CTDs happen in a pattern, don't know why

[Kohdi]

Hey all,

 

I've recently been having problems with CTDs. Fortunately they've been happening in a predictable manner, but unfortunately they happen at some very inopportune places. The first crash comes within ~10 minutes of starting the game for the first time after rebooting, and after that it doesn't happen again. I have traced the possible problem with this one to Steam, I use the SKSE loader and I figure Steam may be working in the background and conflicts with the already-running game. The other CTDs mainly happen when I enter a building (either right after the loading screen, or just after activating the door). The buildings seem random, ranging from Vlindrel Hall to Dushnik Yal. The last CTDs happen randomly in the wilds, but on re-starting the game, passing the same area causes an identical crash. This is especially annoying when you're following an NPC to a quest goal, yet there's an impenetrable crash barrier in the way. The only way I've found to get around it is to fast travel.

 

I've tried unloading all my mods completely, I've checked and double-checked the two .ini files, I've reloaded old saves, but the crashes persist. I really hope someone may have an idea as to what's going on, it's become extremely frustrating.

 

System Specs-

Windows 7

Intel i5 2500k

GTX 260

8GB RAM

 

Settings as high as they'll go and then some, game runs smooth as butter (when it runs).

 

Running SKSE, FXAA injector (minimal settings), Legendary Gauldur Amulet, Realistic Water Textures, and a few other texture mods, none of the big stuff like Tytanis.

 

Thanks for any assistance!

[Iv000]

I really want to help, but I have no idea what could cause that kind of random crashing.

I can only give you some general advice:

Reinstall your graphics drivers, and install the newest ones.(EDIT: I forgot to mention, you should use Driver Sweeper to clear out all the old drivers before installing new ones.)

Defrag the game folder, if you can, defrag your whole PC. (Recommending Defraggler: http://www.piriform.com/defraggler)

Clean your PC's temp folder and old registry files. (CCleaner should do the trick: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner)

If all that fails, I recommend doing a fresh install of the game.

 

I personally did not have any crashes with Skyrim, therefore I cannot really help with that. Good luck.

 

Also, I assume you installed the latest patch? If not, then you should let Steam download the patch, it should help.

If you DID download the patch, then you should try reverting back to 1.1, here's a link to the 1.1 files: http://games.softpedia.com/get/Patch/Skyrim-Patch-1-2-Rollback-Fix.shtml

Edited December 28, 2011 by Iv000

[Kohdi]

Thank you for the advice, unfortunately it's all stuff that I regularly maintain. I would switch back to the first patch in a heartbeat, but I'm now reliant on SKSE which won't support the older versions. I'm almost certain it is the most recent patch causing the problems, however, so I guess I'll just have to try and find the conflicts, or wait for a fix from Bethesda.

[Kodiak412]

It could be a corrupt save too. They are murder to deal with. If you have repeatable CTD's try going back to a previous hard save and see if you can play without the crashes.

 

I could be wrong but I believe once you have a corrupt save that you are playing on, any save off of that save will also be corrupt. For example any autosave or quicksave off a corrupt save will also be problematic. Hard saving early and often is the only thing that might give you a fighting chance to go back to a clean save. Also I believe overwriting previous saves could cause issues too, only use fresh clean slots. If it is a corruption issue it will only get worse as you continue on. It is a total bummer.

[Dingenskirchen]

It seems a lot of people have this issues with Patch 1.3.10. Kind of like their LAA Patch is crap or not working. At least thats my feeling about it.

 

Well, to your problem. It's an immersion killer but you could try to use the "pcb" command in the console. Helped me out a lot. Quicksave+PurgeCellBuffer, every few minutes. After a while you'll figure out in what interval you should repeat it.

But as i said, it's really an immersion killer. Hope there will be a SKSE script out soon for that.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Dingenskirchen

[Dragonflarcos]

I've got a lot of CTDs too, mostly outside when I sprint through the beautiful landscape.

[Tom21]

Me To Can just play for 2 to 3 minutes thin crashes to desktop and using SKSE loader to some times it Works Some Times it doss not!

[Kohdi]

Thanks for all the replies, I think I've narrowed my causes down to two problems. The first problem happens when I first start Skyrim after a reboot, I use the SKSE launcher but if Steam isn't open yet (if I haven't yet connected to the internet, for example), Steam forces the regular executable to open, pushing SKSE to the side. If I don't catch this and re-start from the SKSE loader, the game will crash without fail 5-10 minutes later, most likely from a conflict going on with the missing scripts. The second problem sounds like the corrupted save game described by Kodiak412, my sister has started her own game and experiences none of the crashes I have on my saves. Going back to an earlier save is not an option I'd like to take, the progress I'd need to regain would be monumental. Nevertheless, it might be my only option. I'll try the "pcb" command, it will be annoying but not so much as constant crashing.

[Kodiak412]

I hope it works for you and that was the problem, not a save corruption. Good luck.

 

What is the pcb command? Is it purge cell buffer? I have just started to hear this and was wondering what it is, how to use it and what it does.

[Iv000]

I hope it works for you and that was the problem, not a save corruption. Good luck.

 

What is the pcb command? Is it purge cell buffer? I have just started to hear this and was wondering what it is, how to use it and what it does.

Yes, it's purge cell buffer.

After a longer time playing, you will notice the game slowing down, stuttering etc. Pcb clears the cached cells from your memory which cause those problems.

Basically, it removes stuttering and slowdowns after longer play sessions.

 

To use it, just open the console and type in pcb.

You can do it as often as you want, it's not dangerous at all.