Going crazy with mod installations, as we did in our previous Skyrim Overhaul kit, can lead to constant CTDs, freezing, black screens, glitches, and crashing; despite how fun running through every possible solution in a crash fix guide is, it's not fun at all to potentially wipe your Skyrim installation clean and remove all mods. Having installed well over 100 mods myself (with many, sadly, being removed), I've now tested a variety of methods to troubleshoot mods in Skyrim. Let's run through the troubleshooting techniques so you can find the conflicting mods in your TES installation!
Utilties
Troubleshooting manually is extremely time-consuming and can be overwhelming enough to opt for just quitting the game. Thankfully, modders are incredibly talented and nice people, so we can always rely on them for diagnosis tools when working with mods. We'll list out some of the best mod managers and troubleshooters below.
Safety First: Backup Your Saved Games
Although your saved games should be safe in the event of a re-install, it's only a minute of work to ensure they're safe forever. Assuming Windows 7, navigate to C:\Documents\My Games\Skyrim, copy the folder's contents (including the .ini files, just in case you've made changes), and paste them to a separate location. Pasting it one level up in a "Skyrim-Bak" folder or on a Flash/External drive are the recommended options.
Start Using a Mod Manager
First off, if you're not already using a mod manager, you should. It'll make everything easier. Seriously -- infinitely easier. In fact, I would recommend you take a few minutes to re-download all of your mods via the Nexus Mod Manager (preferred over Steam's unreliable mod management) to make your future as "Senior VP of Mod Installation" possible. You do want to move up in the corporate Skyrim world, right? Of course you do. As you continue to extend Skyrim, the NMM will help support the community and even notify its users of mod updates as they're rolled out; it installs all the mods to a custom /mods/ directory (you designate this), that way -- in the event of uninstalling Skyrim and re-installing it -- you actually keep all your mods and won't have to re-download individual packages.
It took me 30 minutes to re-setup my (at the time) 70 mods with NMM. I know, I know -- it's not much. I've accumulated many more since then.
BOSS
BOSS, or "Better Oblivion Sorting Software" (despite the name, it has been adapted to work with Skyrim), is an extremely easy-to-use tool that helps automatically determine the best mod loading order and prioritization in Skyrim. It'll help move mods up or down in the load queue and recommend Wyre Bash settings (below) to minimize the probability of seemingly-random CTDs.
Download BOSS here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=6
Wyre Bash
Wyre Bash is an extremely powerful Skyrim Mod Management utility. Let's start with a feature list on this one:
- A color-coded listing of mods.
- Load order of mods.
- Modified date for mods (so you know what you installed and when), as well as their total size, mod description, master files, bash tags, and author.
- A plugin icon set of alternative Skyrim starters (like SKSE for SkyUI) that are linked directly into Wyre Bash/Smash.
- A mod checker to determine rule sets and configurations.
- Save game management with full support for 'what mods were installed upon save,' that way you can always figure out which new mods broke your game.
- INI edits.
- Screenshot management.
It's a powerful tool, as I said. The most useful bit is the color coding of conflicting mods, making it easy to determine corrupted files or improper load order; save game management and mod lists per save game files make things fluid to troubleshoot.
Wyre Bash also has BASH tags (which BOSS will auto-recommend for you) to force compatibilities between otherwise incompatible mods, sometimes.
Download Wyre Bash/Smash here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=1840
Troubleshooting Skyrim
Troubleshooting methodologies will vary based on use case scenarios, but let's assume that you -- like many of us -- installed numerous mods without checking for compatibilities after each successive installation. There are loads of different ways to detect incompatibilities with Skyrim, and for sake of brevity, here's another list of common flags:
- CTDs (crash-to-desktop) when loading specific zones/cells/towns/etc.
- Freezing when loading.
- Crashing when carrying a particular item (weapon/armor mods).
- Texture tearing, flickering, or shadow striping (normally conflicting texture packs).
- Crashing upon launching the game.
The obvious answer, of course, is to disable all your most-recently installed mods (the mods you installed since your last successful launch). Does it work now? OK. It's one of those. You can use Wyre Bash (mentioned in the Utilities section) to determine which mods were enabled during the last functional save.
