The Last Straw

[Guest]

lol, I know the struggle. I took a week break from skyrim to think and get away from my computer before I was able to compile a good list of mods to all play nice together. If it makes you feel better Hentai, I just installed fallout3 and that shit crashes all the time, and I like to think I have a nice computer but I have a feeling it's Windows 8 that's causing it...gonna nuke that soon and possibly call it quits.

[Hentai-chan]

lol, I know the struggle. I took a week break from skyrim to think and get away from my computer before I was able to compile a good list of mods to all play nice together. If it makes you feel better Hentai, I just installed fallout3 and that shit crashes all the time, and I like to think I have a nice computer but I have a feeling it's Windows 8 that's causing it...gonna nuke that soon and possibly call it quits.

 

It does, actually. A little. I mean, crashes suck. They suck big, fat, smelly balls. But I can't help but have an irritating smirk on my face.

 

Hmm... You know, what is odd? I am playing vanilla Skyrim, right now. And it can't help but think I haven't been playing Skyrim at all, actually. I don't mean 'pursuit of carnal desires' thing but having all those mods. I think they spoiled me so much that I could not think of any other way to play. Right now, I am playing vanilla Skyrim with almost zero mods. I installed three already, actually. CBBE, Fair Skin Complexion, and Remodeled Armors (for old times sake). I have been thinking to myself. "This is the shitty Skyrim without mods and bugs and why do I enjoy myself so much?" I mean, water looks horrible, the skill trees are their horrible vanilla selves. Yet I would be lying if I said I don't like it at all. I don't know, maybe I've grown so desperate that I am deluded, right now. I got a good frame rate (as well as one can get on what is essentially a potato), And I think said "I love you." to a few NPCs. No, it has to be it. I am going mad.

I can't help but

 

[Guest]

Yeah I LOVE Fallout, I mean, if I could have my Skyrim character in Fallout, I'd be golden but seriously the damn game crashes at the weirdest moments and it saddens the hell out of me. I REALLY don't want to delete Fallout and try again but, crashing every 10 mins or at random doors just isn't worth it. I don't even know whats causing it.

 

I tried vanilla Skyrim once after I built my PC(cause my wife hates my character). I do agree that mods have spoiled the original game for me, but I just couldn't do it. I owned it on the xbox, played it, wanted more, built a PC and then thought to myself, "why play vanilla skyrim on the pc when it was so much easier/cheaper on the xbox?" and then loaded all my mods back on : p

Wrye Bash, BOSS and I are real good friends after all the Skyrim nuking I've done.

[NiaticLabs]

Maybe 5 or 6 times ive reinstalled everything...

Here is a tip, Just save all the mods you download into a new folder with the zips intact.
And have 2 copys of skyrim...

When you want to nuke your skyrim do it, delete it all then just clone the skyrim folder and boom brand new unedited skyrim for you to toy with.

Sure it sucks to setup inintally, but i have like 55gbs of mods and skyrim directory and it takes me honestly 15 minutes to get a totally new version of skyrim.

So when i do end up driving it so deep into the dirt i can just bury it and start over in no time flat

[DFSL]

A hard freeze that requires the use of the power button usually means a hardware issue, in my limited experience.

 

I've never nuked my Skyrim directory, despite urgent desires to do so, because I keep present all the work involved in rebuilding it. I usually slap the keyboard very hard. The game is capable of running smooth for hours and then crash, most surely loading some stuff in a new cell, and then all subsequent reloads will lead to CTDs until it finally yields and starts working again. The Windhelm area, particularly the docks, is prone to this issue. Other hotspots are the outskirts of Solitude and Falkreath.

 

A "lame duck" solution I found to force the game to load the cell is to fast travel from the conflicting location to itself; another, to load a game saved while in an interior cell and then the slot that crashes.

[Gameplayer]

Have you considered merging your plugins?  Xedit is a nice script for TesVedit, using that I merged about 50 plugins down to one.  Of course I had to check them in TesEdit and it took some time but the difference in stability and load times is pretty big.  My Load Order says I have 90 plugs but I happen to know its about 3 times that.

 

Also I use Mod Organizer and the only time I've needed to reinstall is if I get a bad virus I cant pin down.

[Hentai-chan]

Have you considered merging your plugins?  Xedit is a nice script for TesVedit, using that I merged about 50 plugins down to one.  Of course I had to check them in TesEdit and it took some time but the difference in stability and load times is pretty big.  My Load Order says I have 90 plugs but I happen to know its about 3 times that.

 

Also I use Mod Organizer and the only time I've needed to reinstall is if I get a bad virus I cant pin down.

 

It's been resolved actually. Follow the link: http://www.loverslab.com/topic/46461-a-self-advertised-accord-of-a-masochist/?do=findComment&comment=1164244

[Aleanne]

A hard freeze that requires the use of the power button usually means a hardware issue, in my limited experience.

