Strange CTD conditions - only with in-game reload

[Dolanry11771]

So basically the story is that I just started a new character and have put about 15-20 hr of playtime in. I have had many saves and characters ruined in the past so I tried very hard to avoid any unnecessary script heavy mods and have made compromises on textures to ensure that I get 50-60 fps in almost all scenarios other than some slight micro stuttering when loading new areas.

 

My game was playing great and then suddenly during a dragon attack on Winterhold my game refused to load saves after I died and instead just CTD. This was right after I had joined the mages guild and did some stuff in the college.

 

The really weird thing is, all the saves loaded no problem from the title screen after rebooting Skyrim. I would only get CTD if I tried to load a save manually in game or after dying. All the same saves that caused these CTDs loaded with no problem as long as they were loaded from the title screen. I first thought it had something to do the dragon battle because that's when I first noticed it. But when I went to saves just prior to the Dragon attack in the College I had the same issues: CTD on trying to load a save from in game.

 

This lead me to conclude that something that occurred before the dragon attack, perhaps an event/trigger in the mage's college, was the cause - I just didn't notice it until the dragon battle because I wasn't dying or needing to reload previous saves.

 

My suspicions were confirmed when I went farther back in my save files to a point right before I began the events of joining the mage college. I had no issue reloading saves in game Everything worked fine like it had been for the past 15 hours of gameplay before it.

 

So I guess I will try to replay from there and continue to check for the problem constantly to narrow the specific cause (assuming it even happens again).

 

The whole thing seems a bit strange though. The saves can't have just been corrupted because they load fine from the title screen, and problems only occur upon reloading a save from in-game. I'm wondering if anyone might have some insight into the cause and maybe even offer a way to fix, or at the very least prevent, this type of issue from happening again.

 

Skyrim just seems to hate me. It runs fine and waits until I put a lot of time into a character and then the problems begin. In fact, I have played over 500+ hours of Skyrim and still HAVE NEVER ACTUALLY FINISHED THE MAIN QUESTS!!! All due to bugs or save game conflicts or other inexplicable problems that make the game unplayable. I really hope this attempt makes it too the end. If not, I may not try again at all, because it has begun to seem hopeless that I will ever have a satisfying and truly stable game/mod build.

 

I know we have some very knowledgeable people on the Nexus and I would really appreciate any input or even just share any similar experiences encountered in trying to play a stable game. Thanks everyone!

[PrometheanFlame]

I hate to tell you, but I'm having the same issue after 100+ hours into my most recent playthough. I seriously doubt it's anything to do with a particular quest or game event. I've been trying to Google up a solution for the past two days, but searching for crashing issues in a Bethesda game can be a...trying experience. I'm running a few dozen mods, but haven't added anything new or otherwise altered the game for at least a week or so now. My saves are only about 10 megs, so it isn't bloat. I haven't bothered uninstalling and reinstalling everything, because frankly, every time I've seen that suggested for this game it never seems to work. The only thing I've tried so far is expanding my "uGridsToLoad" to 7, but that obviously didn't help.

 

I have Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn installed, as well as the unofficial patches for all (including Skyrim itself). If a list of mods is necessary, I can provide it.

 

Divines save us...

[PrometheanFlame]

I FIXED IT! SQUEEEE!! Pretty easy, too. Good luck figuring it out!

 

 

 

 

 

...Ha ha, I joke, I kid. Okay, so, start up your game with the normal Skyrim launcher. Forgo the SKSE launcher. It might crash. Persist until you get into the game. Once you're in, make a new save. Load the new save, just to test, and it should work. Now quit back to your desktop, and launch again with SKSE. It might crash - persist. When you get in, make a new save. Load that save.

 

God willing...it should work, and your problem should be fixed. Let me know!

[camaro_69_327]

Edit becaus people cant read.......

TL;DR (are you nuts)

 

Bethesda put a lot of effort in the beginning tutorial, let it run, add mods ONE at a time after tutorial.. Never use auto save, or load a save after death. you died..exit<<>>. Wrye Bash is the best ....

Edited April 17, 2014 by camaro_69_327

[Dolanry11771]

Snip

 

Things i do to insure a Rock solid game.....List

1) Always let the game beginning (tutorial) play through to completion without adding any mods.

2) Always add one mod at a time...(this is NON negotiable) load game and test.

3) Never let the game auto save. Never play on from any scripted save. (make a new hard save)

4) Never load your save after death, from inside the game. You died. Exit the game. <<(again NON negotiable).

5) Know your system, Test the game in extreme ways, find your limit (Over modded) then back down a bit.

6) Use Wrye Bash as your Mod manager, Mod installer, Save checker, Mod merger (limited to into bashed patch), <<yes all around Killer program<<

7) once you lock down your load order. Yes, you spent a serious amount of time getting to this point , you can not change it in any way. no updates, no new mods. (<period.).

8*) if a HDD Defrag at this point*

_{* do not defrag an SSD}.

