[SKY] Random Lock-ups

[BaconFlips]

So this problem has been happening for a while and I can't seem to find the issue myself. I'll be playing Skyrim, killing some dragons, vampires, just walking around or whatever, and suddenly my game will just freeze. The sound will keep going and but nothing moves and the only thing I can do is shut down the game and restart. I tried going through my mods to see which was giving the problem, but it's difficult. I have a lot of mods and the lock-ups happen randomly. Sometimes they occur after only a couple of seconds in game, sometimes I can play through for hours and nothing happens at all, so I can never really accurately test. I do know, however, that the problem started after I went on a mod-downloading spree after installing the Countervibe ENB (which is beautiful btw). BOSS tells me my load order is fine, so I have no idea what the issue must be. Here is a list of my load order and my installed mods:

Load Order:

-Skyrim.esm

-Update.esm

-Dawnguard.esm

-CLARALUX - More and Brighter Lights.esm

-WARZONES - Civil Unrest.esm

-JSwords.esm

-moonpath.esm

-ApachiiHair.esm

-ORS_SolitudeGate.esm

-Hideout.esm (this file has been giving me an error since I first installed it months ago saying that it's labeled .esm but it's reall a .esp. Hasn't given me any problems in-game at all though)

-Proudspire Manor Bug Fixes.esp

-Lost Art of the Blacksmith.esp

-IMAGINATOR - Visual Control for Skyrim.esp

-Cloaks.esp

-dragonpriestmasks.esp

-Gri_Scarf_and_Gugel.esp (planning to uninstall this one, I don't use it anymore)

-Insanity's Dragonbane.esp

-Insanity's Dragon Katana.esp

-LordOfWar_TW2.esp

-Masters of Death - Sicarius Armor (Standalone).esp

-RedguardKnight.esp

-SamuraiArmor.esp

-TrissArmorRetextured.esp

-DeadlyDragons.esp

-moonpath_questdata.esp

-ImprovedScImpUniforms - Main.esp

-posesivecorpses.esp

-Skyrim Unlimited Rings and Amulets.esp (also planning to uninstall this one)

-Apocalypse - The Spell Package.esp

-MidasSkyrim.esp

-DeadlySpellImpacts.esp

-DeadlySpellImpacts - Two Fire.esp

-The Dance of Death.esp

-Crimson Tide - Blood.esp

-Improved Freckles Skyrim.esp

-WATER.esp

-WATER - Get Wet.esp

-AielRace.esp (custom race made by me)

-AielClothes.esp (clothing retexture I did a while back that I've been meaning to uninstall, as I'm making actual custom clothes lol)

-Ashandarei.esp (downloaded from Nexus, isn't recognized by BOSS)

-HeronMarkBlade.esp (my first custom sword)

-Wheel Of Time Weapons and Armor.esp (Mod that I'm currently working on)

-Wheel Of Time Powers (downloaded from Nexus, not recognized by BOSS, adds new spells)

-CompilationV1.esp (downloaded by Nexus, not recognized by BOSS, changes the appearance of many of the female followers, makes the features more distinguishable by Beans)

-serana1.esp (same as above, just changes Serana's features to something I consider a little more beautiful)

And here are the mods I've downloaded since installing Countervibe ENB, and therefore one of the mods that I think must be giving me an issue (most recent to least recent):

-The New Serana

-Improved Freckles Skyrim (update)

-Improved Eyes Skyrim - Dawnguard

-WATER - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux (update)

-Beans Badass Women-- THE COMPILATION

-Deadly Dragons

-Better Females by Bella (added Less Makeup and No Shine because I got tired of the glossy, glam look)

-Cloaks of Skyrim (update)

-Dark Nemesis Armor - Ebony Reincarnation

-The Dance of Death -A Killmove Mod (update)

-CLARALUX - More and Brighter Lights (update)

-Skyrim Flora Overhaul

-Proudspire Manor Bug Fixes

-Apocalypse Spell Package (update, didn't install this one on a clean save so that might be the issue right there... I'm hoping not because I don't want to have to go through the trouble of getting like 60+ spells all over again )

[WillieSea]

Its my guess, but you hit it when you said "the problem started after I went on a mod-downloading spree".

Its a known problem that a lot of mods can cause more instabilities. Especially if they have a lot of dirty edits.

I have also noticed that Skyrim is a lot more picky than previous games when it comes to mods, and seems to crash on the drop of a hat for random reasons.

Do you have your game updated to the latest version? Some memory leak issues were fixed among other housekeeping things.

Edited August 28, 2012 by WillieSea

[Hanaisse]

I feel your pain. The same thing happens to me, screen freeze but can still hear what's going on, can still draw/swing weapon, etc. And I only have 3 mods.

I can CTRL/ALT/DEL out and it usually takes me right back into the game, freeze gone. The drawback is a rolling little circle for the cursor. But at least at that point I can properly save, quit to desktop and go back in without problems.

I suspect it's more of a CPU/GPU/RAM performance issue than mods. Mods cause CTD's, yes, but not sure they'd cause freezing. So don't stress yourself trying to pinpoint a cause. It happens.

[BaconFlips]

Hana, my game completely freezes, I hear sound effects but can't move my character :'( . And I hope it's not a performance issue because my computer's pretty high end in that regard

Willie, I have steam set to auto-update so I should have the latest version, but I'll check again. If the problem stems from too many mods would uninstalling a few fix it? Or would I have to painstakingly root out the one mod causing the issue?

[Hanaisse]

We're saying the same thing. Screen freeze = screen freeze And I have a high end machine too.

Plus, we have no mods in common. You could do a verify cache to check your game files, or do a complete re-install, or uninstall (not just disable) all your mods and play vanilla for awhile. Also make sure all your mods have been updated to 1.7. But again, chasing down a very rare occurrence is like chasing your tail. I'll eat my tail if you prove me wrong.

[WillieSea]

I rarely see the game actually 'freeze', its usually a CTD or nothing.

But even a CTD is rare. I have a stable 'dual core' intel cpu.

One thing you can look into is, how many background apps do you have running? Try killing some of them. Anti-virus? Unplug your internet cable and turn off anti-virus, see if it helps. It could be another app trying to do something in the background, and since the game wants to do stuff too, there could be a conflict.

Another thing to check would be your memory. There are memory check programs, but they could take a day to run if you have a lot of memory.