Skyrim complete PC crashes

[dragonbornxxx]

Having the same but specific problems with Skyrim.

My desktop is:

OS Windows Xp 64x

MB AM3 870 MSI 870A-G54 (FX), PCIe/DDR3/SATA3/USB3/GLAN/7.1

CPU Athlon II X2 3.01 GHz

GC ATi Radeon 4650 1GB DDR3

8 GB Ram DDR3 1600 MHz

 

After the first install it was all perfect without any problem except just a few freezing crashes (2 or 3 after days and days of play) but only later in the game (let's say after the level 20/25) and only few times. Didn't pay any attention to that whatsoever considering my OS is ready for reinstall. I consider these freezes as normal. Otherwise, graphics settings were auto set to maximum and everything was just perfect - landscapes, caves, towns, faces, dragons... Except for those few freezes. Because other problems with my OS I had to reinstall it considering those Skyrim freezes as a one more reason to do it. By that time I was level somewhere above 30 (35?).

After complete reinstall of OS and Skyrim, and above level 30 (35?), it started! GRRRRRRRR! PC just goes shutdown absolutely as the power outage. After learning the fact that it is a game, with caution I started it again. I was in Talos temple in Merkarth and after I leave temple into the city it was auto-saving and it instantly shutdown PC. When I tried to load this auto-save it did the same. Then I applied the proposed fix to delete auto-saves and disable autosave option, load from the last manual save and continue playing expecting that this actually fixed it.

 

But it happened again when I went again to Talos Temple in Markarth. Then I thought it was some bug concerning this particular Temple so I tried to stay away from Merkarth and this temple. But after a while it happend again and again more frequent and in more variants. And it is always pc shutdown. No BSOD, no CTD, no restart just shutdown. And it is happening mostly while outside but occasionally inside also - smithing, smelthing, talking, purchasing various staf, walking, fighting dragon (it never crashed while figthing other beasts or anyone else)...

 

Then I have tried the following ways to fix this s.it

1. Auto-save issue as mentioned earlier

2. updated direct x to 10

3. updated direct x to 11

4. updated graphics driver to catalyst 11.10

5. Fx and Cobweb fix (enbseries_skyrim_v0088patch1)

6. Enb patch http://enbdev.com/download_patch_skyrim.htm

7. Found somwhere here

"It is related to auto-saves like gjm777 stated. However disabling auto-saving is insufficient (and not required; leave auto-saving enabled as it was). I noticed that once the game started crashing, if I fast-travelled to another location, it said "Autosaving" and after a few minutes in the new location it crashed. However after I rebooted and clicked Continue game, it started from my old location and not from the auto-save after I fast-travelled, which meant that the

auto-saving failed completely and it subsequently crashed. So I fast-travelled to a new location and created a manual save (Escape->Save) and then quit to desktop. I then went to the "My Games\Skyrim\Saves" folder and

deleted all the auto-saves and quick-saves and left only my manual save. Now when I continued playing everything worked fine including future auto-saves and it hasn't crashed in over 2 days. I had inadvertently done this 2

weeks ago while trying to clean all traces of the game and it started working properly back then, so it's worked successfully on two incidents.

Basically:

1. Continue game

2. Fast-Travel to new location

3. Save game manually (Escape->Save )

4. Quit to Desktop

5. Delete all saves from "My Games\Skyrim\Saves" except your manual save.

6. Continue game."

8. Reinstalled game.

 

Doing this I've realized that shutdowns were not happening before my saves were less then 10000 KB. I don't know if it matters, but this is an observation.

 

All of this proposed fixes did only that pc shutdown occurs more often and in more various situations, the playable time is less and less. Not only that - sometimes when it shuts down if I try to turn pc on quickly afterwards it won't start OS and restarts. If I let it for couple of minutes it goes up again and working perfectly except if in SKyrim. But these Skyrim crashes will damage my hardware permanently!!!!!!!!!!!

 

THEN! All of a sudden, I have realized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a fix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It can't be more simplier than this fix

 

Uninstall Skyrim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Untill someone finds a solution to this serious problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really enjoy playing Skyrim it is amazingly excellent and I was hooked up playing it as much as I could spare time even not sleeping!!!! It is that good!!!!

But if it damages my PC or make me so nervous it is not worth it!!!! I don't want to risk anymore.

 

When the problem is solved, Skyrim here I am! Until that, I can live without it!

Edited March 5, 2012 by dragonbornxxx

[Aarundel]

Well in my case Disabling the HG texture mod helps. The sound issue will not help at all. Just play the game without HQ water, Skies, and shadows. With only oroginal textures ( other gear texture not included ) I never have the NPC or other item losing textures and blackened face and frequent crashes.

[RyviusRan]

I tested it again and it doesn't seem the problem is with RAM usage .

 

 

I guess the problem really is with Whiterun and Riverwood.

[StickAndMove]

I've registered to post my fix here. Well, it's much more of a work-around than a fix- but you may find it helpful nonetheless.

