If I knew it was going to cause a problem I would have left the damn thing in the chest where I found it but it's too late now. If they do patch this glitch (really hoping for at next patch) should I leave the quest unfinished? Because I picked up the lute before I started the quest I am forced to carry it's 4 weight around. What I'm asking is: will turning in the lute prevent the patch working for me? Like, will the patch fix the dialogue with the person so I can start the quest *then* give them the lute? or remove the lute from my inventory if I already completed the quest? I just dont want to screw things up worse. Thanks

bump?

Are there different lutes? I've found a couple. Didn't know they were quest related. It just says lute in the inventory. Doesn't specify a name.

yeah, Finn's lute. i got same issue

I had this same problem, but then i found out that quest items weigh nothing at all - even if they say they do.

Save the game then drop absolutely everything you have - you should only be left with keys and undroppable quest items like Finns lute, Glenmoril witches head, etc.

Your carry weight will be 0 even if the items have weight.

That eased my conscience.

The issue I'm having is that I turned in the quest (Bard's Collage in Solitude) and the damn thing is still in my inventory.

I have all three bard instruments in my inventory and I can't drop them. I picked up Pantea's Flute before getting the quest. The other two finished fine but the instruments are still in my inventory.

I find these types of quest bugs more unforgivable than the hardware issues (which I consider the lag issue) because, in my opinion, they are just sloppy quest design that should be preventable. As long as Bethesda has been making these type of games you would think part of the testing criteria for quests would be "What happens if the player finds the item or kills the NPC before they get the quest?" Just as an FYI the three Objectives borked for me are:

Find Pantea's Flute - Found before I received the quest
Find the Skooma Source - Partially cleared the cave before the quest was received.
Kill Petra - Probably because I did not let the other hag out of her cage. I killed petra and the quest marker still points at her dead body. Freeing the other Hag she goes only to the room before the one where I killed Petra. Shoot, I even drug Petra to her and dropped the dead body at her feet. Nothing.