Problem with (Old) Skyrim Lagging, Cleaning done, weird stuff..

[jocem009]

Hello, I only recently encountered massive (truly massive indeed) lag in Skyrim. It is currently lagging permanently, it used to only lag abit in certain areas. But all of the sudden there is nowhere it doesn't lag. I've been playing for several years now, with no lag problems, ever, so I doubt it is because of my hardware (specs below). Lazy as I am I use character presets, and only for the latest I donwloaded and installed CBBE and some Tattoo mod and all the mods they required to work (the likes of Kairdos Hair and Better Females and so on). Around that time, though i believe not instantly after installing these, the lag began to increase massively to its current state. I thought perhaps it is because of some kind of data transfer problem - I ahve 2 SSDs, with my Win10 on one and Skyrim and Steam on the other (that didnt make much sense to me, but it was a possiblity so i tried it). Reinstalled Skyrim and all mods. No change however. Followed a guide on the internet, changed a few ini lines (namely the uExterior Cell Buff from 36 to 24 and something about draw distance). I also switched from Mod Organizer to Vortex during that reinstall. Read abit about TES5Edit and cleaning - atleast enough to figure the QuickAutoClean out and clean those files suggested by Vortex (Yes I am using LOOT, and after the cleaning it says "LOOT verified cleaning" on the mods affected). Here's the weird thing however. Before I read up on cleaning, I tried doing it on my own (not a fan of long internet tutorials, don't let that discourage you haha). So I loaded all the mods I have (basically eveything I could load into TES5Edit, not using the QuickAutoClean there yet) and marked all, then rightlick -> "Clean Masters" (an option at the very bottom of the rightclick panel). Did that, started up Skyrim, and boom - no lag. No lag at all. Even after wandering around for a short while, still no lag. However, the game was now crashing back to the Desktop whenever I tried to save - be it quicksave, normal save, or even entering a building / cave. I tried the "player.kill", here is where I modified the Skyrim.ini file as mentioned above, I tried loading a previous save (of which i only had 1, since I waws deleting the previous saves because of too much space consumption), nothing worked. Crashed every time. But the lag was gone! Well, afterwards I read cleaning all mods recklessly like that tends to break things, so I reinstalled and replaced all the mods within Vortex. The lag was, as expected, back. I could save atleast, but the saving process took insanely long - a whole 14 seconds! I counted. (Also happened before the proper cleaning using the suggested files and only those). Now I am at wit's end, I don't know how I can fix this problem. No more files are being shown as being in need of cleaning, no conflicts are reported from Vortex or LOOT. Do you have any ideas? Or is the only solution for me to manually apply this "Clean Masters" to every file until I find the one that seemed to make the lag go away? Seems like gambling to me. Might break more than I gain. Any help is appreciated, and believe me, after modding Skyrim for quite a few years now (and having created small mods myself) it baffles me what causes this. Dunno if it's important, but the installation of CBBE was followed by a new game aswell (new char). The lag was not present at the beginning, but seemed to gradually increase over time. Over the last few days anyway. I even disabled the few graphics mods I amrunning - ELFX and Noble Skyrim, SMIM. No real improvement (if any). I must admit, I am unsure whether I did everything correctly with LOOT. I started up the program, so it should have sorted the list automatically right? Because it still claims on the right side "You have not sorted your laod order this session" under General information. Thanks in advance for advice.

 

 

PC specs (worked fine for 6 years lel)

 

Mainboard: AsRock Z77 Pro3

GPU: GTX 760, 2 GB VRAM

CPU: i5 3470 @3.4 GHz

RAM: 8 GB

running all programs on SSD

 

 

 

Mod list:

