Spinning Circle When Launching SKSE

[philosophicalninja]

Brand new to the step guides - just completed the SAE guide to the performance check section. When I launch SKSE, I get a black screen with the gold ES logo and a spinning circle in the bottom right hand corner. The game loaded successfully in the game launch test after extenders, so presumably there was an operator error somewhere between that point and the performance check. Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot other than individually individually deactivating each mod and testing?

[TechAngel85]

2 hours ago, philosophicalninja said:

Brand new to the step guides - just completed the SAE guide to the performance check section. When I launch SKSE, I get a black screen with the gold ES logo and a spinning circle in the bottom right hand corner. The game loaded successfully in the game launch test after extenders, so presumably there was an operator error somewhere between that point and the performance check. Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot other than individually individually deactivating each mod and testing?

Wait for it. It's got to initialize all the mods.

[z929669]

If waiting takes more than 2 minutes ....

If the Game Launch Test worked for you without issue, and you carefully read the instructions before the Performance Check, and you did not make any changes to the 02-Extenders, then your issue lies with one of the mods you configured. Pay attention to the MO warnings in log at bottom and the icons at upper right of MO window. If that looks OK, then you issue is most likely that you installed the wrong option for a mod related to SKSE or you missed a patch-related mod or the like.

The fastest way to resolve is to disable mods after 02-Extenders. The most efficient way to do this is using the following algorithm:

1. Disable ALL mods after 02-Extenders (select all, right click, "Disable selected")
2. Rerun the Game Launch Test to verify that works. If not, your problem is with a mod in 02-Extenders. If so, read on ...
3. Enable only the "Step Patch - Conflict Resolution" "Step Patch - Lighting & Weather" mods. The error triangle at upper right will light up. Click this and then "Missing Masters" in the window that pops up. Note these plugins, and enable ONLY the corresponding mods referenced. If you don't know which mod a plugin belongs to, you can search for it in your mods folder (click the folder icon at the top of the left pane, and click "Open Mods folder". Use Exlorer search to find the file and the mod folder it is under)
4. Once all required masters are found and enabled, you should see the MO error go away. If not, you are still missing one. (If you cannot for the life of you find it, then you did not install that mod or the corresponding mod option. That will likely be your issue.)
5. Sort with LOOT and try to start the game again. If it works, you need to sort our which of the disabled mods is the culprit:
   1. Begin enabling mods in blocks by selecting all 06-Models & Textures mods (these mods will rarely be the problem, so ignore them henceforth) and the first half-ish of all of the others after that. (again, select these, and right click > "Enable selected")
   2. Sort with LOOT, and test again. If it works, enable half of the remaining disabled mods and repeat LOOT >  test until you find the issue. then you will know where the mod is in the enabled block. Use this same block-enable-disable approach of half and half until you narrow down the culprit.

[philosophicalninja]

On 3/31/2022 at 12:18 PM, z929669 said:

If waiting takes more than 2 minutes ....

If the Game Launch Test worked for you without issue, and you carefully read the instructions before the Performance Check, and you did not make any changes to the 02-Extenders, then your issue lies with one of the mods you configured. Pay attention to the MO warnings in log at bottom and the icons at upper right of MO window. If that looks OK, then you issue is most likely that you installed the wrong option for a mod related to SKSE or you missed a patch-related mod or the like.

The fastest way to resolve is to disable mods after 02-Extenders. The most efficient way to do this is using the following algorithm:

1. Disable ALL mods after 02-Extenders (select all, right click, "Disable selected")
2. Rerun the Game Launch Test to verify that works. If not, your problem is with a mod in 02-Extenders. If so, read on ...
3. Enable only the "Step Patch - Conflict Resolution" "Step Patch - Lighting & Weather" mods. The error triangle at upper right will light up. Click this and then "Missing Masters" in the window that pops up. Note these plugins, and enable ONLY the corresponding mods referenced. If you don't know which mod a plugin belongs to, you can search for it in your mods folder (click the folder icon at the top of the left pane, and click "Open Mods folder". Use Exlorer search to find the file and the mod folder it is under)
4. Once all required masters are found and enabled, you should see the MO error go away. If not, you are still missing one. (If you cannot for the life of you find it, then you did not install that mod or the corresponding mod option. That will likely be your issue.)
5. Sort with LOOT and try to start the game again. If it works, you need to sort our which of the disabled mods is the culprit:
   1. Begin enabling mods in blocks by selecting all 06-Models & Textures mods (these mods will rarely be the problem, so ignore them henceforth) and the first half-ish of all of the others after that. (again, select these, and right click > "Enable selected")
   2. Sort with LOOT, and test again. If it works, enable half of the remaining disabled mods and repeat LOOT >  test until you find the issue. then you will know where the mod is in the enabled block. Use this same block-enable-disable approach of half and half until you narrow down the culprit.

So I disabled all the mods after 02 - extenders. I re-ran the game launch test - that worked. I then completed step 3 by activating the step conflict & lighting/weather patches, copying the list of missing master files into word and going through one by one to activate - MO errors changed from 1 to 2; missing master file went away but still have an error for files in overwrite - looks like that is the SKSE ini for FUz Ro D'oh (see attached).

I relaunched the game through SKSE - still a black screen with a spinning circle. I left  it for an hour and the menu never loaded. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm at a loss here.

Step Guide Troubleshoot.pdf

Edited April 1, 2022 by philosophicalninja

[z929669]

14 minutes ago, philosophicalninja said:

So I disabled all the mods after 02 - extenders. I re-ran the game launch test - that worked. I then completed step 3 by activating the step conflict & lighting/weather patches, copying the list of missing master files into word and going through one by one to activate - MO errors changed from 1 to 2; missing master file went away but still have an error for files in overwrite - looks like that is the SKSE ini for FUz Ro D'oh (see attached).