 

I've never nuked my Skyrim directory, despite urgent desires to do so, because I keep present all the work involved in rebuilding it. I usually slap the keyboard very hard. The game is capable of running smooth for hours and then crash, most surely loading some stuff in a new cell, and then all subsequent reloads will lead to CTDs until it finally yields and starts working again. The Windhelm area, particularly the docks, is prone to this issue. Other hotspots are the outskirts of Solitude and Falkreath.

 

A "lame duck" solution I found to force the game to load the cell is to fast travel from the conflicting location to itself; another, to load a game saved while in an interior cell and then the slot that crashes.

 

I'm running of the same character (save) since I think July 2014 on a modded skyrim with about 240/250 mods (not counting meshes/textures replacers and the merged mods containing hair/clothes packs and merged patches).  Very script heavy (Frostfall, Wet & Cold, Footprints, Requiem...). The game is rather stable but :

 

- It's usually impossible to load a save directly except if it's the first time I run Skyrim since I booted the computer. Or unless my character is alone in a cell. It's a total mystery. I think it may be caused by using custom animations (or too many of them). The workaround is easy : Make a save with a fresh character in qasmoke or in the Alternative Start starting cell, modify the timestamp on the save so that it's creation/modification date is somewhere far in the future so that it stays on top, rename it LOAD ME FIRST  and just load it before loading the real save. Works 99.99% of the time. The .01 % where it won't work is when the save is corrupted. It happened once or twice in a year.

 

- It will still crash sometimes, usually between transitions. Save often.

 

- And one in a blue moon, it will really shit itself, and it may take a day or two for me to fix it. The last time, it was a bugged guard npc from Cutting Room Floor near Dragonbridge which would crash the game when my character was nearing his location. Removed the mod, made a clean save then reinstalled it. Never had a problem with it since. To diagnose these cases, I recommend using the dichotomy method :

 

 

• unselect half of the esp
• if the crash is gone, add back half of the previously removed esp
• if the crash persist, remove another half
• the offending mod should be isolated after at most 8 repetition of the process, assuming the crash is repeatable. After that, deal with the problem (remove the mod, correct it, install/reinstall...)

 

 

 

Generally speaking, I would recommend the following :

• Regenerate Skyrim ini files, apply only necessary changes to them : ENB setting, SFO setting, decals ... Do not apply "optimization" tips found on the net unless you know what you're doing. Once you have a set of working files, backup them.
• Use Sheson patch
• Use safety load
• Use ENBBoost
• Leave UGrids to 5 and use LOD mods instead.
• Do not overload your graphic system with texture replacers it cannot handle. Also look into your texture folders for huge (> 5MB) textures files. I once found a 50 MB sunsprite texture. Be careful about tree and object LOD textures (TamrielTreeLod.dds / tamriel.objects.dds).
• Do not remove script intensive mods without restarting.
• Make a backup of all your skyrim folder, you may also want to backup the installers of the mods you're using, also this one : C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Skyrim
• Do a bit of research before installing some mods (Warzones, old versions of Jaysus Swords, old version of Enhanced blood textures,  Sound of Skyrim, .... In doubt, stick to STEP advices.
• Save a lot, in different slots, and keep some of these old saves. Because sometime you will need to go back to a stable situation.
• Clean your save with Papyrus Data Transfer. It may not be always necessary, but in doubt ...
• Clean your masterfiles. Not only the Bethesda ones. Be weary of UDR especially. And navmeshes.
• Use LOOT

Hardware : Intel Core i7 3770, 8GB, Skyrim installed on SSD. I recently upgraded my GTX670 to a GTX970. While it raised my FPS from 20-30 to 40-50, it didn't had any noticeable impact on the overall stability of the game.

[...0...]

WARNING: You might be bored, frustrated or uncontrollably enraged by the following read. You have been warned.

 

Have you had any of those moments when you got so angry at Skyrim, you just nuked your game and mod directory? I did, once a year ago and another just recently. And the reason is extremely simple. I was fed up. I had it with Skyrim's ungrateful attitude. I mean just spend so much time trying to get things right, and what does it do? Crashes like a little bitch. Like all the bloody time.

 

It all started this morning when I got up. I have been meaning to play Skyrim for sometime but never got around to it because of, you know, reasons. I mean, I did launch the game from time to time but what I did was less playing and more, let's call it exploration and indulgence of sexual interests. So I was actually excited to get back into the story. Which says a lot, actually. I hadn't had hype to play Skyrim, even as I write now, there is this voice in my head that tells me to play Skyrim. But that hype was utterly crushed when I was getting closer to Riverwood, up from the way to Whiterun, when Skyrim crashed. I tried my best to figure what the problem was I checked papyrus logs, mod organizer logs (didn't know they existed), even cleaning my saves and updating some mods but it was for naught. Nothing I did helped at all. In a fit of rage and anger, I deleted the MO folder. Destroying my mod directory. Then set my eyes upon Skyrim, left-clicked and wondered for split second. Am I going too far? ... No, this is what you must do. A grim and hard voice said from inside my skull. And I nuked my Skyrim. There is no one left now. All my characters,... Well, I had one technically but still... Always a shame to let go of all of that work.

