Skyrim complete PC crashes

[BarderothReturns]

Sorry I didn't post any updates to the compiling lists, I was sick up til now. This has stretched to 90 pages since I last looked at it, and it seems the problem is still not fixed, so I'm going to start working on the compiled lists later tomorrow afternoon (it's 12:00AM, Ireland time). hopefully the compiled lists will help us isolate the problem.

 

Found this post:

"We plan on having a lot of these updates, not just a few. Overall, you should expect updates to be hitting the PC and Steam earlier and more often, as that's a process we control. Console updates will follow, as they must be certified and processed by those manufacturers."

 

"Beginning in January, PC players will be able to download for free the same development tools we used at Bethesda Game Studios to create Skyrim"

Edited December 5, 2011 by BarderothReturns

[TriviumHTF]

I fixed mine with atiumdag.dll file and setting the fan speed of the GPU to go to ~90% if temp reaches 60+ degrees with MSI Afterburner. Till now game is stable I could play for a loong time without the annoying shutdowns. Only problem now is that the all fire graphics are black squares, but don't matter to me as long as there are no shutdowns...

 

My rig:

ATI HIS Ice Q 5670

2gb ram

AMD Athlon 7750 BE

[caio354s]

First of all, I want to apologize for my english, isn't my native language.

And also say thank you for sharing everything

 

Yeah, got the same problem here in my notebook (C2D T6500 2.10GHz, 4GB, ATI 4650, W7 x64).

First game I wasn't able to run, of course some had been in low settings, but still running.

 

the strangest of things has happened to me today. this could be a possible fix for ATI users!

 

so i downloaded a d3d9.dll file from one of the posts in here - i cannot remember which one. i had put it in my skyrim folder and played only to see my game crash just like it always had. today, however, i tried something different: i launched the skyrim launcher via the radeonpro application. straight away, the message came up that my settings were configured for ultra high. this struck me a bit odd, since my last detection was set to high. i ran the game and was able to play for an entire hour on a brand new save. i've even got mods running and have edited the ini files to tweak my settings.

 

what i noticed in the skyrimprefs file is what may have allowed me to play (and note that i didn't crash during the hour that i played for). i'm running an ATI 6850, but found sD3DDevice="NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GS" in the ini. i have a feeling that this was due to the d3d9.dll file in my skyrim folder. could some of these issues stem simply from a string of text? i will play some more and hopefully continue on crash free.

 

pastebins for anyone who wants to go over my settings:

skyrim.ini

skyrimprefs.ini

 

Tried this fix below, and a lot others, but still crashing.

 

if you could, please try again with the following guide and a new, clean set of ini files (lower the settings a notch using the launcher, since you will get a higher predefined set than your computer may be able to handle).

 

ATI Users! Please Read!

google search for radeonpro, download and install - nvidia users note that this is for ATI cards. you will have to fiddle around with whatever the tweaking program is for nvidia cards.

 

the following has enabled play on my computer after crashes that stopped me from getting any further than helgen's dragon attack.

 

my specs:

AMD 955BE @ 3.2GHz

ATI HD6850 @ 800MHz Core & 1100MHz Memory - Catalyst 11.11

8GB Kingston HyperX Blu @ 1600MHz

Coolermaster 650W PSU

that's the important stuff

 

1 - open radeonpro and add a new entry, pointing the program to your tesv.exe

 

2 - follow these settings (you may have to turn some off if the game slows down)

 

the following settings are fine on my machine. if you experience low frame rates or texture popping, turn down some settings or disable some options. ymmv.

 

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3447/tesvradeonpro1.png

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6836/tesvradeonpro2.png

 

STEAM USERS NOTE: launch using radeonpro - NOT STEAM

 

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/1277/tesvradeonpro3.png

 

3 - download the d3d9.dll file i had in my directory and place it into yours

MegaUpload link

 

4 - backup and remove skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini

 

5 - launch the game using radeonpro

 

6 - report back here with your findings!

 

i sincerely hope that this works for at least one other person. i've been excited as all hell to be able to play - even if there are some performance hits sometimes.

 

 

Thank you for all the help, worked really fine in those exactly settings above.

