Got the idea to have one thread for all the issues (and maybe solutions) we most certainly will come across in Skyrim - due to the awesome features we know and somewhat love Bethesda for.

Bonechill Passage

Let me start out with the little place called Bonechill Passage - currently this will crash for if not all, then most at least on pc.

Solution: Run through this part in windowed mode.

I haven't had a single crash or freeze since i started playing the game, and I've been playing some 20 hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CkaRLP0c-Y goddamn it!

If you are stucked in one follower/companion on the way out from a loading screen and if you use unrelenting shout on him/her (Or maybe any shout) the game will crash. That's the only crash I had in this game for 20+ hours. The new engine is fantastic to me so far.

I get regular crashes to desktop. No explanation, no warning, no reason. Indoors, outdoors, fighting, walking. Happens whenever. Its not even like the game freezes, it just closes itself instantly.

Not much use adding it to this list though.

@Chavtheworld: Have you tried this fix floating around the interwebs currently:

One freeze during a load but thats out of probably hundreds of loads already.

My game does have a tendency to randomly close to the desktop in windowed and full screen, might be having duel monitors related though.

Also the marriage bug which i've encounter and fixed myself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA6IGOomaaw

Having a (live) companion with you seems to stop this bug from occuring.

Once I started adding new, larger textures into Skyrim, the game became very unstable. Areas and textures would refuse to load and the game would dump me out to the desktop with no errors every half hour to an hour or every time I fast travelled. The game was constantly hitting its 32 bit memory ceiling and crashing the moment I added 8 megs worth of textures. It got considerably worse with every texture I plugged in.

Using Large Address Aware, you can flag TESV.exe as large address aware. Once flagged, I added another 300 megs of textures and had the game running all day without a crash. If you google it, I found the utility on the techpowerup forums.

On my first quest for the Dark Brotherhood - the one with 3 contracts - one of them is by a waterfall, sleeping in a tent. I went up, and "sneak attacked" him with my axe. Result: I hit him through the earth... on the positive note, no body - no crime.

Just hope he did not have some kind of additional quest trigger on his body I missed due to this.

On my first quest for the Dark Brotherhood - the one with 3 contracts - one of them is by a waterfall, sleeping in a tent. I went up, and "sneak attacked" him with my axe. Result: I hit him through the earth... on the positive note, no body - no crime.

Just hope he did not have some kind of additional quest trigger on his body I missed due to this.

I've been getting some crashing to desktop when I fast travel occasionally. I'm also encountering a weird bug where sometimes some of the textures don 't load in, so characters will appear to be wearing a suit of shiny, plastic-looking, light blue foam. Had the same thing happen with a dragon skeleton once. Reloading the game seems to get rid of it.

Aside from that - some pathfinding issues with NPC's and companions, and the occasional minor thing here or there.

- Scott

No crashes or freezes yet, 30 hours in on PS3. I'm hoping it'll stay that way!

I think I crashed once but I forgot why, probably just some random thing. It was very early into the game, too. I do, however, have the first dragon I slayed somehow move its dead skeletal body right next to the Whiterun main entrance. Those guards have given no fucks the last few times I passed the spectacle.

Edit: Now with picture!

I had a quest break on me once, not even sure what I did wrong... It was the forsworn conspiracy, I went to go back to the telos shrine to talk to the dude and he was dead and that was it.

The game froze on me a couple times last night, but that was after having played all day, even leaving it running while I went to do other things.

Really shit frame rate in towns is my only problem.

I only have had one crash to desktop, otherwise its runs really well.

in the college there is a side quest given by a white haired wood/high(?) elf where you fix these magic wells with magic gloves. Once completed you get infinite magicka for 2 hours IRL!

@Akvavit said:

@Chavtheworld: Have you tried this fix floating around the interwebs currently:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Sound.

In the Playback tab, right-click on Speakers (or whatever has a green tick next to it), then click Properties.

In the advanced tab on this new window, select 24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) in the drop down menu.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately though I use a Logitech G35 headset and for some reason (a while back) I already changed it to 44,100Hz, so I don't believe I can use that to help. I actually have it on 16bit (CD quality) because it doesn't give me the option for 24 bit.

