Blade In the Dark - Kynesgrove CTD workaround

[Dragonflight]

I'm putting this here to hopefully save others the frustration I went through. There's an issue in Skyrim where some games will CTD the moment you approach the burial mound Alduin is resurrecting. Nothing you try fixes it. Mods, vanilla game, patches, etc. Even multiple new saves seem hit or miss. This is because it's a known issue no one has ever really fixed.

The ultimate workaround (and what worked for me) requires that you use the Tilde (~) key to open the console, and type in the following command.

setstage MQ106 200

Note that this only ends the mission. You can do this anywhere after the Blade in the Dark mission has started, even the moment you leave the inn. Delphine immediately turns around and walks back inside, and the mission is listed as a success.

But you're not done yet. Doing this technically breaks the main questline, because you've stopped the game from branching into the next story. So you have to enable it. After you've ended the previous quest, type:

setstage MQ201 30

That enables Diplomatic Immunity, the next quest, and puts you on the path for the main story. That should allow you to bypass the glitched CTD issue, without compromising the storyline.

[Bovi]

Thanks greatly, for this information, Dragonflight. I've been trying to work my way through this for quite a while, now. This worked! ...

[naitan]

For me switching off cpu core unparking fixed the problem entirely. just set it back to the default value 65 in the registry

[Lothic]

instead of cheating, just mod your games correct

[Xaveston]

Instead of typing, just learn to read the whole thing. He explained that it wasn't mod related.

[Dragonflight]

It's a glitch in the game Bethesda never fixed. There's a ton of them in Skyrim, which is why I'm hoping Skyrim 64 won't hand me those problems (haven't had time to play it yet.)

But that said, the CTD was because of bad coding on Bethesda's part which was never fixed. So there's still a chance the new version is just as messed up. So just in case, this workaround will remain on Steam in case anyone else needs it.

[Reaver]

They should STICKY this if they are not going to fix it. As it was I had to search through all the bug posts with this quest to find my bug.

I have been going nuts for the past three days, disabling all mods, reinstalling the game, running all my old characters back through it and they all CTD'd the game this time. Thanks very much for the work around, I am saving it to a folder and keeping it with my save-games.

Thanks again.

By the way the Bug is in the area, not the quest, or maybe the bug manifests itself as soon as you leave Ustengrav after completing that quest. I think I will test this out....

[Crystal Sharrd]

I didn't have this problem. Unofficial Patches FTW.

[Reaver]

So, you can go to the mound where Sahloknir resurrects from before Ustengrav with no CTD. After Ustengrav, CTD. After returning the Horn of Windcaller to the Greybeards, then going to Sahloknir = a CTD. After using the Console to set 'Blade in the Dark' to complete and start 'Diplomatic Immunity', Sahloknir spawns, but if you go try to kill him/her the game CTDs before you can reach the hilltop. Hopefully Sahloknir can de-spawn.

[Reaver]

Originally posted by sonic65101:

I didn't have this problem. Unofficial Patches FTW.

Too late, but I've done Blade in the Dark many times before so didn't miss too much. I've already spent 3 days fighting Sahloknir's bugs so time to move on. next Bug I will try the Unofficial Patches.

By the way Skyrim SE does not have this bug, for those who were wondering.

[Dragonflight]

That's good. Not every game I played had the same problem, so it's random. Most of the Bethesda games bake some of the game's data permanently in the character save files. So if something gets corrupt, you might not know until *long* after you could have done something about it, which is why reloading previous saves might not fix the problem. The biggest problem is that since it's a known bug, it may not be a "corrupt file" *per se*, even if it acts like one.

When it did CTD, I noticed it always happened right before rounding that big rock that hides the dragons from view. That's right about the time the resurrection scene starts playing, so I suspect it's a call issue with that specific in-game event. The only solution I ever found was the one I typed above, and it was such a pain that I had to share it in case anyone else needed it.

I'm glad it doesn't show up in the 64-bit version. Nice to hear they fixed some of the recurring bugs.

[Bovi]

I'm not trying to anger anyone here. I know that a lot of people simply don't have the money to buy a gaming computer of the latest generation. However, I should point out that my old computer was seven years old, and the Kynesgrove CTD happened every single time. I bought a new computer, at the beginning of this week, and changing nothing, I went to Kynesgrove, the dragon came out of his burial mound, and I killed him.

By the way, it was in the 64-bit version where this was happening. I had no trouble in Oldrim.

[Bovi]

By the way, it's very important to set the TESV.exe at highest priority, no matteer what computer you have. You will get a lot more performance out of the game, on Oldrim or SSE.

Go into the game.
Press ctrl-alt-del
Select Priorities
Right-click on TESV.exe
Set highest priority

What this will do is cause the computer to devote most of its resources to Skyrim.

[Bovi]

Sorry, after pressing ctrl-alt-del, select choices.

[Aerotactics]

Originally posted by Zommbeez:

By the way Skyrim SE does not have this bug, for those who were wondering.

WRONG.

I just ran into this bug in Skyrim VR WITH the unofficial patch. Tried every workaround, but to no avail. I can only start a new game.

P.S. Skyrim VR is Skyrim SE.

[Bazinga III]

Your fix seems to have worked for me actually.

My crash consistently occurred when he said "I am Sahlokinir, hear my voice and despair".
Game crashed every time when he got to despair.

I bumped my SkyrimSE.exe process up to high priority in task manager and that seemed to fix the issue I had with CTDs during this quest.