College of Winterheld CTD...any of these the cause..?..any of these a 'cure? :-((

[ericjmz]

8/6

Hey guys,

S0…I have a location-based 'CTD' question...even if you don't know, looking for your 'Best Guess'...and I have two guesses myself
Problem: Crash to desktop [CTD] as soon as I climb the walkway bridge to enter College of Winterhold for the 1st time, when I begin to talk to anyone: although random CTD in other locations, none problematic, and none repetitive...this here College of Winterhold crash prevents me from entering/doing any College of Winterhold stuff...so its game-breaking in that sense
Relevant Data: Skyrim Legendary Edition, STEAM version, PC Windows 10, latest updates
Nexus Mod Manager…latest version
also, a complete uninstall, including all game & all same game data, all folders, all mods, everything---followed by reinstall, with the exact following load order listed.
Dragonborn.esm
HearthFires.esm
Dawnguard.esm
Climates of Tamriel.esm
Travelers of Skyrim.esm
Evil Lair of Hydra.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Legendary patch.esp
HighRestexpack01.esp
HighRestexpack02.esp
HighRestexpack03.esp
Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp
SkyUI.esp
Travelers of Skyrim-Vanilla.esp
Climates of Tamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp
Climates of Tamriel-Dragonborn-Patch.esp
Book covers skyrim.esp
Barenziah Quest Markers
Skyrim immersive creatures.esp
Skyrim immersive creatures-DLC2.esp
SoS The Dungeons.esp
Sassyteen.esp
SofiaFollower.esp
Lydia Crossfire.esp
Brelyna.esp
Moonsugar.esp
MidnightPurr.esp
Honeyside.esp
ElysiumEstate.esp
Hermit.esp
zMirai.esp
Rinko Follower.esp
Aranya.esp
.........................................
What I've tried -all Unsuccessful:
1. Revalidate game cache from local files...several times actually.
This advanced me inches...instead of crashing when talking to the 1st person encountered (the lady you have to prove your skills to enter), I can get past her...and crash at the next character encountered (Urog) as soon as we talk
2. Playing from several prior saves
3. Playing on lower video options (instead of normal ultra with anti-aliasing, choose high with no antialiasing)
4. Waiting...so when I first encountered CTD at level 9...I waited till my current level 26...same CTD occurs
5. Disabling a single 'big' mod - Climates of Tamriel - didn't change the CTD, so the mod is re-enabled again.
....................................
What I have NOT tried, and am curious if you think these are the culprits:
1. Disabling any other mods…or disabling all mods?
I've read before on this site that removing mods is a likely culprit of CTDs...more so than having the mod installed...but if I should work with disabling any or all, I am open to that thought?
All mods were installed PRIOR to starting the game, so I can't remove the proverbial 'last mod installed'...they're ALL the last mod installed! ;-)
2. Playing at the absolute LOWEST possible video option...I remember in another Bethesda game, Fallout New Vegas, for which many reported CTDs all over the place (I agree!) ONLY by choosing the very lowest 'software' resolution was I able to get past the innumerable CTDs that occurred upon entering so many doors or new areas...and it worked every time!
.............................

So that’s it!
Can anyone 'cure' this game-breaking CTD for me?

Thank you
ericjmz

[Darkstyler35]

Hello,

• CTD in a particular cell / location.
• CTD doing a particular action.
• Random CTD.
• Make sure you're using the good mods >> Dangerous mods list.
• Sort your DLC like this : Dawnguard.esm / HearthFires.esm / Dragonborn.esm + use LOOT and patches, see /// Load order.
• CTDs troubleshooting page on Reddit. depending on what's happening in game, choose the subsections that describe the best your problem.

Here is a list of things that may help stabilizing your game if not already been done. :

/// Cleaning and correcting potential bugs :

• Clean your master files to eliminate potential problems : Gopher's videos cleaning your masterfiles on the Nexus Tesedit page. You may use this updated guide to clean your masters. It contains the same automated cleaning procedure as Gopher explains in his video + repeating once for Dawnguard.esm + some selective manual cleaning.
• The method above can be used to clean mods. LOOT should tell you which plugin you should clean. You may also do a check errors.

