Random Crashes

[eecer]

So first off, I have quite a few mods installed and almost all are STEP. Here is an easy way for the list in the order I installed with MO:

 

STEP Core

Extended (No Duel wielding mods)

-Extended Patch-

Explorers Guide (without most quests and new lands, also any mod that was through Steam)

-REGS Patch-

War Ensemble (only primary)

Weather and Lighting (Replace morning fog with supreme and volumetric)

WALL (wont list the ones I did and did not, but many were redundant with Immersive Armors/Weapons or of options already in the list)

:Added:

Real Clouds

Bigger Trees

Immersive Armors

Immersive Weapons

Alternative Start

-Bash Patch-

 

The total comes out to 225 mods. I've tried going through the game a few times to see if there is anything in particular that seems to cause issues and the only thing I can think of is when a city is in the vicinity. First round it remained in the loading screen when I went from spawning in a home in Riften to going into the city. Second time was walking from Riverwood to Whiterun, half way is stopped loading the objects and just had the distant renderings. The last time I tried playing I spawned in a campsite, I was able to wander around just fine, but as I approached Falkreath the game just froze.

 

The biggest thing is that I am an idiot and didn't create different versions of mods that needed to be patched for packs and I installed all the mods under one profile in MO. I thought I was fine just going through the opening after installing each pack (was benchmarking for each one as they stacked), but I should have done a bit of gameplay before moving on to the next. I've thought about deleting it all and starting from the beginning again, but I will say that the longest part of STEP is downloading from Nexus.

 

My thought so far is that the issue is in Explorers Guide, there are quite a few mods in there and they are the only ones that really edit a city (the only thing I have partially noticed to cause the crash). Has anyone tried this combination of the Packs? Or any thoughts on where the issue might be?

 

[MadWizard25]

Maybe there is an issue with using the REGS patch without a full Explorer's guide install? I think the patches are modular but you never know.

 

In most these cases its hard from just listing mods like this to discover the cause of the problem. The only way to know is to deactive mods selectively and see if crashes stop.

 

Try uninstalling pack by pack. So first WALL, if that does not fix it, then try Explorers, and so on. Eventually you will figure out which pack it is, and then you can do the same for individual mods within that pack to find the mod causing the issue. Takes some time, but it works. Practically the only viable troubleshooting methods for random in game CTDs.

 

Are you running SSME and/ or SKSE 1.7 alpha, as well as ENBoost?

[eecer]

Good advice. I'll definitely start experimenting.

 

At least when it is running it looks and feels great. 

[eecer]

Maybe there is an issue with using the REGS patch without a full Explorer's guide install? I think the patches are modular but you never know.

 

In most these cases its hard from just listing mods like this to discover the cause of the problem. The only way to know is to deactive mods selectively and see if crashes stop.

 

Try uninstalling pack by pack. So first WALL, if that does not fix it, then try Explorers, and so on. Eventually you will figure out which pack it is, and then you can do the same for individual mods within that pack to find the mod causing the issue. Takes some time, but it works. Practically the only viable troubleshooting methods for random in game CTDs.

 

Are you running SSME and/ or SKSE 1.7 alpha, as well as ENBoost?

So I have tested around a bit and am starting to think the crashes are from too much on my GPU. I wish the game would have given a bit more to the CPU, I only have a 4570 and it's only using 30-40% where as my GPU is getting worked from 70-100% and it's a GTX760. I think I am going to remove the weather and lighting pack and see if that stops the crash.

[phazer11]

Have you tried running Skyrim Performance Monitor to see if you are using your maximum amount of VRAM?

[eecer]

So I have been using touring carriages as my way of testing to see if my crash issue has been fixed (have tested without touring carriages and it still crashes) so during these tests I have noticed that my average VRAM usage has been around 1,800-1,900MB, CPU 50%, GPU 70-90%, but GPU temp can be from 75-80C. I'm wondering if it's a GPU cooling issue and when it is running too long at 80C (the temp cap for my 760) it then shuts down Skyrim. I mention this because testing the game just now, it went from Whiterun to Solitude just fine on the carriage but I am in a cooler room then usual. 

 

This test was done with all the packs that I mentioned above, minus Weather and Lighting.

 

I know previous GPUs shut the PC down if exceeding the temp cap, but I know that NVidia has instated GPU OC to be controlled by it's temp, I wonder if that means they will just shutdown the process that is using the GPU if it is hitting it's temp cap

Edited May 1, 2014 by eecer

[MadWizard25]

80C isnt that bad for a gfx card, especially nowadays.

 

I still recon you have either a bad mod or an incompatibility between two mods. The only way to figure if thats the issue is the procedure as i described above. I sucks to do it, so most people give up after removing a few mods. Then they start to wonder if its hardware related. Stop. Its almost always your mod setup. Go through everything one by one. No other way to do it. I would not recommend looking for alternative causes to your CTDs without extensively testing your mod setup. There is no shortcut.

[eecer]

So I'm starting to wonder if it's an issue with how I have installed STEP core or Extended.

 

I've started to notice that my long distance rendering is worse then vanilla now. Dragonsreach will only show light from the windows. The land under solitude wont load from a distance, and solitude itself wont show except for the main gate and the windmill blades. The only things I remember changing from what Core suggests is that I chose the classic view for the map, and high-res/2048 for and textures.

 

Really appreciate all the help everyone, I have gone down to only having Core, Extended, Alternative start, and touring cages installed and still get the CTDs. Although interestingly enough, one of the CTDs crashed and I got a report that my GPU driver had failed. I've gone to the previous update and the CTDs don't happen as soon as they did before but sadly they are still there.

Edited May 3, 2014 by eecer

[Hairyfiend]

Sounds simialr to a problem I have had previously, and for me it was down to being overly enthusiastic with mods from STEP. I had random crashes, rare driver failure, and got to the point where whole computer would lock up on crashing. The ENB boost and removal/downgrade of some mods helped get past this for me. Now I run 317 mods, involving 175 activated ESP's, and no crashes. Not too bad for an average system.

 

Running a selective extended STEP btw at the moment through MO.