READING CRASH LOGS

What is this?

This guide serves as a pointer on how to read crash log files yourself. This will provide general ideas on what parts of the log to read, what files/keywords to scan, and the issues involved.

A more indepth of keywords and their respective possible solutions is provided in the Crash Log Keyword Bank guide.

So Which Crash Logger to use? 

Use Crash Logger SSE. Avoid using Trainwreck as it misses vital information.

Use CTRL + F to get around this guide.

First things first, before proceeding to the rest of the guide - if you are crashing at game launch, consider the section below:

GAME CRASHING AT LAUNCH

• Missing masters - Check your mod manager notifications (hazard sign in MO2, Bell icon in Vortex)
• Borked Reshade / ENB installation - Reinstall and make sure to follow the instructions properly.
• Skyrim version <1.6.1170 issue - Require Backported Extended ESL Support (or BEES)
• There are no game .ini files present - happens when Skyrim is freshly installed and has not been launched vanilla / via its .exe. Launch the game through Skyrim launcher / .exe to generate the .ini files needed.

If you are not crashing at game launch then proceed to the reading log guide proper below.

READING THE CRASH LOG FILE 

THINGS TO CHECK HERE

• Skyrim game version (v1.5.97, v1.6.640, v1.6.1170 etc) - this is important as some mod issues are version specific.
• PHYSICAL MEMORY -  Nearing within around 1GB allowance of the maximum GB may indicate that memory has run out and the game crashed.
• Unhandled exception - What you see above is what is usually seen in logs, HOWEVER there are cases when you see .dll (SKSE) files in there and those are often worth investigating

• d3d11.dll - possibly borked ENB / Reshade installation

THINGS TO CHECK HERE

• Relevant Objects / Probably Call Stacks / Registers 

• NOT THE FOCUS of what to read, HOWEVER it might give you a heads up as to what possible issues to expect.
• In some cases when you can’t get anything reliable from the STACK section, it might be worth investigating these sections instead.

• STACK 

• this is where the cause of the crash can be seen MOST of the time
• Reading from TOP to BOTTOM, this section will list possible causes of the crash - with the top as most likely and bottom as the least likely.
• You will see various keywords in there that will be clues as to what caused the crash.

THE STACK SECTION - WHAT DO I NEED TO LOOK FOR?

These are some the usual suspects that can clue you in on the nature of the crash:

.DLL files

• Note that some appear merely because a mod USING said DLL is faulty (for example, FSMP appears often, when a mod with SMP-enabled hair or armours are bad)

.ESP/ESM/ESL files

• These would indicate an issue with that particular mod. There could be a various number of causes, the most likely being a missing patch.

.HKX files 

• These would indicate a crash related to animations/behavior

.DDS files 

• These would indicate broken/corrupted/bad textures.

.NIF files  

• These would indicate a broken/corrupted mesh.

Skeleton .NIF files 

• These would indicate an issue with the skeleton in general
• A likely cause would be that XP32 meshes are being overwritten by something else that is NOT based on its included skeleton.

NPC names

• These indicate an issue with the NPC itself
• It could be linked to an ESP file (or a whole list of ESP files with arrows pointing between them).

.PEX/PSC files

• In rare cases scripts appear in the logs. Those would indicate a broken mod, or badly overwritten records from the mod's ESP if it has one.

WorldRoot Node / WorldRoot Camera, Shadow Scene Node 

• These are the worst kind of bugs to debug.
• Related to lighting and/or camera mods.
• Most common culprits are Facelight mods, which all cause these issues and must be removed ASAP.
• It is very difficult to pinpoint their cause. Be prepared to do a binary search (as with any other difficult logs)

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

NONSENSICAL CRASH LOGS

If the log is throwing every ESPs and logs out there that usually wouldn’t crash a game, the most likely conclusion would be that you messed with the modlist mid-playthrough. One never touches the modlist once a playthrough is started. Any change, be it adding, removing or updating a mod could cause issues.

NO INFORMATION IN THE LOG

If the logs do not contain any useful information, it is time to do a binary search.

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BINARY SEARCH STEPS

1. Disable half of the mods in the modlist
2. Launch Skyrim to test for crash
3. If the issue still persist, disable half of the remaining enabled mods in the modlist
4. Launch the game again to test for crash
5. Repeat until the crash/issue disappears, the causative mod should be found at this point.

CAUTION: 

• Make sure you have DUPLICATED your original profile/modlist beforehand.
• Make sure there are no missing masters present when attempting this method, this can be checked in your mod manager notifications (hazard sign in MO2, Bell icon in Vortex).
• Testing on a new save/playthrough is always preferable and least problematic
• Use console commands in the Skyrim main menu such as coc riverwood or coc whiterun for faster testing (depends on the nature of the crash)