Freezing! ( Solved )

[Medusa]

I'm beginning to become fustrated. My Skyrim has been freezing after the 40 minute mark for the past week and I don't know why. I've tried the following:

Sorting the left pane of Mod Organizer to match the right pane after being sorted by LOOT
Validating master files
Using Fallrim to clean the save
Installing SSME
Installing the Skyrim Memory Patch
Moving PapyrusUtil to the bottom of the right pane
Reinstalling Crash Fixes
Reinstalling Skyrim
Refreshing Inis ( as in deleting them and letting the game create new ones )
Cleaning masterfiles with Tes5Edit
Looking through Gopher videos
Looking through GamerPoets videos

And maybe more that I could be forgetting.

My only other idea is to try uninstalling the Paarthurnax Dilemma mod since I installed that mod right around the time my game began to mess up. Which was when I beat Alduin. But that was a while ago and I'd lose days of progress and writing since I use Take Notes. And reverting back didn't really help the first time I did it.

The last two numbers in my Memory Blocks log are these:

512 256

If anyone has something to contribute, please share. This is starting to become tiresome.

[SilentAegis]

This could be tedious, but maybe try checking your mods? Play with only half of them on and see if you freeze. If you don't, it's likely a mod. Perhaps your save itself is the problem as well. I'd also try playing for a good while ( at least an hour ) in a new game.

Unfortunately, I'm not experienced with Memory Blocks, so maybe someone else can tell you.

[silentcrow01]

If you added The Paarthurnax Dilemma very late in the main quest, it could have caused a problem. I recently started using that mod, but made sure it was added before I started a new game, to avoid any potential issues, since I don't know at what point it starts changing things.

[Medusa]

Thanks, the both of you. I'll try those when I can.

[Medusa]

After uninstalling The Paarthurnax Dilemma and avoiding a certain NPC heavy dungeon, the game crashed after 45 minutes of play. Now this will probably turn into freezing again at some point ( it has before, ) so I'm going to try uninstalling SSME. I have the Skyrim Memory Patch working ( at least I'm sure ), so maybe that's giving some unusual effect on my game.

Memory Blocks log still says 512 and 256, by the way.

Someone please, don't hesitate to speak up if they've an idea.

[SilentAegis]

Did a little bit of reading. You might have to adjust your SKSE.ini to assign more scrap heap size if it's crashing\freezing at 512. However, you may simply have too many mods. I'd try to get rid of any "big" mods you have. Like spell mods that add hundreds of spells like Phendrix Magic Mod. Mods that add hundreds of different creatures like Monster Mod. Mods that add a lot of different dragons like Chaos Dragons. Etc.

Unfortunately, getting rid of mods like those are very likely to cause other issues in the future, but that's Skyrim Modding for you.

Try messing around with the Ini settings in the SKSE.ini file ( back up the save first ) and see what happens.

[silentcrow01]

I keep seeing stuff about memory blocks and a mod that fixes it. Is it expanding the memory allocation? I actually did mine the old-fashioned way... http://www.rcrncommunity.com/five-quick-skyrim-tweaks-you-may-not-know

I wanted to expand memory and remembered my brother changing it when I first got the game, so did it within the files. I also had to add the line to run vsync since it was missing and I wasn't sure if I set my video card program to handle it correctly. I don't use many mods, but have been slowly learning and adding one here or there.

[Medusa]

After adjusting the Ini, I played the game for a good hour before closing. By closing, I mean I closed the game.

However, I was in an Inn talking to two NPCs from Interesting NPCs for the remaining 20-30 minutes. I will try once more tomorrow.

[Medusa]

Originally posted by silentcrow01:

I keep seeing stuff about memory blocks and a mod that fixes it. Is it expanding the memory allocation? I actually did mine the old-fashioned way... http://www.rcrncommunity.com/five-quick-skyrim-tweaks-you-may-not-know

I wanted to expand memory and remembered my brother changing it when I first got the game, so did it within the files. I also had to add the line to run vsync since it was missing and I wasn't sure if I set my video card program to handle it correctly. I don't use many mods, but have been slowly learning and adding one here or there.

