Well, this is my first time on Bethesda forums and, hell, this is my first Bethesda game. My friend's been following Elder Scrolls from the beginning, and he's said Bethesda has always been buggy, and I understand. There's just a couple of things I'm concerned about, and I'm not sure how to go about it. They may be bugs, they may not. Anyway, this is what I'm dealing with:

Last night, at my friend's house (first time playing on 360 offline), I went through and did some quests, nothing was wrong with the game. all was good in the world. I got home and went online and I noticed a small bit of lag any time my inventory screen went up; while enchanting, storing things in my house, equipping, alchemy, etc. Even using the quick equip screen. I dismissed it, thought it was no big deal, though quite weird. I went to sleep and woke up this morning, and immediately turned back to Skyrim. I downloaded the patch, and loaded my save game in Whiterun. This is where the big problems began. I was getting about 5-10 second lag delays any time I sold/bought/stored/recovered any item from shops or barrels/chests, and opening barrels/chests took about 5 seconds to load the contents. I dealt with it, all the while getting more and more infuriated with the need to wait to get my Quest on. I deleted a bunch of my old save files to see if clearing up data would help, but it didn't.

So I continued, and the load screens took a bit longer to go through; about 50% longer than usual. But I dealt with it, because I just wanted to keep playing. I did some quests for the Dark Brotherhood, and then went back and started on "Diplomatic Immunity." This is where I began to rage even harder. The item lag stayed about 5-10 seconds, but when I finished the quest and fast travelled back to Riverwood, the loading screen took about 5 minutes. Then when I went in the inn to meet with the contact to get my stuff back and finish the quest line, opening the door triggered a FORTY MINUTE LONG LOAD SCREEN. Needless to say, I was not impressed. then when I went to the chest to get my stuff back and pressed the button to empty the contents, it loaded for about twenty minutes, then froze (you can tell the difference because when you press the Xbox menu button, it makes a sound). So I tried again, and again, and again. Each time, same results, making the game unplayable for me at this time.

Now as I said, I don't know if these issues are bugs, if I'm the only one experiencing them, or if the Night Mother is cursing me for T-bagging Cicero before killing him. Hell, maybe it's even a corrupt save (though I doubt it). Any light on the subject would be helpful and appreciated. Thanks for listening.

What did the patch do?

Did you try clearing the cache? From all 360 Beth issues I have heard of for games of this type - Oblivion, Fallout 3... clearing the cache generally does wonders.

I also recommend clearing the cache.. sounds like the HDD is having trouble grabbing the bits and pieces.

Clear your cache. When you play again you'll have to download the patch again, but that's no big deal.

Some people also theorize that the model of Xbox 360 factors into lag as well. Older model consoles, especially with less hard drive space, seem a bit more sluggish in processing things. Again, that's just what some people have said.

I'm on the 250GB HD and I clear my cache regularly, and so far I've only frozen during a loading screen once. Virtually no lag in game, other than when a bit too much is happening on screen at one time. And even that lag is minimal.

Start with clearing your cache and see what happens.

I am willing to try it, though I wouldn't know how to do it, (and I just generally don't get what you mean). Can I get advice from someone?

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360/troubleshoot/hardware/clear-system-cache

Just did it and re-downloaded the patch, though it seemed to have had no effect. It won't let me continue the game from the old version, so I have to be in the new version to continue my file. In short; Clearing cashe did not work.

It was advised you'd need to re-download the patch. That is not the main purpose of the clearing of the cache, to make you re-download the patch, it's to make your data into new nice piles as opposed to old hard to sort through ones.

So after clearing the cache, re-downloading the patch, and playing, you're still encountering the slow loading times? Just confirming, as the only thing you really outlined is that you had to download the patch to play with your post-patch character, which was a given.

That is correct. After clearing the cache, I am still encountering rediculously long loading screens.

You're screwed. I suggest clearing your cache, not downloading the update (which means you can't play on Xbox live but if you want to play then it doesn't matter) and making a new character and playing on that until a new patch is released to fix these issues. Hopefully this is soon. If you can't handle being unable to talk with friends I suggest getting Skype if you have a PC microphone.

I cleared the cache, playing offline without the patch on a new character (Moved my old files to a memory card for safe keeping), and so far it's paying fine. I may try playing this new file with the update later.