 

On one hand, I want to say I am glad but I can't because I am going to do all of that for no other reason than being a masochist. On the other, I learned a valuable lesson. If I am to re-install Skyrim, again I am going to try and keep things minimal. Performance increases and carnal mod are a must. So they will always remain. I still like my characters to be unique. ECE and RaceMenu and one hair mod, one tattoo/warpaint mod. I am not going overboard with overhauls just one. Though it might be increadibly boring on paper, I am going to stay away from SkyRe and PerMa, as well.

 

Reiteration. Have you had any moments when you just wanted to nuke your Skyrim?

 

Redone yes but never because i got frustrated by crashes.

 

Boss(these days loot) tes5edit NMM and so on.

 

First of all before sheson memory patch i had already carefully installing the game mostly manually did extensive research where to put files how to install and what works fine avoid troubled mods ext, plus not that many scripted mods.

 

Then came sheson´s patch and it all became even a  lot more pleasant rarely crashes and more heavy texture mods and ENB that make game look great.

 

I have high end desktop PC with 4gb GPU so that helps also have more smooth Skyrim then most.

 

2800+hours played. This install with only tweaking some minor updates like new ENB versions is 8 months old and still stable.

 

I never use optimized mods or enbboost because never needed it i just carefully install and make sure all mods compatible up to date.

 

Have 254 mods installed in NMM and in almost 3 years i use NMM almost no problems.

 

I always use a safe where my character is in single cell no npc's around to login this works perfectly.

 

I also dunno what people mean by keep the save file low i have saves with 7mb and 32 mb both login same speed and never have any troubles time i login is always same and not that long.

 

Good luck with your skyrim make sure you follow instructions of mod makers and use right tools see if your PC can handle it.

 

 

 

[Killing Joke]

The only time I nuked everything was when I migrated from NMM to MO, to start afresh on a clean skyrim installation. Never got major crashes or things like that, even quicksaves work most of the time for me. With some habit, you can pinpoint what's wrong in your game, as long as you know what mods you install and what they modify (very important: understand what the mods you install do). You'll be able to isolate mods related to your problem until you find the faulty one and make changes accordingly.

Recent exemple a few days ago, some enemies were invincible, randomly, I couldn't bring their health down no matter what. I took a look at what mods were modifying combats and hostile NPCs overhaul, uninstalled them all, then installed and tested them one by one until I found it was a buggy option I activated in SkyTweak.

This, with the help of TESVedit and papyrus logs, are the basis to solve most issues.

[Coopervane]

 

Thats rough >.< have you tried with 0 mods? If it stil happens then at least you know its probably not the mods :3

 

I'm not sure i'd recommend zero mods as a good stable base-line for testing, because Skyrim is a poorly optimized 32-bit program that doesen't understand how to make optimum use of your RAM, and is chock full of bugs that both can and will degrade performance and lead to crashes as they start to stack up.

 

 

For a stable base-line, i'd recommend the following:

 

Delete your Skyrim.ini and Skyrimprefs.ini and let the game generate new ones, a lot of bad advice was handed out as fact in the early days of the game, so if you've made changes to those files following that advice, chances are it was a bad thing.

 

Remove the Hi-Res texture DLC's from your loadorder, as the extra mem-load can contribute to crashes.

 

 

Then install the following:

 

SKSE (as it provides a mem-patch that has skyrim make better use of your RAM).

USKP (also for all the DLC's you have, they fix a ton of bugs that can otherwise cause crashes).

ENBoost (provides a patch that lets the game take advantage of your Vid-Ram, meaning the game has more memory to use).

 

 

That's probably the safest and most stable base-line you could hope for with Skyrim

[slaveofpeon]

Personally, I had to nuke Skyrim once in my life, and thats when i was first starting my experience with mods and a mod loader (NMM at the time) and some of the mods were "integrated" into my skyrim directory irreversably. So eventually I learned more and started using MO instead, and nuked skyrim to start fresh. I dont like hassle, so if i were to remove SKSE, i would just nuke it and just pull it off steam again. 20 minute DL, 20 minute install. Eat dinner and shower in that time. no issues to me. lol.

 

Ive nuked my Mods (never MO itself though) when i was tired and frustrated with trying to figure out what was causing the lack of animation of the PC. Five minutes later, i learned that the issue was as easy as keeping my FNIS generated files in my "overwrite" instead of adding them to a directory like i was told to. I was so mad that it was that easy.