Glitch: Floating Horse

Minutes after purchasing my first horse I set out towards my quest marker to take down a group of bandits in the hills. While in transit I crossed a stream outside Whiterun and spotted a Nirnoot at the edge of the water. I hopped off my horse to pick it up but noticed with the corner of my eye that my horse was leaving without me. I spun around to jump back on him but realized that my horse was drifting into the sky - no movement or animation. Just floating both away from me and upwards, I believe it was heading towards the quest marker (though that might be a coincidence). After a few moments of floating increasingly higher and further away it dropped from the air behind a hill, about halfway to the quest marker. I raced towards the hill but found my poor horse deceased on the other side.

So, my floating horse plummeted to its death only moments after I purchased it. Some very bad luck and a massive waste of 1000 gold.

I loaded the game and did more or less the same thing; I purchased the horse, headed towards the quest marker (albeit a slightly different route) and picked up the very same Nirnroot. On my second time through my horse didn't seem all that interested in taking flight. Not sure what caused it, nor how we can avoid that one. It made me chuckle though.

@Akvavit said:

@Chavtheworld: Have you tried this fix floating around the interwebs currently:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Sound.

In the Playback tab, right-click on Speakers (or whatever has a green tick next to it), then click Properties.

In the advanced tab on this new window, select 24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) in the drop down menu.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately though I use a Logitech G35 headset and for some reason (a while back) I already changed it to 44,100Hz, so I don't believe I can use that to help. I actually have it on 16bit (CD quality) because it doesn't give me the option for 24 bit.

I have two:

• Sometimes for no discernible reason, sprinting in first-person mode will just stop working. I'm not really sure what causes this, but crouching and uncrouching seems to set things back to normal.
• The Daedric quest Walking Nightmare can glitch out and become impossible to finish. I'm not really sure why this occurs or if there's a way around it, so make sure you save right before you follow the priest into the temple (if the priest disappears once you're inside, the glitch has occurred)

Haven't had any problems except for my sword disappearing once. And some EPIC lagg a few times, framerate drops to like 5 frames a second. I guess it's because of all the stuff going on in the cavern or something. I'm on the Xbox 360 by the way.

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

@BlinkyTM said:

Haven't had any problems except for my sword disappearing once. And some EPIC lagg a few times, framerate drops to like 5 frames a second. I guess it's because of all the stuff going on in the cavern or something. I'm on the Xbox 360 by the way.

I've experienced bad lag once out on a mountain in Skyrim. The frame rate was extremely choppy, but I'm pretty sure it was the result of an enemy mage casting a constant stream of ice. We were fighting around the large shrine where I found her, but as she was attacking me a pillar or two got in her way so her spell never made contact with me. Although she continued to hurl everything she had towards me and that quickly caused an FPS drop. Once I battled off her skeleton and moved around the pillar she finally stopped casting the ice spell which gave me enough time to slay her. It was odd, but an understandable issue on an rather dated console. I'm still extremely impressed at how well this game runs.

@Prodstep said:

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

I've experienced pretty much the exact same issues. Wondering if the crashes are a dual monitor issue?

The only big bugs I've had so far are a random crash, a glitch involving Esbern's voice files (there's a fix on TESNexus, thankfully), and a sudden, seemingly random, major performance drop when leaving a tavern.

@Grimluck343 said:

@Prodstep said:

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

I've experienced pretty much the exact same issues. Wondering if the crashes are a dual monitor issue?

I'm not in dual monitor and it does the same thing to me. So it's probably not related to this. Only thing I notice is if the texture start missing, it will probably crash not long after (by waiting or travelling some distance maybe). Not sure if it's related.

@Prodstep said:

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

I've experienced pretty much the exact same issues. Wondering if the crashes are a dual monitor issue?

When I kill dudes they just go flying. It's hilarious sometimes.

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

@Chavtheworld said:

@Akvavit said:

@Chavtheworld: Have you tried this fix floating around the interwebs currently:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Sound.

In the Playback tab, right-click on Speakers (or whatever has a green tick next to it), then click Properties.

In the advanced tab on this new window, select 24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) in the drop down menu.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately though I use a Logitech G35 headset and for some reason (a while back) I already changed it to 44,100Hz, so I don't believe I can use that to help. I actually have it on 16bit (CD quality) because it doesn't give me the option for 24 bit.

