Why is Skyrim giving me an "infinite loading screen"?

Question

So I get into Skyrim (I play on my PC) and I start it up and all that jazz, click continue, and it comes to the loading screen... so I wait... and wait... and wait... then I figure something must be up, for this has never happened to me before. I restart my computer and try again... still doesn't work. I delete old saves because I heard that sometimes it works... nothing. Once I waited TWO HOURS for it to load and it never did. I put everything on medium and nothing. This has gone on for about three days now and it was working perfectly a few hours before it started doing that... I get tips and everything, but... EHHHH HELP! Oh and I have tried to go into my Skyrim file on my computer through my hard drive... you know C:&#92;Users&#92;Owner&#92;Documents&#92;My Games&#92;Skyrim&#92;Saves to see if I can open the save to see if anything is wrong with it... and I get "Windows can't open this file. To open this file, Windows needs to know what program you want to use to open it. Yadi yadi yada... I have no virus infections as far as I can find... Can anyone help me? If it helps I bought the legendary version and here are the settings I have for it... I don't know if it will help... but here you go.

[General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH

uExterior Cell Buffer=36

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
bAllowScreenshot=1

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0
bEnableLogging=0
bEnableTrace=0
bLoadDebugInformation=0
[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

D · Accepted Answer

Change the "0" to a "1" in both bEnableLogging=0 and bEnableTrace=0 under [Papyrus].

Start the game and then exit and read the log file and it will give you a clue why the game is in an infinite loop at a loading screen.  The infinite loading screen is usually a mod conflict or may be a DLC did not properly install (there have been problems with the DLC on the Legendary edition).

You may also have a cell buffer full from the last time you played that didn't clear so Skyrim can't load.  Did you end your last game normally or did it CTD or freeze or not end normally?  Have you used a quick save as this can also cause the infinite loading screen.

It can also occur if your RAM is being used by background programs and services that start to run as Skyrim is loading and there is insufficient RAM for the game to load.  Shut off as many programs and services that load when the computer starts and see if that helps.

Try deleting the skyrim.ini file under C:&#92;Users&#92;Owner&#92;Documents&#92;My Games&#92;Skyrim&#92;.  Only the .ini file and I suggest making a copy of it and saving it somewhere and then deleting the one in the Skyrim file.  Starting the game with the Launcher will create a new .ini that may fix the issue.

The worst that can happen is the last save corrupted your game because it had too much or conflicting information to save or it ran into a conflict.  Unfortunately, this requires a complete uninstall, a cleaning of the registry and a reinstall to fix.

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Why is Skyrim giving me an "infinite loading screen"?

1 Answer