Skyrim SE install blocked recognition of my GPU...

[Hoamaii]

Hi guys,

 

Not sure if I should post this here or on Fallout 4 or Skyrim SE forums... but here's my issue:

 

After installing Skyrim SE, my 2 other Bethesda games installed on the same rig - Fallout 4 and Skyrim + Skyrim SE - all stopped recognizing my GPU and reverted to the awful default system integrated video card... :pinch: and consequently reset all my games to "low" profile.

 

My spec:

 

i7 CPU - 4 cores - 16Gb

Win 7 Pro Service Pack 1 - 64 bits

nVidia GeForce GTX 980 - 4Gb VRAM

 

Needless to say both Fallout 4 and Skyrim always ran on my nVidia card before installing SE.

 

But now both the RendererInfo.txt and the SkyrimPrefs.ini files point to my default video card. And my nVidia Card is not even listed in the Options of my Skyrim launcher, only the damn Intel® HD 4600.

 

I tried fixing that by changing the following line in SkyrimPrefs.ini:

 

[Display]

sD3Device="Intel® HD Graphics 4600"

to

sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce 980"

 

as well as change the line in the RendererInfo.txt.

 

I can run the game, the SkyrimPrefs.ini will keep my changes but the RendereInfo.txt always reverts back to default card - and opening the launcher again will systematically reset it ALL to default card.... :wallbash:

 

And this happens on all 3 games!.. I tried to verify cache, reinstall Skyrim SE... no difference.

 

I can configure all 3 games in my nVidia Config panel, but since the games never use that card, it doesn't help...

 

This is driving me kind of nuts, ALL my recent Bethesda installs on this rig (Fallout 4 CK, Skyrim SE) have been messing up with my rig...

 

Just for clarification, my Skyrim SE is entirely Vanilla, my Fallout 4 is slightly modded, and my Skyrim is HEAVILY modded.

 

Anybody has any idea what I may try to fix this?

 

A thousand thanks in advance!..

[Hoamaii]

Been trying different things:

 

- uninstalled my nVidia GTX 980 drivers (using Display Driver Uninstaller), cleaned the registry, reinstalled them fresh. No change.

 

- the strange thing is when I run Skyrim or F04 on Ultra with Fraps on, I get a steady 60 FPS, hardly dropping below 50, which seems to indicate that the games do use my nVidia card... but the line "sD3DDevice=" in the [Display] section of the prefs.ini files systematically resets to the intle video card.

 

- also whenever I quit and relaunch, I systematically get the "Game will now detect your hardware settings" pop-up on all games (Skyrim, FO4, Skyrim SE) and it resets everything to my integrated card (and LOW settings!..), exactly like the one you get after 1st install. :pinch: What is it exactly that triggers this annoying pop-up?

 

- ran dxdiag.exe and realised my DirectX11 cannot detect my nVidia card either... :wallbash:

 

Every new game install reinstalls its own DirectX directory + vcredist in a _CommonRedist folder, could it be that Skyrim SE's Direct X version installed yesterday messes up with my system's DirectX?..

 

Any idea, guys?.. Please?..

 

Thanks!

[snelss0]

Although many deny that Skyrim SE changed anything in these other files, I call bullhonkey as this issue has been all over the playerbase. I'm not sure what it messed with, but I think it's something in your system. First, try a defrag and then restart. I've seen cases of just doing that fixing this issue.

[Hoamaii]

Not entirely sure Skyrim SE is the culprit here, may just as well be Steam's installer... but the fact is before I installed SE, other games ran on nVidia, and when I returned after the few hours the download took, all games launchers started popping up their "detect specs" windows and could only detect the integrated GPU. Nothing else happened in between, no Windows update, no other install... in fact, I just went and did something else while the install process was running...

 

Yep, I did defrag, cleaned registry, reinstalled drivers and probably restarted 3 dozen times while trying to understand what might have happened... Listing everything I tried would be too long. But the fact is that the SE install completely reset my .ini files from both Skyrim and FO4 as well as the RendererInfo.txt files. All files were stamped from the exact same time. As if Steam had verified the cache for other games as well while installing SE.

 

Yet, forcing my nVidia in the Prefs.ini Display section while the launchers' windows are open and using nVidia config panel to force the games to use nVidia seems to do the trick - but having to redo that every time drives me nuts.

 

Realising that even dxdiag.exe can no longer detect my nVidia GPU makes me wonder if some of these new DirectX .dll files or vcredist is not the culprit... but that's unfortunately way beyond my understanding at the moment...

 

If only I could understand WHY each of these 3 games pop-up their "detect spec" windows every time I launch a game (even though I have Steam offline) :facepalm:, maybe that'd give some kind of clue about what's going on...

[Purr4me]

 

What is it exactly that triggers this annoying pop-up?

Hardware triggers it.

 

A device drivers registry entry is still in there, in the registry for SKE game.

1. Question: monitor type and capabilities?
2. connection type -- PC to monitor?
3. Motherboard Brand and spects
4. Bios settings should not be touched by any game install so leave it alone----If the the other games work on reset, don't reset SKE.

Clear all temp directories from Junk left over. This issue should not take place on windows 7 64bit...10 yes, 7 ? no.

[Moksha8088]

Maybe after the change, you could set the .ini files to read only.