What do you have your shadows at? At first I was going with High settings, but getting the weird intermittent crashes like you. Searched around online and saw that people switching shadows down to medium has a positive effect. With high shadows, I was crashing about every 20-30 minutes. Switched down to medium and had played from 10pm to 5am with no problem.

Hmm I might give that a try, even on Ultra the shadows look meh anyway so turning them down might be worthwhile. That or I'll mess with some of the stuff to make them crisper and see what that does too.

@gike987 said:

@Grimluck343 said:

@Prodstep said:

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

I've experienced pretty much the exact same issues. Wondering if the crashes are a dual monitor issue?

That's the crashes I was getting. I think it's the game running out of RAM because making the game Large Address Aware fixed those for me.

How do you do that? I'd like to give it a try.

I've got a glitched quest. I'm on a Ps3 so I don't know if it's across all platforms.

I came across Embershard mine real early in my game, and looted everything. This included a book called Souls, Black and White. You later get a quest from the Orc Librarian at the Mage's College asking for the book and he tells you that, "Hey, it's in Embershard mine". Unfortunately there is no option to tell him you picked up the book already and you can't leave and come back and act like you grabbed it. You can't take it off of you so you can't put it back in the chest the game claims that it is in so now I'm walking around with a quest item that I can't get rid of since the Orc won't give me the option to give him the book because I have it already.

@Darklight said:

@Grimluck343 said:

@Prodstep said:

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

I've experienced pretty much the exact same issues. Wondering if the crashes are a dual monitor issue?

I'm not in dual monitor and it does the same thing to me. So it's probably not related to this. Only thing I notice is if the texture start missing, it will probably crash not long after (by waiting or travelling some distance maybe). Not sure if it's related.

Interesting, I did notice a giant purple mammoth right before it crashed to desktop last night, but that's the first time I noticed that. The game locked up once and has crashed about 5 or 6 times.

I had the textures and world geometry start freaking out on me once, everything was turning blue or turning invisible randomly depending on where you were standing or facing withing a given light source. But I haven't had any real crashes beyond the 192/96k audio bug.

42 hours and I've only encountered two crashes (random I think). It's surprisingly stable in comparison to Oblivion (which was a nightmare to play). Other then that I haven't found any weird bugs which is odd considering the amount people are running into. I did get some poor AI pathfinding issue at one point but that's all I ever got.

@Chavtheworld said:

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

@Chavtheworld said:

@Akvavit said:

@Chavtheworld: Have you tried this fix floating around the interwebs currently:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Sound.

In the Playback tab, right-click on Speakers (or whatever has a green tick next to it), then click Properties.

In the advanced tab on this new window, select 24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) in the drop down menu.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately though I use a Logitech G35 headset and for some reason (a while back) I already changed it to 44,100Hz, so I don't believe I can use that to help. I actually have it on 16bit (CD quality) because it doesn't give me the option for 24 bit.

What do you have your shadows at? At first I was going with High settings, but getting the weird intermittent crashes like you. Searched around online and saw that people switching shadows down to medium has a positive effect. With high shadows, I was crashing about every 20-30 minutes. Switched down to medium and had played from 10pm to 5am with no problem.

Hmm I might give that a try, even on Ultra the shadows look meh anyway so turning them down might be worthwhile. That or I'll mess with some of the stuff to make them crisper and see what that does too.

@gike987 said:

@Grimluck343 said:

@Prodstep said:

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

I've experienced pretty much the exact same issues. Wondering if the crashes are a dual monitor issue?

That's the crashes I was getting. I think it's the game running out of RAM because making the game Large Address Aware fixed those for me.

How do you do that? I'd like to give it a try.

Me and you are having the exact same problems, we even have the same headset... weird..

On the PC, happened twice:

Right after learning a shout from a wall with inscriptions. If I hit Tab -> Magic, game crashes immediately. Was repeatable. Also, I found that my stamina bar didn't deplete! I tried running straight for about 2 minutes. Tried restarting the game and the game would keep crashing selecting Magic from the menu. Found that quick travelling to a location got rid of the issue. Was sad when the unlimited stamina was gone :(

The game gives me a black screen after the first load screen. That is to say, the first one after you start a new game. I installed it today.

