Since I couldnt play anymore after 19 horus, lvl 11 and just got my second shout... (YES IT TOOK 19 HOURS CAUSE ALL OF THE LAG AND FREEZES)

I decided to deleted everything reinstalled the game and update and now I hit NEW GAME and the game NEVER STARTS!!!!!!

WTF !!!!!!!
My other games play OK, I even just installed DC Universe ....

Just in case Ill check on Google on how to check my HDD (like a scan or something for errors and bad sectors..)
If I found something Ill post it here...
BUT THIS GAME IS SERIOUSLY BROKEN... If it damage my HDD (Hard Disk Drive) it was Skyrim's fault, cause my PS3 is barely new... It doesnt even have more than 60 hours of gameplay (Cause University kept all my time) AND OTHER GAMES GO OK...


SERIOUSLY BETHESTA.... DO A RECALL ON THIS GAME AND RELEASE A NEW VERSION FOR PS3!!!!

Wow I have no idea what you could do, I'm stumped and yes it should of been released later date. Gluck mate

No. Skyrim can't damage your hard drive.

Try reinstalling the game and the patch again.

DONE 3 times... STILL NEVER LOADS the creation character screen... It hangs in the DRAGON FIGURE Screen... and stays there... I waited 1 hour to see if it was lag... NOTHING..

OK... Im scanning my Hard Drive and no damaged Blocks... But what I see is that Skyrim corrupts the PS3 System files actually. Makind the PS3 freeze after you turn off your PS3 cause Skyrim crashed a few times...

Ill be doing a backup of all my PS3 and reinstall operating system then restoring files... Hopefully this will solve my NEW PS3 PROBLEMS... And wait for Update 1.04.
If this doesnt solve the problem I just lost my money and time.

Skyrim can't corrupt system files - it doesn't have access to modify them. The only thing that could have corrupted those is a glitch in a Sony-direct update. Like the recent 4.0 firmware update that has been crashing systems and corrupting a lot of files for people in a huge variety of games and not just Skyrim.

OK I just finished Scanning with HD Tune 2.55 and here are the results:

HD Tune: TOSHIBA MK1665GSX H Error Scan

Scanned data : 152566 MB
Damaged Blocks : 0.3 %
Elapsed Time : 169:36

this are 7 blocks of 61MB each on a 160GB PS3 HDD Toshiba Brand.

I know Skyrim doesnt actually cause the Damaged Blocks. But let me explain how this works...
When Skyrim crashes it actually making R/W operations in the HDD when it hangs and one turns off the PS3 using the back switch or
disconecting the cable the HDD reading stops suddenly and the eye of the HDD could touch the surface causing the Bad Blocks. This is actually the same problem
Computers suffer when the building or house where the computer is, has Surge Problems. This when they are not protected by Battery backups (UPS).

In this case its a 2nd situation cuased becuase of the sudden disconnection of the PS3 power (Not a surge problem). But the problem is that the PS3 doesnt shutdown when you press the Power Button or even let it press for over 10 seconds When Skyrim crashes. Which when pressed are supposed to stop HDD operations and prepares the system for a Owner Safe Shutdown.

At the same times this bad blocks could corrupt the PS3 System, doesnt matter the version...

My best bet is that this is why I cant create a New Character Even when I deleted everything and reinstall again.

Suggestion to people out there.. If you have to disconnect the PS3 to shut it down while Skyrim Crashes. Stop playing and wait to see if 1.04 resolves this problem. Else youll end up with a faulty HDD. If you dont know how to repair bad sectors on a HDD or change a HDD follow this. Else youll end up like me just to repair the system

Head crashes will destroy the disk surface forcing them to be marked as bad by the OS so they are flagged as invisible as far as the PS3 is concerned.

When you reinstall the data can only be written to the parts of the disk that can accept it so unlikely to be the reason you can't start a game.

Have you tried the PS3 service menu to rebuild the system database and low level format the HDD ?

If the bad sectors are not from a head crash then it's possible the overwrite will bring them back into use.

Continuing the testing:
Just reinstalled everything, copied back the 3.7MB save file that I had at lvl 11. its been 15 min. I just looked at the screen while writing this and the game just LOADED IN MY FACE!!!! Lets test and Ill write my findings here...

Prowler thanks for the reply, But I removed the hard drive and surface scan it with HD Tune. They are actually Bad Sectors in the HDD. To the extend that HD Tune took a while repairing them... But the game just loaded!!! Ill play some minutes and write my findings here...

Something similar to this happened to me as well. However, whenever I attempted to start a new game, the loading screen would finish but I would immediately die. Then, it would send me back to the main menu and the process would repeat itself. I had to delete everything Skyrim related, re-install the patches and game date, and then it worked fine. Very odd bug....

Sorry it took a while but my GF came and Ive been going out a lot lately with her, some friends and also family christmas reunions. So here I go...

