30 second pause on saving...

[Kusumura]

As the topic's name says, whenever I try to save my game, there's a period of around thirty seconds where the whole games pauses, just to save. I've tried a re-install, which tells me it's a mod I have, rather than a system clash or the like (Not that it's ever happened up until two or three days ago... Posting here since I'm out of ideas, and Fallout 3 is great, but it just lacks that feel of... of... Fantasy! xD).

 

Mod list, as recorded by BOSS (Also the same load order):

Oblivion.esm
underdark.esm
Skingrad24Vars.esm
MD_Saddle_Master.esm
Cobl Main.esm
Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esm
TamrielTravellers.esm
ShieldOnBack.esm
TRoN.esp
nVidia Black Screen Fix.esp
DLCShiveringIsles.esp
Guiding Beacons.esp
Shield on Back 3.1.esp
ShieldOnBack_1C.esp
1HweaponOnBack.esp
Wyverex's - Runes.esp
Living Economy.esp
Living Economy - Items.esp
Cutthroat Merchants.esp
Crowded Roads Advanced.esp
Immersive Travelers.esp
DLCVileLair.esp
DLCMehrunesRazor.esp
DLCSpellTomes.esp
Adonnays Elven Weaponry.esp
AngelslayerEN.esp
Nicoroshi Creations DW heavy.esp
MD Saddlebags v3.0.esp
MD Saddlebags v3.0 Alternative Trader Script.esp
Cobl Glue.esp
Cobl Si.esp
OOO 1.32-Cobl.esp
Cobl Tweaks.esp
Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esp
TamrielTravellersFactionAll.esp
TamrielTravellers4OOO.esp
TamrielTravellersItemsnpc.esp
TamrielTravellersItemsVendor.esp
ShiveringIsleTravellers.esp
ShiveringIsleTravellersFriendlyFactions.esp
OOO-WaterFish.esp
BHC_Expanded.esp
Pats Business Mod---Shop Version 2.0.esp
The Ayleid Steps.esp
Vypers Arrow Spells-SI V2.esp
Cyrodiil Travel Services.esp
DLCFrostcrag.esp
Knights.esp
Wayshrine Fix.esp
The Lost Spires.esp
The Soul of Ilithiel.esp
ElsweyrAnequina.esp
mythsandlegends.esp
Harvest [Flora].esp
Harvest [Flora] - Shivering Isles.esp
Harvest [Flora] - DLCVileLair.esp
Harvest [Flora] - DLCFrostcrag.esp
BlackScreenSneakFix.esp
BloodSpray.esp
Bonds Big Portable Tent.esp
Leviathan Soulgems.esp
Masters Alive.esp
Player's Diary.esp
Quest Award Leveller.esp
Quest Award Leveller - Vile Lair.esp
Quest Award Leveller - Mehrunes Razor.esp
Quest Award Leveller - Knights of the Nine.esp
Alternative Start by Robert Evrae.esp
WeightLifter.esp
RealisticForceHigh.esp
RealisticMagicForceHigh.esp
SetEssentialActors.esp
Poison Arrows.esp
Poison_Apples_as_Poison_Ingredient-3514.esp
Potion_Unlimiter-1948.esp
lumi_enchantments.esp
attack and hide easier v2.1.esp
RenGuardOverhaul.esp
RenGuardOverhaulShiveringIsles.esp
Realistic Arrow Flight.esp
All+5AttributeModifiers.esp
OOO-Level_Stock.esp
Sharingan and Uchiha Clan.esp
KT_CustomRaceFix.esp
SnArrowEffects.esp
ViconiaChapterTwo.esp
Cobl Silent Equip Misc.esp
OOO-Magic_Script_Effect_Fix.esp
Streamline 3.0.esp
Maethlin's Marksmanship 4x.esp
LifeDetectShader Green.esp
Sparkling Enchanted Weapons by MiRage.esp
arrow damage 1_5.esp
Pwned_Noob_Backstab_Improved.esp
Grove of Reflection Fix.esp
Books of Oblivion.esp
Underwater.esp
Celestiel - EV.esp
SkillSpecialization.esp
The Death Note.esp
The Black Sacrament.esp
More Magicka x25.esp
Warglaive_1C.SoB.esp
Stronger Soul Gems - no cap x10.esp
Retroactive Stats.esp
MRCarnivalOfSavings.esp
Respawning Containers.esp
Increased_Weapon_Perk_Chance-4558.esp
Reaper`s Battle Horn.esp
Gattsurus_Easier_Black_Soul_Gems-2708.esp
Scarves!.esp
Better Loot v1.0.esp
NPCs Alive - Bandits.esp
NPCs Alive - Orges.esp
NPCs Alive - Imperial Legion Foresters.esp
AW_BHC_HomeDelivery.esp
LPBanditDiversity - Daedra.esp
Black Horse Mail Box.esp

 

Any light that could be shed would be fantastic.