I think it might be a driver issue. I'm installing the new one now.

Xbox 360 Menu Freeze:

Occasionally when entering the UI (Items, Magic, etc.), the controller won't respond until you press up with the left joystick. Not sure if this has occurred to anyone else, but it happens on my console every once in a while.

I just went in Bonechill pass, crashed three times, thought of this thread that I saw on the front page earlier... and what do you know! Bonechill pass is fucked.

@xobballox said:

I just went in Bonechill pass, crashed three times, thought of this thread that I saw on the front page earlier... and what do you know! Bonechill pass is fucked.

Try playing through the cave while in windowed mode. It's not the best fix, but it's apparently the best workaround available until Bethesda sort this issue out.

@w00ties said:

@xobballox said:

I just went in Bonechill pass, crashed three times, thought of this thread that I saw on the front page earlier... and what do you know! Bonechill pass is fucked.

Try playing through the cave while in windowed mode. It's not the best fix, but it's apparently the best workaround available until Bethesda sort this issue out.

Yeah, I read that in the OP. Thankfully it worked!

@xobballox: Good news. I'm glad it's not a 50/50 fix; it sounds like windowed mode will work for everyone which is reassuring.

@benpicko: same here.

@Akvavit said:

@Chavtheworld: Have you tried this fix floating around the interwebs currently:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Sound.

In the Playback tab, right-click on Speakers (or whatever has a green tick next to it), then click Properties.

In the advanced tab on this new window, select 24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) in the drop down menu.

Yeah I think that has been debunked sadly. I tried it and I still get random crashes. Its not that big of a deal because the game does saves well and it loads really fast, but I have easily had 10+ random crashes over my 16 hours so far in game. It has no reason at all. As Chav said it happens for no reason. I can be indoors, outdoors, fighting, just walking in my house and it crashes without any error messages or warning. Annoying, but it hasn't hindered my love for this game at all.

@gike987 said:

@Grimluck343 said:

@Prodstep said:

The odd crash here and there which just kicks me out to desktop without warning, also sometimes some textures bug out and just fail to load in or something, because instead of the textures you get this purple colour which looks really weird, it's resolved if you just restart the game though, but it's annoying.

I haven't had a quest break on me yet which I consider a step forward for Bethesda.

I've experienced pretty much the exact same issues. Wondering if the crashes are a dual monitor issue?

That's the crashes I was getting. I think it's the game running out of RAM because making the game Large Address Aware fixed those for me.

Correct me if I'm wrong here mate - but is this not only an issue on 32bit OS'? As far as I understand this should work right off the bat on 64 bit (in this case Win 7 64).

Ok I have two glitches and/or bugs. When I equip the archmage robes and the morokei mask my character turns invisible. Not to others, just me. I can see the robes but my face is gone. Second, I have been on the quest "wait for Brelyna's spell to wear off", the one in the college of winterhold where she turns you green, I started that quest at the beginning and now I am archmage but all she keeps saying is "I still need your help if you can spare the time" and when I click on her it give me the two options of asking "Winterhold used to be full of dark elves?" and "Do you like it here at the college". I have tried waiting, sleeping, sitting in her chair and waiting. Nothing seems to work. Anyone know something I'm not doing right? Or is this a bug?

@SSully said:

@Akvavit said:

@Chavtheworld: Have you tried this fix floating around the interwebs currently:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Sound.

In the Playback tab, right-click on Speakers (or whatever has a green tick next to it), then click Properties.

In the advanced tab on this new window, select 24 bit, 44100Hz (Studio Quality) in the drop down menu.

Yeah I think that has been debunked sadly. I tried it and I still get random crashes. Its not that big of a deal because the game does saves well and it loads really fast, but I have easily had 10+ random crashes over my 16 hours so far in game. It has no reason at all. As Chav said it happens for no reason. I can be indoors, outdoors, fighting, just walking in my house and it crashes without any error messages or warning. Annoying, but it hasn't hindered my love for this game at all.

I was getting similar crashed, but following some advice in this thread I turned my shadows down to medium and I played tonight for several hours with no crashes.

I would also like to add that some times my commands don't work. I'll hit the shout button and nothing happens, or I try to attack and I just stand there. Doesn't happen to often, but it can be kind of annoying.