw_TheOrdinaryWomen_ICoWinterhold Patch.esp

ELFXEnhancer.esp

RealisticWaterTwo.esp

Realistic Water Two - Landscape Fixes.esp

RealisticWaterTwo - Beyond Reach.esp

RealisticWaterTwo - Beyond Skyrim Bruma.esp

RealisticWaterTwo - Falskaar.esp

RealisticWaterTwo - Waves - Falskaar.esp

RealisticWaterTwo - Watercolor.esp

IcePenguinWorldMapPaper.esp

AQWMP_RWT_Patch.esp

WACCF_BashedPatchLvlListFix.esp

Thanks in advance for any help or tips. Right now, though, I'm preparing to just take this as a lesson learned and start anew with some changes to my mod list.

EDIT:

Forgot this part. Some specs on my machine, in case that's relevant:

Intel i5-8400, 2.8Ghz, 6 cores

GTX 1070Ti

16 GB RAM

I've been using the Skyrim Performance Monitor and none of the resources in question are getting close to their maximums. vRAM and RAM don't get over 50% of their total value, and the maximum CPU usage according to the program was 51%, with an average of 25%.

Edited December 16, 2019 by 1GeraldTheHerald1