I just installed Dawnguard, but when I try to play the game it crashes as soon as I see the logo.

I tried to start it with mods disabled, but it doesn't work either. Then I tried it with Dawnguard enabled, and it works.

What can I do to play with Dawnguard now?

How can I check if the download was 100% complete? Do I have to put the Dawnguard esm. on top of the list?
I didn't uninstall my mods prior to downloading Dawnguard - how can I try to install it again with the mods deinstalled? Is there a way to uninstall Dawnguard and try again?

Any help is appreciated.

No one can answer my questions?

Dawnguard doesn't work for pc , mostly for localized version , if you reinstall the whole game perhaps you will be able to launch the game but it still soffers from a lot of random ctds ... so is unplayable atm ...

Also some more information about what kind of system you are using would help them.NOT your Dxdiag! Just basic info.Are you Overclocking are you not?Are your settings High on all.Do you have the latest DirectX which you should only need DX9. Are you using Crossfire or SLI? Simple stuff.If you cant even start it up.It has mostly to do with video so you know.Or compression of the file with Steam.Or your Zip program on your computer decompressing it that may be interfering.(It's possible!)

I verified integrity now and now I can start the game with Dawnguard activated.

I can't seem to start a new game. The game loads, just can't start a game. Even verifying game cache did nothing for me.

Why would one need to reinstall the game? Can't we just move Dawnguard out of Data (hide with Bash) and then make sure plugins.txt/use BOSS is done?

[edit] Seems this is related to SKSE. I can't start a new game with SKSE active, sometimes I can but then I can't reload the save.

I'd like to remark that in my case the same problem was fixed by switching the game to English interface language in Steam. Maybe that would be of use for someone else.

1. Check if SKSE is installed correctly. The easiest way to do this is to just reinstall. I had problems with my SKSE because files keep spontaneously disappearing..So every now and then I do a fresh install of SKSE to replace the missing files. Last time it happened, I only had 72/345 SKSE script files. So Just try and reinstall it, it might work.
2. Check that your SKSE is up to date. Current version is 1.5.11. To check if it's up to date, right click the SKSE launcher, Properties>Details Tab.
3. Check your mod load order. Sometimes problems are caused because the mod load order is incorrect. BOSS does correct the load order somewhat, but not entirely accurate. So after using BOSS, check the mod load order and make sure everything is where it should be.


As someone else mentioned, if it's crashing before the logo, verify the integrity of your game. If there are files missing, doing this will download and replace them.
If it still doesn't work, then it's likely a mod.
Check that all your mods are up to date, and make sure that they are compatible with Dawnguard. Also check you mod load order, as that could cause problems. If you use SKSE, then check the about 3 answers I gave to Psymon.

EDIT:
Also, reinstalling the game entirely is a LAST RESORT, in my opinion. It's not always a necessary thing to do. Usually, most problems are fixed without having to reinstall.

The biggest problem are the constant CTD without any notice even if you manage to get Dawnguard start and run the problem is that the game will suddenly randomly ctd .

The constant CTDs could happen for a number of reasons, but doing research, you'll find that many people have a problem with DG itself taking up a lot of memory. It could also be due to save game bloat. Check the size of your save game. Unless you're talking about a new game still CTDing constantly, which in that case, it's likely Dawnguard itself.

I do not see the point of having a new save game to play dawnguard considered that you are supposed to be at least level 10 to start the quest.

Some players like me, want to play through the content with a fresh perspective and have a challenge while doing so. It takes all of an hour to make it to level 10, hell you can be level 10 before even leaving riverwood for the first time.

This:

And getting to level 10 isn't that long. You can do it in maybe in a single game session, maybe 2 if you're on a high difficulty level. Only 30 mins if you're willing to cheat (unless your on a console)