I'm so sick and tired of how unstable the game is

[Jitansgate]

When Skyrim came out 11/11/11 My PC ran the game fine then after a few AMD and Steam Updates it went downhill into Lagville.

[Hunchback187]

Hmmm... Where to start.

 

Here is why the game crashes.

 

The game doesn't like a mod or certain mods that are put in together or in the wrong order. This leads to, in my case, freezing. I think I have only had a CTD once.

Your system specs have little to nothing to do with it.

I have done the following to try to fix the issues.

 

1. RMAed my Video card (x2)

2. RMAed my Motherboard.

3. OS Re-install.

4. Steam / Skyrim Re-install.

5. Run in Administrator Mode.

6. Run in Compatibility Mode (That was funny).

7. I have a Radeon 6850. I PURCHASED a nVidia 560 to test it out.

8. I have a BioStar Mobo. I PURCHASED a MSI board to test it out.

9. Did MemTests, Did Burn-in tests.

10. Overclocked Video Card / Underclocked Video Card.

11. Overclocked Northbridge / Underclocked Northbridge.

12. Added 3 x 120mm Fans.

 

None of this helped one damn bit. :wallbash: So if you are thinking it's an issue with your machine... It's NOT.

 

Here is what I did to fix my crash issues.

 

1. Un-Install Skyrim.

2. Delete the sub-folder in Steam that has Skyrim Data in it.

3. Re-Install Skyrim.

4. DO NOT LOAD A SAVE FILE ! ! ! !

5. Play through the game in PURE VANILLA (NO MODS) until you get to Whiterun.

6. Save the Game (This is going to be your CLEAN SAVE)

7. When modding use this save but :excl: DO NOT OVERRIDE IT :excl:

8. Start Testing mods one by one.

9. Best way I have found to test a mod is to do the whole kill your first dragon and get Lydia. I have noticed that this gives the game enough time to compile everything to see if it is going to work or not.

 

I personally only install mods manually. The strangest thing is that the main mods that make me crash are character / armor re-texture mods.

Example :

I run CBBE, all Caliente files I have used are Flawless, but when I install another person's body re-texture like one that gives the character Abs or Gloss it crashes. I back up the Caliente files before installing the new Texture models. I install the new texture model. Run around for a while and normally within about 5 minutes or sitting there and Waiting 1 in-game hour 10 times in a row it will crash.

 

One other major factor is setting up what loads first / middle / last. That one can take the longest to figure out in my opinion.

 

I hope this information is helpful. I'll check in periodically to see if anyone has any questions. ;)

[bben46]

It may not be the game itself, but something else in your system that affects the game.

Here is a link to my troubleshooting blog.

http://s1.zetaboards.com/bbenlibrary/topic/4751769/1/#new

This is updated often so come back later for more.

 

Go through the general section - make sure your computer is optimized to play the game before looking at specific game solutions. Otherwise, you may miss the boat.

 

If you use any of this and have some success - or even if nothing works - please post back here what you did that worked or didn't work. That kind of information can be invaluable to other members having the same or similar problems - And to me in fixing any problems in the blog.

[FiftyTifty]

Just thought I'd chime in here; I found Skyrim to be much more stable when I've limited it to two cores, especially when done through PriFinitty.

Perhaps give that program a shot and see how Skyrim fares?

[Northborn]

I would greatly advise going through your mods and cleaning it up.

 

I used to have trashy stability, but after getting rid of a few mods, well, it's been much, much better. I've played about 20 hours now without a crash *knock on wood*

 

One hunter lodge mod, and Realistic Lighting were causing stability issues.

[Cipherthe3vil]

I really wanted to replay the game after all this time, try out the new mods and everything, but I really can't stand the ever more frequent crashes of all kinds. I almost spend more time solving issues than playing the game:

 

- Endless loading

I have no idea what causes this, I tried disabling mods and stuff (of course there are a few good ones I cannot disable or I might as well just not play the game. And of course the DLCs). What happens is I cannot load the game because it gets stuck after loading about 1.1GB into memory.

The strange thing is that there is a solution and it always works. You just need to start a new game, and then quit to main menu, and then it will load. So stupid and time consuming.