/// Load order / mods conflicts :

• Use L.O.O.T once and click on the "sort plugins buttons".
• Create a wryebash patch including leveled lists.
• Create a merged patch with Tesedit excluding leveled lists
• How things work in Tes5edit : load order / conflict looser - winner / Forwarding / adding as a master. More specifically, you may create a manual patch between two or more mods.

/// Settings / memory :

• Preferably, use crash fixes with the UseOSAllocators=1 instead of skse memory patch or SSME.
• You may also install safety load if you experience infinite loading screens or freezing in game.
• Memory blocks log will help to refine memory settings.
• Skyrim performance monitor.
• Backup your ini files and delete the files. Skyrim.ini / SkyrimCustom.ini / SkyrimPrefs.ini found in C:\Users\User\Documents\My Games\Skyrim then use your vanilla launcher to autodetect and use best settings for your computer.
• STEP INI tweaking wiki.
• You may install ENBOOST >> ENB graphics / ENB haxx.

/// Save game :

• Don't uninstall mods at mid-game, there are no clean save in Skyrim but using save script cleaner can help removing orphan scripts.
• New SkyrimTools, (corrupt saves topic).

/// Meshes healer :

• Read here, this is potentially a cause of CTD that you can resolve by following the mod procedure on this page.

/// Useful informations :

• Selective loading : untick 50% of your mods, beginning by the end of your load order and test in game. Then depending on if the problem occurs again or not, increase /decrease the remaining loading mods to find the culprit.
• If you're using win8-10 + a GPU with more than 4GB VRAM + a heavily modded game and experiencing stuttering, random freezes or / and FPS drops, this may occur when the VRAM usage exceeds 4GB, read here for more details.

• In NMM settings, see where your tracelog path is (C:\Users\User\Documents\Nexus Mod Manager), open a request in the NMM open beta forum and post your tracelog.txt.

• Skyrim requirements wiki.
• Skse installation : skse on steam or Manual install. (SKSE, memory and skse.ini). SKSE logs are here : C:\Users\User\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\SKSE. SKSE troubleshooting guide.
• STEP troubleshooting page.
• An efficient guide to build your game : STEP / Official S.T.E.P. Mod Organizer video series.
• Ensure your skyrim installation is healthy = Make skyrim vanilla again.
• Make sure you're using the latest USLEEP instead of the obsolete unofficial patches. If some of your old mods require them, you may use the USLEEP swap masters.
• Crashdump analysis.
• Papyrus log is a scripts log only and doesn't cover anything else, not a crash log. Interpreting Papyrus Log Errors / Enabling papyrus logging
• Need a tool to manage GPU fan speed that works with ENB ? You may try Afterburner, (tested)

Hope this helps.

[ericjmz]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply

I am in the middle of 2-3 very cool quests that ARE working

...so I wish to finish them before returning to the very problematic college of winter held that led to this post-inquiry

 

I promise to get back to you once I try the steps you suggest

 

Thank you

 

Ericjmz

[Darkstyler35]

You're welcome. Waiting for your researches.

[ericjmz]

8/21 eve

 

The f/u:-

 

Yeah...it’s been 2 weeks...I procrastinate doing fixing this, because, basically I was scared I'd F*^k -it-all-UP!

Plus the rest of Skyrim was working

Plus I was having a blast with the rest of the game

 

...mostly, though the top reason above.

 

But I man-ed up, read your instructions carefully, and here is where I'm at:-

 

1. Verify game cache a few times...it continually picks up 1 error, but seems unable to correct it other than saying it’ll ‘re-download the file’

I assume it never could, as the single reason keeps appearing

 

2. Ran Loot to fix the load order

 

...................

 

With those 2 fixes alone, the problem is defined to a VERY particular area

 

1. Now I can enter College of Winterheld

2. Now I can go everywhere but the a single hall...the MAIN hall…the hall of countenance, on the ground floor

I immediately crash on trying to enter that ground floor door.

Interestingly, I can go into the other halls...go to the 3rd floor balcony, THEN enter the hall of countenance...can go everywhere in there on the top floor...until I try to enter the door to the 1st (ground) floor...

...then the very same crash

......................

