Seemingly Random CTD's

[ThePopeKYA]

Yup, another person having inexplicable CTD problems. I'm at a loss as to what to do at this point. I'm running the game at 1600x900 res at near ultra settings. (I reduced shadow resolution to "high" and reduced item draw distance because I don't notice a difference). Running Anti-Aliasing at 2x and Anisotropic Filtering at 4x. Only ini tweaks I've made was some basic shadow tweaks, reduced grass density, and longer tree draw distance, although the game was crashing even after changing these back. I run skyrim with an average FPS of 40-50 with these settings.
The CTD's seem to most commonly occur either in Falkreath or Solitude (specifically in the wooded areas, not the swamp). My GPU usage % seems to be around 90 when it crashes, though it often runs just fine even at 100%. The crashes occur outdoors, excluding towns, and they thankfully aren't often (Sometimes I can play for an hour+ just fine. Other times it'll crash after 20 mins). Just frustrating when it does happen.

Basic specs:
i7 quad core
12 GB Ram
GTX 560M (Yes I play on a laptop) All Drivers up to date.
Core, Memory, and Shader Clocks all Overclocked using Afterburner (System runs at 57C Max, which I'm told is perfectly stable for my particular laptop)

Mods:

 

 

 

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Dawnguard.esm

HearthFires.esm

Dragonborn.esm

ClimatesOfTamriel.esm

ETaC - RESOURCES.esm

SPIKE.esm

WinterholdDestruction.esm

HighResTexturePack01.esp

HighResTexturePack02.esp

HighResTexturePack03.esp

Brawl Bugs CE.esp

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp

Better Dynamic Snow.esp

PersonalizedMusic_v5.0.esp

Skyrim Shadow Striping Fix.esp

StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp

back off, barbas!.esp

Birdsofskyrim.esp

DynamicTorches.esp

Furbag.esp

Ish's Souls to Perks.esp

Convenient Horses.esp

Auto Unequip Ammo.esp

WetandCold.esp

SkyUI.esp

iHUD.esp

battleflute.esp

betterlookingebonymail.esp

combinationVanillaOutfit.esp

hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp

KhantuArmor.esp

True Bound Armors.esp

URW_Enhanced Crossbows Enhanced.esp

VickysArmor.esp

Dr_Bandolier.esp

calyps-dragonpriestmasks.esp

BetterRiften.esp

Gildergreen Regrown.esp

tos_granitehall.esp

quest_nomercy.esp

quest_pitfighter.esp

quest_pitfighter_dlc01.esp

quest_sorcery.esp

Run For Your Lives.esp

AchieveThat.esp

Dawnbreaker Enhanced.esp

Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp

Headtracking.esp

Hoodless Archmage Robes.esp

OpenFaceGuardHelmets.esp

stop-being-a-creepy-stalker-aerin-1-0-pingy.esp

ETaC - Darkwater.esp

ETaC - Dragon Bridge.esp

ETaC - Ivarstead.esp

ETaC - Riverwood.esp

ETaC - Rorikstead.esp

ETaC - Morthal.esp

ETaC Follower Add-On.esp

ExpandedWinterholdRuins.esp

tos_amber_guard.esp

tos_laintardale_hf.esp

tos_oakwood_hf.esp

CampingKitNorthernRanger - Without Amberwood.esp

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Illuminated Spells.esp

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dungeons.esp

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Minor Cities & Town Interiors.esp

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel-VanillaNights-Lvl-2.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp

ClimatesOfTamriel-Dungeons-Hazardous.esp

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Reduced.esp

StaminaCarryWeight_15.esp

dovahkiinrelax.esp

FNISspells.esp

The Dance of Death.esp

ACE BYOG.esp

3DNPC.esp

Slightly Reduced Distance NPC Greetings.esp

CMBoethiahSacrifice.esp

Follower Trap Safety.esp

AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp

WATER.esp

WATER Plants.esp

HmmWhatToWearDawnGuard.esm

HmmWhatToWear.esm

EzDC - Water Walking Aimed.esp

Farkas Wears Companion Armor.esp

knc_resilient_dragons_Vanillashout_2.0.esp

Long-Lasting Torches v3 (2x Radius - 1.5x Brightness).esp

Better Jzargo.esp

Better Mjoll.esp

ExpandedWinterholdRuinsTweaked.esp

mjoll reduced dialogue.esp

ElderCouncilAmuletVotS.esp

Bards attend Classes.esp

LivEleana Doe Nord Preset.esp

Dragonmount-Odahviing.esp

Serana Test.esp

 

 

 

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Edited February 21, 2013 by ThePopeKYA

[jedijas]

The only mod here that might be causing this would be:

 

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp

 

but, it sounds like you are killing your computer with those kinds of settings! Try turning it down a bit to see if it changes anything. Also might want to try a verify steam cache and sort out your load order a bit.

[ripple]

Can you replace your load order with a BOSS log (with the messages)? Include the list of plugins not recognized by BOSS if one is generated. Enclose them in spoiler tags so they don't clutter the screen.

