Very unstable fresh install, constant CTDs when stress testing

[soulmata]

Hello,

 

I have used STEP installs for a number of years to give myself a stable base to build on. I recently built a new machine back in May, and decided to finally reinstall Skyrim and give it a go. I installed fresh from steam, and began following the STEP guide to rebuild. I ran into trouble almost immediately, starting with constant CTDs. I have spent the past 3 weeks trying to diagnose and resolve the CTDs, and am now at the point of giving up due to no progress. I've reinstalled 4 times at this point and tried just about everything I can possibly think of. Here's the symptoms and configurations I'm dealing with

 

Primary symptom: Constant CTDs whenever stress testing Skyrim

 

Here's the system in question:

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshero VI

CPU: Ryzen 7 1800X, stock speed and configuration (no overclocking)

RAM: 64GB Corsair Dominator series, stock speed (no overclocking)

ASUS ROG GTX 1070, stock speed and configuration

Windows 10

 

Skyrim is installed to a pair of SSDs, but more on that later.

 

Some major findings I have already resolved:

1) I have turned off the touch keyboard service in Windows 10 that is known to cause Skyrim to crash every 15 minutes

2) I have the patch from Microsoft that allows DX9 apps to access more than 4064MB RAM

 

I have reinstalled Skyrim a total of 4 times, each time reducing how far I proceed with STEP before I try to stress test. The most recent one is the most concerning. I have *only* followed Step up to the point of installing SKSE and its plugins along with ENBoost, with NO mods except the USLEEP and UHRTP patches.

 

As it stands, I'm currently sitting on a Skyrim install that was build as follows:

1) Fresh install + file validation to prove they aren't corrupt + initial launch

2) ESM Clean + STEP guides to prepare driver configuration

3) ENboost, installed and configured per STEP

4) SKSE and the following plugins: Plugin Preloader, CrashFixes, FISS, PapyrusUtil, BugFixes, EnhancedCamera, DoubleCursorFix

5) INI configuration done through BethINI according to STEP

 

 

... and that's it.

 

The game is incredibly unstable. I do a simple stability check by setting my character speed to 1000 or 1500 and running around the world. Without fail, I'm crashing constantly, so far never able to make more than 17 minutes without a crash.

 

I've tried every guide I can find to improve stability. SKSE arguments correct. Other ini tweaks. Really conservative settings. All of it. What I have already ruled out:

 

1) Skyrim is not running out of VRAM. Never exceeding 3GB VRAM used.

2) Skyrim is not exhausting internal memory blocks

3) CTDs occur with or without CrashFixes plugin present

4) CTDs occur regardless of what I do with enboost.

5) CTDs persisted after reinstalls, even to different disks.

 

 

I have no idea where to proceed from here, but would really appreciate some help.

Edited October 15, 2017 by soulmata

[GrantSP]

I've been running Win10 since its initial release, albeit with some of my tweaks to remove bloat, and find it as stable as ever. I run myriad games on my system, some of them much more intensive than Skyrim and never do I suffer from CTDs.

[TechAngel85]

I've been running Win10 since its initial release, albeit with some of my tweaks to remove bloat, and find it as stable as ever. I run myriad games on my system, some of them much more intensive than Skyrim and never do I suffer from CTDs.

The fact that I have to hack it up to kill all the telemetry is excuse enough for me not to update. That should be optional and easily turned off, imo. My data is my data.

[GrantSP]

Yeah I agree, but we are all held captive to it if we want to use the correct drivers etc. in the future. Remember Microsoft has said that ALL new CPUs will ONLY be supported by Win10. That means any new system you make will have to have it installed.

Anyway the removal of said bloat is fairly straightforward.

[soulmata]

Got my first crash while testing a rebuild today, and crash dump analysis leads me nowhere. It points to a vanilla tree in Dawnstar that isn't affected by any mods, and upon going back to it, the crash doesn't repeat.

 

EXCEPTION_RECORD: ffffffff -- (.exr 0xffffffffffffffff)
ExceptionAddress: 004aef0c (TESV+0x000aef0c)
ExceptionCode: c0000005 (Access violation)
ExceptionFlags: 00000000
NumberParameters: 2
Parameter[0]: 00000000
Parameter[1]: 00018a78
Attempt to read from address 00018a78

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: INVALID_POINTER_READ

PROCESS_NAME: TESV.exe

You're going to have to clarify something here.

On the one hand you state:

and then again you state:

So which is it?

 

I see nothing about your system that is inherently unstable which means Skyrim should play the way it does for 99% of the userbase of vanilla Skyrim.

As previously mentioned the test you employ is bogus and what is worse if you continue the game from that point you may have introduced anomalies due to scripts firing prematurely, or conversely not firing when they should. Your playthrough should be on a save that was not 'stressed' that way.

 

Perhaps the wording was confusing but there is no conflict there.

 

1) Vanilla Skyrim install could be "stressed" for 25 minutes at 2000 speed without CTD. This is no ESM cleaning, no SKSE, no USLEEP, only a vanilla steam install with all DLC.

 

2) At some point along the STEP chain, CTDs start to happen. But I'm willing to accept the ones I'm encountering are purely random and unaffected by anything specific to the install.

 

3) I never "re-used" a save like you are describing. I create new games every few mods or so, and save before leaving Helgen, then do some experiments and start over.

Edited October 16, 2017 by soulmata