I relaunched the game through SKSE - still a black screen with a spinning circle. I left  it for an hour and the menu never loaded. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm at a loss here.

There's nothing attached. FUz Ro D'oh should be disabled if you followed my instructions. Delete whatever is in your overwrite. Revisit Step 3 and beyond. You are missing something.

What is "MO errors changed from 1 to 2"?

What happened in step 4 and 5 above? Complete all steps, don't just jump to launch if you have errors before that. the goal is to find the source of the error.

[philosophicalninja]

45 minutes ago, z929669 said:

There's nothing attached. FUz Ro D'oh should be disabled if you followed my instructions. Delete whatever is in your overwrite. Revisit Step 3 and beyond. You are missing something.

What is "MO errors changed from 1 to 2"?

What happened in step 4 and 5 above? Complete all steps, don't just jump to launch if you have errors before that. the goal is to find the source of the error.

I thought I attached it - I've tried again. It's a PDF, so it could be it's not recognizing the file type.

MO errors changed from 2 to 1 is what I meant - when I activated the step patches, I had two errors: one for the missing masters and one for the file in overwrite.

After completing step 3, the only error remaining was for the file in overwrite. I have deleted the file in overwrite per your instructions and now have zero errors in mod organizer - step 4 complete.

I sorted with Loot, and try to start the game again, but it still won't load. Your instructions then say "If it works, you need to sort our which of the disabled mods is the culprit". But that's just it - I did steps 1 - 5 and the issue is not resolved. So what is my next step?

Step Guide Troubleshoot.pdf

[z929669]

When you run LOOT, do you see any warnings when you scroll through the list?

 

You can share your SKSE logs, and I or someone else will have a look when there's time. Friday evening is looming, and I will be offline for a bit:

\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\.

Zip up everything in there and attach it

[elenhil]

I seem to remember having this issue because I had forgotten to run Nemesis.

[TechAngel85]

Could also be an overlay interfering. I've notice when I have FPS Monitor active, it takes longer to load to the game's menu.

[philosophicalninja]

On 4/1/2022 at 2:10 PM, z929669 said:

When you run LOOT, do you see any warnings when you scroll through the list?

 

You can share your SKSE logs, and I or someone else will have a look when there's time. Friday evening is looming, and I will be offline for a bit:

\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\.

Zip up everything in there and attach it

Your suggestions helped me find the issue - thank you soo much for your assistance! I'd like to share the cause and fix so if anyone else has this issue they can find it. I looked in LOOT and saw the following error:

-FacegenForKids.esp: An unresolved reference to a package from an older version of USSEP, must be removed from record 00014132 in FacegenForKids.esp. Guide: https://macsplody.github.io/xGuides/#-simple-children-

I also saw this error in my SKSE log: Unhandled exception "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" at 0x7FF7DF506370 SkyrimSE.exe+0196370. A google search told me that others had seen that error related to facegen problems.

I disabled the FacegenForKids ESP plugin in the Simple Children mod, re-launched, and the menu loaded! Completing the instructions in the link permanently fixed the problem - I can now launch the game with no issues, and I was able to finish the performance benchmark section

Now I'm on step 5, LOD generation, and Dyndolod keeps giving me a BSOD - it did finally finish, but I suspect there are a bunch of missing textures because I have purple squares all over the place I'm assuming this is because Dyndolod kept crashing. I'm currently updating all my drivers and the BIOS. If that doesn't resolve the BSOD, should I  start a new post in this forum or the Dyndolod forum? Brand new to STEP so I'm still learning the rules.

Edited April 3, 2022 by philosophicalninja

[TechAngel85]

16 minutes ago, philosophicalninja said:

Your suggestions helped me find the issue - thank you soo much for your assistance! I'd like to share the cause and fix so if anyone else has this issue they can find it. I looked in LOOT and saw the following error:

-FacegenForKids.esp: An unresolved reference to a package from an older version of USSEP, must be removed from record 00014132 in FacegenForKids.esp. Guide: https://macsplody.github.io/xGuides/#-simple-children-

I also saw this error in my SKSE log: Unhandled exception "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" at 0x7FF7DF506370 SkyrimSE.exe+0196370. A google search told me that others had seen that error related to facegen problems.

I disabled that ESP plugin in the Simple Children mod, re-launched, and the menu loaded! Completing the instructions in the link permanently fixed the problem - I can now launch the game with no issues, and I was able to finish the performance benchmark section

Now I'm on step 5, LOD generation, and Dyndolod keeps giving me a BSOD - it did finally finish, but I suspect there are a bunch of missing textures because I have purple squares all over the place I'm assuming this is because Dyndolod kept crashing. I'm currently updating all my drivers and the BIOS. If that doesn't resolve the BSOD, should I  start a new post in this forum or the Dyndolod forum? Brand new to STEP so I'm still learning the rules.

You missed the detailed instructions:
https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/SkyrimSE:Simple_Children

[philosophicalninja]

14 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

You missed the detailed instructions:
https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/SkyrimSE:Simple_Children

Oh my gosh - I didn't realize there were additional instructions in those Wikis. I better go back and check all of them to make sure I didn't miss anything else. Thank you for pointing that out!

As always, problems can be avoided by RTFM...totally my fault. I see that is spelled out in the Mod Table Legend.

[TechAngel85]

23 minutes ago, philosophicalninja said:

Oh my gosh - I didn't realize there were additional instructions in those Wikis. I better go back and check all of them to make sure I didn't miss anything else. Thank you for pointing that out!

As always, problems can be avoided by RTFM...totally my fault. I see that is spelled out in the Mod Table Legend.

On the Guide, all you have to do is click the [Expand] links.

See: https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/SkyrimSE:2.0.0#Mod_Table_Reference