No matter what tactics i use, no matter what i do i cannot complete this quest because when i walk past the stones which are supposed to light up raising the gates in front of me, they have no reaction at all. making the mission impossible to complete. has anyone else had this problem and if so how can it be fixed?

130+ so far no quest bugged I had one time a bug in mage college secundary quest when a girl tried to cast a spell on me and the spell hited the guy next to me, fixed it just with a reload. So what i sugest is for u to restart the quest from a earlyer saved game, or try to delete the game instalation and patch, and install all again.

Try 'waiting' or 'resting' for 30+ days then close, and load your save and try again.

I just did this quest, thankfully it worked for me.

+1

Yup, got stories to tell my Nordlet grandchildren about the imprevious to fire/lightining Lydia

Due to the possibility of a glitch in a quest, I ALWAYS save my game before starting ANY quest. or before travelling or entering a new area, dungeon, or cave. That way if it glitches, I can just re-load my previous save without having to go to far back.

It's only happened once so far. When doing the "Madness" quest that involves Sheogarath and the west wing of Blue Castle in Solitude.

I I got through most of it but at one point for some reason I started hearing noise that sounded like someone was locked in a chest or knocking on a door (Lots of banging).
At 1st I thought it was part of the quest until I left the quest and was still hearing it even though I wasn't in the west wing anymore. So instead of saving, I fast travelled to Whitrun. The banging was still there while walking in the streets. It was obviously a glitch. So I loaded the prvious save and re-did the quest. This time it worked fine. No banging. I saved and moved on.

The point here is.....Save before each quest. And when you finish the quest, be sure it completed correctly before saving again. You'll save yourself alot of aggravation in the long run.

at the stone gate puzzle I can't get all 3 stones to light up at the same time, I can light up 2 stones as soon as I walk towards the 3rd stone one of the other 2 drops.
Is there a pot where all 3 stones will light up? any thing that can be dropped to keep the stones lighted up? help...

Get a running start, then when the first 2 pillars are lit, use your whirlwind sprint shout.