Need assistance with random ctd in the gameworld

[indrasut]

Hi all,

 

Was wondering if you will be able to help me with my stupid Skyrim CTD-ing every random moment. I tried it without mods and with mods, result is the same. I cannot do the audio trick as my Bose speakers won't let me change the audio sample (unless someone can tell me how). I also tried cleaning the save game just in case, but it is still crashing. Tried playing with low shadow, and I also disabled AA, AF, and pretty much everything, but I'm using the K ENB Mod...Computer spec is as follows:

 

- i7 920 CPU overclocked to 3.8Ghz

- 12 GB RAM

- GeForce 670

 

Just for further verification, below is my mod list:

 

 

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Dawnguard.esm

HearthFires.esm

ApachiiHair.esm

SPIKE.esm

HighResTexturePack01.esp

HighResTexturePack02.esp

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp

Fantasy Music Overhaul Redone.esp

Chesko_Frostfall.esp

Better Dynamic Snow.esp

EnhancedLightsandFX.esp

StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp

Economics of Skyrim.esp

ArmorRatingTweak80.esp

ArmorRatingTweak80_1000AR.esp

BabettesFeastBalanced.esp

DragonSoulsToPerks.esp

LegendarySmithingUpgrades.esp

Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp

Unique BOOZE Bottles.esp

Footprints.esp

WetandCold.esp

SkyUI.esp

iHUD.esp

1nivWICCloaks.esp

1nivWICCloaksCRAFT.esp

1nivWICCloaksNoGuards.esp

hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp

Hvergelmir's Shield Retexture - HSR.esp

LeftHandRings.esp

Magicka Sabers.esp

SamuraiBlades.esp

DeadlyDragons.esp

Beautiful Whiterun.esp

BetterDarkBrotherhood.esp

RealisticWhiterun.esp

DescaledUniques.esp

Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp

Headtracking.esp

Immersive Weapons.esp

Legendary Gauldur Amulet.esp

dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp

TAVERiften.esp

TAVESolitude.esp

TAVEWindhelm.esp

TownsAndCitiesEnhanced.esp

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Medium.esp

Better Vampires.esp

BFSEffects.esp

ACE Realistic Fighting.esp

The Dance of Death - Dawnguard Edition.esp

ACE BYOG.esp

ACE Speech.esp

ACE Archery.esp

ACE Armor.esp

ACE Enchanting.esp

ACE Magic.esp

ACE Melee.esp

ACE Smithing.esp

ACE Synergy.esp

dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp

RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp

RND_BabettesFeast-Patch.esp

RND_Dawnguard-Patch.esp

RND_HearthFires-Patch.esp

Amanda.esp

Lyla.esp

Michelle.esp

Misha.esp

Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp

LiFE.esp

Animated Weapon Enchants.esp

Purewaters.esp

RND_PureWaters-Patch.esp

RaceMenu.esp

RaceMenuPlugin.esp

Bashed Patch, 0.esp

 

 

This was managed by BOSS, and also as you can see I created a Bash patch using Wrye. Please pardon me if I sound noobish about modding. Could it be that the source was from a different setting? Or is the latest Skyrim just generally unstable at the moment? I was also using 'Interesting NPCs' mod before, but I disabled that just to test this setup...I also am using Texture Pack Combiner (not the latest version) for most texture upgrades.

 

Thanks for any suggestions/comments you may have.

Edited January 24, 2013 by indrasut

[ripple]

I don't see anything amiss, but you can disable or remove these two esp's:

 

HighResTexturePack01.esp
HighResTexturePack02.esp

 

and edit your Skyrim.ini

 

[Archive]

sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, HighResTexturePack01.bsa, HighResTexturePack02.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

 

Two less esp's you have to manage.

 

Your CTDs: can you post your BOSS log instead?

 

[edit]

Could be this:

 

StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp

 

It's been reported that this causes CTDs. Uninstall that and the associated mesh files and see if that improves the stability of your game.

Edited January 25, 2013 by ripple

[Georgiegril]

I have used SMIM without any problems for as long as the mod has been in existence, and I have a lower-level rig than the OP. I do choose lower res versions whenever they are available. (Not to say a SMIM-related CTD is impossible, just that I have had no problems myself...)

 

When you say you crash without mods, do you mean you crash on a clean install of Skyrim, starting a new game with no mods whatsoever?

If not, I would try that.

You might be experiencing orphaned scripts from a mod that was previously incompletely uninstalled, or experiencing the effects of a corrupt save. Orphaned scripts are likely to be solved only through a complete reinstall/new game.

 

It is also possible that you are simply overtaxing your VRAM--have you looked at how much VRAM is being used in game?

Did you set your overclocking yourself? You may need to make some adjustments.