[Maigrets]

What is the size of your save games? Also how many game play hours do your saves have? If it only started 2 or 3 days ago then have you added any mods in that time?

 

If you're a level 20, for example, and your saves are 5mb that may not be so unusual since everything you've done, collected, quests in progress and completed etc etc is stored in the save so it gets bigger over time.

 

Unwanted info is also recorded in your saves. If you've removed a mod or had some kind of bug or glitch etc this is included. Most times it causes no problems but often the save can eventually become unusable.

 

If you haven't already done so, disable save on rest, fast travel and auto-save. These are known to cause corruption.

Some people advise not to use Quicksave, but I've used it liberally since the game was released with no issues. However, I always delete it and create a new one pretty regularly to avoid continually overwriting info. Also use more than one slot for hard saves and don't overwrite them. I have 100's of saves for each character, maybe more. The number is probably unlimited, unlike some games that only give you a few slots.

You should move early ones out of the Saves folder though, and back them up or delete ones you don't need. Otherwise this can also slow down loading times.

 

If your saves are around 10mb or even bigger the delay you experience is to be expected and I'd be surprised if you could save or load at that size for long without eventually having crashes and corrupting the saves.

 

If your inventory is loaded to the hilt with tons of gear that can also slow things down sometimes due to the game having to calculate the number and type of items. But, I wouldn't expect a 30 second delay unless you cheat Encumbrance to massive levels.

 

One or more of the mods you are using could be causing save game bloat - explained here.

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/PlaceAtMe

 

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with some of your mods....I do have OOO, MMM, Tamriel Travelers, COBL and some of the others so I know it's not them.

 

You can use Wrye Bash to check your save games and it has a function to remove bloat as well. Unless you find which mod is the cause though it will start happening again.

 

Wrye Bash - make sure to read the docs carefully:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22368

 

Highly recommend you get the Unofficial Oblivion Patches as well. They fix a multitude of bugs and other problems.

There are versions for vanilla Oblivion, SI and the DLC's.

 

Edited for spelling...

[Kusumura]

The game(s) are all new, fresh out of the Prison, as I deleted every one beforehand. Perhaps two hours of gameplay time.

 

The saves are ~4.3Mb... So the case would be that they're bloated, I imagine. I'm unsure which mod would cause it, but as it only started happening recently, and I haven't installed any other mods, I might be able to pick out one or two. That would have to be it, as it couldn't be a general character level or anything. Though I've had level 50 characters without this happening, and twice as many mods installed. So, again, as you say, there's got to be one killer little bas**** causing it.

[bben46]

It can also be caused by something in your system - such as an antivirus program having to check every file when it reads/writes to disk. Or a heavily fragmented hard drive trying to find contiguous space for the save. or a hard drive without much space having to copy to small pieces of the save here and there. Or a too small page file (virtual memory) Any of these usually show as the hard drive thrashing (lots of read write action)

 

Game Booster is one program that will allow you to strip your system down to only what is actually needed by the game. It temporarily removes or disables system processes that clutter up the memory and steal clock cycles while playing. - it's free. And with a mouse click, it restores everything.

 

In this order:

Run your antivirus check and your anti spyware program - if you don't have one, get one - there are some very good free ones available.

I use Avira Free as my antivirus, and Spybot Search and Destroy as my antispyware - both are free and work well.

Perform a disk clean - get rid of unused programs, data and games you no longer play.

Run a registry cleaner - I use ccleaner slim, - it's free -but almost any good one will do. This will clean out any old useless registry entries and 'May' allow faster hard drive I/O.

Perform a defrag - if you haven't done this in a while, it could take a long time. Either use the built in defrag or one such as auslogics free defrag

 

All of the free programs listed are available at http://majorgeeks.com/

[Kusumura]

Cheer Bben and Maigrets. The help and advice is much appreciated.

 

I'll follow your advice on a full system spring cleaning, Bben. Hopefully that'll take care of it, though it'll have to be in a few days since I'm leaving to spend my New Year's with some family roughly 500 kilometers away. I'll report in when I return and perform the scan(s)!