This is the third time I've had Dawnguard CTD at the exact same point - and I've never had a CTD before in >1000 hours playing Skyrim.

In the "Awakening" quest, I woke up Serana and am on the way out. I throw the lever that opens the sarcophagi with the Draugr and Draugr Deathlord. The Deathlord shouts, and BAM, CTD.

Music to my ears.. This isn't exactly a good thing.. But warning for me before I get on PC..

interesting

Dawnguard has screwed me. I paid my $20 and the download seemed to go fine. Fired up Skyrim and instead of being at my last saved content, I'm at the inn in Riverwood with Hadvar. I try to leave and CTD. I try to load a previous save. Ok, i'm in Riften. I try to walk out the north gate and... I'm back in Riften. I try this several times. Each time, I'm back in Riften. Like some video Escher print. So, I back track. I go to the options screen at the start of the game and unload the "Dawnguard" file. Success! The game runs fine. Stop the game, reboot the machine, restart with Dawnguard file loaded. Aaaaaannnnnnndddddd... I'm back at the Sleeping Giant having a beer with Hadvar.

Really??? $20 for this??? C'mon guys...

do you have any mods? if does it will not be compatible since the dawnguard release alot of script try deactiveting your mods

Okay, as the day goes by and these threads pop up.. I'm nervous. Dawnguard just finished loading, Steam says Ready to play. Is it really? *crossing my fingers*

FWIW, I have only 13 mods.

I saved, quit, waited till Steam had fully resynced and then restarted. For the first time I got past that damn shouty Deathlord.
Still in the very start of the "Bloodlines" quest. We'll see how far I get before the next CTD. This DLC certainly has me in paranoid save-quit-resync-restart mode.

I was getting a CTD when shouting. The issue for me was a mod that changed the sound of thunder (as when you shout, thunder sound effects are played). Try disabling any mods that do that, if you have any.

Thanks a lot, Elijah Houck, I think you're onto something!

"Realistic Thunder Sound" IS one of my mods. I'll unsubscribe from it and see if it makes things more stable.

Ok, I took Genjou's advice and took out my mods. Success. I put them back in one at a time. It seems to fail on "Unlimited Tamriel" and one of the map enhancing mods. I am very happy that my "Sounds of Skyrim" mods are working with Dawnguard. Enough maddness for one night. Genjou: you are a gentleman and a scholar. Thanks.

Ive heard rumors that if you have any mods installed that change dragons they die immediately upon spawning. Anyone care to test this out?

when bethesda adding expansion there will always mods that conflict it just wait the mod maker to update there mod for dawnguard