A little help with bug detective work

[BossSugarQueen]

For a few weeks now, there's been a rare problem with my vanilla Skyrim that I've laid out before people on several forums and wrung Google dry in an attempt to solve. After many failed suggestions, dead ends on dead threads, and baffled shrugs all around, I've determined to dig deep and find the cause of the problem myself.

I don't know if this is the right place to post a thing like this, but I'd appreciate it if some people could:

A) Provide me with or point me to pics of Player Presets and NPCs as shown in the CK full-body preview with only Skyrim.esm and Update.esm loaded. I'd like to see quality shots, both close-ups and far-aways, with some focused in closely on the neck area where head meets body. I'd like to see as many as possible.

B) Answer me a couple of questions. I'd like you to be especially certain of answers, and consider any far-fetched possibilities as well.
1 - What are the exact contents of the DEFAULT Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini?
2 - Is it AT ALL POSSIBLE for any vanilla Skyrim files to be incorrect or slightly bugged on fresh install FOR ANY REASON?
3 - If I move an old Skyrim install folder or Save game folder to separate drive than my installs (eg. from C to D), can the game or Steam or anything in ANY POSSIBLE WAY still detect them?
4 - Does the Steam Cloud store anything else at all besides savegame files?

If you have the answer to even one question or only one or two pics, your input is very much appreciated.
Thanks much :smile:

Edited April 15, 2013 by BossSugarQueen

[gsmanners]

You can't do A yourself? Seems like a silly request to me.

 

B1. Nothing. They don't exist by default.

B2. Yes. You might have corrupted data or some similar problem with your hardware, etc.

B3. They could, but for what purpose?

B4. Steam does offer to store mods via the CK. Oh, and your "achievements" (for what that's worth).

[BossSugarQueen]

Thanks :smile:
The reason I need A done is for the sake of comparison with what's going on in my creation kit. Yes, it seems silly, but something silly is going on in my system somewhere...

When I say default .inis I mean the ones you get when you first fire up the game.
As for my second question, what kind of corruption or hardware problems are you talking about?

Edited April 15, 2013 by BossSugarQueen

[gsmanners]

The .ini files you get depend on what the launcher thinks of your system and then how you change the settings there. Otherwise, the .ini files don't exist yet.

 

There are quite a lot of problems with hardware, actually. I suppose the most common problem would be misconfigured hardware, but there is good ol' wear and tear to think about. I would say that if you installed from disc and your game doesn't immediately show signs of failure, it's a pretty good bet that you don't have to worry about the original data (on the disc itself, that is) being corrupted. The data on your hard drive might be another story, but the possibilities are astronomical.

[BossSugarQueen]

Is it possible to find out if something is messed up on my drive? The newly installed game is showing incorrect skin textures and colors in the Creation Kit, with only the Skyrim.esm or Skyrim.esm and Update.esm loaded. And the shading on the head is off in-game; makes it look grey. Awful neck seam.

[gsmanners]

If it's working well enough that you can see a neck seam, then the problem is more likely loose files than corrupted files.