Infuriating mini freezes - Tech Lords and helpful people needed!

[LifeFace]

Right, I'm just as psyched as everyone else is about Skyrim but to my dismay upon playing it I get these mine freezes when I go outside into the the main area (Skyrim Region) which become more frequent when running away from things. These freezes occur for about 5-15 seconds and occur every 5ish mins. Apart from this my PC (which to my understanding isn't that bad) handles it fine with a very reasonable fps with no jerkyness on high settings. I've experimented to see if it was the graphics settings but even at 800x600 on low it still happens!! I've downloaded the latest graphics card drivers through steam to no avail, I've tried everything I can think of. Is it a bug or just my computer? I suspect it might be my processor holding me back as it would be the driving force behind loading the new areas which I assume to be the main cause of these freezes, but then again my processor isn't awful. My "rig" is as follows : AMD Athlon II X2 250 running at 3GHz, 4GB of DDR3 ram, Windows xp and a ATI Radeon HD5770 1gb graphics card (GPU clock 880MHz Memory 1250MHz). I know its a pretty small problem but its completely ruining the experience for me so any suggestions will be a massive help.

[Raidernick]

I have this same problem. I increased the address size of my tesv.exe from 2 to >2gb and the problem has lessened significantly. Now it only happens occasionally. Although your processor is bottlenecking your computer so that could also be the problem.

[mutonizer]

Probably not that but since I wondered about some freezes I was having, I thought I might share.

 

Did you check the autosaving option? Personally, I had a freeze once in a while outside and couldn't figure out why. After some time, I realised that it was just the autosaving option so I disabled it, and no problem now.

 

Just saying.

[sofrickinwhat]

I saw your thread and thought I'd share a post I'd made in another thread..not sure it'll help or not.

 

Unlike most of these posting here,(previous thread was mostly Win7-64bit) I'm running WinXP-Pro with an Asus P5E3 Premium wifi MB, Intel Core 2-Quad, 2.83ghz, 2g ddr3 1600 ram, Nvadia Geforce gtx 460, and this is what I've been told to do so far by Bethy concerning my issues . First, with crash to desktop when the game is trying to start:

 

First I emailed Friday the 11th, no reply. Called them on Monday the 14th and verified current drivers, give them info from DxDiag.. ..requested I go to MicroSoft and download current version of DirectX, reinstalled that. Then it was, 'well you need to uninstall and reinstall the game and it must be downloaded, not off the DVD.' Remove all running programs, disable antivirus and firewalls, anything else. After a couple hours and no change in the game, I called them back...

 

Second call, verify the DxDiag info again, then bring up msconfig and unclick 'Startup Items'..didn't help. Now they want me to reinstall again, with their 19 steps and create a new admin account on my system because they found that sometimes the problem is with our systems and a new admin account fixs the problem and they sent me this email on what they wanted me to do and how to do it, and if this doesn't work, they'll move my issue to the next tier, because as tier one, they would've reached the limit of their ability to offer any help. The followng are their instructions:

 

1. Click on Start then Control Panel.

2. Double click on Add or Remove Programs.

3. Click on the program, then click on the Change/Remove button.

4. Once the uninstall is complete, close all of the open windows.

5. Double click on My Computer and find the folder the program used to be installed in.

6. Click on the program folder once to highlight it and press the DEL or Delete key on the keyboard to send the folder to the Recycle Bin.

7. Next, open My Computer again and find the folder C:WindowsTemp.

8. Once in this folder, Click on Tools, then Folder Options. Click on the View tab, then click on Show hidden files and folder to place a check by it. Click on Apply, then OK..

9. Click on Edit at the top of the screen, then Select All, then click on File, then Delete. Answer yes to any of the prompts that appear.

10. Next, open My Computer again and find the folder C:Documents and Settings.

11. Double click on the folder named after the login name (e.g. if you're login is "Bob", then double click the folder named Bob)

12. Double click the Local Settings folder.

13. Double click the Temp folder.

14. Click on Edit at the top of the screen, then Select All, then click on File, then Delete. Answer Yes to any of the prompts that appear.

15. Once this is done, close all open windows.

16. Empty the Recycle Bin by double clicking on the Recycle Bin and click on File and then Empty Recycle Bin.

17. Once this is done, close all open windows.

18. Go to Start, Run, and type in msconfig. Click on Selective Startup and temporarily uncheck Load Startup Group Items. Click on Okay and Yes to restart.

19. Place the CD into the drive and install the program.

 

A few times in the past, we've seen small problems develop with the current XP account login. Suddenly a program will encounter errors it did not encounter before. It is quite easy to create a new "test" account in Windows XP to help determine if there is a problem with the current account login, without losing the contents of the login. Use the instructions below:

 

XP

 

- Make sure you are logged in as a user with administrator access.

- Go to Start and Control Panel.

- Double click User Accounts

- Click on Create a new account

- Type in a name for the new account. Use a name that has never been used on the machine before. Test is usually a good choice.

- Click the Next button

- Choose Computer Administrator

- Click the Create Account button

- Log off by clicking on Start and Log Off

- Choose Log Off (do NOT use Switch User, as this leaves the previous user logged on)

- Log in as the new user you created

- Try running the program. If there was a desktop icon, it probably won't be present in this additional user account. Simply start the program from the Start Menu.

 

...okay, fine.. ..did as they requested and created a new admin account and tried running the game from there.. ..now the game starts, plays abit, got to town and asking who I am.. ..locks up, freezes picture, still hear sound. What I found is, if I did 'ctrl, alt, del'.. then click on task manager, it reduces the game to the task bar. Then I close task manager and click on Skyrim on the taskbar and it pops up, but with just the border of the game showing, all I see is my desktop. Then I pressed the Windows button on the keyboard, then click on Skyrim on the taskbar again and the game is back and I can continue playing. WTF!!! After awhile though I get the same issue everyone else here is having, system just reboots outta the blue. When my system is back up, the Windows Error Report comes up and the issue is what has been posted here prior, something about BCC...

 

Call them back again and now they want me to send them a copy of my DxDiag and haven't heard a word from them since. That was Monday.. ..I have a feeling, this is going to be awhile. They forced PC users to install crapware to run the game, then tell us to disable our antivirus and firewalls to play, through the internet. Are they complete morons?!?!?! Who in their right minds would want to do that and when it becomes common knowledge that you have to do that to play, how long before the hack/botters try gaining access to unprotected computers?!?!?!?!?! Sad but true, another example of American businesses rushing a product to sell for short term profits, despite it's flaws and instability.