I'm pretty new to how it works myself, but it's pretty necessary for me at this point. I'm not really sure what you're asking me, though. Are you asking if it's slowly getting higher?

[smr1957]

DO NOT USE THE SETTINGS FROM THE ARTICLE REFERENCED BY silentcrow01!!!

The following was originally referenced in a post by Nazenn ( http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/483366528923488926/?ctp=30#c343787283759062954 ) who had this to say regarding the change referred to for the iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes

"WOAH, take them out right now. With those sort of values, Papyrus is likely to be completely failing to run or fire certain script events and having a severe impact on the stability of your game overall. I know it sounds odd, but you can actually assign TOO much to Papyrus, it simply wasnt designed to work with anything other then the defaults and can't handle it. Whoever wrote those values has no idea what they were doing.

Most threads over two years old that recommend Papyrus changes did so before the risks and issues with changing these values became known and should NOT be relied on."
(note: the referenced article is from January, 2013; Nazenn's post is from September, 2016 - smr1957)

And here are those posts, in full, just to make sure that there are no misunderstandings -
From: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/2gwvwl/guide_papyrus_ini_settings_and_why_you_shouldnt/

" "iMinMemoryPageSize", "iMaxMemoryPageSize" and "iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes"

When I first started getting into modding Skyrim, and trying to get it to run better on my computer, I came across an INI tweak guide that make the following recommendations. (WARNING: do not actually do these. Please see below.)

Bethesda released the “4gb patch” more than 8 months ago, but this doesn’t really matter, it was just a LAA fix in order to allow the properly handling of memory under 64 bit systems. But this doesn't necessarily mean your system will automatically use more than 4gb of RAM!

In order to tell to Skyrim your correct amount of system memory you have to apply the following tweak: Open your Skyrim.ini, usually located at the path: C:\Users\youruser\Documents\My Games\Skyrim and search for the line under the [Papyrus] section:
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=*******

Then change the value marked as “*******” with the approximate amount of your system memory, by consulting the tab below:

if you have 4GB of ram -> iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=2000000000

if you have 6GB of ram -> iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=3000000000

if you have 8GB of ram -> iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=4000000000

(if the line is not there, simply add the appropriate line *only one choosing with your systems RAM amount)

This tweak usually helps really a lot, we found that the game is about 20% smoother when the properly memory value is set!

This didn't seem unreasonable. The name of the setting iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes seems to suggest it relates to how much memory the Skyrim engine will allocate. This guy seemed to know what he was talking about, so I made the change. I launched my game and it immediately crashed.

This may seem like a straightforward change, but it's not. These settings mean something entirely different than this article was suggesting.

iMinMemoryPageSize, iMaxMemoryPageSize and iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes refer to the amount of memory being used not by the Skyrim engine, but by the scripting layer. Moreover, they refer specifically to the amount of memory being used by the stack.

The stack is a structure in memory that holds information about the current script routines being run, the values being passed between these routines, and various other related information. Even in a complex script, this amounts to mere bytes of used memory. The vast majority of the memory actually being used by the scripts are allocated in a separate structure called the heap. These values do not alter the size of the heap (rather, the heap grows and shrinks at need, so there is no reason to try and tweak its usage).

Altering these values are probably the most dangerous and volatile thing you can do via the INI settings. In fact, they should not even be exposed via the INI settings (what were the developers even thinking?). Changing these values to anything but the default will almost definitely cause the Papyrus virtual machine to behave in strange ways, cripple its performance, and potentially cause intermittent freezes and crashes.

Without particularly intimate knowledge of the Papyrus virtual machine, I can at least make an educated guess about the kind of impact raising these values would have. It would likely cause the allocator to constantly request much more memory than it needs for a relatively short timespan (something that's quite expensive), it would probably cause quite a bit of memory fragmentation, and it would probably ruin much of any optimization that has gone into the virtual machine with relation to cache. Do not change these values. Ever.