 

Seriously? You restart the whole program every time you die? If you read my post you'd realize that this is the "problem" I am posting about in the first place. Death > Game tries to load last save > CTD.

 

Or even just loading a previous save from minutes earlier from in-game leads to a crash. I don't know how you can accept that and take it as a given that the entire .exe must be restarted each time you die. I die a lot because I try to make my game difficult. You are saying that this is a "non-negotiable" practice to keep your game running nicely? That to me seems insane and no game should ever require you to do such a thing.

 

 

I FIXED IT! SQUEEEE!! Pretty easy, too. Good luck figuring it out!

 

 

 

 

 

...Ha ha, I joke, I kid. Okay, so, start up your game with the normal Skyrim launcher. Forgo the SKSE launcher. It might crash. Persist until you get into the game. Once you're in, make a new save. Load the new save, just to test, and it should work. Now quit back to your desktop, and launch again with SKSE. It might crash - persist. When you get in, make a new save. Load that save.

 

God willing...it should work, and your problem should be fixed. Let me know!

 

Ok sweet an actual feasible solution! Thanks!. I have not had time to play my game since making the post but at first I am going to try to just continue the game from the earlier save (I'll lose maybe an hour of play) where it was stable and be on the look out for this save/loading issue as I go.

 

If this problem pops up again despite reverting to an early stable save I will try your solution. Thanks for sharing it. Hopefully this issue is fixable or avoidable. There is no way in hell I could continue to play the game if I had to restart the program after each death-causing CTD in order to load my most recent save (or any save at all for that matter).

[PrometheanFlame]

...

 

:ermm: Um...while I appreciate the very thorough suggestion, I don't believe such extreme precautions are necessary. To each their own, I suppose.

[camaro_69_327]

Well i can say.....

 

I have a screen cap of a 19 hour straight run on the Skyrim EXE that means i didn't die!

I play for extended periods.. 6-8 hour sessions is normal. (so dropping out to reload the exe is nothing!).

In 480 Game hours i think i have 5 crashes. (over modded setup ).

 

I linked you the mod to stop the game from loading your save. Because, as you are finding out this IS the problem.

This was not to keep the GAME running smooth, it is for keeping a SAVE working perfectly.

 

<<done

[Dolanry11771]

My saves aren't the problem in the way you are talking about it. I get a CTD on reload after death for instance. But I can reload the most recent save before the CTD and it loads fine as long as it's the first save I load after restarting Skyrim. To me, if I had to follow your philosophy of it being necessary to reboot the game after each death then the current situation seems to be preferable to using that mod. Same result just quicker because the game shuts down itself during the post-death reloading screen.

 

So anyway the problem has appeared again despite my attempt to revert to an unaffected save from before the issue started to occur. I am gonna have to try your method Promethean. Hopefully it is successful.

[Dolanry11771]

I FIXED IT! SQUEEEE!! Pretty easy, too. Good luck figuring it out!

 

 

 

 

 

...Ha ha, I joke, I kid. Okay, so, start up your game with the normal Skyrim launcher. Forgo the SKSE launcher. It might crash. Persist until you get into the game. Once you're in, make a new save. Load the new save, just to test, and it should work. Now quit back to your desktop, and launch again with SKSE. It might crash - persist. When you get in, make a new save. Load that save.

 

God willing...it should work, and your problem should be fixed. Let me know!

 

 

Eureka!! Wow it actually worked!. I did this exact method - no crashing occurred just some warnings about SKSE and SKY UI not being installed on screen. Once I rebooted it from SKSE and made a new save, everything seems to be working perfectly! I tried loading many different saves and specific combinations of saves that would CTD me every time before and they all worked. Loading in general seems a bit faster too.

 

I just hope there aren't any negative effects from the method like mods no longer working. That doesn't seem to be the case but I'll be on the lookout for any issues. Thank you very much for sharing this fix with me. We must have had the same general problem if this simple process fixed both of our loading issues.

 

I seriously have to wonder how this works though? What is it actually doing that is correcting the problem. Well I guess I'd be easier to answer of we even knew the cause of the original loading problems. How did you even think to try that?

 

Again, thank you very much. Now I can actually continue playing my game. Hopefully this build is the one that makes it through (*crosses fingers*).

 

Edit: Oops, sorry for the double post! I just got a little excited and forgot my forum etiquette momentarily.

[Tigon3rd]

I FIXED IT! SQUEEEE!! Pretty easy, too. Good luck figuring it out!

 

 

 

 

 

...Ha ha, I joke, I kid. Okay, so, start up your game with the normal Skyrim launcher. Forgo the SKSE launcher. It might crash. Persist until you get into the game. Once you're in, make a new save. Load the new save, just to test, and it should work. Now quit back to your desktop, and launch again with SKSE. It might crash - persist. When you get in, make a new save. Load that save.

 

God willing...it should work, and your problem should be fixed. Let me know!

 

Thank you very much. This worked for me too.