Skyrim freezes or CTD'd every few minutes

[Whitespliff]

Ever since the 1.5 update I get freezes & CTD's every few minutes, before that patch it ran (almost) perfect.

It almost always happens outside & a very few times in a dungeon for ex when I want to active a body (loot).

 

I've looked at sooo many threads about this & tried everything but it keeps freezing.

I finally uninstalled Skyrim completely, followed the STEP guide for all the texture replacements & I'm using a few mods.

I installed them 1 by 1, tested a few minutes in game between every mod but after a few mods (by that time I reached Riverwood) it started to freeze.

I then uninstalled the last mod but it didn't matter any more, it kept freezing (crashing).

 

I have these esp's running + all the texture replacements from the STEP guide.

 

Update.esm

CLARALUX - More and Brighter Lights.esm

WinterholdDestruction.esm

Shadow Striping Fix.esp

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

SoS - The Dungeons.esp

SoS - The Wilds.esp

Better Dynamic Snow.esp

Natural Skyrim Rain.esp

StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp

83Willows_101BUGS_V4_HighRes.esp

Crimson Tide - Blood.esp

Dr_Bandolier.esp

ScenicCarriages.esp

Auto Unequip Arrows.esp

IMAGINATOR - Visual Control for Skyrim.esp

daedric_phelm.esp

DandelionArmor.esp

KhantuArmor.esp

ExpandedWinterholdRuins.esp

hobbithouse.esp

iMaxPlayerRunes008.esp

NonEssentialChilds.esp

Soul Gems Differ - NW - E.esp

WATER.esp

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp

Apocalypse - The Spell Package.esp

Phenderix's Magic Evolved.esp

TwinSoulsExpandedLevels.esp

Teleport.esp

Balanced_Alteraton.esp

Balanced_Conjuration.esp

Balanced_Destruction.esp

Balanced_Illusion.esp

Balanced_Restoration.esp

Balanced_Magic_Adept.esp

Realistic Lighting.esp

ASIS-Dependency.esp

ASIS.esp

 

I have a i5 2500 @4Ghz, Radeon HD6950 2GB (unlocked) (12.5 beta drivers), 8GB DDR3 & a 120GB SSD with my OS & Skyrim on (saves are on a different drive).

Everything is on ultra. (1.6 beta patch)

 

O, the only thing a bit outdated is the PSU, it's 500W

Since Battlefield 3 & Metro 2033 run fine at max settings I don't think that could be the problem?

 

Anybody any ideas b/c I'm really starting to get frustrated :wallbash:

Edited May 31, 2012 by Whitespliff

[Georgiegril]

Well, I noticed no one else was helping, so I thought I'd give it a try.

 

1. Did you have this issue before downloading the beta patch? If this has happened just since then, you should report it to the Beta bug report thing. If not, have you tried rolling back to 1.5

2. Does it crash on high? Medium?

3. Not all mods are compatible with the beta. This could be the issue.

4. What are your skyrim graphics settings, and have you made any changes to the .ini files?

[Whitespliff]

Tnx for the reply :biggrin:

 

I've been having the problems since the 1.5 patch, before I had almost no crashes.

Since Steam forces you to update I've been having these problem since the 1.5 patch went live.

I really would like to have the 1.4 patch again but that's not possible as far as I know.

 

It crashes on high & medium, I do have a lot of high res texture replacements but my rig should be able to handle that(?)

 

Settings are all ultra but lowering it doesn't change anything.

I tried the original ini, looked for performance tweaks & I'm using a ini generated by this site now: http://donotargue.com/cfg-makers/skyrim/

This really made everything run smoother (less lag) but it still crashes.

[Georgiegril]

Well, I don't have a Radeon, I have a crappy 512MB NVidia, and while I have to run it on medium, I compensate by using a lot of high res texture mods, and they don't seem to cause me much burden. Have you checked your RAM/VRAM performance while running the game? Just in case.... Something like CPU-Z ca tell you if something is pushing your RAM too high, or if you are overheating, etc. (Probably you know this, having built your own computer, but I'm brainstorming here...)

 

Can you tell me, did you cut and past the ini file or did you make changes based on what the websites ini was? I myself am running a lot of .INI tweaks, but what I have found is what works great for one person on their specific rig set-up, might not work for me, or might need to be adjusted. If you cut and pasted, it could be the problem. to fix it, did you make a back-up of your unmodified .ini file? If so, I would replace the new one with the old one. If you didn't, I would make a backup of what you have now, then delete it and use the "verify game cache" option on Steam. That should revert you to default. At that point, you could try adding and playing around with the settings one at a time and see what works.

 

Did the .ini file that you changed to change your ugridstoload options? If you increase gridstoload, you can't go back without breaking the game. You can read about this in more detail here:

It's an NVidia website, but it is talking about .ini tweaks anyone can do....

Nvidia tweak guide

 

Another thing you could try is moving WATER to the very end of your load list. I get random CTDs if I do not do that...I think the mod author recommends that (or did at one point). Even though BOSS doesn't approve, it works for me.

 

Mods I notice that you are running that can cause conflicts, you might try to remove them, but follow the mod authors instructions or your problems could get worse:

SOS,

Unoffical Skyrim patch

Realisitic Lighting

Scenic Carriages

 

The others that I do not know, but seem that they may have conflicts:

Claralux and Imaginator and Realistic lighting

Your Winterhold mods

 

For my part, I don't like testing betas, because mod authors often aren't able to update to the beta for those who need it and also keep the current version going. If you are really excited about the Beta, I would check each of your mod's readmes and see if they say they are compatible with the beta. Since the problem seemed to get worse for you after 1.6, that could be at least a contributor to the problem.

 

I had trouble since 1.5, it caused a meltdown for me...had to reload it all, sooo painful! One thing I did was disable the Bethesda HD texture pack. Since your specs are much better than mine, it seems less likely to be the issue, but it's another straw you can try to grasp....

 

I hope some of this helps! (and if you figure out how to prevent those automatic updates, all of the nexus world will make you their god!)