 

Also, have you looked at your computers general performance during your game? I had annoying crashes that were caused by my external drive continually waving at my main drive (even though I had disabled it), and I have heard people have had similar problems with iPads periodically sucking up resources. Might help to capture all of your computer's behavior in game, to rule this sort of thing out.

 

Other than all of that, often the most efficient and successful way to remedy a random mod-related CTD cause is to start with a clean reinstall, a new game, and then slowly add 1 or 2 mods at a time, run BOSS, play to make sure its all good, and then slow add another mod or two...it is painful, but you are already quite frustrated, it sounds like, and with this system you will be able to quickly identify the cause of any problems if they arise (and if your problems are caused by an orphaned script, they may not arise at all).

 

Anyway, those are my suggestions. Good luck!

[indrasut]

Thanks for all the input...

 

I have tried disabling 'Interactive NPCs' mod as someone here pointed it could have a CTD issue. Alas, that did not help.

 

I can start with uninstalling SMIM and retrying it without (and with a lower spec version of the mod). When I uninstalled and reinstalled Skyrim, I have it installed to a totally new drive and folder, then replayed and reinstalled the mods via NMM one by one. Maybe I should have said that playing without any mods are far more stable than with mods. The CTD always happen in the gameworld, and never in dungeons/rooms. Seem to be getting it more often near the Riverwood/Helgen/Embershard mine, although I haven't explored that far ahead because of these CTDs.

 

Orphaned scripts might be the case, if it does not clean it up from the previous install (even though it is on a different drive?). One thing I haven't tried is deleting both Skyrim.ini and Skyrimprefs.ini, which I might try later today.

 

CPU as far as I know is very stable, as I can play all other (more taxing) games with no issues with overheating or any sort. VRAM is what I have in mind to monitor since my GPU widget seems to be going crazy when I play this game. No artifacts or weird graphical glitches whatsoever though when playing up to CTD, and fan setting should have been monitored automatically for temp (I use EVGA Precision to monitor temp and fan control).

 

By the way, those list are from BOSS, but it didn't say which ones are enabled and which ones are not. The two that ripple mentioned:

HighResTexturePack01.esp

HighResTexturePack02.esp

 

are NOT enabled. Are you suggesting I delete the unused ESPs just to be sure?

 

I kinda want to have the 'uninstall everything and start new from scratch' as a last resort seeing I have done it twice for this game. My stupid bandwidth limitation won't let me download another copy of Skyrim from Steam, so I gotta work with what I have for now as much as I can.

 

As a side note, some people also mentioned about cell blocks and clearing them to avoid CTDs. What is this block and can this attribute to my game CTD-ing? Thanks for help!

[ripple]

1) 'Interesting NPCs' is not a CTD magnet. It's actually making very limited edits to the game in spite of the size of the mod (which is really caused by the vast number of voice files).

 

2) Outdoor CTDs are usually caused 'add more spawn and stuff to the worldspace' mods, but I don't see the usual culprits in your load order (SkyTest, Warzones, etc.). Mods like 'Wet and Cold', 'Player Headtracking', 'Frostfall', etc., run continually updating scripts that will tax your CPU, but given your CPU, it shouldn't be such an issue....although you could still try disabling a couple of them to see if the game stabilizes (make sure you follow the instructions for stopping the script before disabling the esp's).

 

3) The hi res DLC esp's: if they are disabled, that's fine. You can move them to another folder just to make sure they don't get enabled by accident (BOSS will still order mods if they are not enabled).

 

4) I noticed in your first post, you said you "cleaned your savegame", what do you mean by that? What did you do, exactly. We can't actually clean savegames right now, which is why removing script mods is such an issue, because crap are inevitably baked into the savegame from mods we no longer use, and that's one of the main reasons why users have spammy papyrus logs.

Edited January 24, 2013 by ripple

[indrasut]

Heya Ripple,

 

Thanks for looking into this a bit more. A bit more explanation to your points:

 

- I used Skyrim Monster Mod at some point, but I disabled it before reinstalling the game for the second time. I could try disable 'Wet and Cold', 'Headtracking' (been considering to disable this one for a while since I mostly play first person), and 'Frostfall' (this will be the hardest mod to disable since I love it) just to see if it stabilizes...

 

- Yeah thats what I thought. The WIC: Cloaks mod were only activated for one ESP, but it listed all 3 of them (and you can only activate one of them).

 

- Anyway, I also am using the Texture Pack Combiner, so there are a lot of high res texture being used (Flora, Skyrim HD, Snow textures, lighting, SMIM, clothing, etc), along with the usual retextures of armors (amidian) and the new armors and weapons (Immersive). If somehow this taxes on my VRAM, then this could be the culprit and I can try disable all the HD textures (however depressing that sounds). I just doubt that high-res textures are what causing it to CTD...I also mentioned that I tried manually 'cleaning cell objects' (whatever it means) every 2-5 minutes, but sometimes the game crashed just earlier than that. Running this cleaning script manually every 1-2 minutes are, honestly, annoying and stupid.