 

So, for the record my steps were:

 

1 - All the process discussed until the begining (none of them worked)

2 - Underclock GPU to 520 mhz and memory clock to 670 mhz (using the program called GPUTOOL) - I didn't test this step isolated, you know, fearing for the safety of the hardware being shut down every single change I made, so I don't know if this helped, please some expert tell us. I just did this because one friend with the same notebook than mine told me to, and I was really desperate for a fix

3 - Followed the RadeonPro step by step from dreigner

4 - Used the GameBooster recommended some posts ago

5 - Enjoyed about 4 or 5 hours playing. I just gave a little stop to come here tell you it worked

 

Now I really hope that it's a permanent fix, and sucess for all who still whit this issue.

[Hasitgonebad]

I have been following this thread since the start as I have also been having this same problem.

 

However, as of today (9 hours play time) I have not had any black screens/resets and hopefully won't have any more in the future. *fingers crossed*

 

The fixes that I am using are the atiumdag fix, enbseries patch 9, underclocking my graphics card, playing audio through the onboard realtek drivers at 44100hz and finally turning off AA and AF in the game settings as well as leaving the catalyst settings as 'Off unless application specifies'.

 

Now for the past few days I have been doing the above except for the underclocking*, and while more stable than my game was initially, it was by no means acceptable (~1 hour of play time before hard crash). However I under clocked my card from its factory overclocked settings of 975Mhz GPU clock and 1150Mhz memory clock down to 825Mhz core clock and 1050Mhz memory clock. (also the fan speed is set to 100%, however the cooler fan on this card is significantly quieter than stock fans, so i'd suggest you run it a bit lower unless you have a good pair of industrial earmuffs or plan on having the volume up really high)

 

*I had previously tried under clocking, though by considerably less, and had no success. I'd suggest anyone that tries underclocking, continues to underclock until the problem is resolved, or reaches the minumum safe clocks allowed.

 

 

Now, i appreciate people have tried some/all of the above, and it hasn't worked for them, or that this may not work permanently and I'm on a lucky streak at the moment which is why i have compiled...

 

A list of things I have found to probably almost definitely improve stability: (for me at least)

-Catalyst 11.9 drivers: seriously, these are the most stable officially released drivers out there. They're probably more stable than 11.10 (haven't done much testing), and definitely more stable than 11.11 (average playtime with 11.9 was close to an hour, with 11.11 it was closer to 5 minutes).

 

-Turn off AA: I have found I crashed less with this off. Also, it's makes up for some of the fps lost by using mods/patches/fixes that eat up performance.

 

-Avoid using things that cause it to crash: Maps, riding a horse, trying to travel in a cart and whiterun have all caused crashes immediately or shortly after for me. Also, i've found that after one crash, the next one tends to happen sooner, until your game snowballs in to a horrible unplayable crashfest. (not that it wasn't before...)

 

-Uninstall and reinstall: The oldest trick in the book. I've found that doing this tends to solve the problem with increasing frequency of crashes, resetting it back to a more tolerable level.

 

 

System Specs

 

Phenom 955 BE 3.2ghz quad core

ASUS M4A79XTD EVO

4gb 1333Mhz DDR3 ram

Antec Earthwatts 750w PSU

HIS ice q x turbo x radeon 6870

Catalyst 11.9 drivers

Windows 7

 

Finally, I'd like to say a big thank you to all the people who continue to help despite it being almost a month without any official recognition, let alone fixes.

[dark27]

Putting that dll in the folder with the .exe seemed to have stopped mine fore now, but I'll try the profile thing listed above I think I may be in the clear lol, ATI card I have.

[dreigner]

Did not work for me :wallbash::(

 

did you miss/skip anything in the instructions? especially with the d3d9.dll and removing existing skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini? with the two settings files still there, the game will continue to use the instruction set for the graphics card that it detected BEFORE placing the d3d9.dll in your skyrim folder (same folder as your TESV.exe is in).

 

if anyone doesn't know where the skyrim.ini/skyrimprefs.ini files are:

open your documents folder

navigate to "my games"

navigate to "skyrim"

 

your saves will also be there.

 

i am glad to hear that others are experiencing possible steady gameplay using the instructions i provided. i really hope that this is only a semi-permanent fix (bethesda need to fix the problem instead of relying on the work of others), and that we won't have to worry about stuff like this over the coming months.

