Workable Solution to Crash-To-Desktop on Autosave/Save/Qcksv

[rpger]

First, despite appearances, the Crash-to-Desktop (CTD) on autosave is not random from what I can tell.

Problem Description: I have experimented with my CTDs by taking earlier saves and running them differently each time to see what sort of things create a CTD and what does not. This is what I found:

(1) Certain zones (cells?) are intimately associated with CTDs. What this means is you could conceivably run the game for 100 hours without a crash, but then enter a particular zone and have a great deal of difficulty.

(2) The degree of trouble you have with CTD depends on how much interaction you have within that cell with an NPC, (repetitive spell effects seem to generate the conditions for CTDs the fastest, although striking with a blade can do it also), or perhaps it just involves initiating an NPC alert-combat script...this aspect is not clear. However, there is a very precise quantitative link between number of interactions (castings or blows) and the onset of CTD problems. The NPC could even be your horse, allowing CTDs to occur, for example, as a result of repetitive leveling “practice” on your horse.

(3) The crashes occur during save processes, typically during autosave, but to a lesser extent, regular save and quicksave processes. This can also be verified by looking at the save files after the crash: the save file was started, but not finished and is truncated…and will show up as corrupted if you try to load it.

What I did to verify these symptoms: I took the last non-corrupt save in a “tainted” cell. Instead of proceeding further in the cave (which had been causing CTDs), I backtracked and left the area completely. I went to another zone and did other quests, and had absolutely no problems. I repeated this several times over, finishing a total of 6 quests outside of the zone identified as “tainted”. All quests and activity had no problems and no CTDs.

Upon return to the zone previously identified as “tainted”, I re-entered the cave and immediately started getting the same CTDs I had experienced earlier. The CTDs were highly predictable by quantitative means: I could predict a CTD by the exact number of spell effects or blows on an NPC. Below that number there would be no problem, above a certain amount there would be a problem. Morever, killing two bandits may result in an autosave CTD, but in order for a regular save or quicksave to also cause a CTD, you may have to kill 4 or 5 bandits.

The new patch from Bethesda (1.1) does not fix this problem. In fact, crashing on exit now is more commonplace after the patch.

Solutions:

(1) My first attempt to bypass this problem was to turn off autosave. That actually works: you can enter and exit zones normally, and all appears fine, -- until you have to save the game. At that point, no matter how many other activities you have completed since the bug was activated, saves will cause crashes. I actually played the game for a full hour after I turned off autosave without incident. Saving the game, however, caused the bug to manifest itself. The bug was always traceable back to the encounter with the "tainted" NPC or area. Therefore, you do NOT want to turn off autosave because it actually alerts you to the presence of a tainted NPC area.

(2) Final Solution that works: This may sound like cheating, but I have found no other solution that permanently eliminates the problem:
*place your cursor over the offending NPC(s) which cause the bug. Sneak is extremely handy here, as the offending NPC is usually hostile. More importantly, sometimes the bug is caused by the activation of the NPC scripts...so you want to kill it before they start. Sneak may be the only way.
*take note of the NPC code, usually something like 0003xy75
*press ~ to pull up the player console and type "kill" space then input the character code you noted before. No quotation marks are needed in the console command. Exit the console. Make sure the character dies there.

Since this may be the only way you can get through an area without corrupting your file, this really isn't cheating. You can experiment however, and find the exact number of NPCs to kill before the area becomes safe from crashes again. I have found sometimes it only takes one console kill to clear an area enough so that there are no more crashes.

(3) Another solution that works is just avoid the area which causes the bug to appear. That may not be very useful though, as often the area causing the bug is an essential quest area.

[rpger]

Note: I found a non-cheat way also, but it can be fairly time-consuming. In one situation I had 6 NPCs who would more or less act as one group, hit one and all would come running. However, the combined effect was to cause a CTD-on-save situation.

Console-killing them worked fine to disable the bug. However, I could also "divide and conquer". Luring an NPC must be done without actually hitting him. Just jump up and down, run into a new zone, then kill him 'normally'. Repeat. Save between kills to verify the CTD bug was not initiated. Since I found this CTD bug is fairly rare, this may be another viable option. You must be able to lure them out to another zone one by one though.

[i9ub]

Bump

[TheMcNasty]

I'm stuck in Caught in the Hunt on the first floor of the fort. I kill the second hunter and when approaching the wooden door near him it crashes (before openning the door). I don't know if this is autosave related because I would not think an autosave is tiggered there but it is the boundary of a new cell.