Skyrim is crashing my PS3
I've seen a thread or two about the lag problems in Skyrim on the PS3. However, I've seen few (if any) about Skyrim actually crashing the system. Perhaps my case is actually a lag, and I'm just not waiting long enough. The lag cases seem to be related to Autosaves, and I will admit that some of my crashes seem to be around the point an Autosave might occur. However, sometimes it's also during a load operation. Sometimes, it appears rather random.
Usually, a reboot will leave me in the clear for a couple hours or so. I've had the system crash on me twice in just tonight's session of a few hours.
Once, it appeared that it was just the game that had crashed - I was able to access the PS3's menu by holding the PS button. However, after selecting to quit the game, my system instead gave an error beep and rebooted. Every other time though, the whole system would just be hung - I couldn't even access the shutdown menu, a couple minutes after the start of the hang.
Is this a known common issue with the game? Or, is this just my PS3 telling me I'm playing too much Skyrim and it needs a break? Could it be an actual problem with my system?
One bit of information that would be helpful in diagnosing this is, from those who are more intimately familiar with the "lag and chopping" I'm reading about, how long does the system typically hang during Autosave lag?
P.S.: I'm aware that a proposed workaround for the "lag" issue is to disable Autosave, but I've had that feature save my tail enough times I'd rather not.
P.P.S: In response to a comment - I've now been playing Need For Speed: The Run for probably much longer than any single shot I had at Skyrim before a crash.
I have this same issue now, to where I can not play almost at all unless I am in a dungon. If I load into a city, fast travel, or have a dragon spawn, it freezes in the same way you describe. I have to turn off my PS3 all the way and when it comes back on it says that my hard disk may be corrupt and does a 15-minute check.
I have over 100 hours play time and this issue has me really down, but here is what I have found suggested around the net:
Wait 30 in-game days so that all the dungeons and dead bodies everywhere will ether re-spawn or de-spawn from the game world, which is said to lower the size of the save file. (I can't use this one because if I wait I freeze right after.)
Turn off auto save and any other type of save that you have not done your self. (I know it's a life saver, but just make yourself save every 15 minutes or before you think you're about to have a big battle.)
Check all of your saves from the PS3 save utility for any saves that say "corrupt" on them and remove them. Also, remove all the really old saves.
Hope that there will be a patch for this soon. :)
Let me know if this works for you, and good luck!
If Skyrim keeps crashing your PS3: It either means that your internal hard drive cannot support Skyrim's data capacity or your disc drive inst reading the disk which would make it crash. If you can give me some spec's. on your PS3 ( new or old ps3 and hard drive size) i can help with what size gb. your internal hard drive will have to be to store newer games.