So, I'm a bit more desperate that I normally would be in this situation. The basic rundown is, selecting a prior game save file, then clicking Load, causes the whole game to freeze. This happens whether I select a game file from the main menu, or by starting a new game, then hitting Esc and selecting a game file to load. The game completely freezes except for the music, which runs for a minute or two before stopping. I don't even reach a loading screen, the effect is instant upon clicking the button. The only way to resolve it is to Ctrl-Alt-Del and kill the process.



Now, the save files in question happen to be copied over from this laptop's hard drive while it was unbootable last week, but it should be the same file on the same laptop as last week (I had to do a Windows reinstall). It appears that new files I create today are able to load OK, but none of the various save files I've attempted that have been copied over will work. I'm wondering if perhaps my current game options don't match the ones in the savefile, or something? Or my custom Factions don't match up? What else could it be?



I'm begging for any assistance in this matter. For some backstory, here is my scenario: After many failed attempts, I've gotten closer than ever before to winning in a game trying to get the Don't Even Think About It achievement (Create a custom faction with -195 points or less, and win a game with it on Endless difficulty). However, the very next day after I made a breakthrough in that game, which has taken dozens of hours over multiple days, my laptop wouldn't boot. I've spent a solid week of doing nothing but arduous self-taught troubleshooting & repair, only to finally go ahead and do a clean Windows reinstall today. The one silver lining to losing most of my personal data, was that I thought I could finally resume my interrupted game of ES. And now this... smiley: frown Any help at all will be greatly appreciated!



System specs:

  • Lenovo Y70 laptop
  • Steam
  • Windows 8.1
  • CPU: Intel i7-4710
  • Memory: 8GB







UPDATE:



I'm the happiest person in the world. I noticed that the "Mods" button would detect any recently downloaded mods either, which made me notice the version # was off, so I did a Steam "Verify integrity of game files" which seems to bring the game back up to date, and now my SAVE FILES LOAD I AM SO HAPPY.