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What are the general causes behind the dreaded 'infinite' loading screen?

Vulon

By Vulon,
in Skyrim Technical Support

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Vulon

Vulon

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Out of curiosity, what are the most common causes behind infinite loading? It seems like I can pinpoint what causes the vast majority of my CTDs nowadays, yet I can't put my finger on what's getting me stuck in load screens. I enjoyed a pretty reasonable stretch of time where I was relatively crash-free for, oh, 50 hours of gameplay or so. This was after doing a complete re-installation following a number of issues with my previous save. Now, the curse of infinite loading has once again reared its ugly head. I've taken to playing Oblivion and FONV as of late, mainly because I don't enjoy booting up Skyrim only to get caught in an endless loading screen moments after starting. 

 

I'm not in much of a rush to get it fixed just yet. Sometimes, if I leave it alone for a while and come back, the issues end up solving themselves, more or less. In my quest for answers regarding this particular problem, I've come across a wide variety of possible factors, but none seem to be definitive. I've tested many temporary fixes and work-arounds, such as starting up a new game before loading an old save, loading a save where the PC is indoors, etcetera. I've noticed I tend to experience the infinite loading most frequently around Whiterun, though it can happen anywhere. I don't even bother loading up saves I made in exteriors anymore, because I'm so used to the loading screen dragging on endlessly if I do so at this point. 

 

Right now, I'm more interested in understanding the possible causes behind the issue than actively fixing it. I don't have time to bother with it at length at the moment, so I'd just like to hear from other members who may have experienced this aggravating problem, etcetera. 

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Vulon

Vulon

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Ark of Truth - I've done my best to minimize mod conflicts, but it's possible. My computer's up to spec. I don't think my save file itself is corrupt, though the possibility of bad scripts left over is quite high. I do have about 150 mods running right now, though. Still, I was running the game just fine at around 140 mods, and getting stuck in a loading screen creeped up suddenly and inexplicably. There were no significant changes I made to the game that I feel would have brought it about. I try to avoid most mods that are heavily scripted, aside from a select few, and many of my mods are retextures, minor tweaks and improvements, armor/weapon mods, etcetera. Come to think of it, if I recall correctly, I believe I started getting stuck in loading around when the latest patch for Skyrim was released. Has anyone else experienced the same?

 

Alpalia - I always exit out of unnecessary programs before starting up Skyrim, but that's another possibility I've considered. I'm currently not running any antivirus, but I do have a firewall in place. I never figured that could have an effect on Skyrim's load times, though. Interesting. 

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BruceWayne

BruceWayne

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The infinite loading screen is a bug that happens in Fallout as well, so it's one of those legacy bugs with Bethesda. As for the reasons, I can only speculate. I have been able to get saves to load after a hard reset, so maybe the memory is cluttered up and can't process new/old data. This would make sense in memory intensive areas like Whiterun. Add to that all the recolors that are loaded into memory and clogging it up as well. The bigger the data folder gets, the more this bug occurs for me.

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alpalia

alpalia

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@ark of truth

i just say this, because it happen to me one time, some mod use SKSE, and create problem with some antivirus/firewall, some antivirus like Avast consider skyrim like not good, lots of people have this problem and post on the steam forum (sometime all work good and sudently, during load, boom! antivirus reaction)...

i just make an possible suggestion, maybe this never happen but maybe this can be the problem too...

some people have infinite load or CTD with this problem, so i just take free to mention this, even if its not really the problem. but a possibility.

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Rayblue

Rayblue

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A bloody loadscreen hangup happens when the game engine suddenly quit loading the next cell, which could be attributed to some unknown mod that modified the cell. If it frequently happens with the same door, then you may have to save the game first before entering (or exit the game to reload the file).

 

 

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Dallas-Arbiter

Dallas-Arbiter

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It's mod conflicts and/or orphaned scripts.

