I've been changing and reverting uGridstoLoad since the first week of playing Skyrim, haven't had a single problem with it. I've been using uGridstoLoad=9 for a month now and since the HD texture pack have been noticing some lag, so I wanted to drop it to 7. I used this protocal:

Open save as usual
open console command
setini "ugridstoload:general" 5
saveini
refreshini

Been using that forever. I then went into the Skyrim.ini file, changed it to 5. When I start up the game now the logo is orange (obviously wrong) and when I load any save game it crashes immediatly. I tried reverting it back to uGridstoLoad=9 and the saved games still crash! I made sure I adjusted the EteriorCellBuffer accordingly... I'm not a newb here.

I have no idea what to do. Never had a single uGrids problem until now and I am worried my 172 hour character is gone forver.

Anyone have any tips or tricks I can to salvage these save files?

Thanks for any help.

Check your Skyrim\Data folder (where the game is installed) for another Skyrim.ini or Skyrimprefs.ini file. If you find either, delete them.

Negative... Deleted the ones I found in the data folder, same results. Crashes when I try to load. What setting should I have in my Skyrim.ini folder? The 9 or 5 settings? (I've tried them both anyway with the same crashing results.)

this is what I use for 7
uExterior Cell Buffer=64
uGridsToLoad=7
iPreloadSizeLimit=51380224

for 9 you would need other values sorry but I don't know them I am sure you could google them

I understand what is *supposed* to work. Problem is the correct values are not working. In fact no values are working.

The orange logos indicate either extra ini files, or that your "proper" ones have bad settings in them. Try deleting them all.

That becuase since patch 1.3(? I think), the saveini comand will create a ini file that dumps all the variables into the Skyrim/Data folder. It will not overwrite your Skyrim.ini file in your MyGames/Skyrim.

You have to do it a bit differntly now.

Load your game.
Alt-Tab out and change the ugrid value in your MyGames\Skyrim\Skyrim.ini file.
Save it.
Alt-Tab back in the game (I need to Alt-Tab to Skyrim twice to get it to re-init).
Open the console.
Do the refreshini.
It will load your new Ugrid settings.
Save your game.
Exit, check you settings.
Start Skyrim and then reload your fresh save game that has the reduced Urgid value from above.

Yeah, I had to roll back to 7 also. I am pushing right up against 2gigs of Vram being used on my 6950 right now. Worse is around Riften, it goes to 1.9 when running around the trees.

Bats

Yes, your original method is not the safest, most reliable method to use. Use...er..."Col_Batguano"'s method.
The only thing I would amend would be to change "uExterior Cell Buffer" to 64 at the same time you change "uGridsToLoad" to 7. It can go just below uGrids in the Skyrim.ini. I have a 1.5GB GTX 580 and with the HRTP, I seem to max out at around 1500MB of VRAM used (monitored in-game with MSI Afterburner OSD). I have not experienced any crashes with 1.4.21 since SKSE was updated to 1.04.10.

Higher uGrids does have its drawbacks, however. (Spoiler below)

Spoiler

With a higher uGridsToLoad setting, Alduin can be seen resurrecting a dragon from much farther off, making it difficult to intervene.

Thanks for the suggestions.

The only problem is that all of those suggestions require me to load up a save game which I am unable to do. Every save game I have regardless of uGrid settings immeditaly crashes the game when I try to load it.

I had the same problem trying to revert to uGrids 5 until I deleted the extra Skyrim.ini file.

You've already suggested that and I confirmed it did not solve the issue.

Literally had the exact same issue this morning. Here's what's happened:

When you told the game to save and refresh the ini file, it saved the ini file into your Data folder. BUT, it didn't save it as Skyrim.ini. Oh no. That would be sensible. Instead, it selected a mod you have in there at random, and created a new ini file with that mod's name, saving everything in there. It now reads from that ini file whenever you load or start a new game, ignoring the ini files in the usual folder. You'll have to look through your data folder for any mods that appear to have ini files, and check to see which of them is actually the new Skyrim.ini. Delete it, and the game should now use the Skyrim.ini file from the normal location (users / my documents / my games / Skyrim).

For me it created the new ini under the Triss Armor mod. Others have had it under Realistic Water Textures, and Killable Children. So have a good look through that Data folder, and kill it with fire when you find it.

Good luck

I will try this when I get home. Any tips on finding these INI files? I don't want to go deleting things without being sure. How did you find yours?

I just opened the ini files for any mods that had them. Luckily, few of them do, and 'Triss Armor' shouldn't have one at all - so that stood out quite well.

Basically, just open any file listed as 'configuration settings' under the 'type' column (they have the icon for an ini file) and see what's inside it. If it's for a mod, it'll likely be full of mod-specific instructions and descriptions. If it's the Skyrim.ini file, it will look exactly like your current Skyrim.ini file, only much much longer, since it now has lines that change menu colours pink

If in doubt, simply move it out of the Data folder (onto your desktop for example) and see if the game works without it. If that fixes the game, you know it's safe to delete.

You are the effing man! There was uGrids garbage just thrown into some random mod .ini. Deleted that .ini and I'm golden.

Thank you so much! Saveed 172 hours of life!

@ Darkstorne

Thank you!!!!! I was having some serious issues with my only game that works, on the only computer it stills runs on. Found the extra .ini in Realistic Water so I can indeed confirm it will save the Skyrim .ini there if you use the saveini command from the console. I had taken out the Triss Armor on one computer after deleting my old character, but I found an .ini saved into my old folder on the other computer I run it on.

I was just looking through all the bug reports looking for a fix or even a reason why this was going on.

Stuff like this has me singing the "FUTH-Ro-Duh?" ballad all damn day.