Skyrim DAWNGUARD crashes on start up.

[ChiaraFee]

Hello, all.

I bought and activated DAWNGUARD via STEAM.

 

When I start the game with steam, the skyrim screen comes up, but skyrim crashes even before I get the menu with the file load options.

 

I have to disable the dawnguard.esm file with the nexus mod manager to have the game starting normal, meaning no dawnguard for me.

 

Of course I have quite some mods installed. must I deactivate them all? hope not.

 

Any help?

 

btw: dawnguard.esm must be at #02 in the load order, I read somewhere. it is.

 

Tx for any help.

[SineWaveDrox]

I had a similar problem when I first tried to play Dawnguard. In my case, there was a single mod that was apparently conflicting in some way with it, though I don't remember which one. What I did to solve it was to deactivate a few mods at a time and try to start Skyrim. When it finally started, I reactivated the mods one at a time, so as to determine exactly which one was the problem. Then you can simply deactivate that one (hopefully it's not something terribly important).

 

Another thing that helped my situation was to check the plugins.txt in "Users/Username/AppData/Local/Skyrim" for a duplicate Skyrim.esm at the top (there should only be one). This never caused problems for me before I tried to play Dawnguard, but recently began causing similar issues. May be worth checking.

[ChiaraFee]

uuh, at least something to try.. ty... will come back on that

xxx

[ChiaraFee]

ok, first made sure that no duplicate "skyrim.esm" was existing.

 

then: I did not only click off the esm/esp but in addition disabled ALL mods with NMM.

 

then started the game with only "skyrim.esm" clicked on - loaded ok

 

then started the game wit "Skyrim.esm" AND "update.esm" enabled - loaded ok. - in both cases I could reload one of my saved games.

 

THEN: enabled the dawnguard.esm as the 3rd one ...... crash before the "load game" screen

 

so I am still lost..... *snief*

[tasedncrazed]

got the same problem as ChiaraFee ^ there. any other advice we might can try?

[LordXendor]

Same problem. Is no one going to reply?

[blitzen]

Did any of you try re-downloading it, just in case it was a bad download? Or validate your files in steam?

[notworthy]

Did you buy the actual Downguard DLC or are you trying to apply the dawnguard patch mod to plain old Skyrim - cause I was doing the second and was getting the exact described crash - I'm not a smart man doiii

[InfinityXeon]

HEY! GUESS WHAT! I may have an actual solution for some of you!

 

@notworthy

:Facepalm: Assumign you mean to say The Unofficial Dawnguard Patch, that is only to fix problem with Dawngaurd. You actually need it installed.

 

For everybody else, I have a question. Are any of you using version 1.8 of Skyrim or later? If so, does the Dawngaurd.esm load right after Skyrim.esm and Update.esm? It should. My esm files load in the order;

Skyrim.esm, Update.esm, Hearthfire.esm, Dawngaurd.esm, Dragonborn.esm, -Various Mod Esms-

 

Try something like that.

[knovack1]

make sure the load order is correct ALL DLC's + the Skyrim update has to be at the very top of the list under the Plugin tab in the NMM. Example: Skyrim.esp, Update.esp, Dawnguard.esp, Hearhfire.esp, Dragonborn.esp, Then all other mods after.

Also be sure to grab ALL the unofficial patches for whatever DLC you have. Best case scenario is load the DLC's and patches first before you start adding mods to Skyrim. But most people just add DLC's whenever on a highly modded Skyrim, and wonder why the mod or DLC is not working. So I would disable ALL mods. then reinstall Dawnguard, Dawnguard unofficial patch, Dragonborn, dragon born unofficial patch, etc. Then after all the DLC's and unofficial patchs are installed. Start activating mods. But before that recheck your mods first. I would even go so far as to run the TES5Edit tool after all your DLC's and mods are activated.

A lot of authors have different versions of the mod. I seen mods that tell you to download this file IF YOU HAVE ANY DLC. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY DLC THEN DOWNLOAD THIS FILE INSTEAD. Make sure you are using the right file for a mod that requires a DLC for the mod to work.