Hello,recently I had to format my computer,I installed all the latest drivers and Skyrim,I played for hours for the next 2-3 days without an issue.Well,other than the usual fps drops in indoor areas and the occasional drops of fps to 1.These I could live with but now it started to freeze after an hour or so when I take a quicksave.Before the format this happened very rarely,after the format it didin't happen for 2-3 days,now it's happening constantly.I am not sure why but I am reformating my computer as we speak and I hope it will fix it.Any insight would be much appreciated.

Specs:
i7 870 2.93 cpu
460gtx 1gb gfx
8gb ddr3 ram
1tb sata2 hdd

Reformatting your hard drive likely won't solve the problem. It sounds like you need to update a driver for your disk controller. If the game is freezing when you do a quicksave, it's probably something to do with disk access. Make sure all your device drivers are up to date if you're still having problems.

Make sure you don't have any unidentified devices in device manager and that not only your video card drivers are updated but all other system device drivers. Also, the game FPS shouldn't ever drop to 1 if you're using the recommended detail level settings suggested by the launcher. Try running without mods or INI tweaks at Medium or High detail settings (your card should be capable of that).

The only other possible cause I can think of is a slow or failing hard drive. This would be a likely cause of freezes (when you quicksave) or drastic slowdowns (FPS drops) as data is loaded or the pagefile is being accessed. If you have more than 2GB of system memory, you could configure Windows to not use a pagefile and see if that helps, but a slow hard drive will always present problems.

Well this computer is brand new actually,so I don't think anything's broken.And like I said this used to happen very rarely before this.I only had it happen for two times before,since I bought the game.And before the format I would play for hours and this wouldn't happen.FPS drop happens even when I use the recommended settings,I did a lot of research on that subject and it seems common with computer specs similar to mine.Besides my performance is great outdoors even when I set the settings to ultra,the only problem is indoors.I don't even get any short term freezes when I enter new areas outdoors,it's pretty smooth so I think my hard disk can handle it.

I mean I can play Witcher 2 with ultra settings on this computer,I just have to disable super sampling.At first I didn't expect to play it on those settings but I was surprised how acceptable the performance was.After the research I did I came to the conclusion that the FPS drops to 1 are the game's fault.I don't mind that as ctrl+alt+tab fixes it,I don't mind having low fps indoors either as it seems the game uses the cpu to render shadows and requires a better cpu than mine to give a decent fps.My only problem is this right now which started happening recently.I don't have any problems with any other game.There are no unidentified devices in the manager,the only driver I don't install is the bluetooth driver as I don't use it and the installation is problematic for some reason.Bluetooth wouldn't have anything to do with this of course.And I don't use any mods nor do I use any .ini tweaks.

I refuse to believe it's my computer,freezes during gameplay or loading are very common with people from what I read here and other forums,as is FPS drops indoors and FPS drops to 1.The engine is very flawed.The only people who are not having such problems are the ones with very high system specs.

After the newest patch my crashing problems were solved,my performance improved,especially indoors and I played for hours without any freezes at all,the only change I made was to install the newest Realtek driver.But then,after the format I again played for hours for 2-3 days and no freezes.I am pretty sure there is nothing wrong with my computer,I am starting to think somehow the .ini files were corrupted.

Brand new stuff can still be defective.



Not true. I've had zero problems and I'm on a laptop and one with specs from the 2008-2009 era. Good specs at the time, but dated now, and I still have yet to run into any issues at all in Skyrim like this. Never discount anything until you fully test it out.

Well then either you are very lucky or you play with very low settings.I know I have no problems if I set shadow quality to low.But the thing is I actually know a great deal about hardware and software,I've been studying computer programming along with hardware and software since highschool,so I know what I am doing.The reason I posted this here was to see if anyone else had a similar problem and how they fixed it.Right now I am doing everything I can think of,I am installing all the latest drivers,downloading Skyrim from scratch,I will do some maintenance after it's all over etc.I will check if there is anything wrong with my hdd I will do everything that can be done and I know these problems will persist,because I already did everything that could be done.I know there is nothing wrong with my system because I did all the necessary tests etc. already.

Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it isn't the game's fault,because I have no problems with other games.So far I've been very pleased with my computer,I started having these weird problems with Skyrim.I saw people who say they have no problems with the game with very low end specs,but I also saw people who are having similar problems with high endish specs.Then there are the people who have very high end systems and they say they have no problems.As far as I can tell my computer should be able to handle this game pretty well,it's way above recommended specs.And the fact that I have great performance in cities and outdoors environments proves it.

But this quicksave issue is new and there is no reason it should start happening now,especially after a clean format.Everything is the same as before,when it wasn't happening.Apart from that sound driver update.But I never had any problems with Realtek hd audio codecs so I doubt that's the reason.I am hoping it was corrupted ini files or something because at this point if it isn't fixed,there is nothing else left that I can do.So I'll settle with just knowing other people out there are having this issue or at least similar issues.

Neither. I max my games out for the most part and luck has nothing to do with it, I know the limits of my hardware and the software. And if setting shadows to low does the trick, then I'd say go with that. Also, I'm only saying it could be the hardware as you were quick to rule it out.

And, for the record, quicksave caused issues in Oblivion if I remember correctly. Hence why in Skyrim, I never use the quicksave feature but create a new save each time.

Well I never had any problems with quicksaves in Oblivion.And as I said there is nothing wrong with my hardware,I wasn't quick to rule it out,like I said in my previous post I already did all the necessary tests I am pretty sure my hardware is fine,if there was something wrong with it I'd know after all this testing and such.And now I am going to make sure my software is fine too,so if it keeps happening it's the game.But I am not sure why it would start happening now.

Setting the shadows to low only solves indoor performance and FPS dropping to 1 as far as I can tell,I am not sure if it fixes freezing issues.Which I didn't reallly have a problem with until now anyway.

Wait, are you talking about a slight pause as the game tries to save the current in-game environment to disk, or are you talking about the game stops working if you try to quick-save?

Hmm, you may have provided us confirmation that quicksave still has issues. If this continues, I'll see what happens when I use quicksave in a few days on a test file or something. I wonder, have you made sure that you have few background tasks running? That's something else that could be causing it.

I don't experience any freezes when I use the quicksave feature; nor any dramatic drops in frame rate that can't otherwise be attributed to the scene. My system drive is an SSD and I do use a pagefile.

*raises hand again* just to mention I *do* experiencing a second or so pause sometimes when I quicksave, usually only outdoors and I really don't blame the game for taking a second to ensure a consistent world as it writes the 30+MB savegame to my SSD.

Autosaves and quicksaves are notoriously buggy. From Morrowind to Skyrim to Fallout 3 and NV.
It's actually best to disable them.
Stupid, but it helps.

Well I disable anti-virus and any other unneeded applications.I am talking about the game freezing completely,but it's not a hard lock,you can still hear the sound,I can ctrl+alt+tab and end the process.Otherwise I experience a two second pause when taking quicksaves too,I am pretty sure everyone has that.

The thing is as far as I know if there is a problem with your hdd it hard locks,you can't ctrl+alt+tab.I once had a defective hdd and it used to freeze when loading games or loading their saves sometimes.It would hard lock and I wouldn't be able to do anything.It's not the case here.

Anyway,like I said I did all the necessary tests on my hardware and everything's OK,I also did a clean format and installed all the latest drivers,defragged both the hdd and registry,cleaned the temp folders,I use Ccleaner,Window's own cleaner and Norton 360's cleaners to clean the system and the registry,did that.Right now my system is in perfect condition,it's late here so I created a character and played until I got to the keep,kept HWmonitor open while doing so.I could quicksave without a problem,then I checked the temps and they are fine,so no problems there.I am going to sleep now and continue playing tomorrow when I am able,we'll see if it happens again.If it does there is nothing else I can do,I'll have to live with it or don't use quicksave.But I can't understand why it would suddenly start happening regularly.But I am completely sure there is nothing wrong with my hardware or software and it doesn't freeze in any other way.Not when loading a save,not when entering a new area,not when going from outdoors to indoors or vice versa.And I occasionally froze when doing one of these things before the patch.Now it's completely fixed.