 

- I followed an article to clean a savegame, basically going to a test QA room, and waiting there for 31 days (with a mod) to clean up all the items/junk/objects in the world before putting my character back in the gameworld. I cant find the article now, but I can certainly post it here once I get home (at work now).

Edited January 24, 2013 by indrasut

[ripple]

- Yeah thats what I thought. The WIC: Cloaks mod were only activated for one ESP, but it listed all 3 of them (and you can only activate one of them).

 

Oh I actually missed this. If you are using Wrye Bash to merge the leveled lists then you don't need the optional plugins for WiC (craft, no imperial). Just remove them so BOSS won't try to order them even when they are disabled.

 

- Anyway, I also am using the Texture Pack Combiner, so there are a lot of high res texture being used (Flora, Skyrim HD, Snow textures, lighting, SMIM, clothing, etc), along with the usual retextures of armors (amidian) and the new armors and weapons (Immersive). If somehow this taxes on my VRAM, then this could be the culprit and I can try disable all the HD textures (however depressing that sounds). I just doubt that high-res textures are what causing it to CTD...I also mentioned that I tried manually 'cleaning cell objects' (whatever it means) every 2-5 minutes, but sometimes the game crashed just earlier than that. Running this cleaning script manually every 1-2 minutes are, honestly, annoying and stupid.

 

Your GPU is better than the HD 7850 2GB I just bought to replace my old 512mb GPU that Skyrim fried (a card that carried me through 4 years of gaming....), so you shouldn't have issues running the HD textures.

 

Given your spec, you also shouldn't have to purge cell buffers (I think this was what you meant) manually.....but if you find that it helps, then you can use AutoHotKey to setup a hotkey for it (so you don't have to manually type PCB in the console). I wrote a AHK script for that if you want it. Still, you shouldn't have to PCB given your spec....but if you do, try and not do it too often as it has been known to break quest scripts and 'scenes.' Do it in interior cells, when you know there isn't anything going on (like an NPC who is suppose to approach you to trigger a conversation).

 

Alternatively, you can edit this line in your skyrim.ini:

 

[General]
bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1

 

But this will extend your cell loading time.

 

Also, some stock ini settings should not be changed, for example:

 

UgridsToLoad=5

 

- I followed an article to clean a savegame, basically going to a test QA room, and waiting there for 31 days (with a mod) to clean up all the items/junk/objects in the world before putting my character back in the gameworld. I cant find the article now, but I can certainly post it here once I get home (at work now).

 

Cell reset works to clean most orphaned junk from savegames for previous Bethesda games like Oblivion, Fallout 3. It won't work to remove the papyrus scripts that's been baked into your savegame in Skyrim.

 

Your load order should be fairly stable. It's not as lengthy as mine, and other than HD texture mods, you are not using any mods (that I can see) which are the typical culprits for stressing the stability of the engine (warzones, SkyTest, SkyMo, etc.), but mostly just gameplay and NPC tweaks with 'add more stuff to NPC mods' (and I got more of those than you do). My rig is no where near as good as yours, and I've only CTDed 3 times in the last month (once, when I was stress testing a mod and deliberating trying to CTD to see if it would play well with my load order, and another time was when my old GPU died...:*( ). So this is strange.....how often are your CTDs? Any specific pattern to them? Do you use any utilities to measure GPU/CPU temperatures while you game? I'd still like to see the BOSS log with the BOSS messages (not just the load order).

Edited January 25, 2013 by ripple

[indrasut]

Ripple,

 

I haven't had the chance to try again, but I will soon. Meanwhile, for your info:

CTD happens very randomly. One thing I know is it NEVER happens indoors or inside of dungeons/caves. It ALWAYS happens outdoor in the Skyrim world. Sometimes I can play for an hour without CTD (finishing dungeons), and sometimes walking around outdoor for 2 minutes and then CTD happens. I used to install Project Reality - Climate of Skyrim but I disabled it just because they were developing version 3 and that I thought it was causing CTD :(

 

Here is my BOSS list:

 

 

 

Skyrim.esm Active

Update.esm Active

Contains dirty edits: 52 ITM, 1 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. (http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit)

Dawnguard.esm Active

Contains dirty edits: 602 ITM, 82 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. (http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit)

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

HearthFires.esm Active

Contains dirty edits: 171 ITM, 11 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. (http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit)

ApachiiHair.esm Active

SPIKE.esm Active

HighResTexturePack01.esp

HighResTexturePack02.esp

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp Active

Chesko_Frostfall.esp Active

Better Dynamic Snow.esp Active

Contains dirty edits: 6 ITM, 0 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. (http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit)

EnhancedLightsandFX.esp Active

Fantasy Music Overhaul Redone.esp Active

StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp Active

Economics of Skyrim.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

ArmorRatingTweak80.esp Active

Note: Obsolete. Update to the lastest version.