I started playing those minutes with just some lag. (3 to 5 seconds freezes). But when I reached Whiterun I got faced by a guard cause I killed a guard sometime ago. And I was going to get arrested. I let him arrest me to go to jail and game FROZE again completly. I left the game there for 1 hour to see what happened. Since it was a total freeze PS button didnt work, I hit eject button and the PS3 came back to normal. No STRANGE messages of corrupted files...

Tried loading the game again after that. And it took about 10 - 15 minutes again to load. This time I appeared under the floor??? I started to run and jump until I got back to the normal floor. I was in open wild around Whiterun.... and a lot of exclamation icons (!) appeared all over. I was like HUH!??!?!?! LAG was incredibly HIGH, NOT PLAYABLE... 30 seconds freezes every few steps until it finally crashed again...

Remember first save file load was ok, and I DIDNT save the first time so I was loading the same file again when this happened. So its an unmodified save file. I reload again and again 15 minutes to load, high lag every few steps. This time No exclamation points I saved to another file got on horse that I left close, and when I started running it totally crashed again... Removed the Game with eject button since the PS3 button didnt work and shelved the game for good....

Sorry but all this testing just certifies to me (and Im a PROGRAMMER) that this game is totally an unfinished product (this is my PROFESSIONAL opinion). I dont program games I mostly program System applications for Companies and SQL databases. Before I deliver my product I do a LOT of BETA TESTING... What happened Bethestha?

My findings so far and not testing anymore:

- Framerate issues
- lag Issues
- Write/Read operation issues
- File Corruption issues
- Creation of bad sectors (this not directly related to game, but instead to the users unplugging the PS3 instead of ejecting the GAME to make the PS3 shutdown itself).

All this at a 3.7 MB save file... only a few short hours of gameplay and a lvl 11 character.
So no... Its not just happening to 15MB save files...

Hope this gives some light, but I am sure that developers actually know everything that is wrong with the game... Cause if they didnt know, Bethesda really needs to change their employees....
At least thats what my BOSS WOULD DO....

Who do ya work for?

I dont think that my employeers have anything to do with the subject at hand but its a Developer and System integration company where I live. They not only make Applications but also manage servers, databases, system integrations, VPNs and a lot more. My job consiste on SQL and .NET applications right now.

Now please back to subject... thanks...

Oh ok, sounds like BS, leaving now...b4 ya 733t hack me net

okey... any other 733t constructive comments you might want to add? xD

actually thanks for leaving the Post since you didnt have anything constructive to say...

Sorry just your post is so fullon, no hardies ok?

Its ok Bushwakka no hardies...
And I actually took a LOOONG time on doing all this testing for the benefit of the people around that reads the Forum, I didnt exagerate any of the findings.
I passed the desperation point to the resignation... LMAO!!! xD

So for now it will be my last post about me testing. Any questions people may have about my testings I would gladly answer them.

You're sure it's not something wrong with your PS3 instead? Because my game works great, even with a 15mb file size.

Honestly no offense, but I find it pretty insane that it takes 19h to get to level 11.... you said because of lag, but you don't lag until your save file gets huge but that is not happening at level 11. Unless you have a diffrent sort of lagg issues.

Thats the thing... If you read the entire post youll see that I repaired the Bad Blocks on the HDD using HD Tune 2.55.
No other games are giving me any trouble, Ive been playing FFXIII for 23 hours in total now, no freezing no nothing.
My HDD is a 160GB and has 98.4GB Free.

Im having insane problems. But like some other pages say, some have problems at the long run, others from the start and other no problems at all...
In my case I tested everything and documented it here so other people can see it and get to their own conclusions.

Like I said if you have a question about the test Ive made that its not clear in the post just ask.

I'm assuming you have no issues with other games on the system, although I haven't used that disk repair software myself I have found in the past that repaired platters can be dog slow when brought back into use.

My background is electronics with 26 years in the field which is why your problem is interesting

Just reread your posts and I see your having no issues in other games. The paragraph where you describe the reload near Whiterun and the exclamation marks is concerning as it makes it look like some serious savegame corruption which would explain the massive loading times.

If you don't have another save to hand about all I could suggest is a complete uninstall of the game data and patches after copying your existing save to a USB drive then wipe all the saves as well.

Reinstall and patch then start a new game, if it runs ok then import your old save and see what happens.

Some people may suggest not patching but then your save wouldn't work and that is what needs testing for comparison.

I was actually thinking it might be a micro-crack or blemish on the platter itself. Ive seen a few in my time like that. Could even be a bad needle. ( 20 odd years myself in the muddy field )

Amazingly that 4.0 firmware didn't cause any of the 5 games I've been playing since Skyrim to crash once, yet when I popped Skyrim back in my PS3 within 10 minutes, crash, so yeah, must be the 4.0 firmware update.

Yeah thanks for contributing for the sole and only purpose of attacking a week-old post. You're welcome to provide any proof you have that the 4.0 update hasn't caused a single problem for any PS3 player.