 

also, could everyone using the instructions please let me know what game version they're using and whether it's a steam/retail/cracked copy. if steam users are having problems with this then i may be able to work something out.

 

i, for one, am using a cracked copy of 1.1.

[rfeehan1]

Out of curiosity, people who are experiencing the hard freezes, are you using multiple mods that effect the d3d9.dll? I had been experiencing hard black screen crashes constantly for the past few days and pretty much tried every fix I could find here. The one thing that seemed to work is that I made sure that the d3d9.dll I had did not conflict with other mods that were using it.

 

My example:

 

I use both the FXAA Post-Process Injector (plus follow the outlined path of STEP which includes using the FXAA) and ENBSeries Patch. The FXAA uses the iCCC ENB - Natural Shader Injector which modifies the .dll and the ENB Series Patch also modifies the .dll. Now the iCCC download has it now where they can combine successfully. When I would upadate the iCCC mod it always seemed to work. Then whenever ENB came out with a new patch, I would download it and then I would get my hard crashes again. Thinking it was the patch I would roll back to the previous ENB patch (download if from the site) and my crashes would then continue, so I figured it was not due to that. However what I forgot to do was us the iCCC/ENB mix that was provided in the iCCC download section when I rolled back the patch dll version. Once I did that, ie I used the most up to date iCCC/ENB merge files, skyrim worked great.

 

So now whenever ENB comes out with a new patch, I wait for iCCC to update its merged files before I add the new .dll (I will use the iCCC ones). Also I will change in the "enbpatch.ini" my vendorID and DeviceID to my video card as per the instructions. No idea if this helps, however; I have been able to play Skyrim now for hours where before I would have the hard freeze every 30 sec - 1 min into the game.

 

What might help is a fresh re-install and then just follow the STEP instructions. Worked for me.

[dreigner]

Out of curiosity, people who are experiencing the hard freezes, are you using multiple mods that effect the d3d9.dll? I had been experiencing hard black screen crashes constantly for the past few days and pretty much tried every fix I could find here. The one thing that seemed to work is that I made sure that the d3d9.dll I had did not conflict with other mods that were using it.

 

My example:

 

I use both the FXAA Post-Process Injector (plus follow the outlined path of STEP which includes using the FXAA) and ENBSeries Patch. The FXAA uses the iCCC ENB - Natural Shader Injector which modifies the .dll and the ENB Series Patch also modifies the .dll. Now the iCCC download has it now where they can combine successfully. When I would upadate the iCCC mod it always seemed to work. Then whenever ENB came out with a new patch, I would download it and then I would get my hard crashes again. Thinking it was the patch I would roll back to the previous ENB patch (download if from the site) and my crashes would then continue, so I figured it was not due to that. However what I forgot to do was us the iCCC/ENB mix that was provided in the iCCC download section when I rolled back the patch dll version. Once I did that, ie I used the most up to date iCCC/ENB merge files, skyrim worked great.

 

So now whenever ENB comes out with a new patch, I wait for iCCC to update its merged files before I add the new .dll (I will use the iCCC ones). Also I will change in the "enbpatch.ini" my vendorID and DeviceID to my video card as per the instructions. No idea if this helps, however; I have been able to play Skyrim now for hours where before I would have the hard freeze every 30 sec - 1 min into the game.

 

What might help is a fresh re-install and then just follow the STEP instructions. Worked for me.

 

i have a clean game with the exception of high-res textures. nothing that modifies the d3d9.dll.

[Dova13]

Well for me ATI 11.11c, ENBseries patch7, 1.2 patch, that ATI fix and underclocking my CPU to the min using MSI afterburner seemed to work, because it didn't crash when it would've. Or maybe I just got lucky.

 

This is the point where i suspected an accumulative problem,as mine worked after a few tweaks but after a few hours it all went tits up again,and to top it off it ate my save games.

Well, did you turn off AA?

[dreigner]

as much as it annoys and saddens me, my game has crashed once again. after a total of roughly 20 hours with the possible ATI card fix i posted earlier, i left whiterun and mounted my trusty steed. before the horse even turned around my screens went black and the looping sound began.

 

i'm hoping that this will be something of a rarity from this point on. for the game to run so well for such a short amount of time would be disappointing. i will keep you guys updated when i continue my efforts tomorrow.