Moreover, it's important to point out something more: the script layer is separate from the game engine. Objects allocated by the game engine, such as textures, meshes, data structures for actors and world objects, and other stuff actually being used in the game world, or the logic governing that game world, are allocated in an entirely separate heap from the scripting layer's heap. These values can be modified using SKSE version 1.7+, by adding them to the file \Data\SKSE\skse.ini:
[Memory]
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB= <default heap initial allocation size in megabytes, vanilla size is 512>
ScrapHeapSizeMB= <scrap heap size in megabytes, vanilla size is 256>


Changing these values may be beneficial, because the allocator in the game engine appears to have a latent bug that causes it to occasionally freeze up when attempting to allocate additional memory. However, you should still err on the side of caution when changing these values, make conservative changes, and absolutely defer to the opinion of an expert on these. I would recommend you leave these values at SKSE's default (which is already higher than Skyrim's default). Setting these values too high may cause issues on their own, and may even prevent the game from running."


From: https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=INI_Settings_(Papyrus)

"iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes

This is the maximum amount of memory the VM will allocate in total for stack frames. If an allocation would push memory usage over this limit, the VM will instead wait for more memory to be freed. Increasing this value may improve performance in high-stress situations with lots of scripts running, but will use more memory. Note that it is possible to exceed this value temporarily while loading a save game due to slightly different allocation ordering.

Max: 2147483647 (2GB)

Default: 76800 (75kB)

WARNING: this setting is for stack size not heap size, so there is no reason for setting this to a huge value even though it is possible. Increasing iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes to values much larger than default can cause stack thrashing (stack buffer overflows), intermittent game stuttering, erratic game behavior and CTDs. Stack thrashing will produce stack dumps in the Papyrus log, similar to the example below. The dumps can be very large if many scripts are running, producing a very large log file.
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Suspended stack count is over our warning threshold, dumping stacks:
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] VM is freezing...
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] VM is frozen
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Dumping stack 137790:
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Frame count: 0 (Page count: 0)
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] State: Running (Freeze state: Freezing)
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Type: Normal
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Return register: None
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Has stack callback: No
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Stack trace:
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] [].mineorefurniturescript.OnLoad() - (requested call) "

[smr1957]

If you are having problems with memory, see:
Skyrim Memory Configuration by Avrie
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=865156803

[silentcrow01]

Could my low-impact mods be the reason altering that setting hasn't done anything unusual to my game? I barely figured out some basic mods and installing them (took me an hour or so), so attempting to install bigger programs that do more than I need kind of scares me.

[smr1957]

As Nazenn said re: settings - "...take them out right now."

SKSE memory fix is very simple to put in place:

Using Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) with SKSE memory fix may help with some CTD issues - http://skse.silverlock.org/ . Memory fix should be placed in SKSE folder (Skyrim/Data/SKSE) - you will need to make this as it is not included in SKSE. Just create a text file using notepad and paste in the below info, save file as skse.ini (no .txt, or will not load), and paste text file into the SKSE folder.

[General]
EnableDiagnostics=1
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1
[Display]
iTintTextureResolution=2048
[Memory]
defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768
scrapHeapSizeMB=256

An alternate set-up:

[General]
EnableDiagnostics=1
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1
[Display]
iTintTextureResolution=2048
[Memory]
defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=1024
scrapHeapSizeMB=256

NOTE: You can go from defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768 to defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=1024 , but you cannot go from the higher (1024) to the lower (768). Following from SKSE Installation by Avrie (in SKSE and the mystical memory tweak section):
"...most if not all of the other guides still say to use 768, and if you have limited Ram memory installed you might still be better off using 768. However, if you do have decent Ram, and you plan on installing lots of mods, go with 1024 right from the start. You’re working with the most current information in this guide.

