I searched for this in the Forum, and got no results, but if I missed it somehow, please forgive me.for repeating it. I have Finn's lute and Paneta's flute in my inventory even though both quests have been successfully completed. Unfortunately, they count against the weight I am carrying. Any idea how to get rid of them?

Also, I still can't get "Blood on the Ice" to work. In the quest area, I have the quest to see the guy in the Jarl's court for some help, and the part to investigate the crime scene, but neither work! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

They don't count against your encumbrance, even though weights are listed.

I saw a post a couple of days ago that claimed the stuck bard instruments bug was fixed with the latest patch, which is currently a beta available through Steam for PC users.

Unfortunately, being a beta, it also reportedly broke other things in the game, so I haven't tried it yet.

This happens to just about everyone, but they don't count against your weight - no quest items do while marked as quest items.

But the other two I cannot explain, I have not encountered this issue yet( fingers crossed)

The issue with the bards' instruments is fixed by patch 1.4, the latest official non-beta patch. It is not, however, retroactive.

I appreciate all of your responses. It is good to know the items don't count toward my weight. It looks like Blood on the Snow is out of my reach since the patch isn't retroactive.