 

It couldn't be more simple, disable AA (anti-aliasing). Through the Skyrim options, through your video card drivers, whatever. Just turn it off (this includes FXAA, not just MSAA).

 

The game looks far less impressive than it should, but I've yet to crash since I disabled this option.

[GPYRoader]

Try to go back to patch 1.3.10 and walla problems are solved.

 

How can I go back to 1.3.1?

[littlethree]

It is now four months after the release of Skyrim and I have barely been able to play. I am 1% of the way in, level 3. I continue to get a complete PC crash after 10 minutes of play. I have tried all the things Bethsoft has suggested, including uninstall/reinstall. I'm not sure if that included a need to delete all saved games too, but that I haven't done yet.

 

My GPU (nVidia 9600 GT) gets to about 72-82 C, which doesn't seem super high. However my computer fan remains in high gear when I am in the game. I have tried underclocking, but not sure I'm doing that correctly.

 

To add insult, I have seen Skyrim in the stores and it is 20 dollars less than when I bought it.

 

Frustrating. I want to play the game! I feel like I purchased a really expensive paper weight, one that wouldn't really even do the job of a paper weight well.

 

Anyone hear of any MODs that alleviates issues?

[kimeshin]

Hi Guys

 

Found the FIX ( Please note that this worked for me and may not worked for all people)

 

Specs:

AMD Athlone X2 = 2.8Ghz

2 Gigs RAM

nVidia GeForce 9500 GT - 512MB

Windows XP SP3

 

I noticed that ALL of you guys have better computers than me, I just meet the minimum requirements for the game. But when I installed it and ran it for the first time, it was epic and even with my miserable specs I had no problems and watched the beginning part and customized my character and made it all the way through the cave to black screen crash on my way to Riverwood. I then realized that if my computer and my little nVidia 9500 GT 512MB could handle all that graphical data from the beginning of the game and still get through the first part, whats stopping it from playing perfectly throughout the entire game. So I payed it a second time and I got to the part where I received the Whiterun Axe, and then again black screen crash (pisses me off)

 

I then did some research, and I found that all of you guys where experiencing more or less the same symptoms, so i thought its weird that guys/girls with dream machine specs and myself with 2008 specs are getting the same problems. Therefore I ruled out hardware as the source. I noticed that with the UK pack that I bought (only one available in South Africa), that there where some files missing and/or labeled differently than that of the US released pack.

 

Heres where the error is:

 

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist= 1e.007

 

the game cannot interpret this and crashes!

 

You can change it too:

 

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist= 10000000.0000

 

The post that a previous person left helped me, he/she is called nightlight or night time and they got the correct parameters of the game from a German source - BTW thank you so much to this person, you just made me enjoy my R350.00 game, which is about $30.

 

For those of us that do not know what this file does, it returns parameters to the game so that (a) the load up time is reduced from hours to mere seconds, (b) user specific specs are mounted in the game at ALL save points and © throughout the game parameters are equal, meaning that all trees that are the same remain the same, shadows of identical items are the same etc.

 

This file can only return integers, i.e numbers, but integers get too long, certain programming software returns a shortened version for syntax relief. like calculators when you get that "e" thingy

 

I recommend taking this persons directions and changing the parameters.

 

My game on my 2008 spec machine runs like a dream. No need to lower anything or change hardware and I got 6 hours of game play yesterday, killed 3 dragons, joined the werewolf clan and got an AWESOME sword and I checked this morning, I played for 2 hours and same great results, so there is hope guys.

 

Hope I have helped you all as you have helped me.

 

Cheers

 

Me

 

I support 9gag

[dragonbornxxx]

Ufffff!!!!!!!!! I have done total reinstall of the OS and got a new Skyrim instal (took from my friend who is running this on three different computers without problems!) and reinstall everything.

But it started again altought it was no pc shutdown crash but pc restart!!!!!!! Again I did all those steps that I wrote in my previous post only to have pc shutdown crash again and again and again... I've even disabled AA. It didn't help.

Completely pissed off and frustrated I didn't want to give up.

Start the game, play for couple of minutes than ps shuts down, start the computer again and Skyrim and again it crashes...

couple of times and my hdd is FUBAR!

Fu..ed Up Beyond Reparation! So... what else is there to be said?

 

kimeshin, you've mentioned

Heres where the error is:

 

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist= 1e.007

 

the game cannot interpret this and crashes!

 

You can change it too:

 

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist= 10000000.0000

 

 

How do you do this? Where to find this fu..ing file? How do you change it?

I mean, now when I-ve damaged my hdd and must buy a new one (just when hdd's are expensive) I'm going to the end. If Skyrim damages my hdd again I'll sue the dragonborn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited March 14, 2012 by dragonbornxxx

[Falthos]

I was a skeptic towards hardware being the culprit but I'm afraid that its partially true (at least in my case). I had a working fix for my card (search my name in this thread to find the fix if you haven't read it already). The hardware is not directly at fault. Its the compatibility of the card with high end games.

 

I have the same issue while playing Mass Effect 3 and Kingdoms of Alamaur: Reckoning. I received a new video card in the mail today that I ordered and the issue has completely stopped for all three games.

