I've been playing the game on this PC for nearly 2 years now with no issues. I had about 13 subscribed mods that I enjoyed, all from the Steam Workshop.

Last week I began noticing that I was getting error messages when I loaded the game . . . . "And the Realms of Daedra" failed to load; Steam Error 15.

I clicked OK and the game loaded anyway.

Then it wouldn't load - it would let me click 'Play" and I would get the Bethesda logo with its ba-doom-bah sound effect - but then it would glitch out back to my desk top.

I deleted that mod, and it worked OK.

Today, another mod brought up the same error message. And when I went ahead and loaded the game, it kicked me out after the Bethesda logo.

I deleted that mod. Another brought up the same message, and the game kicked me out.

I deleted all 11 remaining mods. The game still will not load. I have rebooted the computer twice.

This frustrates me. I am nearly done with Dawnguard, and was hoping to finish it out today. Now this crap.

Do I need to uninstall the game and lose all my saves?

What should I do?

have you been disabling mods and then continuing a current save?
never do that, it can severely damage your save file..


So, does the game load if you try a new game?

Unsubcribe every mod from from Workshop. Download and install every mod you have used from Nexus using proper and after that run BOSS.

Disabling mods and continuing using that save is a 10000% sure way to ensure save corruption. Never do that!

edit:

In retrospect using Steam Workshop may have one of the biggest mistakes. The idea and intensions behind it may have been good but it simply doesn't work as intended with Skyrim.

It won't even let me get to the LOAD menu!

All I get is the Bethesda Softworks logo, and then BOOM! Back to my desktop.

It started doing this before I deleted any mods. I just thought that whatever "Steam Error 15" was might be keeping the game from loading,

so I discontinued the mod in question - only to get the same error message on a different mod.

This is very frustrating!

I've never used BOSS and am not sure what it is. Can I try the Unofficial Skyrim patch, maybe?

I haven't ever loaded anything from NEXUS, either. I thought the whole point of the STEAM workshop is that it was safe and easy to use.

Should I try to resubscribe all the mods I got rid of?

Just because version 1.6.5.2 of mod X and version 3.4.1.7 of mod Y don't conflict you can't assume all future versions of mod X are going to be compatible with all future versions of mod Y. This is the inherent flaw in the concept of the Steam Workshop...especially if it does automatic 'updating'.

I build a mod package. Then I test and make sure everything is compatible. Then I play my modded game until I'm ready to do it again...and I don't update anything, mods or game, until I'm done playing what I have.

If the game crashes before the main menu, that is about 100% clear symptom of a missing master! You don't the requirements of some mod you're using, thus the crash.

But shouldn't clearing all the mods have at least enabled me to get to the main menu, even if it messed with some of my saves?

Like I said, good idea but incredibly shoddy implentation. Workshop gives too simplified picture of modding Skyrim. It is not and definitely should not be simple download and install. There are are about billion things to consider, however using proper tools things do actually get relatively simplified. BOSS is final tool, used to sort the extremely crucial load order. Download mods manually from Nexus but use proper mod manager to install mods, either NMM, Mod Organizer or Wrye Bash.

Yeesh. I am going back through and looking at my mods - most of them I subscribed to over a year ago, and haven't been updated in the last few months. However, my daughter did add a new mod yesterday; I wonder if that one is what messed up the others? I'm going to leave it off - I don't think she had done anything with it yet.

So where do I download BOSS? Are all of these from the Nexus site?

BOSS can be found from Nexus.

Nexus is the biggest mod site for Skyrim. While not absolutely everything can be found there, the most can be. Without knowing the mods you're using, I have no answer for that.

OK, I realize I am sounding like a total noob here and I am sorry if I am trying your patience -

can you direct me to the NEXUS site?
And one last question - will all the mods from STEAM be available there, or can I kiss all my saves goodbye?

1) http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/

2) depends on the mod.. some may be there, others may not

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com

Like I said, without knowing what mods you're using, I can't say whether all of them are available from Nexus. However generally more than 99% of the mods hosted in Workshop (at least popular ones) are hosted in Nexus.

edit:

Additionally Nexus has bazillion of other mods that you'll never see in Workshop. Additionally Nexus has no forced updates.

In case you didn't realize, forced update of a mod can actually do more harm than good.

I reloaded 11 out of the 13 mods that I had originally subscribed. I'm still getting kicked out the minute I try to load the game.

And I can't find the Unofficial Skyrim Patch mod in the Steam Workshop ANYWHERE, no matter how I word the search. This is very frustrating.

Thanks much for your help. Rachel subscribed to two more mods this week; I think that is what has crashed the game. I can't even get to the LOAD menu to delete my saved games. VERY, very frustrating.