[ThePopeKYA]

Can you replace your load order with a BOSS log (with the messages)? Include the list of plugins not recognized by BOSS if one is generated. Enclose them in spoiler tags so they don't clutter the screen.

 

That actually was the BOSS log. There were no messages aside from a warning under Dance of Death telling me to make sure I had the Dawnguard Edition installed (which it is). All mods have already been cleaned and the only incompatibility was with "ClimatesOfTamriel-Dungeons-Hazardous" and "Realistic Lighting Overhaul," though that only affects interiors and my crashes are occurring outdoors while traveling. Everything below "Hmm What to Wear" is unrecognized by BOSS.

And I apologize, I meant to put in spoiler tags. Must've slipped my mind.

 

 

 

The only mod here that might be causing this would be:

 

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp

 

but, it sounds like you are killing your computer with those kinds of settings! Try turning it down a bit to see if it changes anything. Also might want to try a verify steam cache and sort out your load order a bit.

 

The 90% I mentioned is at the peak of spikes, which I assume comes from when I turn around to quickly and the world has to quickly load in some assets. Average GPU percent is around 65-75% outdoors. I've also tried the game cache fix with no success. But the CTD occurs even on 720p at Med settings, so I don't think its stressing out the computer that is the problem. Like I said, I generally get 40-50 fps outdoors and solid 60 inside.

Edited February 21, 2013 by ThePopeKYA

[ripple]

 

 

Can you replace your load order with a BOSS log (with the messages)? Include the list of plugins not recognized by BOSS if one is generated. Enclose them in spoiler tags so they don't clutter the screen.

That actually was the BOSS log. There were no messages aside from a warning under Dance of Death telling me to make sure I had the Dawnguard Edition installed (which it is).

That's not the BOSS log (with the messages). If there were no error messages, there would at least be bash tag suggestions for the DLCs (unless you edited it).

Edited February 21, 2013 by ripple

[ThePopeKYA]

Here are the mods without the messages disabled. I only turned off the message that tells you if its active or not, which they all are.

 

 

These plugins are recognised by BOSS and have been sorted according to its masterlist. Please read any attached messages and act on any that require action.

Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Dawnguard.esm
Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
HearthFires.esm
Dragonborn.esm
ClimatesOfTamriel.esm
ETaC - RESOURCES.esm
SPIKE.esm
WinterholdDestruction.esm
HighResTexturePack01.esp
HighResTexturePack02.esp
HighResTexturePack03.esp
Brawl Bugs CE.esp
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp
Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp
Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp
Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev}}
Better Dynamic Snow.esp
PersonalizedMusic_v5.0.esp
Skyrim Shadow Striping Fix.esp
StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp
back off, barbas!.esp
Birdsofskyrim.esp
DynamicTorches.esp
Furbag.esp
Ish's Souls to Perks.esp
Convenient Horses.esp
Auto Unequip Ammo.esp
WetandCold.esp
SkyUI.esp
iHUD.esp
battleflute.esp
betterlookingebonymail.esp
combinationVanillaOutfit.esp
hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
Bash Tag suggestion(s): {{BASH: Delev, Relev}}
KhantuArmor.esp
True Bound Armors.esp
URW_Enhanced Crossbows Enhanced.esp
VickysArmor.esp
Dr_Bandolier.esp
calyps-dragonpriestmasks.esp
BetterRiften.esp
Gildergreen Regrown.esp
tos_granitehall.esp
quest_nomercy.esp
quest_pitfighter.esp
quest_pitfighter_dlc01.esp
quest_sorcery.esp
Run For Your Lives.esp
AchieveThat.esp
Dawnbreaker Enhanced.esp
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
Headtracking.esp
Hoodless Archmage Robes.esp
OpenFaceGuardHelmets.esp
stop-being-a-creepy-stalker-aerin-1-0-pingy.esp
ETaC - Darkwater.esp
ETaC - Dragon Bridge.esp
ETaC - Ivarstead.esp
ETaC - Riverwood.esp
ETaC - Rorikstead.esp
ETaC - Morthal.esp
ETaC Follower Add-On.esp
ExpandedWinterholdRuins.esp
tos_amber_guard.esp
tos_laintardale_hf.esp
tos_oakwood_hf.esp
CampingKitNorthernRanger - Without Amberwood.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Illuminated Spells.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dungeons.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Minor Cities & Town Interiors.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-VanillaNights-Lvl-2.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Dawnguard-Patch.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Dungeons-Hazardous.esp
Incompatible with: Realistic Lighting Overhaul
dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Reduced.esp
StaminaCarryWeight_15.esp
dovahkiinrelax.esp
FNISspells.esp
The Dance of Death.esp
Warning: Dawnguard detected. Use The Dance of Death - Dawnguard Edition.esp instead.
ACE BYOG.esp
3DNPC.esp
Slightly Reduced Distance NPC Greetings.esp
CMBoethiahSacrifice.esp
Follower Trap Safety.esp
AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp
WATER.esp
WATER Plants.esp

