Something is Preventing Skyrim from Running

[p4ck3tl055]

So I've been playing Skyrim since November with my modded setup. Yesterday I started getting some random CTDs - something that's kinda odd because it's been very stable. Didn't think much about it until today when I fired up ModOrgaizer, hit "run" and Skyrim didn't start.

I see the SKSE Loader DOS-window open and close like normal. A few seconds later, I can see Skyrim (tesv.exe) in Task manager, I can see enbhost.exe in task manager, but nothing is working. The MO "locked" window is visible on the screen, but nothing else. Skyrim never starts.

 

I CAN start Skyrim from the Steam Launcher. I CAN start Skyrim from my "Vanilla Skyrim" profile - which is basically Skyrim, the DLCs, the unoffical patches, SKSE and SkyUI only.

 

But every other profile I have in MO acts as described above. It doesn't matter about the load order, it doesn't matter about the quantity of mods (each of my profiles have very different load orders, although they do have a core of common mods - they're all based SR:LE.)

 

I have rebooted, I have re-installed MO, I have re-installed SKSE, I have verified the main Skyrim files with Steam. Nothing has helped. I do see (briefly) a "steamerrorreporter" process start and stop after the tesv.exe hangs. The tesv.exe and enbhost.exe continue to run in task manager, but neither are consuming any CPU time. When I kill tesv.exe, the lock window of MO goes away.

 

I've tried running with and without ENB just in case. No difference. I've even restored my complete MO setup from last Saturday's backup - nothing.

 

I don't get any crash messages, I don't have any logs or other info (or I don't know where to go looking for them anyway).

 

Obviously I can reload things, but I'd REALLY prefer not to do that if at all possible.

 

(I'm currently re-installing Skyrim through Steam just in case there is something fubarred - hoping to fix any registry settings, etc in the process.)

 

I'm running MO 1.2.18 (latest version), latest version of Skyrim, version 1.7.2 of SKSE, not sure what version of SkyUI, but I'm certain it was the latest available in November. Skyrim and MO are installed on an SSD (E:) in different folders.

 

It just boggles my mind why everything was working fine last night, I've not added or changed anything and now it's broken.

Edited February 20, 2015 by p4ck3tl055

[p4ck3tl055]

As far as I can tell it seems highly likely it's an issue with steam or MO, like GalenZ I can launch vanilla + some mods up to roughly 40ish active mods at which point it just remains idle for hours.

At this point I believe it's Steam.  Why? Because Steam is the only thing that has had an update in last few days - very close to when my problem started. I've been using MO 1.2.18 since it came out (a month or so ago maybe???) and it's been working fine.

 

On top of that, I found this MO's Nexus page, user "Dwailing" has a workaround that worked for me - full normal load order.  It's all about timing though.

 

The workaround:  Shutdown Steam. Start Skyrim from MO. It will complain about Steam not running.  Tell MO to start Steam. As soon as that happens, MO will give you another window that asks you to click "OK" when Steam is started.  DON'T WAIT from for Steam to start, IMMEDIATELY click OK.

 

Doing that has my normal full load working again.  It's tricky because of the timing, but it does prove there's nothing wrong Skyrim, MO, the number of mods or the mods themselves. It's something in Steam.

 

I just hope Steam gets this fixed soon!!!

[GrantSP]

Since your 'vanilla' profile works, its a fair bet that this isn't a MO issue but something to do with your mods.

It looks like a missing master style of crash to me, at least from the way you describe it. Make sure no plugins have been removed, either by Windows or your AV package, though I can't imagine why they would quarantine an esp/esm.

 

If you have any recent saves, mouseover them in the 'Saves' tab of MO and it will detail any missing esps.

Failing any help there, disable your patches and enable groups of you SR:LE mods until you get the 'no-load' issue. Don't enable your patches because they will be looking for mods that may not be in those groups yet.

[Xavith]

I'm having the exact same issues as described, it tries to launch skyrim and tesv.exe stays inactive at ~80mb ram indefinitely

[p4ck3tl055]

Since your 'vanilla' profile works, its a fair bet that this isn't a MO issue but something to do with your mods.

It looks like a missing master style of crash to me, at least from the way you describe it. Make sure no plugins have been removed, either by Windows or your AV package, though I can't imagine why they would quarantine an esp/esm.

 

If you have any recent saves, mouseover them in the 'Saves' tab of MO and it will detail any missing esps.

Failing any help there, disable your patches and enable groups of you SR:LE mods until you get the 'no-load' issue. Don't enable your patches because they will be looking for mods that may not be in those groups yet.

Up until I restored the backup last night I would have agreed that a mod is (or multiple mods are) preventing Skyrim from loading. But when I backed up my config, I took everything - the entire MO folder - and the setup was working fine when I did.  In fact I played on that setup every day since that backup - until yesterday.  Which is what's odd.  When I restored last night, I deleted the entire MO folder (I did copy some saves to keep my progress) and copied the entire backup back. If it was a mod that should have fixed it.

