How to stop skyrim from freezing literally 30 seconds into the game the moment it loads

[Crescentinus]

I have been playing skyrim for a little over 2 years now, it shames me to say this but like 1000 hours (Idk the exact hours but I know it's more than 41 days) it freezes 30 seconds after a save loads. I cleared the in-game cache and don't have any old save, about 5 different games, tried playing on my friends disc and it still doesn't work, also my Xbox is 5 years old, any tips on how to fix this?

 

[Crescentinus]

Also my other games do not freeze at all

 

[Cordelia]

If you can get more than 30 seconds in, you could try the 31-day in-game cleanse. Use the Wait feature 31 times. Since the game resets everything every thirty in-game days, this despawns a lot of items and bodies that can lag and freeze the game.

 

[Annageckos]

I play on PS3 and have turned off all auto saves. It has made a huge difference. Less lag, less freeze ups and much faster loading. If all else fails you could try deleting skyrim from your system and reloading it.

 

[Crescentinus]

It does freeze during autosave, just 30-40 seconds after it loads a save, is there anyway I can speed up the waiting process?

 

[raido KASAI]

I'm guessing it's a corrupt save file that is causing load errors, but some ideas/questions...

How much disk space is left on the x-box?

If the drive is near full then that could be adding to the problem. Could be a RAM issue too, since Skyrim takes up a bunch to run and isn't the most efficient with how it handles it.

Also check for hardware/software updates.

Any other odd symptoms, even something that happens infrequently? There's a small chance it could be symptomatic of something in the process of failing though this is unlikely as you seem to just have the problem w/ 1 game. Looking for stuff like weird artifacting w/ the graphics (unexplained frame rate dropping, skipping, digital distortion or one of the lovely infinite pixels like my old PS3 had where it would randomly draw a bizarre random spike because it couldn't consistently calculate pixel position.

I haven't done this personally since I'm on PC but a friend at one point copied his save file to a flash drive and moved it to another x-box. You might try duplicating a friend's save game if you know someone with an x-box to see if it's a game (or hardware) problem or just a save data problem.

The PC tech geek in me does require me to mention that this is why you periodically make backups for stuff that is important or in the case of a save game, periodically save a new file instead of overwriting the old one. I'll get off my geek soapbox now and return to my usual sarcasm and nonsensical gibber-jabber already in progress...

 

[raido KASAI]

Just thought of one other thing to try after the above.

You might try starting up a new game and saving/reloading it to see if the problem exists for the new save file or if it only happens on your main save file.

 

[Annageckos]

I would say disable all autosave options. Just remember to save often.

 

[WarriorMage]

If you can get more than 30 seconds in, you could try the 31-day in-game cleanse. Use the Wait feature 31 times. Since the game resets everything every thirty in-game days, this despawns a lot of items and bodies that can lag and freeze the game.

That's cool. I didn't know that. But it explains why that dead ork laid there for about a month then just went away.

 

[Cordelia]

Thirty-one in-game days is thirty-one in-game days. The Wait feature is as fast as it gets. I didn't have to resort to turning off the autosave, but that was my next step if the thirty-one day wait didn't work. It's tedious, but it's also the least technical fix, and if it works, why pursue more labor intensive fixes? It's at least worth a shot, isn't it?

 

[ColleenG]

I've been working on this for a LONG time. Keep your inventory to a minimum. But it's not what you'd think: each line item is a count of 1 for the program, even if you have 29 of them. so you have 1 ax, 1 dagger, 29 bows--those all count as one line item, and it's better to get rid of the ax and the dagger as opposed to 15 of the 29 bows. Just keep shedding things. Also, in your game settings, do NOT set all those autosave options. Click them off. Keep the main one to 10 minutes. Eliminate all the rest. The bonus on that is when you wait, you don't really wait, and when you sleep, you don't wait...wait...wait...then sleep. Everything is immediate. Both of these have a huge impact on freezes.

 

[Irishman]

Check this thread out, it has some good ideas on it:

http://skyrimforum.com/sf/threads/ever-had-the-game-just-lock-up-for-no-reason.34211/

Good Luck

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I used to have the problem until I turned off all my autosave functions. That seemed to solve the majority of it, with the exception of the autosave that happens when I open the inventory menu. I can't do anything about it (I'm on PS3).

I've also found that, the higher the level, the longer the wait times.

I guess SR is just to robust??????

 

[Irishman]

I used to have the problem until I turned off all my autosave functions. That seemed to solve the majority of it, with the exception of the autosave that happens when I open the inventory menu. I can't do anything about it (I'm on PS3).

I've also found that, the higher the level, the longer the wait times.

I guess SR is just to robust??????

In settings you can change the intervals at which the game autosaves when you open the menu. If you go all the way to the the right (or maybe left) than you can turn it off I'm on Ps3 as well.

Eg. 5min> 10min> 15min> 30min> 60min> off.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I used to have the problem until I turned off all my autosave functions. That seemed to solve the majority of it, with the exception of the autosave that happens when I open the inventory menu. I can't do anything about it (I'm on PS3).

I've also found that, the higher the level, the longer the wait times.

I guess SR is just to robust??????

In settings you can change the intervals at which the game autosaves when you open the menu. If you go all the way to the the right (or maybe left) than you can turn it off I'm on Ps3 as well.

Eg. 5min> 10min> 15min> 30min> 60min> off.

Thank you! I missed that one.

 

[Anouck]

Sometimes a save file is corrupted. Erasing it and going back to the new, most recent save file could be an option. It helped me, at least.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Sometimes a save file is corrupted. Erasing it and going back to the new, most recent save file could be an option. It helped me, at least.

You're right on that count. Especially when I start stuttering near Riften, I know I'm corrupted.

 

[DrunkenMage]

Several things could cause it.

The game is trying to load too much, weapons and shields are generally the cause of that. If you've killed many enemies and their weapons are just remaining and start floating.

You have too many Skyrim characters on one profile.

Or it was some unexplainable thing, which also happened to me. I deleted every character and the auto saves. Started a brand new game. Works fine for me now. Don't get the freezes as often.

 

[LotusEater]

Thirty-one in-game days is thirty-one in-game days. The Wait feature is as fast as it gets. I didn't have to resort to turning off the autosave, but that was my next step if the thirty-one day wait didn't work. It's tedious, but it's also the least technical fix, and if it works, why pursue more labor intensive fixes? It's at least worth a shot, isn't it?

Unless you are on XBox in which case you can make the wait times much, much quicker.

 

[Cordelia]

That's definitely useful to the OP. I'm on PS3. I know there are some functions that are different between the systems, but it didn't occur to me the wait time would be one of them.