 

Now the Man-up! part

I did tesedit 5...cleaned the 3 master files noted on their video (update.esm, heathfire.esm, dawngaurd.esm...and then Dragonborn.esm (which came out after the video)

 

It was actually fun, I admit, the thrill of 'fixing' several hundred errors

 

And the result...same exact crashing...and the remainder of the game still works J

............................

 

SO please proffer your opinion on my 'next step'

 

1. I was planning on watching the tesedit YouTube videos on cleaning mod files...and then trying that

...does that sound like a good or bad idea?

2. Or...would you suggest ANYTHING else in place of that step, or before that step?

 

I thank you for your time

 

ericjmz

[Darkstyler35]

• I've updated the guide above.

Are you using another mod that modifies the college of Winterhold ?

Try to untick 50% of your mods, beginning by the end of your load order and test in game. Then depending on if the problem occurs again or not, increase /decrease the remaining loading mods to find the culprit.

Have you tried the /// Meshes healer ? There's an item that has a wrong string index and can cause CTD. Follow the link and scroll down to the meshes that need to be fixed. You can also try to rename temporarilly the C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data\CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive.bsa, this will invalidate it, (the game may crash because of that but hey if we don't try...). If the game loads and you don't have the CTD again, close skyrim, rename the bsa to CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive and try again. If it worked, you'll need to fix this mesh.

There is another CTD caused by another mesh, (see here, the red lamp) you'll need to use the TCL console command, then try to reach this room / floor / hall. Then use the console to click on the object and type disable and press enter. Type TCL again and see if the problem occurs again.

Try to clean your mods from UDR, as deleted references can cause CTDs. LOOT should tell you what plugins need cleaning. Always load one plugin at a time to do this kind of cleaning. Loading all your plugins and apply filter for cleaning can have impredictable results.

<I was planning on watching the tesedit YouTube videos on cleaning mod files> Doing a check errors won't hurt and may correct potential bugs but don't forget to make backups.

[ericjmz]

Cut to the chase:-

 

Solved!!! :-)

 

It was a single file...I won’t (shouldn't?) report the mod file name here, as I don't want to smear a hardworking author if it’s a freak conflict with my system...but as it turns out the disabling 1/2 the mods...then working it thru...narrowed it to the one single file as culprit.

 

Although I had not purposefully downloaded ANY file that /messed with' College of Winterheld...this one download was a 2 follower set, and one of the followers (NOW I read it!) is a replacement for a CoW character in the vanilla game

 

Now...as to why/how someone can replace a legitimate in-game vanilla character with their own, and NOT expect conflicts across the board...maybe I'm a newbie (a 59 year old newbie!) but that seems to be asking-for-it, in the vernacular.

 

3 residual questions:

 

1. That particular character mod was a CBBE variant...I've downloaded (working) mods before where one follower had a cbbe variety,& another variety from which to choose the download...never really understood it...but this was my only CBBE mod & I wonder if THAT aspect was it?

 

2. You mentioned a 'Meshes Healer'....you highlighted it (you= darstyler, reply above) as if it’s a hyperlink...but it isn't.

I searched both nexus mods & google and couldn't find any mod or tool called 'meshes healer'

 

I DID find one called "Mesh Tool N7 NIF healer'

The write-up brief seems extremely technical

Is that the file you were suggesting?

 

3. and the last Very important question.

 

Obviously I disabled the offending file via my NMM

But NMM also gives an option to entirely delete the file...I guess one step more complete than merely disabling

 

I THINK I should do that now...correct or not?

And do I THEN need to run any sort of cleaning tool because I did the 'never-do-step' of removing a mod?

 

Thank you again

 

ericjmz

[Darkstyler35]

<Solved!!! > it's so good to hear such things :thumbsup:

 

1. LOL sorry I didn't understand what you were asking, (I'm french and sometimes, Google translator is not enough)

 

2. /// Meshes healer = a paragraph in my first post, see the link. = <I DID find one called "Mesh Tool N7 NIF healer'>. Yes, this tool but...the link I posted in my first post is in the forum tab of this mod and contain ALL the bsa I have scanned. Following my work will avoid you to loose time extracting and scanning uselessly.

[ericjmz]

Vive la France! :-)

 

ericjmz

[Darkstyler35]

<Vive la France! :-)> :thumbsup: my sweet country ^^