I was really enjoying my playthrough of Dawnguard, especially because I was using the Aetherial Staff to ocassionaly call in automatons to fight along side me, but it seems the fun has randomly, and permanently come to an end. No matter what I do, unless I go back to a save from much, MUCH, earlier, the staff won't summon anything, ever.

I've tried everywhere to find a solution, which may eventually come through a mod, but I'm hoping that someone, somewhere has, or can find a work-around for this. I've heard that spell absorbtion can cause it to not work, but I don't have any, and have even tried mods that fix that, and it still doesn't work. I remember similar problems with the Sanguine Rose, but none of those tricks seem to work. At this point, I'd even take a mod, that lets you cast the spell from the staff, if someone has made one.

Please, someone, Bethesda, or even some average modding, problem-solving joe, please don't let this add-on leave a bitter taste in my mouth, I've had plently of faith in Bethesda in the past, but as the glitchs and bugs continue to pile up for Skyrim (especially now, with Dawnguard), I start to lose hope that anything's being done to fix them.

Did you try refilling it with a soulgem?