[Hoamaii]

@ Pur4me:

 

 

 

 

What is it exactly that triggers this annoying pop-up?

Hardware triggers it.

 

A device drivers registry entry is still in there, in the registry for SKE game.

1. Question: monitor type and capabilities?
2. connection type -- PC to monitor?
3. Motherboard Brand and spects
4. Bios settings should not be touched by any game install so leave it alone----If the the other games work on reset, don't reset SKE.

Clear all temp directories from Junk left over. This issue should not take place on windows 7 64bit...10 yes, 7 ? no.

 

 

1. Computer is an Alienware 15 laptop with built in P&P monitor + an Asus 27 external monitor. Both 1920x1080.

2. Connection type to external monitor: HDMI (also works fine plugged to a 50 inches TV screen)

3. Motherboard is a Dell OEM so it is not listed in my system informations. But if I refer to the hardware listed on Dell's spec, it should be an Intel i7-4710HQ (6M cache up to 3.50Ghz) with Turbo boost

4. I have not yet tried to touch the Bios settings - as far as I can tell, other games like Witcher 3 (non Steam) have no issue.

 

I have cleaned Registry several times with C Cleaner. Not tried to do it manually yet (not sure I want to do it either). What's 'SKE game'? (sorry, French here, I possibly don't have the proper vocabulary for all this...)

 

I know the computer is supposed to automatically switch from the integrated GPU to the discrete one (nVidia GTX 980) depending on the program I run - and apparently it does once I'm out of the launcher, I don't think the Intel card'd give me 60 FPS on ultra otherwise. But normally, I should be able to see both GPU listed when I run dxdiag.exe, right?

 

Thanks for trying to help Purr4me, I truly appraciate it! :).

 

 

@ Moksha8088:

 

yeah, I know I could set them to read-only but the changes in my .ini files are not the source of my issue, they only reflect what the launchers do, so I'd rather let them be rewritten, at least it gives me a bit of info about what's going on.

[Purr4me]

 

What's 'SKE game'

Type "o". I was busy Thanks giving duties. Too many fed and dishes were out of sight.

 

listed when I run dxdiag.exe, right?

correct, so the mother board has a VGA I/o too? the monitor does and I bet, the system and the games, the last one installed; picked up on that.

 

Do you own a VGA cord? the reason is this, in order to undue things as they are, you need to at least establish a VGA driver update for the mother board first.

But alien ware from default knows this, that is / supposed to be an Embedded reinstalled setting from dell.

 

The games should not override this unless you have reformatted the machine? Leave both cords attached, use the monitors selector to instruct the PC to use vga and allow windows to except it, then update the default code, once done test the settings on VGA, I know it will look horrible but that is not why we are doing this.

 

The launcher is trying to set default code becasue it can't find software that matches the Bios, it's missing. IF the updating of the mother board drivers has a chance to install the correct missing data, you can use the monitor to switch back to HDMI while the machine is hot. then test other games first.

 

No need to "reinstall" the external cards software, it's already there.

Now you will see changes you have not seen before.

 

IF you don't own a VGA cord? you need too. That was supposed to come with the machine.

[Hoamaii]

Yep, I do have old VGA cords but unfortunately, the laptop doesn't have a VGA port, just HDMI, some sort of mini-port that's supposedly designed for special Dell adapters to other types of cables (which I don't have, I haven't used VGA for a long time), and a third one that's also for proprietary cables to connect some Graphic Amplifier to a second GPU (but I don't have that either).

 

So basically, I'm stuck with HDMI.

 

And nope, I have never reformatted the machine, nor ever needed to. I only started having issues last week when first installing Fallout 4 CK from BethesdaLauncher.net which got me BSOD whenever I tried to launch FO4's CK (games and Skyrim original CK still ran fine) and that was fixed by reinstalling my nVidia card's drivers completely which (I think) had first failed to properly update its nvlddmkm.sys file.

 

Now that I think of it, that's when Fallout 4 launcher first reset entirely and tried to confgure my settings to low and the integrated card - but that was fixed too by changing my settings to high or ultra again in the launcher, and after that the launcher never complained nor popped up anything, the .ini files properly reflected my settings and all games ran fine.

 

Then, after installing Skyrim SE, that issue generalized to all my Bethesda/Steam games. Except this time I can't find a way to fix it. That's why my first attempts were to uninstall completely my nVidia drivers, then reinstall them again (even tried with older driver versions than the latest - but no difference). One thing I haven't done is reinstall my integrated Intel GPU drivers - but I'm kind of reluctant because as glitchy as it my launchers are now, the games still switch back to nVidia when running.

 

Sorry to ask, Purr4me, but my Frenchy's English fails me here. What do you mean when you say "the launcher is trying to set default code because it can't find software that matches the Bios" - what software are we talking about here?

[Purr4me]

 

Sorry to ask, Purr4me, but my Frenchy's English fails me here. What do you mean when you say "the launcher is trying to set default code because it can't find software that matches the Bios" - what software are we talking about here?

The game.

 

The installer is looking for a vga port, it's embedded into the products setup program. It does not know what HDMI is.

But, your story just got deeper and I feel the pain too.

 

So lets do this. is the machine a laptop?

Or is it a desk top?

 

Damm ! a laptop, risky hardware work around is possible, I will not post the instructions here if you feel it's not worth the trouble.

 

give the word.

Edited November 25, 2016 by Purr4me