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 ApachiiHair.esm
7 7 Nock2Tip.esm
8 8 Gray Fox Cowl.esm
9 9 JSwords.esm
10 a HighResTexturePack01.esp
11 b HighResTexturePack02.esp
12 c HighResTexturePack03.esp
13 d WeightlessDwemerSmeltables.esp
14 e WeightlessFood.esp
15 f WeightlessScrolls.esp
16 10 WeightlessPotions.esp
17 11 WeightlessOreIngotsPeltsGems.esp
18 12 WeightlessDragonClaws.esp
19 13 WeightlessDragonBones.esp
20 14 WeightlessCraftedPotions.esp
21 15 WeightlessAlchemyIngredients.esp
22 16 Andromeda - Unique Standing Stones of Skyrim.esp
23 17 ExtraLevelPerks.esp
24 18 Leave Combat.esp
25 19 KS Hairdo's.esp
26 1a cleaner_castlevolkihar3.esp
27 1b craftabledwarvenautomatons.esp
28 1c RaceMenu.esp
29 1d RaceMenuPlugin.esp
30 1e TheCoenaculiCBBE.esp
31 1f WerewolfPerksExpanded.esp
32 20 honedmetal.esp
33 21 Imperious - Races of Skyrim.esp
34 22 3x magickaregen.esp
35 23 Duel - Combat Realism.esp
36 24 Thief skills rebalance for Ordinator.esp
37 25 3x staminaregen.esp
38 26 AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp
39 27 Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
40 28 ArcheryDummyXP.esp
41 29 Vile Quest Both Rewards.esp
42 2a houseforaherov4.esp
43 2b Better Vampire NPCs.esp
44 2c SMIM-Merged-All.esp
45 2d Cloaks.esp
46 2e JSwordsDistributionBalancePlugin.esp
47 2f Nock2Tip.esp
48 30 bondolf a rich merchant.esp
49 31 amberarmor.esp
50 32 AmuletsofHircine.esp
51 33 BetterDeadThralls.esp
52 34 Sicarius' Refuge - DLC.esp
53 35 Better Vampire Weapons.esp
54 36 Undriel_Everlight.esp
55 37 Brevi_MoonlightTales.esp
56 38 BlackSacramentArmor.esp
57 39 Apocalypse - The Spell Package.esp
58 3a LustmordVampireArmor.esp
59 3b Apocalypse - Waterstride Spell Addon.esp
60 3c AzarHairPonyTail 03 - Havok.esp
61 3d BlackSacramentDBReplacer.esp
62 3e Brows.esp
63 3f Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp
64 40 Convenient Horses - Faster Sprint.esp
65 41 Convenient Horses.esp
66 42 Convenient Horses - Unique Frost.esp
67 43 Crime Overhaul.esp
68 44 Dawnguard - Join As A Vampire.esp
69 45 dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp
70 46 dD-Dragonborn-Dawnguard-EBT Patch.esp
71 47 dD-Medium Script Range.esp
72 48 dD-Reduced Wound Size.esp
73 49 Default Teammate Weapon Draw Distance.esp
74 4a DrSKnapsacks.esp
75 4b Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
76 4c JSwords_Load_Screens.esp
77 4d mslVampiricThirst.esp
78 4e NoLeveledItemRewards.esp
79 4f RaceMenuMorphsCBBE.esp
80 50 SilverDragonArmor.esp
81 51 SkyUI.esp
82 52 TanningSmeltingExp.esp
83 53 TW3Eyes.esp
84 54 ValsCraftingMeltdownAlpha.esp
85 55 VioLens.esp
86 56 Perk Points at Skill Levels 50-75-100.esp
87 57 Mark and Summon Friends.esp
88 58 Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp
89 59 Apocalypse - Ordinator Compatibility Patch.esp
90 5a Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp

[Jannifer]

There are a couple of possible problems here. First, not every mod should be cleaned even if LOOT says it's dirty. Some have extra information, such as spawn points, that cleaning will remove. Removing those things may break the mod. Secondly, you do not want to clean the masters. You want to clean the mod. So, this is what you need to do.

 

1. Start TES5Edit.
2. When the first window comes up, the one with all your mods in it, right click on that window.
3. Choose Select None.
4. Then, check only the mod you want to clean and let it load.
5. After the mod has loaded, highlight it in the list on the left side of the TES5Edit window.
6. Right click and choose Apply Filter for Cleaning.
7. Now, there are two steps to the cleaning process. First, right click on the file name again and choose Undelete and Disable References.
8. Right click on the file once more and choose Remove "Identical to Master" Records.
9. You may now save. You are going to get big red warnings a couple of times about changing a game file and overwriting a file.

If you have cleaned something you shouldn't have, it's not unfixable. Uninstall the mod and reinstall it. Don't delete it, just uninstall and reinstall. That process will restore the original file that you downloaded which wasn't touched by the cleaning process.

 

Most experienced mod authors clean their mods before uploading them. Take some time to go back to the mod pages and read the notes in the description. Some will explicitly say, "Do not clean". Others you'll have to take on faith. I am more cautious when I'm using a file from someone who is not an experienced mod author. If someone says, "This is my first mod," then cleaning it might be a good thing to do. Otherwise, leave things alone. :smile: Also, while you're reading stuff, check to see if there are any specific instructions about where a mod should be in your load order. LOOT is a good tool, but it is not perfect. On occasion, it makes odd decisions, so you'll need to get comfortable with reviewing your load order yourself and correcting it as needed.

 

One more thing, never edit your .ini file unless you know exactly what you're changing and why. I don't think that the things you've changed will hurt. However, sometimes people make suggestions because "This worked for me, so maybe it will work for you." Unfortunately, that isn't the case...every install, every rig, every load order is unique. This is true even if you're using the same hardware and running the same mods with the same load order as someone else. You wouldn't think there'd be a difference, but there is. There are all kinds of variables to consider.

 

So, reinstall your mods and verify your game cache through Steam to restore your game files to vanilla. Look carefully at what LOOT says to clean, and then double check the description for every single "dirty" mod before you clean it. Hopefully, this will let you get things sorted out.

 

Good luck! :D