Constant game crashing while outdoors

[Rautaa]

Hey,

I'm experiencing game crashes to the point where it's unbearable. Traveling through certain areas (or performing quests), the game will crash with 100% certainty. Also entering buildings might always cause a crash. I couldn't enter the Blue Palace at all for a while, but a few (in game) days later I had no problem.

The only solution is to fast travel somewhere else, and perhaps if I return later to the area, the game won't crash. If I fast travel elsewhere, the game might run smoothly for hours, but in some areas I might only get 30 seconds after loading a save before it crashes again.

After having the game run smoothly for over a month, this is suddenly a new issue. What can I do to stop the crashes?

Edit: Oh yeah, PC of course...

 

[Rayven]

Have you changed anything about your system? Downloaded anything new? Installed patches and so forth? what kind of system are you running?

 

[Rautaa]

No changes that I recall, didn't download anything during the last two weeks. Running version 1.3.10, at least could not find a newer patch.
Windows 7, Intel i5, GeForce GT540M, and 6G ram.

 

[Rayven]

Did you have the 4g mod already installed? I think I read somewhere here that Bethesda snuck the 4 gig support into one of the patches.

 

[Rautaa]

No mods installed at all, everything I'm operating comes from Bethesda. But yeah, I Google'd up the very same, 4G support added in 1.3.10.

Edit: I was kind of hoping this would have been a well known issue. Guess not...

 

[Dagmar]

Have you tried searching and/or posting on the NVIDIA forums? Generally I find better solutions there than on game forums when I am experiencing video card related performance issues.

 

[Rautaa]

Honestly? Skyrim is so buggy, that I automatically thought it might be a game-related issue. Not that I am complaining, some bugs are actually rather amusing (like dragons getting caught in a perpetual whirlwinds), and others can at least be solved by console command.

I'll try to find support from Nvidia, thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Rautaa]

Well, this is amusing.

I reinstalled the GeForce drivers, and the game ran smoothly for some hours (re-installing drivers also made the game auto-adjust visual settings).

But now I'm in a new situation: Trying to enter Valthume will cause the game to crash, always. This is a problem, since it's the only way out of Valthume Catacombs... Going in was fine, getting out impossible. Will see if I can sort it out, or must I go back to the time before entering the dungeon through an older save.

 

[Skullrattla]

Research uGridsToLoad if still having problems.

 

[Rautaa]

Research uGridsToLoad if still having problems.

Thanks for the tip!

Although it was of no use, I tried every uGridsToLoad value between 3 and 11, and also tried setting visuals to as low as possible. I still can't enter Valthume with the character I mentioned earlier.

Interesting enough, I did manage to start a new game and play a substantial amount of time without a single crash. I wonder if my character and just that one character is bugged...

Working work-around:

I found the teleporting COC console command, which got me out of Valthume, I guess I'll return to take down a certain dragon priest some time later if the bug resolves itself. Game still crashes if I COC myself into Valthume, or if I COC outside and try to re-enter immediately.

 

[Rautaa]

The locations are broken only for one particular character. Valthume and Understone Keep cannot be entered from any of the doors or by teleporting, the game will always crash.

On another character, I could teleport to both locations without problems. However, teleporting to the locations on another character did not solve the issue for the first character, and neither did restarting the computer.

 

[luluco250]

Hi I have the same problem:
I tried to marry Elisif (via console) and was successful but I needed to return to the Blue Palace before snything, CTD on enter...
Reloaded previous save and started The Man Who Cried Wolf with Falk and just then I talked to the madman who gave me the Pelagius quest, CTD on entering the Blue Palace.
Yes I have plenty mods installed but this has never happened before. Any suggestions? Besides disabling all mods cuz I already tried it...

EDIT: Sorry I just found the god damn mod that was bugging the Blue Palace. Sorry but try it too! Perhaps try disabling Update.esm for one try.

 

[dinwitty]

I am having this problem at Valhume, but its on a 64 bit system Win 7, I have Skyrim on another system with 32 bit XP and no issues at Valhume. I am using unpatched Skyrim version 1.1.21.0.