If it's a bigger problem and disabling the most recent mods doesn't help, then we're looking at a few different options for troubleshooting.
If disabling the most recent mods didn't work, try disabling all mods except the core Skyrim masters file (and the update file), then launch the game and see if it's functional. If it crashes, skip to the Clean Re-install method.
Double-Installations and Reverting .ini Changes
First: Don't ever double-install mods via Steam Workshop and manual methods. Having done this in the past, it's cause for an entire break of the game and, depending on how many files the mod changes, may require a complete reinstall (more below).
.ini changes can also cause Skyrim to crash instantly when launching (before loading a game, for instance). If you'd like to restore your .ini files to their default settings (back-up your changes, first), simply delete the files or move them, then do the following:
- Open Steam.
- Right-click on Skyrim -> Properties.
- Click the Local Files tab.
- Verify the integrity of the game's cache. This should fetch missing files.
Any FXAA, post-processing, or deep-delving graphics changes (.ENB series may be included, depending on the distribution selected) may have broken some of the core files of the game. If this is the case, I've found that deleting D3D9.dll and re-fetching it via the above verification of cache will help.
Some problems are too deeply-rooted in the game's core directories to manually fix, though, and changing mod load orders doesn't always help.
Most mods will have a detailed page of troubleshooting or known-issues. Some mods, like the dynamic weather and lighting mods, are most functional when loaded last. Move things around to see if it helps. Do so logically.
"Why Would I Crash Here?"
This is a pretty important question to ask yourself. When crashing only upon loading a zone or in a particular cell, try to figure out what mods would interact with that cell. If it's in Whiterun, maybe it's a Whiterun-related mod or texture pack. If it's when opening a shop, maybe it's a custom item mod.
That said, it's not always mods that seem like they'd interact with a cell. To illustrate a point, I once ran through the entire list (below) and still experienced crashes. I crashed upon nearing Dawnstar, and tried disabling character mods, texture packs, and the like. Eventually, I grew frustrated and disabled everything at the bottom of my load list -- lo and behold, it was all caused by a mod that enables 'quest markers' for NPC followers and companions. I found that moving it toward the top of my load order fixed the issue.
Alternatively, if you find yourself habitually slamming alt+f4 as a Giant's club swings toward the earth, there may be other issues at hand.
Use the Native Client
Using non-native clients (like SKSE or other launchers) may result in insta-crashes. Try using Steam's native client to launch the game.
Clean Re-install
Using the Nexus Mod Manager (or manually sorting your mods into a separate folder) means that we can effortlessly uninstall Skyrim and delete any core files without having to spend hours searching for mods that were installed.
This method will delete all of the game's content, so for safety purposes, back up your save games (as the first section of this article mentions) to a separate folder and keep 'em safe.
- Back-up your saved game files and any .ini changes you want to keep.
- Open Steam; right-click on Skyrim -> Delete Local Content.
- Is everything backed up? Good.
- Once the core content is deleted, navigate to /Steam/Steamapps/Common/, rename the "Skyrim" folder (which should now only contain your /mods/ directory and any left-over, non-core changes you made) to "Skyrim-Backup."
- Re-install Skyrim via disc or download.
- Once installed anew -- if storage space permits -- copy the Skyrim Folder to /Steam/Steamapps/Common/Skyrim-Clean/. Creating a copy of Skyrim's core files means you won't ever have to re-download it again in the event of cataclysm, you'd simply just delete the contents and copy the clean files into the /Skyrim root directory.
- Copy over the /mods/ directory from your "Skyrim-Backup" folder into your /Skyrim directory.
- Re-apply the clean mods with Nexus Mod Manager or Wyre Bash.
- Run BOSS.
- Go through Wyre Bash and run the Mod Checker (bottom toolbar, with the pencil and paper icon).
- Use Wyre Bash to check for clean saved game files -- what mods are installed there? Keep this in mind.
- Try launching the game.
- Enable the most recent mods one-by-one until the game breaks (if it breaks).
- You now know which mods are conflicting.
Everything should be clean now. Go forth, brave soul, and install more mods! Run out of mod slots? Wyre Bash will merge mods to allow for more.
Have any questions? Post below and ask or join our forums for in-depth help!
-Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.