ArmorRatingTweak80_1000AR.esp Active

Note: Obsolete. Update to the lastest version.

BabettesFeastBalanced.esp Active

DragonSoulsToPerks.esp Active

LegendarySmithingUpgrades.esp Active

Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp Active

Unique BOOZE Bottles.esp Active

Footprints.esp Active

WetandCold.esp Active

SkyUI.esp Active

iHUD.esp Active

1nivWICCloaks.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Relev}}

1nivWICCloaksCRAFT.esp

Warning: Use only one WICCloaks esp.

1nivWICCloaksNoGuards.esp

Warning: Use only one WICCloaks esp.

hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

Hvergelmir's Shield Retexture - HSR.esp Active

LeftHandRings.esp Active

Magicka Sabers.esp Active

SamuraiBlades.esp Active

DeadlyDragons.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}

Beautiful Whiterun.esp Active

Contains dirty edits: 79 ITM, 2 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. (http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit)

BetterDarkBrotherhood.esp Active

RealisticWhiterun.esp Active

DescaledUniques.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, NoMerge, Relev}}

Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp Active

Headtracking.esp Active

Immersive Weapons.esp Active

Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev}}

Contains dirty edits: 2 ITM, 0 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. (http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit)

Legendary Gauldur Amulet.esp Active

dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp Active

Requires: Dawnguard Compatibility_Patch.

TAVERiften.esp Active

TAVESolitude.esp Active

TAVEWindhelm.esp Active

TownsAndCitiesEnhanced.esp Active

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Medium.esp Active

Note: Ragdolls will conflict with other mods that change the skeleton.nif. Check Custom Skeleton Replacers for compatibly with other skeleton.nif.

RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp Active

Requires: RND_USKP-Patch.esp

RND_BabettesFeast-Patch.esp Active

RND_Dawnguard-Patch.esp Active

RND_HearthFires-Patch.esp Active

Better Vampires.esp Active

BFSEffects.esp Active

ACE Realistic Fighting.esp Active

The Dance of Death - Dawnguard Edition.esp Active

Contains dirty edits: 7 ITM, 0 UDR records. Needs TES5Edit cleaning. (http://www.creationkit.com/TES5Edit_Cleaning_Guide_-_TES5Edit)

ACE BYOG.esp Active

ACE Speech.esp Active

ACE Archery.esp Active

ACE Armor.esp Active

ACE Enchanting.esp Active

ACE Magic.esp Active

ACE Melee.esp Active

ACE Smithing.esp Active

ACE Synergy.esp Active

dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp Active

Amanda.esp Active

Lyla.esp Active

Michelle.esp Active

Misha.esp Active

Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp Active

LiFE.esp Active

Requires: CBBE female body or DIMONIZED UNP female body.

Animated Weapon Enchants.esp Active

Purewaters.esp Active

RND_PureWaters-Patch.esp Active

RaceMenu.esp Active

RaceMenuPlugin.esp Active

Note: RaceMenuPlugin is optional and provides support to alter Height, Breast, Glute and Biceps. If you experience issues with it, disable RaceMenuPlugin.esp and inform the author.

Bashed Patch, 0.esp Active

 

 

 

Hope this helps. As you can see, I have disabled both WiC plugins and just activated the main one. I used to have SkyMo mod too, and the Lore Friendly add-on, but I disabled both because SkyMo mod doesnt seem to be hosted in Nexus anymore and I do not know what kind of incompatibilites it might bring. Thanks for help!

[indrasut]

Any ideas about this?

[ripple]

Uh, I don't know how I lost track of this thread....

 

Ok, your BOSS log...the BOSS log indicates a number of esp's that require cleaning in TES5Edit. I don't know how we missed this. So download TES5Edit from that link, followed the instructions, and clean the esp's flagged by BOSS.

 

DragonSoulsToPerks.esp Active

 

Deadly Dragon now has a MCM option for converting dragon souls to perk points, so you shouldn't need this plugin.

 

Outdoor CTDs....just for testing, try disabling the hi res texture mods and the hi res DLC and see if that stabilizes your outdoor game. Start a new game (use a mod like 'Quick start' to skip the Helgan tutorial), then do the 'running test.' Run from Riverwood to Whiterun without saving. If you don't CTD, run from Whiterun to Windhelm or another city (maybe even Markarth).

Edited January 29, 2013 by ripple