 

Here's one way to fix it:

 

Delete and reinstall Skyrim and the CK. Delete every single folder pertaining to Skyrim. Then re download both the game and the CK. After it's done, get TES5Edit and BOSS. Clean the ESM's from Update to Dragonborn with TES5Edit (You have to do one at a time, but all total, it takes 30 minutes tops) Then put your mods back in, and run BOSS. You'll have to sort the mods by hand according to BOSS, but after you're done with that, it should run fairly smooth without conflicts and without the infinite loading screen.

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Vulon

Vulon

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Two questions for the OP:

  1. When does the infinite loading loop happen? When loading a game from the main menu after starting Skyrim, or when moving to another cell?
  2. Do you have another saved game where this doesn't happen?

 

It varies; sometimes I'll be able to load up a save just fine, but I have pretty rotten luck with Whiterun; particularly loading a save from inside the city, and I also get hung up in loading frequently when exiting the bannered mare. Occasionally I'll get stuck in the loop when loading from the main menu.

It's mod conflicts and/or orphaned scripts.

 

Here's one way to fix it:

 

Delete and reinstall Skyrim and the CK. Delete every single folder pertaining to Skyrim. Then re download both the game and the CK. After it's done, get TES5Edit and BOSS. Clean the ESM's from Update to Dragonborn with TES5Edit (You have to do one at a time, but all total, it takes 30 minutes tops) Then put your mods back in, and run BOSS. You'll have to sort the mods by hand according to BOSS, but after you're done with that, it should run fairly smooth without conflicts and without the infinite loading screen.

Argh, I don't want to have to go through another complete re-installation. @_@ I've used TES5Edit and BOSS before with varying degrees of luck. 

 

No actually the most common reason for the dreaded infinite loading screen are ini tweaks. If you used an ini maker or heavily tweaked your ini then that's why you are getting the infinite loading screen.

That could actually be a factor. I came across another user who was posting about a solution she found to the infinite loading loop, and the solution was in the form of an ini tweak. I applied it, and while it didn't seem to do anything, it didn't seem to hurt anything, either. I also have HiAlgo Boost, and I recall having to modify the ini for that as well.

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Deep Red

Deep Red

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It varies; sometimes I'll be able to load up a save just fine, but I have pretty rotten luck with Whiterun; particularly loading a save from inside the city, and I also get hung up in loading frequently when exiting the bannered mare. Occasionally I'll get stuck in the loop when loading from the main menu.

If you got a save the reliably loads up on the first(or first few) tries, there's a quick and simple workaround. Load up the stable saved game first when you start Skyrim. From there, load the one that is cursed with the infinite loading loop. It should load your game successfully now. I've been recommending this to everyone who also has this problem, but it seems to get ignored. It works for me wonderfully, so I'm hoping it will work for you too. Sure, it might be a pain in the ass, but at least you don't have to start a new game from scratch because you get stuck in the infinite loading screen glitch.

 

Let me know if it works, if it doesn't there's still another way.

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Culn

Culn

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Hmm, I tend to get the infinite loading screen as well, at random times. Other problems are Gamefreezes. CTDs not so much anymore, cleaning the ESMs helped there.

Problem is, sometimes I can play for hours on end without a problem, suddenly the game freezes. After I restart the game, I usually get a CTD when trying to load one of my saves. After I reboot my Computer, its fine again, for a while. So I'm guessing it has something to do with the memory, but hoe can I fix this?

 

P.S.: I'm running about 150 mods and the Ini is not tweeked very much

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xchillin

xchillin

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Hi,

 

I joined this site just to respond to this thread after searching the internet for a more definitive solution.

 

I'm pretty new to modding, but I have researched and learned a lot about it over the past 6-weeks or so, and I am currently playing Skyrim with 3D Vision with 339 mods loaded through Wrye Bash (does not include 3D fixes, SMAA injector, etc.). Well, I don't know how you really count how many mods, because many of those packages that are installed are compatibility patches, etc.but that is how many packages are installed from BAIN. I am completely stable now except for this infinite loading bug when starting the game and trying to load a save; and I also happen to be in Whiterun exterior as well. I was going to save on interior last night but it became nighttime and the owner of the house I was in kept saying "you got to leave now," so I left before I saved, lol.