A quick note on save files … The game saves the state of many aspects of the game including scripts permanently in the save files. Which is why it’s such a bad idea to remove a scripted mod from a running game. The “space” we’re discussing also affects the way the game structures the save file. You can always increase the amount safely, but decreasing the amount will adversely affect the stability of the save, and may break scripts. It is NOT recommended. If you feel you need to switch back to 768, please start a new game...."

Or just use:
SKSE ini pre-download for lazy users by Sagittarius22 - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51038/?
and install it by using either Mod Organizer or Nexus Mod Manager.

As to ENBoost, you can follow this specific guide for it (also by Avrie, one of the forum's most respected members):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=815662314

[Medusa]

WHOA, ok, hello! Thank you for all the information. ( Can't believe you took the time to write it out... ) To reply to everything you said:

Originally posted by smr1957:

DO NOT USE THE SETTINGS FROM THE ARTICLE REFERENCED BY silentcrow01!!!

The following was originally referenced in a post by Nazenn ( http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/483366528923488926/?ctp=30#c343787283759062954 ) who had this to say regarding the change referred to for the iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes

"WOAH, take them out right now. With those sort of values, Papyrus is likely to be completely failing to run or fire certain script events and having a severe impact on the stability of your game overall. I know it sounds odd, but you can actually assign TOO much to Papyrus, it simply wasnt designed to work with anything other then the defaults and can't handle it. Whoever wrote those values has no idea what they were doing.

Most threads over two years old that recommend Papyrus changes did so before the risks and issues with changing these values became known and should NOT be relied on."
(note: the referenced article is from January, 2013; Nazenn's post is from September, 2016 - smr1957)

And here are those posts, in full, just to make sure that there are no misunderstandings -
From: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/2gwvwl/guide_papyrus_ini_settings_and_why_you_shouldnt/

" "iMinMemoryPageSize", "iMaxMemoryPageSize" and "iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes"

When I first started getting into modding Skyrim, and trying to get it to run better on my computer, I came across an INI tweak guide that make the following recommendations. (WARNING: do not actually do these. Please see below.)

Bethesda released the “4gb patch” more than 8 months ago, but this doesn’t really matter, it was just a LAA fix in order to allow the properly handling of memory under 64 bit systems. But this doesn't necessarily mean your system will automatically use more than 4gb of RAM!

In order to tell to Skyrim your correct amount of system memory you have to apply the following tweak: Open your Skyrim.ini, usually located at the path: C:\Users\youruser\Documents\My Games\Skyrim and search for the line under the [Papyrus] section:
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=*******

Then change the value marked as “*******” with the approximate amount of your system memory, by consulting the tab below:

if you have 4GB of ram -> iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=2000000000

if you have 6GB of ram -> iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=3000000000

if you have 8GB of ram -> iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=4000000000

(if the line is not there, simply add the appropriate line *only one choosing with your systems RAM amount)

This tweak usually helps really a lot, we found that the game is about 20% smoother when the properly memory value is set!

This didn't seem unreasonable. The name of the setting iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes seems to suggest it relates to how much memory the Skyrim engine will allocate. This guy seemed to know what he was talking about, so I made the change. I launched my game and it immediately crashed.

This may seem like a straightforward change, but it's not. These settings mean something entirely different than this article was suggesting.

iMinMemoryPageSize, iMaxMemoryPageSize and iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes refer to the amount of memory being used not by the Skyrim engine, but by the scripting layer. Moreover, they refer specifically to the amount of memory being used by the stack.

The stack is a structure in memory that holds information about the current script routines being run, the values being passed between these routines, and various other related information. Even in a complex script, this amounts to mere bytes of used memory. The vast majority of the memory actually being used by the scripts are allocated in a separate structure called the heap. These values do not alter the size of the heap (rather, the heap grows and shrinks at need, so there is no reason to try and tweak its usage).