This reminds me of something,back in the Oblivion days I was waiting for my Shivering Isles to arrive,installed it,played without problems.But then I had to format due to something I can't remember now.Then I installed everything from scratch,maximized the settings as usual,then I started a new game and noticed that the shadows looked worse than usual,then it locked up.I tired again and it locked up.Then I entered the Oblivion .ini file and noticed that a setting that affects shadows was lower than it should be.Then I set it to correct value and it was fixed.From then on whenever I needed to install Oblivion again I always set the settings before I applied the Shivering Isles patch.Because if you run the launcher after that patch it sets that setting wrongly and it causes the game to lock up.At least for me,it's been a long time so I can't remember if anyone else had the same thing,noticed it etc.

Now since I didn't have this before the format,I am thinking maybe it's a similar issue,perhaps the newest patch creates the .ini in a different way now and it causes this problem.Most people wouldn't have it since they still use the .inis created way before this patch.But then it didn't happen for at least 2-3 days after the format so I am really lost here.Like Varek Raith said quicksaves and autosaves have always been problematic since Morrowind,but I never encountered something like this before.

I guess I'll plan on tinkering with it when I get a chance if you still get this. I doubt it is with how INIs are created, I really do. A lot of people reload their INI files and have yet to experience a problem. I'd try that if you haven't done so yet. Just thought I'd mention it now.

I noticed a slight *freeze* of about half a second when I quicksaved today, then noticed that my quicksaves are approaching 10MB in size. I don't consider this an issue.
I've never had a problem with quicksaves or autosaves in Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout3 or Fallout: New Vegas - and I don't have problems in Skyrim. I don't think I've ever used more than 20 mods in Oblivion and usually under 10 in the Fallout games, so I wonder if that isn't the problem there (or lack thereof).
The .ini files are created just the same under 1.3.10.0 as they were in every other version previous. And again, I've never had a quicksave or autosave fail me in any of these games under normal conditions. I'm not trying to contradict anyone - just providing my experience.

Hello again,first of all thanks for all your input.Well like I said I started from sctratch yesterday so the .inis were created from sctratch.I played for at least two hours and it didn't freeze once.Before my second format it froze after an hour and before my first format it was the same.So I guess it is fixed now.I know it doesn't make much sense but in my previous character it started freezing when taking a quick save after I got the golden claw quest,I did the same thing again after the first format and it froze,I didn't take that quest now and it didn't,I can take as much as quicksaves I want.It seems a very low possibility that this might be the issue but you never know.What do you guys think?

EDIT:I forgot to mention,when it freezes when I take a quicksave and after I shut the game down from task manager I can load the save the next time I enter the game and the save is right where I saved the game and froze.So it does save the game but freezes it afterwards.

EDIT 2:OK now I made some thinking.I formatted my computer and started from scratch,played for 2-3 days without a problem.Then I take the golden claw quest and the quicksave freezing starts.I delete all my saves and start from stratch again,I take the golden claw quest when I first go into riverwood,again freeze.Then I format again,start from stratch,get the golden claw quest and once again freeze.Once again I format my computer and start from stratch,I don't take the quest and it doesn't freeze.It should freeze within the hour and like I said I managed to play for two hours quicksaving as much as I want.A strange coincidence no?It does sound very unlikely but I experienced very odd things in games before and most of them were in Bethesda games,so I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually what made the game freeze.I know it sounds a bit crazy though.

Ok final update,I played for at least 3 hours and quicksaved a lot,no freezes at all.I am still not sure about that golden claw quest though.Please let me know what you guys think.

I hate to bump but no thoughts on this?

Alright I played for straight 3-4 hours and done the golden claw quest and no freezes at all,everything is working perfectly fine.I did some more thinking and one of the things I did when troubleshooting was to move the case to a better area so it can cool better.I decided to do this because it was in a tight spot and I saw the graphics card's temp. rise to 77.It could rise above 80 and I remember I had some problems with games in my laptop when the gfx temp. was above 80.Now it's always around 73-74,the cpu temps are fine too.

So right now I think this was my problem all along or perhaps it was something else entirely.But the possibility that the heat caused it is high according to my previous experience.Anyways,problem completely solved.Thanks to everyone who gave input.

Overheating would definitely do it. If you want the confined space, you might want to think about another cooling solution.

Well I am pleased with the case right now,from now on I am going to use it like this.Thanks again.

That works, then.