 

As I said I am relatively new to this, but just using basic logic, I don't accept the answer of "you have too many mods." If the game can play for hours on end with these mods loaded than that proves the engine can handle it; and if you (I) am having a specific problem it should be fixable, just like all the other problems and fixes I have gone through to get to this point of stability (and great fun!).

 

Anyway, my solution so far is to rename my Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini t something else so as to keep them as a back up, then start and load the game on the newly generated Vanilla configuration files, save again and exit, rename my backed-up INI files again to Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini, and I'm usually back in business as usual. However, I'm still hoping for a better solution than this if we can determine the cause because this is a pain.

 

I haven't tried to start a new game, then exit to main menu and load a save game yet, but I'll try that next.

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xchillin

xchillin

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Map settings in the .ini

 

I was having terrible problems and couldn't load an outdoor save, deleted those settings and it works flawlessly, and that's heavily modded with enb.

Can you be more specific? What "map" settings are you referring to?

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Culn

Culn

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Posted

 

Map settings in the .ini

 

I was having terrible problems and couldn't load an outdoor save, deleted those settings and it works flawlessly, and that's heavily modded with enb.

Can you be more specific? What "map" settings are you referring to?

 

Yes please! I just CTD'd again after loading...

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xchillin

xchillin

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Well I've been playing solid since my last post until I just CTD'd on a cell transition; but I can deal with 3-hours before a CTD.

 

In order to get my game loaded, however, my INI reset trick didn't work last time. What did work though, was to start a new game and let it go all the way until it autosaved when you jump off the cart, then loaded my normal save game. That worked, but still a pain...

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pds123

pds123

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[MapMenu] 

uLockedObjectMapLOD=8 

uLockedTerrainLOD=8 

fMapWorldMaxHeight=150000.0000 

fMapWorldMinHeight=1500.0000 

fMapWorldZoomSpeed=0.0800

 

I added a section like this ages ago from some random mod. Some of the map specific mods tell you to add lines to your ini file, remove them then try and load a save and see if it helps.

 

Also, when loading a save it might also help to temporarily disable your enb if you're using it (Shift F12 depending on the enb) and then enabling it after the save loads.

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xchillin

xchillin

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Oh, OK. I don't have any of those settings in my INI. And I'm not using an ENB; I'm using Realistic Lighting Overhaul which uses the in-game mechanics to do a great job of lighting. I would try an ENB, but I play in 3D which already cuts my FPS in half (I currently play around 30 to 60 FPS); with occasional drops to about 24 FPS; I don't think I could handle the performance hit from an ENB.

 

My load screen issue may also be to some INI setting, but different from yours. Although last time, even resorting to new Vanilla INI's still gave me the problem.

 

For now, I guess I'll be starting new games, and then loading my saves until a better solution is found.

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xchillin

xchillin

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Yeah, that's a good guide; that's part of the STEP process which is how I basically learned everything about modding so far. There's nothing wrong with my saves though I don't think; they will load and play fine once I get them to and there hasn't been any removed or changing of mods during them; all mods I started with in this series of playing are still there. It took me a long time of trial and error to get to this point, and now I think I'm good with this load-out except for this minor loading screen problem.

 

My most recent solution is not so bad; instead of starting a new game each time; I just saved one game (I named it "Blank Start" right before you go into Character Creation at the start of the game, and I just load that save game with no problem and then immediately load my other "problematic" saves. This is only a very minor inconvenience.

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medic975

medic975

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How many high rez textures do you have. I was getting a lot of the infinite load bugs recently and random CTDs. I have a high end rig and had gone for Full STEP install, plus additional mods I liked. SItting around 157 or so. I dialed down my textures from the 4k wherever I could to 2k and 1k in some instances. Usually on clutter meshes. And didn't use the Z fighting ini settings STEP recommends. Now I rarely get an infinite loading bug and almost never CTD.

 

If only I could learn to stop adding mods to a stable game...

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