Altering these values are probably the most dangerous and volatile thing you can do via the INI settings. In fact, they should not even be exposed via the INI settings (what were the developers even thinking?). Changing these values to anything but the default will almost definitely cause the Papyrus virtual machine to behave in strange ways, cripple its performance, and potentially cause intermittent freezes and crashes.

Without particularly intimate knowledge of the Papyrus virtual machine, I can at least make an educated guess about the kind of impact raising these values would have. It would likely cause the allocator to constantly request much more memory than it needs for a relatively short timespan (something that's quite expensive), it would probably cause quite a bit of memory fragmentation, and it would probably ruin much of any optimization that has gone into the virtual machine with relation to cache. Do not change these values. Ever.

Moreover, it's important to point out something more: the script layer is separate from the game engine. Objects allocated by the game engine, such as textures, meshes, data structures for actors and world objects, and other stuff actually being used in the game world, or the logic governing that game world, are allocated in an entirely separate heap from the scripting layer's heap. These values can be modified using SKSE version 1.7+, by adding them to the file \Data\SKSE\skse.ini:
[Memory]
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB= <default heap initial allocation size in megabytes, vanilla size is 512>
ScrapHeapSizeMB= <scrap heap size in megabytes, vanilla size is 256>


Changing these values may be beneficial, because the allocator in the game engine appears to have a latent bug that causes it to occasionally freeze up when attempting to allocate additional memory. However, you should still err on the side of caution when changing these values, make conservative changes, and absolutely defer to the opinion of an expert on these. I would recommend you leave these values at SKSE's default (which is already higher than Skyrim's default). Setting these values too high may cause issues on their own, and may even prevent the game from running."


From: https://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=INI_Settings_(Papyrus)

"iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes

This is the maximum amount of memory the VM will allocate in total for stack frames. If an allocation would push memory usage over this limit, the VM will instead wait for more memory to be freed. Increasing this value may improve performance in high-stress situations with lots of scripts running, but will use more memory. Note that it is possible to exceed this value temporarily while loading a save game due to slightly different allocation ordering.

Max: 2147483647 (2GB)

Default: 76800 (75kB)

WARNING: this setting is for stack size not heap size, so there is no reason for setting this to a huge value even though it is possible. Increasing iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes to values much larger than default can cause stack thrashing (stack buffer overflows), intermittent game stuttering, erratic game behavior and CTDs. Stack thrashing will produce stack dumps in the Papyrus log, similar to the example below. The dumps can be very large if many scripts are running, producing a very large log file.
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Suspended stack count is over our warning threshold, dumping stacks:
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] VM is freezing...
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] VM is frozen
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Dumping stack 137790:
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Frame count: 0 (Page count: 0)
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] State: Running (Freeze state: Freezing)
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Type: Normal
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Return register: None
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Has stack callback: No
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] Stack trace:
[03/30/2013 - 12:21:08PM] [].mineorefurniturescript.OnLoad() - (requested call) "

I've been looking and I cannot find any lines in my Inis that look like the lines you specifically warned me against. Luckily. Now, I have about 16.0 GB of RAM ( according to System Information by typing that in the search bar of Windows 10 ) and that line you said for the Papyrus Section, I'm guessing it would be 5000000000, right? Apologies if it's obvious to you, I just don't want to mess up my game anymore than I already could've.

Also, should I put the Papyrus values in the Skyrim.ini located in Documents or in my character profile in Mod Organizer? Or both? Since Mod Organizer also has a Skyrim.ini and a Skyrimprefs.ini. I'm guessing Mod Organizer since the one in Documents doesn't seem to affect my game, but I want to see what you say.

And the following: iMinMemoryPageSize, iMaxMemoryPageSize and iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes are not in my Skyrim.ini. What are the values I should be using if I have 16.0GB of RAM?


You said that decreasing the heap size is a bad idea here:

Originally posted by smr1957:

As Nazenn said - "...take them out right now."

