[SOLVED] My old saves with female player characters cause CTD on load

[hawkins3903]

Oh man, this is tragic. In an urgent need of help in resuscitating my game!

 

I've been playing my modded Skyrim SE for months now and had no problem (apart from rare CTD happenings) whatsoever. I recently got a SSD and reinstalled Windows 10 Pro on it and I left my HDD untouched (on which my Skyrim is installed.) This is what I did in a nutshell;

 

1. Re-downloaded Steam and set an alternative install path to where it is located, Steam recognized the game and installed first-time install prerequisites as expected.
2. Ran the launcher and let it set Skyrim.inis, and copypasted my old custom inis.
3. I've been playing on SKSE version 2.0.7 so I re-downloaded 1.5.39 version via SteamDB and rolled back.
4. Copypasted my old plugin text file in C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Skyrim Special Edition to match the load order to exactly how I left it.
5. Booted up SKSE and main menu appears, hit Continue, and CTD as soon as it loads after showing me the loading screen with tips.
6. Verified game data files using Steam, and repeated steps 1-3.
7. Cleaned esms using SSEEdit.
8. My old saves still crash, but I noticed New Game works, but when I switch the gender to female in character creation, the game CTDs.
9. Reinstalled all female related mods including XPMSSE, ECE and such.
10. Game still crashes.
11. Tried to load one of my old saves which had a male PC. Loaded it up just fine and switched gender to female for testing. It worked?!?! EDIT: It doesn't work now. All female PC crash the game. Even the skeleton, model, textures and BodySlide preset are still intact. Concluded that only new game with female PC or old saves that have female PC cause CTD on load. Please note that female NPCs in the game work just fine.
12. Effing burnt out. I hate this game so much.

 

What a bunch of mysteries this is, I don't know what else I haven't tried now and I'm beginning to feel pretty desperate. So I'm turning to reddit and many sites including here, with a slight hope. Any tips or possibly a solution would be greatly appreciated.

 

Here's my Modwatch: https://modwat.ch/u/brandon3903/plugins

 

EDIT 1: Male PC that is being converted to female in showracemenu crashes the game now. So yes, all female PCs cause CTD.

EDIT 2: Reconfigured Nvidia 3D Settings to how I set it last time in case it's a graphical capacity issue. Still no luck.

 

EDIT 3: Solved the issue at last! I ran SKSE64 as admininstrator and it loaded my old saves successfully! It was a matter of access permission and I converted my Windows account to administrator account. Oh, the joy of fixing a god-awful bug. 

[-alpha-]

youre going to have to trouble shoot with more elimination.

 

Start with some constants.

find a save that does load, even if its a new game.

then try and create the problem on this save eg changing to female.

if the game crashes try it again.

still crashing = good we have a base.

 

now

remove all character related mods.

repeat step one.

new game - start as male - swap to female - does it crash?

no = add one mod and repeat

yes = remove more mods.

 

remember that not all mods are esp based.

some mods like skeletons dont need an esp to load into the game.

 

 

edit

just saw your edit.

i doubt its a PC setting like your graphics else it will crash for males as well.

My guess something on the female mesh is your problem.

eg, hair, body or skeleton.

[hawkins3903]

1 hour ago, -alpha- said:

youre going to have to trouble shoot with more elimination.

 

Start with some constants.

find a save that does load, even if its a new game.

then try and create the problem on this save eg changing to female.

if the game crashes try it again.

still crashing = good we have a base.

 

now

remove all character related mods.

repeat step one.

new game - start as male - swap to female - does it crash?

no = add one mod and repeat

yes = remove more mods.

 

remember that not all mods are esp based.

some mods like skeletons dont need an esp to load into the game.

 

 

edit

just saw your edit.

i doubt its a PC setting like your graphics else it will crash for males as well.

My guess something on the female mesh is your problem.

eg, hair, body or skeleton.

If female mesh is corrupt then shouldn’t every female NPC cause CTD too? Unless player character uses separate meshes. 

[Molokkx]

9 hours ago, hawkins3903 said:

Oh man, this is tragic. In an urgent need of help in resuscitating my game!

