Since installing Dawnguard - I had no problems previous to installing Dawnguard - Skyrim now freezes or crashes to desktop on a frequent basis, usually within 15 minutes of starting to play. This occurs without warning, with no discernible pattern (it occurs anywhere and anytime, not in a specific place or when performing a specific action), and it occurs both in interior and exterior areas of the game. I'm running Windows XP SP3. My drivers are all up to date as far as I know. I am running NO mods. No background applications are running - in fact, I start playing Skyrim immediately after a fresh boot of my computer. My DirectX is version 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904).

This may be hard to swallow, but you might have to make a new character/save. Also uninstall the creation kit if you have it and make sure to delete the ".....\Data\Scripts" folder. This seems to be the best solution at the moment for treating the random freezes and crashes which can be caused by scripts running in your saved game that have changed with patches and DLC/Mods.

Hmmm...

1) Is it proven that making a new character fixes the problem?

2) Why would uninstalling the Creation Kit do anything? The Creation Kit didn't cause a problem for Skyrim - it's Dawnguard causing the problem. Besides, the Creation Kit isn't doing anything while Skyrim is running.

Is Bethesda working on fixing this at all? Other threads I've read seem to indicate that it's Bethesda's memory leak or other technical problem.

1) Absolutley not. It does not cure the problem, but seems to at least treat the problem. Meaning, less frequent crashes. Scripts that belonged to non-patched, modded or otherwise different than the latest version of scripts gamesas has updated are still persistent in saved games and can cause conflicts with updated official scripts.

2) Again the scripts, the Creation Kit installs these into the ".....\Data\Scripts" folder as loose files. Since the Creation Kit seems to always be a step behind the patches, and the game loads the loose files as priority over archived/container files these scripts can break things.

There definately seems to be something incredibly broken with the game in many areas since 1.7 and/or Dawnguard. I remember patch 1.4 or 1.5 gave us the same optimizations as TESVAL and Skyboost. Those optimizations seem to be missing now.

To add to crippknottick's comments:

1) Scripts from uninstalled mods may still be running in your current character save and causing problems. The saves for a new character will not have these scripts running. Unfortunately, there is nothing currently available to remove these scripts from saves, so you have to start over. My current strategy is to create a backup folder for my saves prior to installing new mods, that way I can revert if there is a problem. It's a pain, but it saves headaches.

2) Dead on re: the CK.

Are you using any mods that change leveled lists? If so , installing Wrye Bash will help you manage them. In my own game, leveled lists were giving me some problems which led to CTDs. Wrye Bash fixed that for me.

Yeah, something is definitely up with the game--and Bethesda. Fortunately, the game will be fixed eventually. Hang in there. Also, remember this the next time they release a DLC. You know what you have to do.

Hi guys,
I just installed Dawnguard, and played ~44 hours with it, using my Level 68 Breton guy.
(He is now Level 69 and three-quarters, heheh...)
Point is:
No, you don't need to start a new player-character!
Dawnguard works perfectly with my guy, and the 8 or 9 mods I've installed.
Of course, I'm running USKP v1.2 and the new UDGP too.
Sure, every few hours of uninterrupted gameplay I get the occasional >poof< crash to desktop...
But it takes at least 2 or 3 hours.
Plus I know it's getting to be time for a re-boot anyway, because certain textures will begin to disappear (making NPCs look like Star Wars characters dressed in white).
In my opinion you've gotta run both unofficial patches - it's the only way!
Regards

where can i download these "unofficial" patches and what load order must they be in???, please help.

from skyrim nexus. put them after dawnguard.esm

Dawnguard is very bugged if is working probably is working only for the non localized versions because anytime I play it it constantly CTDs , I have reinstalled all folders removed any mod deleted the whole skyrim folder and reinstall , managed to play dawnguard for a couple minutes then constant ctds ...

No mods. Constant CTDs and/or freezes.

New character several days ago, and the ctd's lockups came in with it. My previous character didn't have them.

My only solution is to save often and curse.

Could we have PLEASE Any OFFICIAL answer on this issue a lot of people are having ?

It's not much different to the ctd's introduced into Fallout 3 with Broken Steel...no explanation, no fix.

Not really with this kind of ctds I cannot even walk around , as I constantly ctd and is frigging annoying so that I had to stop playing , I couln't even reach Dawnguard castle !!!....

I've been trying to solve this through Bethesda technical support. I give tech support credit because they keep trying to help me, even though they must know it's a hopeless cause. Bethesda programmers need to fix this instead of ignoring it, and wasting the time of the technical support team whose "solutions" are not helping me (or probably anyone else). This has been the tech support conversation so far... maybe one of these "solutions" will help someone else. (These are, by the way, in chronological order.)

Support: Turn off background applications
Me: I used to run Skyrim with tons of bg apps such as Photoshop and no problems. To humor you, I'll try running now with no bg apps - nope, doesn't fix it.

Support: Lower sound acceleration
Me: Nope, doesn't fix it.

Support: Don't load startup items (msconfig).
Me: (Be very careful if trying this option.) This is not the normal way for anyone to run their computer, so you can't suggest it as a solution. But I have minimized startup to essentials only, and tried playing the game from a fresh boot. Didn't fix it.

Support: Update your graphics card drivers.
Me: You didn't read my dxdiag properly. I have the latest drivers.

Support: Reinstall DirectX.
Me: Reinstalled, didn't help.

Support: Problems can develop with Windows users. Create a new Windows user and play the game with that user.
Me: Didn't work.

Support: Disable HD texture packs.
Me: Never used them.

Support: Put Dawnguard at top of load order.
Me: It always was, I am not using any mods except Dawnguard and now Hearthfire.

So I'm interested to see what support will come up with next...

It would been nice to see at least some post by Bethesda team on the subject .

I haven't played Skyrim for quite a while so I've got a ton of mods but they're probably old. At the time I was adding mods, there was only one unofficial patch and it's Kivan's USP 1.0 Beta. Everything used to work just fine and I had a very stable game until installing Dawnguard. Now I get a CTD almost every time I encounter a battle while mounted. Sometimes if I know an enemy is up ahead I can get off my horse and avoid the CTD but that doesn't always work. It doesn't seem to CTD anywhere else. I'm thinking it's probably some combination of Horses For Followers or whatever mod makes mounted bows possible.

Hmmm... I was going to post my mod list so I opened Wry Bash and it's telling me Dawnguard.esm is corrupted. Several mods are highlighted in red. I've never really figured out how to do very much with Wry Bash. Can someone help me?

http://i.imgur.com/BoGSm.png

Edit: I should also add, that the load order shown here isn't what shows up in Nexus Mod Manager. I'm not sure if Wry Bash changes the order whenever I open it so every time I do, I use BOSS to re-sort the load order.

Sorry, multiple post.

I played through dawngaurd twice already with no issues, I started a new character and now the majority of locations added by dawngaurd crash my game. I uninstalled all my mods, and reinstalled skyrim and that hasn't helped at all. It isn't causing ctds in non dawngaurd areas but it is a load of bull that I can't use something I payed for.