 

 

Unrecognized Mods:

HmmWhatToWearDawnGuard.esm
HmmWhatToWear.esm
EzDC - Water Walking Aimed.esp
Farkas Wears Companion Armor.esp
knc_resilient_dragons_Vanillashout_2.0.esp
Long-Lasting Torches v3 (2x Radius - 1.5x Brightness).esp
Better Jzargo.esp
Better Mjoll.esp
ExpandedWinterholdRuinsTweaked.esp
mjoll reduced dialogue.esp
ElderCouncilAmuletVotS.esp
Bards attend Classes.esp
LivEleana Doe Nord Preset.esp
Dragonmount-Odahviing.esp
Serana Test.esp

 

[ripple]

Turning off the BOSS log messages is a bad idea, as you can see:

 

 

The Dance of Death.esp
Warning: Dawnguard detected. Use The Dance of Death - Dawnguard Edition.esp instead.

So the first thing to do is to replace that mod with the DG version.

What do you normally do with the plugins not recognized by BOSS? Aside from the 'What to Wear' esm file, all of the unrecognized plugins go to the bottom of the load order every time you run BOSS (where they override other mods earlier in the load order in cases of conflicting records).

[ThePopeKYA]

I actually do have the DG version installed. I've done complete uninstalls and manual reinstalls to ensure I have the proper version, but I still get the warning anyway. As for the unrecognized mods, I usually leave them at the end of the load order. Many of them I've made myself, and the ones I didn't make mainly change one thing (like resilient dragons give dragons more health, Water Walking adds a spell book that lets you cast water walking, ect.). The only mods that do conflict with others are ExpandedWinterholdRuinsTweaked (I made this, but it just tweaks the original EWR more to my liking by removing a little geometry that I didn't like. I also load this directly after the original EWR in my BOSS order) and the other was mjoll reduced dialogue, which I have since deleted when I figured out it was causing general dialogue of all npcs to be silent, not just Mjoll. Haven't played the game enough to see if that fixed my issue, but considering the game crashes outdoors in the middle of the wild, I doubt that was what was causing it.

[ripple]

I actually do have the DG version installed. I've done complete uninstalls and manual reinstalls to ensure I have the proper version, but I still get the warning anyway.

What the log shows is that you have the version for the vanilla game, not the DG version, which has esp and BSA files of different name from the vanilla version. The BOSS log does not lie....

 

In fact, you should not be using either the vanilla game version of that mod -or- the DG version. Since you have Dragonborn, you should be using the 'Ultimate Edition' version (which, incidentally, also has esp and BSA of different file names from the default game and the DG versions of the mod).

 

Since it's a script mod, you should update by following the instruction closely. Still, I don't think that is one causing random CTDs. Have you previously made modifications to your ini files?

Edited February 22, 2013 by ripple

[ThePopeKYA]

Installed the ultimate edition of DWD (didn't know their was a new one yet). Made a clean save and installed according to the directions. Just got another crash so its def not fixed.
My ini changes have been minimal, though resetting the ini hasn't yeilded better results. I changed the tree draw distance to be slightly longer and I reduced the grass density to squeeze out an average fps of 50 outdoors. I increased the blur on shadows and increased the shadow bias.

To add a little more detail to why I'm crashing, I've noticed the following.

 

1. I seem to always CTD when approaching Whiterun from the road. It'll crash right as I reach the Honningbrew Meadery. If I quicksave right before getting there and reload the save, I can get through with no trouble. But if I play for a while and return, it CTDs again and I have to quicksave and quickload again.

2. Same thing happens when approaching Falkreath. As soon as I start heading down the path off the main road next to the lake I'll CTD. Quicksaving and Quickloading also allows me into the hold.

 

3. I also get "infinite loading screens" when entering DLC added areas such as Fort Dawnguard. Ctrl+Alt+Delete-ing out shows me that the game has stopped responding. Quicksaving just before entering and reloading allows me entry (and the loading screen only stays up for a total of three seconds). Have not played any Dragonborn yet, so I don't know if this occurs with that DLC.

 

4. I've gotten a few CTDs for a seemingly different issue as well (this one is the most frustrating because its less predictable). It occurs when an abundance of magic is on screen. For example, fighting a dragon it'll CTD when he shouts at me. Or fighting dragur in a dungeon and my follower and the dragur start casting spells at one another (my latest CTD). This is a significantly rarer occurrence compared to the other crashes, but I can't prepare for them when they happen. Looking at my GPU usage log after the latest crash in the dungeon, it was only using 50% so I don't think it crashed because of overtaxing. The max it had used was 76%. I also have no mods that replace spell effects or decals and I've reduced decal quality to med in the hopes that might solve it, which it didn't.

I hope those details help in rooting out the problem...

Edited February 22, 2013 by ThePopeKYA