I played a game and just got to a point where I can no longer do anything to keep going in this quest - this bug is preventing me. Esbern won't open the door and he doesn't talk. The subtitles just skip very fast.

Is Skyrim team aware of this major issue and are they planing any bugfix soon?!

Thanks.

I believe they said last month that they'd start working on broken quests in January (having previously focused their efforts on technical problems).

There is a way to fix that bug without waiting for this patch.

Use google... Search Esbern fix PC

Or you could tell him directly...

Open the console (by pressing ` or ~ or something) and type in "setstage mq202 160", that will open the door and you can continue the quest, Esbern is bugged though and wont have any audio, you just have to spam "E" when talking to him.

this is what worked for me...create a save before entering the room where esbern is.close the game and delete the 2 ini files in your documents.restart the game and it will work as it should.

Thanks everyone! I searched for solution...

What worked for me is this. I added two lines in skyrim.ini file

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - Voicesixtra.bsa

With this I both have Esbern talking for real and opening the door. Esbern really slowly opens the door and talks all the time while he is doing it. The "fast speach" bug probably prevents him from doing this and without this patch it's nearly impossible to continue.

I really hope this will be officially acknowledged and fixed. I noticed thousands of people having the same problem... What's worse it seems the whole quest with Esbern is kind of buggy, at least what I've read so far (and I don't want to know more because of the spoilers!).

Thanks!

YES! YES! YES! I had been completely stuck on this ridiculous bug for months now. I tried everything that everyone else suggested all over the internet and this is ultimately what fixed it for me. Absolutely disgusted with Bethesda about such a stupid bug. Completely awful quality control. I'll seriously think twice about buying another one of their games after the number of issues I've had with Skyrim (which is otherwise a wonderful game).

Anyhow, I digress. I created this account for the sole purpose of thanking you and hoping that others see your info if they are in the same boat.

It seems these bugs are hit or miss. I experiance no bug with esbern, on my three playthroughs this far. I wonder what causes it for some, and why others nothing negative happens?

It must be terribly hard to test these things, knowing that they could play through this esbern door part and have it work(like me) and never know anything is wrong. I bet it has something to due more with individuals pc set ups then anything. I remember playing an old pc rpg on my pc and it running through cut scenes lightening fast due to modern CPU speeds. So though not technically a bug, I was still unable play.

Basically what I'm saying is people who are like the poster above me need to pop their balloons and float back down to the rest of us. Your really totally disgusted?! Get real, I'm sure if you understood anything about making a game you'd be amazed they accomplished what they have done so far. Show some gratitude, instead of wah wah waaahhhing like a baby!

Intresting...I also have not had one problem with that Quest, Or Esburn in either Character I have.

Yeah, I have two characters, and this only happened on one of them. I restored the default inis and Esbern started talking and progressing again. But it wasn't just that first quest. Everytime he needed to say and do stuff this would happen, and everyime I needed to exit and use default inis. Then i tried the fix involving adding the bsa files and those lines to the ini and it cleared up the problem for good.

Cossa, your are lucky. Nothing has worked for me. Including the command setstage mq202 160. I've done all that was suggested through a lengthly google search and all I get is "go away"...

I guess I'll just have to wait for the patch. Bummer.

I do have to say that this game is amazing. Huge. I'm surprised they were able to do what they have done, let alone not have a million glitches. I hope this is only the geginning.

I can't even get the quest to start and I have tried everything!