 

I've been playing my modded Skyrim SE for months now and had no problem (apart from rare CTD happenings) whatsoever. I recently got a SSD and reinstalled Windows 10 Pro on it and I left my HDD untouched (on which my Skyrim is installed.) This is what I did in a nutshell;

 

1. Re-downloaded Steam and set an alternative install path to where it is located, Steam recognized the game and installed first-time install prerequisites as expected.
2. Ran the launcher and let it set Skyrim.inis, and copypasted my old custom inis.
3. I've been playing on SKSE version 2.0.7 so I re-downloaded 1.5.39 version via SteamDB and rolled back.
4. Copypasted my old plugin text file in C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Skyrim Special Edition to match the load order to exactly how I left it.
5. Booted up SKSE and main menu appears, hit Continue, and CTD as soon as it loads after showing me the loading screen with tips.
6. Verified game data files using Steam, and repeated steps 1-3.
7. Cleaned esms using SSEEdit.
8. My old saves still crash, but I noticed New Game works, but when I switch the gender to female in character creation, the game CTDs.
9. Reinstalled all female related mods including XPMSSE, ECE and such.
10. Game still crashes.
11. Tried to load one of my old saves which had a male PC. Loaded it up just fine and switched gender to female for testing. It worked?!?! EDIT: It doesn't work now. All female PC crash the game. Even the skeleton, model, textures and BodySlide preset are still intact. Concluded that only new game with female PC or old saves that have female PC cause CTD on load. Please note that female NPCs in the game work just fine.
12. Effing burnt out. I hate this game so much.

 

What a bunch of mysteries this is, I don't know what else I haven't tried now and I'm beginning to feel pretty desperate. So I'm turning to reddit and many sites including here, with a slight hope. Any tips or possibly a solution would be greatly appreciated.

 

Here's my Modwatch: https://modwat.ch/u/brandon3903/plugins

 

EDIT 1: Male PC that is being converted to female in showracemenu crashes the game now. So yes, all female PCs cause CTD.

EDIT 2: Reconfigured Nvidia 3D Settings to how I set it last time in case it's a graphical capacity issue. Still no luck.

 

Well, if everything worked fine before then I'm just wondering why would female-specific 'stuff' CTD your game on load now. In other words, if female-specific mods / changes were not properly installed or adjusted then it would have also caused that CTD on load before, and not specifically now, after your Windows installation and so on.

 

Let's start with the basics:

 

1) Are you using Mod Organizer 2? (I do, so I would be more familiar with that to help you) And if so, just remember (who knows, maybe you might have forgotten) that if you do change anything in your .INIs (Skyrim, or SkyrimPrefs) that you then have to do so specifically from your MO2 Profile .INIs, and not the 'regular' .INIs that are automatically installed to Windows Documents by default when using the Launcher.

 

2) Make 100% sure that you're #1) Using SKSE64, for Skyrim SE, and #2) The latest runtime version is 1.5.53, and not 1.5.39 like you're stating in your list of steps you've done.

 

https://skse.silverlock.org/beta/skse64_2_00_10.7z

 

3) Again, related to MO2 (if you do use it, of course; otherwise ignore this): Make sure that you're launching the game by selecting SKSE64 as the launching method (I.E. SKSE64 is the selected program to 'run', when you click on the top-right 'Run' button in MO2).

 

4) Of course, if you never touched your previous Skyrim installation until recently and all the mods are the way they used to be, then it's safe to assume that all the mod's respective prerequisites (if any), or the mods' respective compatibility patches (if any) are already installed (or at least downloaded?). However, just check and re-check all that to be sure about it. For that I'd say download LOOT, update the Masterlist and then just check what LOOT has to say concerning any potentially-missed compatibility patches on maybe one or more .ESPs (you don't have to actually apply the changes to the load order that LOOT would recommend; but just visually check what it recommends to do, if anything).

 

5) You can always also use Wrye Bash and/or TESEDIT to verify if all your Master files (.ESMs) dependencies are present for all your mods. Both programs would let you know if you load all your .ESPs in, it would probably be quicker with Wrye Bash since it's color-coded and even shows in what order specific .ESPs relied Master file positioning (ordering) on. You can check also on TESEDIT but it's a bit more time consuming there in my opinion (and again just like LOOT, with Wrye Bash you wouldn't have to change anything that it might suggest you to, but you'd use it just to make a 'verification pass' so to speak.

 

6) With XPMSE, make sure that you're using the SE version, obviously (I know, stating the obvious here but just going through a list of basics, mostly just thinking out loud here).

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1988

 

7) Same with FNIS, specifically the SE version.

 

And, from this point, as usual, make sure that XPMSE's skeleton is NEVER, ever overwritten by anything. That is unless specifically stated that you'd have to for whatever reason, or if for example you'd be trying HDT stuff with Skyrim SE with the Chinese mod HDT files along with Gromilla's files - which does happen to include a skeleton file that can and should be overwriting the one provided by XPMSE, but this is just an example; and probably the only one I know of right now where you should overwrite XPMSE's).

 

So... yeah, this is what comes to mind right now. I just find it a bit weird (as per usual with Skyrim issues) that it 'used to work fine' before, but now you're crashing on load due to female-specific things. It has to be data that the game is looking for, but it cannot be found (and depends on) to load up the game (and CTDs since the data it apparently depends on isn't there, it decides to crash); and it appears to be related specifically to female mods (or meshes, maybe HDT, or perhaps attire / makeup / FaceGen data, etc). There's a bunch of possibilities so you'll definitely have to go through a good ol' process of elimination.