 

Here are the links to my old and new video card.

 

Old: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161369 (Read the customer reviews for this exact issue while playing skyrim and other high end games. It is why Newegg no longer carries this card).

 

New: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=708649&SRCCODE=WEBLET03SHIP&cm_mmc

 

If the above links did not work for you: The Old card is a HIS Radeon 6870 and the New card is a XFX Radeon 6950.

 

Note that this does not necessarily mean that you must use a different card to fix this issue. The fix I found before worked until a later patch for Skyrim released, so it is an issue between software and hardware communication (my guess is memory modules for the gpu)

 

 

P.S. A warning should be edited to the OP notifying people that this issue can cause damage to their computer.

I don't want to upset anyone but if you are planning on keeping your current video card..be patient for a community fix and if you have a different card that works, use it while you wait.

 

Original Post......

 

Zolexus, you may want to add a warning to the OP to pursue this issue at each person's own risk. Not everyone realizes that this issue can cause data corruption or even permanent damage to their hardware.

Edited March 15, 2012 by Falthos

[kimeshin]

Ufffff!!!!!!!!! I have done total reinstall of the OS and got a new Skyrim instal (took from my friend who is running this on three different computers without problems!) and reinstall everything.

But it started again altought it was no pc shutdown crash but pc restart!!!!!!! Again I did all those steps that I wrote in my previous post only to have pc shutdown crash again and again and again... I've even disabled AA. It didn't help.

Completely pissed off and frustrated I didn't want to give up.

Start the game, play for couple of minutes than ps shuts down, start the computer again and Skyrim and again it crashes...

couple of times and my hdd is FUBAR!

Fu..ed Up Beyond Reparation! So... what else is there to be said?

 

kimeshin, you've mentioned

Heres where the error is:

 

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist= 1e.007

 

the game cannot interpret this and crashes!

 

You can change it too:

 

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist= 10000000.0000

 

 

How do you do this? Where to find this fu..ing file? How do you change it?

I mean, now when I-ve damaged my hdd and must buy a new one (just when hdd's are expensive) I'm going to the end. If Skyrim damages my hdd again I'll sue the dragonborn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

See Neverlight ( thats the persons name, sorry for not noticing, you my hero)

Its the SkyrimPrefs.ini file

 

Hope this helps, it helped me and im playing straight 5 6 hours and no crashes or freezes. i really dont think its a hardware problem but please note that this helped me and may or may not assist all users.

 

//

Neverlight, on 05 December 2011 - 09:25 PM, said:

Finally since yesterdy i managed to play skyrim for 4 hours without a single hard reset or a ctd.

 

First time after i installed the game i was able to play for around an hour, but the next day the game was completely broken for me. The longest time ingame was NEVER more than 5 minutes until i had to hard reset my pc (black screen) and the shortest time was 3 seconds.

 

I guess i spent more than 15 hours in reading forumthreads and trying every hint i could get to solve my problem but to no avail since yesterday.

 

BTW i was able to play Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas and a lot of other games without a single crash so Skyrim was the first time i heard about the problems with this bethesda game engine.

 

So i knewfor sure my hardware was ok.

 

I tried EVERYTHING in correlation with this bug. Currently i'm running with these settings....

 

- Newest ATI drivers

- d3d9.dll

- enbdev

- no mods (since i wasn't able to play the game more than 5 minutes i never tried one)

- atiumdag.dll

 

So far i was still crashing

 

But then i found an article in a german magazine (PC Games) and i thought i have nothing to lose so i gave it a try:

 

- First off in Options , i choose ULTRA and unmark fxaa and "fade out object details" (not sure if its the correct translation for this because i have the german version)

- Now i opened SkyrimPrefs.ini (Under Documents -> MyGames -> Skyrim) and changed the following settings:

 

- bMouseAcceleration=0 (change it to 0)

- iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 (change it to 1)

- iShadowFilter=3 (change it to 4)

- fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000 (change it to 1000.0000)

- fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=0.0000 (change it to 10000000.0000)

- fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000 (change it to 1000.0000)

- bTreesReceiveShadows=0 (change it to 1)

- uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20 (change it to 40)

- iWaterMultiSamples=0 (change it to 4)

- iWaterReflectHeight=512 (change it to 1024)

- iWaterReflectWidth=512 (change it to 1024)

 

And now i added the following lines at the and of SkyrimPrefs.ini:

 

- bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1

- bReflectExplosions=1

- iWaterBlurAmount=4

- bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0

- bForceHighDetailreflections=1

 

Don't know what exactly made my game run but before i find out , i will finally enjoy skyrim now first.

 

BTW i have a core2duo 2.66 GHz, WIN 7 64bit, 4 GB RAM and an ATI 5770 graphics card, but Skyrim runs like a charm with these settings.

 

Thanks for all the help guys....and shame on you Bethesda , to let us alone for this long time after the release of the game, without being able to play the game.

 

Only help i had was the community....

//

 

Hope it helps buddy

 

Cheers

 

Kimeshin