SKSE memory fix is very simple to put in place:

Using Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) with SKSE memory fix may help with some CTD issues - http://skse.silverlock.org/ . Memory fix should be placed in SKSE folder (Skyrim/Data/SKSE) - you will need to make this as it is not included in SKSE. Just create a text file using notepad and paste in the below info, save file as skse.ini (no .txt, or will not load), and paste text file into the SKSE folder.

[General]
EnableDiagnostics=1
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1
[Display]
iTintTextureResolution=2048
[Memory]
defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768
scrapHeapSizeMB=256

An alternate set-up:

[General]
EnableDiagnostics=1
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1
[Display]
iTintTextureResolution=2048
[Memory]
defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=1024
scrapHeapSizeMB=256

NOTE: You can go from defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768 to defaultHeapInitialAllocMB=1024 , but you cannot go from the higher (1024) to the lower (768). Following from SKSE Installation by Avrie (in SKSE and the mystical memory tweak section):
"...most if not all of the other guides still say to use 768, and if you have limited Ram memory installed you might still be better off using 768. However, if you do have decent Ram, and you plan on installing lots of mods, go with 1024 right from the start. You’re working with the most current information in this guide.

A quick note on save files … The game saves the state of many aspects of the game including scripts permanently in the save files. Which is why it’s such a bad idea to remove a scripted mod from a running game. The “space” we’re discussing also affects the way the game structures the save file. You can always increase the amount safely, but decreasing the amount will adversely affect the stability of the save, and may break scripts. It is NOT recommended. If you feel you need to switch back to 768, please start a new game...."

Or just use:
SKSE ini pre-download for lazy users by Sagittarius22 - http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51038/?
and install it by using either Mod Organizer or Nexus Mod Manager.

As to ENBoost, you can follow this specific guide for it (also by Avrie, one of the forum's most respected members):
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=815662314

What about decreasing the heap size and reverting back to the save to before you increased it? Would that be safe?

I'll look at the guides you linked, thanks!

[silentcrow01]

Ummmmm...That's a lot of technical info that I have no clue about? I don't know what most of those settings are/do, or what the numbers mean? I also don't use a mod manager. I install by "hand" What is Enboost?

These are the mods I use, in the order they are listed in my load order...

Unofficial skyrim legendary edition patch
Paarthurnax Dilemma
ShoutCD
True dragonblood Dawnguard
True dragonblood Dragonborn
Run for your lives
When vampires attack
Wyr potion mod (a mod my brother made so created pots weigh.01)
Barenziah quest markers
AFT no friendly spell damage
Amazing follower tweaks.


I don't think there is anything script heavy, and that's all I'll use untill I get all achievements completed. After that, I will need to learn about script extending and stuff because there is a huge mod I want to try.

Sorry, I'm a bit of a dunce

ETA: How does one remove the values that have been altered? No clue of the originals.

[SilentAegis]

Originally posted by silentcrow01:

Ummmmm...That's a lot of technical info that I have no clue about? I don't know what most of those settings are/do, or what the numbers mean? I also don't use a mod manager. I install by "hand" What is Enboost?

These are the mods I use, in the order they are listed in my load order...

Unofficial skyrim legendary edition patch
Paarthurnax Dilemma
ShoutCD
True dragonblood Dawnguard
True dragonblood Dragonborn
Run for your lives
When vampires attack
Wyr potion mod (a mod my brother made so created pots weigh.01)
Barenziah quest markers
AFT no friendly spell damage
Amazing follower tweaks.


I don't think there is anything script heavy, and that's all I'll use untill I get all achievements completed. After that, I will need to learn about script extending and stuff because there is a huge mod I want to try.

Sorry, I'm a bit of a dunce

You should use a Mod Manager. I prefer Mod Organizer so that my mods aren't placed in the Data folder.

Also, Amazing Follower Tweaks is sufficiently outdated. Use Extensible Follower Framework instead.

Extensible Follower Framework: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12933/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D12933&pUp=1