Hello All,

I have recently purchased the Dawnguard DLC, and have since been unable to play Skyrim at all. The game seems to function fine up until the point of where I try to load any save. My Xbox locks up every time during the loading screen with the tips present. I have tried every combination of reinstalling Dawnguard and clearing the cache without any meaningful successes. I can load all my saves without the DLC installed, so I know it has to be Dawnguard causing the lockups. I have also tried starting a new game. The game will start the intro sequence just fine, but then freezes before the carriage ride is complete.

If anyone knows any fixes for these issues please do share. I feel as if my $20 has been completely wasted and it is quite frustrating to say the least.

Thanks

I would delete it and download it again. This sounds like some sort of corrupted file issue. There are too many successful installs.... You do say you reinstalled it, but was that just using the file on your Xbox? Or from a freshly downloaded one? Also if you do redownload it, clean up everything before doing so. I wish you luck.

By reinstalled I mean deleting the file from the memory and redownloading it. What exactly do you mean by clean up everything? In my previous attempt I deleted both the Dawnguard Add-on as well as the 1.6 update. I now seem to be able to load a save ok, but I freeze up after a couple minutes of gameplay or trying to access the map in game. No word on if the Dawnguard content is enabled, I can't get that far without the game locking up on me.

man this dlc has brought all kinds of problems, werent the beta testers supposed to...i dunno. beta test? well i cant blame the beta testers, its bethesda who didnt fix the issues and released dawnguard anyway, and why was the beta test so short? wtf..

Its a corruption issue that's for sure. I had this only it was the result of the 1.6 patch. Try clearing the system cache.

Ok, update. I was able to load a save close to Riften and make my way to the location of Dayspring cave. Nothing. I'll try one more round of deleting both the update 1.6 and Dawnguard. It seems every time I delete and reinstall it gets slightly better, I'll just have to hope it works.

Another update, Now all my saves seems to load ok and the freezing is uncommon. There is the problem still that the Dawnguard content is nowhere to be found. I have tried in vain to have a NPC mention it in conversation, and the location of Dayspring canyon is just a mountain face. Frustrating. I have tried several cache clears and re-installs of Dawnguard. Not sure what else a guy can do.

Have you tried just trying to find it yourself? Also are you level 10 or over? Cause that's when the rumors start. If so try talking to a guard they might mention it.

yeah, I was so frustrated that I looked up a youtube video and followed the footsteps exactly to the supposed location. And all of my characters have been over level 10 when attempting to access dawnguard content.

I had to use clairvoyance just to find the place. You could try that, if your still having trouble finding. But is everything going ok now?

It's not that I can't find Dayspring canyon, it's that it doesn't exist. I'm quite sure I am in the right location, because out of frustration I looked up a Youtube guide for finding Dayspring canyon and followed the footsteps of the guide exactly. I was faced with mountainside and nothing more. I have no Dawnguard related quest content available despite talking to many bartenders and hold guards. None of the other Dawnguard content is present as well such as the facechanger in the thieves guild, nor dragonbone weapon smithing options for my 100 smithing character. My latest attempt is to clear the game cache by pressing LB+RB+X during startup, we'll see if that works. What baffles me is how I can go through the loading add-on screen seemingly without issue and yet the game content is not present. I'll try waiting in game for a couple days to see what that yeilds.

I have not heard of this. That is unusual. I think you should try to send a pm to Gstaff and see if he can help you.

Thanks for the suggestion, I just sent the message off. I've never interacted with Gstaff before, so hopefully the response is somewhat timely. The latest round of attempts to access Dawnguard were also unsuccessful. Thanks for the help so far.

No problem. And you should give it some time. Gstaff may not be online all the time but he does answer pms when he can. I sincerely hope he can help and that you didn't waste 1600 ms points .

I sincerely hope so too haha. My last attempt will be to start a new game and try to head directly to the cave. It should be present regardless of character level correct?

That's correct.

Once again no dice on the canyon on the completely new games. Officially out of ideas. Damn.

The only thing I can say is to try to uninstall dawnguard then install again, sometimes doing repeatedly helps. Or just wait for a response from gstaff.

Ok, one final update for the evening. During my most recent download cycle, when trying to load my save I saw Dawnguard related tips on the loading screen, which is promising, however I am unable to load any saves without freezing. I've had enough for one evening, maybe tomorrow I'll have better luck.

Seriously? I think Dawnguard may be corrupting your xbox or something. Don't take my word on it though. Hopefully Gstaff will have some sort of solution for you.

Does Bethesda's staff view these forums?

I hope they take note and repair the DLC and re-release it again, with a little note that says if we installed it prior to the patched version, delete it and reinstall the fresh update.

Nothing is impossible.

It certainly seems that Dawnguard and my Xbox do seriously not like each other. I tried loading a good portion of my save files last night, and none of them would get past the initial loading screen. They would all be active for a couple of minutes, with the text bits cycling by and the model able to be manipulated like normal. After what seems like an appropriate loading time, the Xbox always locks up. I'm not sure if the game freezes during the loading process itself, or right as it is trying to switch to the playable game environment. Either way it svcks.

As an aside, I was curious if maybe the Xbox marketplace was causing my issues by not downloading the files correctly, so I downloaded a game demo to test it out. The demo file was around 1.5GB, almost 3x the size of Dawnguard, and I was able to play it through without a hitch. That tells me that storage is not an issue, and my connection to the marketplace is also good. Everything seems to point towards Dawnguard being the central issue here.

It may be the location where the character is saved has bugged out. My 1.5 archer character cant go to some dragon sites or it will freeze on the load screen during fast travel with 1.6 & DG. I would suggest your try a new character and see if the game plays ok with DG installed.

It's possible, but I tried loading 6 or 7 different saves across various locations in Skyrim. I remember trying Riften, Whiterun, and some Skyrim open area saves as well. None could get past the loading screen. I'll try the new game later tonight when I get off work.

Starting a new game seemed promising at first, but it froze before the carriage was able to reach Helgen.