Any info appreciated.
question solved, time to de-rail this.
i just clicked every button on your signature.
I swear I do the same thing every time I see that darn Turian's signature
I know exactly what's coming, and I do it anyway. WHY
No, I know of several dungeons that are marked "cleared" although one or more of their occupants are still alive. I think "cleared" refers to the fact that the boss is dead.
correct. only boss NPC counts you can leave the pawns if you like.
Cleared normally (there are a few exceptions) means that the boss is dead. Some places do not have a boss that's marked as such, and thus can never be cleared even if they are supposed to be clearable.
For further reference: http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dungeons#Clearing
As an example; Swindler's Den is one of the places that can't be cleared due to the aforementioned bug. And while it's supposed to be fixed with the unofficial patch, I still can't clear it even if I kill everything inside... oh well.
Edit: Wow... in the time I took to add that extra-info, two more posts were made. Uff.