Help With Skyrim and Mods

[darkninja8969]

I have a question I hope you guys can help me with. I love Skyrim. I played it on PS3 and eventually got it on PC. I debated about whether to mod it or not as I knew modding has its risks. I have an ASUS laptop with the following specs:

 

Processor: Intel® Core i7-3537U CPU @ 2.00GHz (2 cores)

RAM: 8GB

Video card one: Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (2.0GB total memory, 32MB dedicated memory)

Video card two: NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M (4.0GB total memory, 2GB dedicated memory)

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (build 9600), 64-bit

 

It's not a high gaming laptop but it does what I need it to. I took the plunge and thought lets mod Skyrim. I began with a few and I think I ended up with about 50 - 70 at this current time. Lately with Skyrim I've noticed it freezes. It might be when I'm fast travelling to Whiterun or just randomly when after a few hours of playing. Usually I just crtl+alt+del, log off and reboot Skyrim. I have not experienced a crash to desktop just the game its freezing. When it freezes I can still use crtl+alt+del. I use Nexus Mod Manager and LOOT for my load order.

 

My main question is this; Is it Skyrim itself that is freezing because my laptop is old or is it my mods? Should I just play vanilla Skyrim and wait until I get a better computer or do I need to engage in the laborious process of figuring out which mod is crashing. I cannot recall if Skyrim crashed before I began to mod it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you guys need any extra information just let me know.

 

[LeddBate]

I think it's a combination of Skyrim and your mods. But that's just a guess. List your load order and we'll see if something jumps out at us.

 

Also, a question: Is your number two video card functioning with, or supplanting your number one card?

[darkninja8969]

Thank-you for your reply.

 

Unfortunately I am not too tech savvy and am not sure how to check that information. The only reason I didn't put my load order in was because if it was my laptop I would just wait until I can get a new computer. My load order is as follows (was sorted by LOOT).

 

0 0 Skyrim.esm
1 1 Update.esm
2 2 Dawnguard.esm
3 3 HearthFires.esm
4 4 Dragonborn.esm
5 5 Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp
6 6 Warehouse.esm
7 7 ArmoryMain.esm
8 8 ClimatesOfTamriel.esm
9 9 SkyMoMod.esm
10 a notice board.esp
11 b HighResTexturePack01.esp
12 c HighResTexturePack02.esp
13 d HighResTexturePack03.esp
14 e AOS.esp
15 f AMatterOfTime.esp
16 10 EBS - Books (Before).esp
17 11 Better Skill and Quest Books Names - BS.esp
18 12 SkyUI.esp
19 13 AHZmoreHUD.esp
20 14 Weapons & Armor_TrueOrcishWeapons.esp
21 15 Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
22 16 Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp
23 17 Rebirth Monster.esp
24 18 OBIS.esp
25 19 Weapons & Armor_TrueWeaponsLvlLists.esp
26 1a OBISDB.esp
27 1b EBS - Ammo.esp
28 1c EBS - Food (Vanilla Weight).esp
29 1d EBS - Ingredients (Vanilla Weight).esp
30 1e Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp
31 1f EBS - Misc.esp
32 20 EBS - Potions (Vanilla Weight).esp
33 21 PPsmallbot.esp
34 22 KDC - kevinsterable - Deadly Stronger Poisons.esp
35 23 posesivecorpses.esp
36 24 ClimatesOfTamriel-Interiors-Warm.esp
37 25 DeadlySpellImpacts.esp
38 26 ElementalArrows.esp
39 27 AT - Merchants Arrows +50%.esp
40 28 AT - Progressive Damage (BS and CCO).esp
41 29 AT - Recover +25% Arrows.esp
42 2a Skill Config.esp
43 2b dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp
44 2c Notification Overhaul.esp
45 2d TTYM - Think to Yourself Messages.esp
46 2e SkyCompleteLegendary.esp
47 2f iLuvLoading.esp
48 30 Thugs.esp
49 31 dD-No Spinning Death Animation Merged.esp

50 32 FNIS.esp
51 33 DeadlyAimRanks.esp
52 34 ISC DeadlySpellImpacts Patch.esp
53 35 Sanctuary Reborn.esp
54 36 Thieves Guild Redone.esp
55 37 AKSkyrimUnderground.esp
56 38 banditraids.esp
57 39 EBS - Spells.esp
58 3a SkyrimsUniqueTreasures.esp
59 3b Balanced_Magic.esp
60 3c Named bosses in skyrim I v1.1.esp
61 3d HigherLevelEnemies.esp
62 3e LC_immersiveLoot.esp
DragonsDiversified.esp
63 3f TransmuteAll-DualCast.esp

