My apologies if this is posted elsewhere, I can find lots of lag/freezing posts but nothing that quite matches my issues.

I've been playing now for 130 hours-ish and I've been putting up with a 'lag' that's getting progressively worse. I realise 'lag' might not be the correct term (I've seen it corrected elsewhere) but I'm going to use it for now.

It happens in every element of the game. Menus, map, wandering around, combat, conversation, etc. The screen seems to freeze (for between 1-5 seconds), yet the audio continues. In instances of it 'lagging' during conversation the game then seems to try to catch up with the audio, so the person's mouth will be moving after the sentence has finished and the lip-sync corrects itself in the next line of dialogue, so there can be big pauses in conversation even after the lag.

It's really annoying and I'm posting this really as a last gasp before I give up on Skyrim. It's a shame as I've never really been into gaming but this has had me hooked!

What have I tried to fix this issue?

- Clearing Xbox memroy cache

- Turning off autosaves

- Clearing 'game cache' (no evidence this actually even works?)

- Checking to see if I have too many keys (Dwemer Museum key gltich etc) - I don't

- Getting rid of excess inventory

- Cooling the xbox

- Standing Xbox up/laying it down

- Trying other games to see if lag is TV related - it's not

- Started a new Skyrim game, no issues

- Don't keep too much stuff stashed in houses/chests, etc

Based on all that (especially the fact a new game runs smoothly) I'm assuming it's something that I've done along the way, or something I'm continuing to do that's causing this problem. I'll do anything to fix it, if anyone's got any other suggestions I'd be delighted to hear them... If I had to guess i'd say the issue started on about 70 hours. I'm at level 35 if that makes any difference?

Yours hopefully...

Stephen

ps. I should maybe add that I'm playing with my xbox offline.

So, if I am reading this right, your new save does not have this issue, then you may have to start a new character. Once the save file gets big enough, then these kinds of issues pop up. The save files start out at a couple of MB, then grow to 15 to 20MB over time. As they get that big, the game starts acting weird. I have taken more than a dozen characters through this game, because for me, the game is best played from level 20 to 45. That is where the best combat and balance is found, IMO. Once near or over level 50, they are too uber (although I do keep one veteran around for grins and giggles)

Ah ok, thank you for the answer. Would you say there's no way of rectifying this in this game then? And would I expect this every time I take a character through the game? Or is this just an unlucky instance would you say? It's a real shame because I've just started to suss out how get my weapons really tasty etc. Though I guess with what I know now I'd probably play it slightly differently from the beginning... I'm not sure my girlfriend will see the funny side of me investing another 130 hours of 'us time' into it though!... We'll see!

Thanks again

One thing you can try is clearing all the loot from each site. It reduces the objects stored in the database of the game. I usually complete a quest and go back and kill everything and take all the loot, smith it, and sell it. It reduces the game size.

I am level 83. Should get to 84 tonight. I have about 85-90% of the sites found. I would disable auto saves. save the game. close it and reopen it. Start from that point. My saves are 9MB.