Dude...no one was waiting on YOU to answer anything...was talking to the MOD that asked me a specific question, which I answered and then never heard back. No offense to you, but I was asked something specific, and answered, then ignored. Didn't expect you to answer anything.
That would be me. And I apologize for not answering directly. Often times, I am specifically unable to answer every single question asked by members of the forum or I don't have time that instant. In such cases, I try to at least find out the essentials because we have a great many members who can and will answer, but they would need the basic info anyway.
I do not personally own a PS3 so the advice I can give is only based on what I've learned from our members who own consoles. I greatly prefer when people who actually have the PS3 answer questions concerning the console itself because they are going to be able to give you the actual 'click here, push this button and follow this screen prompt' that I am unable to provide unless you're on a PC.
That being said, a console is a computing device and this gives it some architectural and philosophical similarities to a PC. If I put the game into a console and experienced the kinds of problems you're having, taking into consideration that you've done a lot of the troubleshooting concerning the game disc itself, it seems to me that the console side could be the issue. While other games work, each individual game will put calls on your system individually and in unique ways. It could be that Skyrim is doing one of these unique things and it's bringing your console to its knees.
I know Xboxes have varied hard drive sizes. I do not know if the same is true for PS3. If you're trying to use more space than your PS3 has left, I imagine that could be an issue. I do not know what PS3 keep their data in when you're playing, but if, as the other poster suggested, cleaning out an inbox has helped someone, this portends an issue with space available to perform 'swapping' wherein your data must all be initially loaded into whatever passes for RAM on a console and if it runs out, using some physical disk space. If it runs out of both, this becomes a tedious thing where processes are waiting in line for their handout.
Jersey asked which PS3 you have, old or new, and I am not conversant in the differences. I can only assume the "new" one has more robust hardware to facilitate this concurrent multithreaded drain on resources. She also advised you to contact Bethesda and I don't think that's a bad idea either. If I had made an investment in a game that simply wasn't playable, I'd be knocking on their proverbial door.
I know some Xbox users have also benefitted from reducing the number of saved games they have. Even if you're not using them, Skyrim needs to acknowledge their existence when it fires up and this may slow you down. I've also read a case where someone had managed to acquire 30,000 copies of a certain key in the game. If you have any sort of overbloated buggy thing in your inventory, now would be the time to try and rid yourself of it.
I know none of this is specifically addressing your problem. Unfortunately, unless PS3s start raining from the sky, my household will continue to be bereft of one. I encourage you to post if nothing here helps you because it will increase the chances that your thread will be seen by another PS3 user who may have some insight. Your original post was made on Wednesday and I imagine it got buried through the week so keep checking back. You can also 'bump' your post without worry as long as it isn't an excessive every-5-minutes thing without any fear of reprisal from us. I will also add the PS3 prefix to your thread to see if that attracts some attention from people wiser than myself.