64 40 Improved Dragon Shouts.esp
65 41 UltimateCombat.esp
66 42 Complete Pack.esp
67 43 Randomized Word Walls.esp
68 44 Immersive Patrols II.esp
69 45 DungeonQuestAwareness.esp
70 46 LegendarySmithingUpgrades.esp
71 47 morewar.esp
72 48 EBS - Soul Gems (Numbered).esp
73 49 Weapons & Armor_FasterArrows.esp
74 4a SkyrimBalancedMagicSystem.esp
75 4b Weapons & Armor_DragonPriestMasks.esp
76 4c AT - Faster Arrows Improved +10%.esp
77 4d Animated Weapon Enchants.esp
78 4e Unique Uniques.esp
AOS2_WAF Patch.esp
79 4f Elemental Atronachs Reborn.esp
80 50 ViewableFactionRanksBothDLC.esp
81 51 Archery Shop v5.esp
82 52 UniqueBows.esp
83 53 Quick Start - Skip the Opening Sequence.esp
84 54 ISCompendium Balanced Magic Patch.esp
85 55 DiverseDragonsCollection3.esp
86 56 DSerArcheryGameplayOverhaul.esp
87 57 ISC WAFR Patch.esp
88 58 dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
89 59 dD-DG-DB-MonsterMod EBT Patch v4.esp
90 5a dD-Larger Splatter Size.esp
91 5b Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul.esp

[LeddBate]

If your number two GPU is not working in conjunction with (or at least supplanting) your HD 4000, then I believe you're freezing up due to running out of memory. This usually causes ctd, but I had freezes in my early days too.

 

Looking over your load order... hmmm. Well, I'm only familiar with about half your mods, so I'll kibitz on what I know.

 

1) Bethesda's HD texture packs: Get rid of them. I believe they're memory hogs. So do others here on the nexus. There are texture mods on the Nexus (including all-in-ones) that do a much better job for less memory usage.

2) Climates of Tamriel is a fantastic mod, but a bit hard on low-end machines. You might want to try Vivid Weathers instead.

3) A lot of your mods (not a majority, just a lot of them) seem to be script heavy from what I gather when I look at their pages. If your saves are bloating, you could be looking at a lot of scripts firing to much for your machine to handle. And more importantly, for Skyrim to handle.

 

Finally, here's a stability guide from Darstyler. If it helps you, please give him a kudo. Note that this guide is not intended to be absorbed all at once. Just read it over when you have time and apply what seems appropriate for your issue.

 

Here is a list of things you may do to stabilize your game :

/// Useful informations :

• Dangerous mods list.

• CTDs troubleshooting page on Reddit very usefull informations concerning CTDs...

• Verify gamecache.

/// 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

/// Settings / memory :

• Have you installed the skse patch ? >> memory blocks log.

• Backup your ini files and delete the files. Skyrim.ini / SkyrimCustom.ini / SkyrimPrefs.ini found in C:\Users\Utilisateur\Documents\My Games\Skyrim then use your vanilla launcher to autodetect and use best settings for your computer.

/// Cleaning and correcting potential bugs :

• Clean your master files to eliminate potential problems.: Gopher's videos cleaning your masterfiles on the Nexus Tesedit page.
  Start Tes5edit, simply untick everything, (right-click/select none) and add only a tick to the esm/esp you want to check + update.esm, Tesedit knows what to do and will load all the dependencies automatically.
  - Begin with loading only Skyrim + update, ITM / UDR + save ctrl +s and close.
  - Then load Skyrim + update + Dawnguard, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.
  - Then load Skyrim + update + Hearthfire, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.
  - Then load Skyrim + update + Dragonborn, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.

• The method above can be used to clean mods. If I'm correct LOOT should tell you which plugin you should clean. You may load all your mods with Tes5edit and use the (right-click in the left pane) apply filter to show conflict losers. Wait till Tes5edit has finished. Caution : don't try to modify anything while using this filter, it's not intended for.

• In the left pane, Expand the subsections and examine conflicts. Once an entry is expanded to the bottom and selected, the right pane shows which mods modify the entry. The last one on the right is the last loaded in your load order and the conflict winner.

• Expand the following subsections, depending on where the problems occur. Cells for CTDs inside buildings, grottos, etc... and worldspace for exterior. The goal is to target mods that edit the same places and conflict. Open the bloc note and write those mods.

• Once done, close Tes5edit and open each mod with Tesedit, one by one and use the UDR cleaning procedure (Gopher's videos cleaning your masterfiles on the Nexus Tesedit page) to ensure all the deleted references will be transformed in disabled references = no CTDs from this point.

• If you suspect a mod in particular, using the conflict looser / winner method above, you can decide to change its load order or uninstall it.

/// 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.

/// Meshes healer :

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

[darkninja8969]

Thank-you very much for your help. I will see what I can do.