[FIX] Is a mod giving you location-based crashes or freezes?

[DuskWulf]

I want to preface this by saying that I'm ashamed of never having thought of this before.

 

Preamble

 

Are you having issues with a very specific area? Whenever you run through/near it, you'll crash? Yet due to having a large number of mods, you're having trouble figuring out which one it is via the usual 'disable X amount of mods' system?

 

Please note that this fix only works for at least semi-reproducible issues which are linked to an area. As an example, how many people have issues when running past/into Whiterun?

 

This also counts for city door loading issues, most of the time.

 

Prerequisites

 

The very first and most obvious prerequisite is to make a static save. Not a quicksave. I want you to go into the menu, and I want you to create a brand new numbered save.

 

The next thing you need to do before you begin? You'll need to find out where your Skyrim Data folder is, that's up to you. Okay? Groovy. I also want you to have a system for disabling and enabling mods that won't try crazy things like downloading mod updates whilst you're doing that, so the official launcher is out (I recommend Nexus's own manager).

 

So, you should have your Skyrim Data folder open, and you should have a mod manager open. Now open a notepad and we're almost ready to go.

 

The Cool Stuff

 

Okay, here's what you'll need to do.

• Switch to the Skyrim folder.
• Press Alt+D.
• Press Ctrl+C.
• You should now have the location copied.

The purpose of that little exercise was so that you have the path to your Skyrim Data folder in your clipboard.

• Switch to the notepad and press Ctrl+V.
• You'll now have it in your notepad.
• I want you to split off the first two characters, usually that'll be something like c: or d: just so you know.
• So you'll have c: (or similar) on one line, and the rest of the location on the next.
• Now, I'd like you to put quotation marks (") around the rest of the location.
• You should have c: or similar on one line, and "\location\of\Skyrim\Data\" on another. Not exactly that, of course, since that's just an example.
• Then I want you to type cd and a space before the opening quotation marks, so you have something like: cd "\Location\of\Skyrim\Data"

Okay, so that's cool. We can now actually get to your Skyrim folder easily via a command (or terminal) window. So let's open one of those!

• Hold the Windows key and press R.
• You'll get a Run window.
• Type this into the text field: cmd
• Hit OK.
• You'll now have a new window open.

This next part is a bit complicated since we'll be copy and pasting stuff into the command window. Sorry. If you have any questions about this, I'll try to answer them.

• I want you to highlight the first line in notepad.
• That should be the two characters (like c:).
• Then you should press Ctrl+C.
• Switch to the cmd window you recently opened (the black one), and right-click it.
• In the context menu that comes up, click Paste.
• Now press enter.
• Go back to notepad and highlight the second line, the one that looks like: cd "\Location\of\Skyrim\Data"
• Press Ctrl+C to copy it.
• Switch to the cmd window and right-click it.
• Click Paste.
• Hit enter.
• If you did this right, you should have something that looks similar to this, though parts will be different (like the starting letter, and like \Location\of for example): C:\Location\of\Skyrim\Data\>_
• If you see that, you've done it right.

Well done, we're almost finished. Whew. Now we do the fun part. New versions of Windows (since XP, I think) have had a command in them which is similar to something Linux and Unix users have enjoyed forever. It's called find, and we'll be using it.

• Note which area you're having trouble in.
• This could be Riften, Whiterun, Markarth, or so on.
• Now, I'll refer to this area as [Trouble].
• So, type the following, but replace [Trouble] with the area you're having problems with: find "[Trouble]World" *.esp > Problems.txt
• If you're confused about the last step, think of it this way as an example -- if you're having problems with Whiterun, you'd type: find "WhiterunWorld" *.esp > Problems.txt

And now the last stretch. You can close that pesky cmd window because you won't be needing it any more, the same goes for the notepad. You're done with them. Now then...

• Look for the Problems.txt file in your Data folder, if you did it all right, it should be there.
• Open it by double-clicking on it.
• Clean it up if you need to so that it's easier to understand, but problem mods will have [Trouble]World (such as WhiterunWorld) below them.
• Once you're done cleaning it up, so that only mods with [Trouble]World below them are still listed, go to your mod manager and disable all of those mods.
• Now we need to run some tests.
• Start Skyrim and load the numbered save you made earlier.
• If you're having trouble moving through an area, jog back and forth through it.
• If you're having trouble going through a door, try going back and forth through the door a few times.
• Are you still having crashes? Then it's something I can't help you with, I'm sorry. But I imagine that you're most probably not.
• What you need to do now is enable the mods in your Problems.txt one at a time and do this test each time until you find the problematic ones.
• When you find a problematic mod, note it down, then disable it again and move onto the next one.
• At the end, you should have most of your mods enabled with only a couple of truly problematic ones disabled. Thus, no more crashes or freezes!

I've used this system to save myself from crash/freeze hell at both Riften and Whiterun. And sometimes it's the weirdest mods that cause it, so don't worry if it's something odd that you would never have suspected.

 

Closing Words

 

So now you have a working Skyrim -- or you should, I hope. Keep in mind this system in the future if you ever have location-based crashes.

 

If you have definitely narrowed crashes down to a mod or a small subset of mods, you should go to the mod author's page and tell them you used a system like this to narrow down very specifically what was causing your crashes and freezes. That way, they'll know it's not just by random chance, and that you're not using them as a scapegoat.

 

I know how it feels to be in that position, believe me.

 

Please, when you're informing mod authors of problems, please be courteous, polite, and understanding. A mod author puts months (sometimes years) of their life into these projects, and the last thing they want is an angry person raging in their comments section. Be nice for me if this helped you, okay? Consider that my reward.

 

And I hope this does help you.

 

To the Nexus administrators: Sorry if this is in the right place, but since I've used this to successful cure myself of crashes/freezes a number of times, now, I figured that others would find the process helpful. If it's in the wrong place, please accept my apologies and... could you move it to where it would be seen? Thank you!

[sicclee]

Is there a way (through the console perhaps?) to tell which 'region' I need to be looking at? Let's say I'm at 'Gjukar's Monument' and I freeze every time I try to leave that cell (in any direction). What esp would I be looking for? in another example, I'm walking over the bridge just east of red tower redoubt, freeze or CTD... It doesn't happen when I go north instead of east in that example. do those areas have their own ESPs, and if they do, is the problem with those or the ones I'm trying to enter? lately these have been happening on the way to meet the stormcloacks for a civil war mission (I do have CWO installed), but I've had it happen plenty of other times when I'm not actively pursuing a quest.

 

I do get an error in my papyrus logs frequently that says something to the effect of "unable to cast a spell in an unloaded cell". this happens even when I'm not using magic, I assume it's a mod's script or something similar.

 

I have the problem in a lot of cells, freezes or CTDs upon entering exterior world space cells, never really in cities.

 

I want you to know that your work has not gone unnoticed! I will be trying this when I get home today, hope it works, I'm dyin here!

 

 

 

Thanks!

Edited October 30, 2013 by sicclee

[mindw0rk2]

I tried to do this with RiverwoodWorld (Riverwood gives me most consistant CTDs), but it doesnt appear in txt file, like WhiterunWorld. No mention about Riverwood at all