 

But just to make sure, I copied my current play through profile to a "testing" profile.  Using that testing profile, I deleted all the saves and disabled all of the mods except for Skyrim, all DLC, the unofficial patches, SKSE and SkyUI and boom it started.  I started down the left-hand pane, enabling one block at a time until I got to the "Modified and Expanded Quests" section and Skyrim refused to start. I disabled one mod at a time (from the bottom up) until I got to "The Choice is Yours - Dragonborn" and it ran. So I re-installed that mod and tried it. Nothing. I disabled it again and tried to run. Nothing - wouldn't start.

 

I disabled all the mods in that section and Skyrim ran.  I started to add them back and it failed on "live another life", I re-installed it, re-enabled and nothing - failed to start. I took it out and Skyrim still failed to start.

 

At this point I think I have some hardware (as in hard drive) issue. That bothers me more than re-installing. Because Skyrim and MO are installed on an SSD that's less than a year old. I'm in the process of moving both to a mechanical drive to see if that is indeed the issue. I'll let you know more later.

[p4ck3tl055]

Re-installing everything (Skyrim and MO) onto the mechanical drive didn't help. Now I'm totally at a loss.

[p4ck3tl055]

So I worked through about half of the load order on the mechanical drive. Out of the 108 mods I now have activated, better than half of them have had to be re-installed to allow Skyrim to run. Three of them (Elysium Estate, Interesting NPCs, and RS Chidren simply refuse to work. At this point, I'm thinking it would be quicker (and better in the long run) to just dump the whole setup and reload it from scratch.

[GrantSP]

I can't see that the different drive mechanism has a bearing, but you never know.

Doing a fresh re-install of your mods may be the better option, a PITA but at least you get to verify as you go.

[GalenZ]

I am having the exact same problem with Fallout New Vegas - it worked on Thursday morning, but on Thursday afternoon, the exact same setup failed to start.   I have determined it has something to do with the number of mods/amount of data being loaded, as my vanilla profile works fine, as did a test profile with only 47 mods - but when I added even one mod more (didn't seem to matter which one), it hung before the splash screen.   After a malware scan and a couple of reboots, my limit went up to 80, but I'm still far from the 128 mods I was running fine the other day.  I have a post over on https://forum.step-project.com/topic/7169-mod-organizer-not-launching-properly/ outlining all my hair pulling and failed solutions.  Suffice it to say, the problem does not seem to be mod/install related - it's something systemic and more fundamental.

 

My suspicion is that it has something to do with the latest Steam Client update, which occurred on 2/18.  Staying in Task Manager as I try to start the game, I see steamerrorreporter.exe triggering - but don't see any error message myself, so I don't know what the problem is.

[p4ck3tl055]

@GalenZ I can tell you it's very odd - to the point of having me think it's something majorly wrong with my PC, like a failing SSD or other faulty hardware. For the life of me I can't pin it down.  Like you I've done the AV sweep, nothing. I've checked my memory, it's fine. I've secure erased my SSD, formatted it and re-installed Skyrim and mods from a known working backup, nothing.

[Xavith]

As far as I can tell it seems highly likely it's an issue with steam or MO, like GalenZ I can launch vanilla + some mods up to roughly 40ish active mods at which point it just remains idle for hours.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Xavith

[p4ck3tl055]

I have determined it has something to do with the number of mods/amount of data being loaded

I didn't put it together as you have about it being related to the number of mods, but it kinda explains what I'm seeing.

 

The reason I say that is yesterday, when I thought my SSD was failing and I was dutifully re-installing one mod at a time, one of my mods (Elysium Estate) kept triggering the failure - no matter what I did. So I skipped it, thinking I'd worry about it later, and I was able to add a few more mods.  The difference?  The mods below it were texture mods and didn't add an ESP to the load order, they just added texture files to the data folder.

 

I can confirm that Elysium Estate itself is not the problem.  If I go to a "Vanilla" setup and only add Elysium Estate to the load order, Skyrim starts.  I believe you've found the issue - something buggy with the latest Steam Update preventing the load of a certain number of mods or a certain amount of data.

 

My current load order has 328 mods/222 plugins (ESPs) in it.  Elysium Estate is about halfway through the list at No. 153 (Plugin No. 100).

 

Now the question is how do we prove it? And, more importantly, go about getting it fixed?

[CTDruinsmylife]

guys i have problem with loading screen when i enter whiterun...i go to task manager and it say not responding...i tried all i could find on forums but nothing helps...

[ZumboPrime]

guys i have problem with loading screen when i enter whiterun...i go to task manager and it say not responding...i tried all i could find on forums but nothing helps...

The reason it stops responding is because you keep interrupting the load sequence. Every time you do ANYTHING while Skyrim loads, you will crash the game. Do not alt+ctrl+del. Do not Alt+tab. Do not even BREATHE on the game because it will crash. Just wait for the damned thing to load.

Edited February 22, 2015 by ZumboPrime

[GrantSP]

Can you verify if you are using Win8.x? I have Win7 and no issue exists for me regardless of the timing of clicking 'Ok' or not. The Steam client just loads, MO starts the game and all is well.

 

While I agree it does seem to point to Steam, if we can at least eliminate the OS environment as being a contributing factor it will assist @Tannin in tracking down the culprit.

[p4ck3tl055]

I am using Windows 8.1.