I use to get these... they stopped though. Don't think I did anything but remove a mod or two and it was fix'd. Or perhaps it was before my last uninstall/re-install of skyrim.

- Freezing

I think it has something to do with loading certain parts of the world. because it often happens when I'm walking. and repeats every time I walk to the same spot.

The solution is simply to keep reloading and hope that it works by chance. Again, time consuming and stupid. Why does it work some times and not others?

I use to have the same exact problem, maybe I still do. But recently I've noticed I haven't suddenly crashed yet since the 1.8 update or whatever... Just freezes and doesn't unfreeze... OR it CTDs.

-CTD

I have no idea why this happens. Sometimes It's a mod like the detailed map will cause it to CTD whenever I open map. Sometimes it just happens for no reason.

No one can truly know why CTDs happen. They just happen because they happen... Never had crashes when I played console :/ CTDs in general that is. Usually there's individual reasons that you can sometimes determine like if it crashes on a specific thing. I crash whenever I try to equip that sleek looking dress from the TERA armor set. :/ Shame... It looked nice.

 

-TESV.exe has stopped working

Again, no idea what causes it, just happens whenever it feels like it.

I get this 1/3 or so times, maybe even 4/5 sometimes, when I go to a loading screen. Just says it stopped working like a little retard and I have to say "YES you idiot, WAIT for it to respond." Then I just wait a few seconds and it goes away with the loading screen.

 

Overall the game is just so unpredictable it's like a junkyard machine it kinda works but you're always in fear of it stop working so you have to constantly press F5. But unlike Fallout NV, pressing F5 will pause the game for a brief second, which is really annoying when you're pressing it all the time!

I think it's mostly because of the new patches or whatever, When I first started the game I can't even choose my race it just says look up failed. Hell I couldn't even choose my sex without instantly crashing( I think it was the hair mod). I had to do all sorts of mods and console commands just to customize my character. I remember it was much more stable when I first played it when it just released. I never ran into any of the bugs so I don't know what they did with all those patches, just broke the game.

 

I think tomorrow I'm just gonna try re installing the game, and only install the mods that I have tried and saw was good, leaving out all others. see if I get lucky this time.

and oh, please don't tell me I don't meet the system requirements. My new system is at least twice as fast as the one I had when the game first released.

 

 

Yep. Skyrim is unpredictable. It's like drawing a card from a hat. It either sucks, is unplayable, runs alright, runs pretty good, or runs near-perfectly ~

But I've found that you can redraw your card by completely uninstalling and reinstalling- sometimes. Sometimes it IS your computer.

[Elysarian]

This is the problem with PC games, there's so much variety in hardware and software combinations (not to mention driver versions!) that it's impossible for game companies to test every permutation out there, there will always be someone with something that will clash.

 

The reason you don't get crashes as much (they do happen sometimes with some games) with consoles is simply that there is only one platform that's fixed by Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft - the only variation that may occur is the console's OS version (in the case of PS3 and Xbox, but every game I've owned for PS3 checks you have the minimum version before it'll even let you install.

 

99% of the "my skyrim crashes" threads I see on this forum are from posters with a lot of Mods, I run Vanilla with just DG and the official hi-res textures... runs completely stable now and I've recently upgraded everything in my PC aside from the GFX card and HDD without reinstalling (Windows 8 apparently doesn't spit out its dummy and go off to sit in a corner swearing at you when you do this like earlier versions did - otherwise known as a bluescreen because the kernel doesn't match your hardware anymore)

[greentea101]

Edit: nevermind. Edited November 21, 2012 by greentea101

[Deleted3507349User]

One thing you might try is setting the shadow quality to high in the launcher (if you have it set to ultra now). I did that and almost all of my CTD problem went away. I then tweaked the shadow quality up through ini settings...but the launcher still says it's in high.

 

When I get a CTD now I notice it's sometime soon after the game 'forgets' to load a texture...one argument for using original vanilla textures as opposed to any of the high-res (even the official Bethesda HD pack). Sure, it's not as pretty, but the game never seems to forget vanilla textures.

[shadow56]

I have had no issues with Skyrim at all even with Dawnquard installed and every patch that has come out. Can't say why but sure am glad. I do know I am hesitant to mess with any graphic enhancement mods or doing a lot of changes to the Skyrim config file.