[hawkins3903]

On 11/17/2018 at 11:23 AM, Molokkx said:

2) Make 100% sure that you're #1) Using SKSE64, for Skyrim SE, and #2) The latest runtime version is 1.5.53, and not 1.5.39 like you're stating in your list of steps you've done.

Quick question - wouldn't it outdate all of my SKSE64 dependent mods if I upgrade it to the latest version and not work properly? I guess I have to upgrade it if absolutely required in order to restore my saves but I'd prefer to stay on 2.0.7 (runtime 1.5.39)

 

Also I don't use MO2, sadly. I still use NMM and never bothered to move to MO2 - felt the whole process is troublesome. I'll keep you updated on the rest of your advice though.

[hawkins3903]

On 11/17/2018 at 11:23 AM, Molokkx said:

4) Of course, if you never touched your previous Skyrim installation until recently and all the mods are the way they used to be, then it's safe to assume that all the mod's respective prerequisites (if any), or the mods' respective compatibility patches (if any) are already installed (or at least downloaded?). However, just check and re-check all that to be sure about it. For that I'd say download LOOT, update the Masterlist and then just check what LOOT has to say concerning any potentially-missed compatibility patches on maybe one or more .ESPs (you don't have to actually apply the changes to the load order that LOOT would recommend; but just visually check what it recommends to do, if anything).

 

5) You can always also use Wrye Bash and/or TESEDIT to verify if all your Master files (.ESMs) dependencies are present for all your mods. Both programs would let you know if you load all your .ESPs in, it would probably be quicker with Wrye Bash since it's color-coded and even shows in what order specific .ESPs relied Master file positioning (ordering) on. You can check also on TESEDIT but it's a bit more time consuming there in my opinion (and again just like LOOT, with Wrye Bash you wouldn't have to change anything that it might suggest you to, but you'd use it just to make a 'verification pass' so to speak.

 

And, from this point, as usual, make sure that XPMSE's skeleton is NEVER, ever overwritten by anything. That is unless specifically stated that you'd have to for whatever reason, or if for example you'd be trying HDT stuff with Skyrim SE with the Chinese mod HDT files along with Gromilla's files - which does happen to include a skeleton file that can and should be overwriting the one provided by XPMSE, but this is just an example; and probably the only one I know of right now where you should overwrite XPMSE's).

Reinstalling every single thing would be too cumbersome for me and I can't see a reason to do it as every file that every mod installed is intact and unchanged. However, I reinstalled a few suspects on my list and still no luck. I already used LOOT to sort my load order as even my old one cannot revive my saves. Never tried updating the masterlist so I did it, re-sorted the load order, re-ran Bashed Patch - no good news either.

 

My XPMSSE is the most recent file to be reinstalled and it overwrote everything and therefore nothing overwrites it. Still crashes. I don't use HDT, rather CBP in my case with SINful CBP configs, all of which were reinstalled of course. Cee tee dee. Again, all of these were working just fine prior to the OS reinstall.

 

I just can't get the grasp of the situation. What else in C drive apart from Skyrim.ini files could affect Skyrim that's installed on D drive? Better yet, why are my male saves working like it used to and not female ones? If it were a simple skeleton or body mesh mishap, then why are the female NPCs in my male saves have no issue at all?

 

There's a long wait time when I change my character to female (it used to do this so I don't bother) before it decides to crash. So I enabled showracemenu pre-cache killer in SSE Engine Fixes for it, C to the T to the MFing D. I really do think something about female fails to load somehow that only affects the player character, not NPCs. I just can't put my finger on what it would be.
 

EDIT 3: Solved the issue at last! I ran SKSE64 as admininstrator and it loaded my old saves successfully! It was a matter of access permission and I converted my Windows account to administrator account. Oh, the joy of fixing a god-awful bug. Though your advice didn't help, thank you so much anyway.

[Molokkx]

You're welcome! I'm glad my advice didn't help at all! LOL

 

One thing though, with Skyrim modding (this is just general loud thinking, it's for everyone), along with basically any Bethesda games in general and... well to be honest with ANY games, it's always better to install them in a newly-created, separate folder OUTSIDE the Program Files / Program Files (x86) Windows folders on the Windows installation drive. Doing that should really be a prerequisite especially since Windows 10 (but also applied with Windows 7). It helps avoid all those Administrator / Permissions-related issues.

 

Additionally, check if your Anti-Virus and/or Windows Defender has an Exception list, and add Skyrim to it. The less background programs temper or 'check' this game while it runs the better it is. It's such a fragile game (for stability) that I'd suspect even stuff like that would be enough to cause CTDs. The same applies to background programs that check games for On-Screen Display system / resources information like MSI Afterburner.