Black Screen PC Crash/Lockup Fix Thread

[gjm777]

Hello,

 

If you are as unfortunate as I had been since purchasing this game, countless black screens for no apparent reason only to hear sound before the eventual lockup of your pc. The only way to recover by powering down your rig, and then back up again.

Obviously this is painful, and not ideal for windows, nor your gaming hardware. After hours of troubleshooting this I believe to have a decent fix. It might not be flawless, but I havent had a lockup since, and if you can get more than 10 minutes out of this game, it's worth a shot.

 

First off here are my specs, but I'm convinced it's not a hardware issue.

Skyrim patched to 1.4

Windows 7 x64

4gb ram

intel i2500k (no overclock)

asrock P67 Extreme motherboard with Realtek HD audio

ATI/AMD HD 6870 video

Dual Monitor setup (more on this below)

 

Now,

At this point I'm almost 100% sure this issue has much to do with autosaving and the save corrupting in some manner. One consistant parallel with my crashes would always be ffter some game time, say 10-30 minutes in, I would hit tab to check on some items. In the upper left I saw "Autosaving". Soon after I would always have the crash.

Please do all of the steps below. I have categorized them in order to make them less confusing and lumped together.

 

***Disclaimer***, I can't be held responsible for any damage to your rig so please weigh if these steps are worth it to you. This assumes you are comfortable making changes to your BIOS and other windows settings. It also assumes you have a fully functional rig, and power supply/cooling. Chances are this is the only game causing this type of issue for you.

 

Steps to Take in Your BIOS

1. If you are overclocking, set it to default. You might have an unstable rig, and plenty of games are hyper sensitive to overclocks as it is. This goes for your video card as well.

2. Disable "Spread Spectrum" and other power saving options like "Intel Speed Step" by doing this, you should have constant power running to your motherboard as well as clock speeds of your proc etc.

 

 

Steps to take within OS/Windows

1. If you were using multiple displays like me, disable the non primary via your ATI CCC or Nvidia software. Doing this alone lowered my cards temp by 15 degrees

2. Set all of your AA and other 3D settings via the ATI or Nvidia software. Normally, this might be set for "application controlled" well, here we want the driver/software to do it

3. In control panel, under power settings make sure you are using at least a "high performance" profile. We don't want the screen turning off after 15 min, we don't want power saving options involved on other hardware at all.

 

Steps to take for Game .ini and config related

1.Go to your %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim directory. Make a backup of your skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini files, save them somewhere else.

2. Within the skyrimprefs.ini change the following lines as follows:

bSaveOnPause=0

bSaveOnTravel=0

bSaveOnWait=0

bSaveOnRest=0

fAutosaveEveryXMins=0.0000

 

3. When done, save the file and exit out. These changes should* have disabled all autosaving going forward.

 

Steps to take that are game and launcher related

1. Go to your %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim directory. Make a backup of all your saves. Delete all but your most recent autosave.ess.bak. You can keep the quicksaves.

2.In your skyrim game folder, set both the skyrimlauncher and the TESV.exe to run under compatibility for XP sp3, disable visual themes, and disable desktop composition. Finally check the box to run as administrator. Remember to do this for both exes.

3. In steam right click skyrim and go to properties. Uncheck "enable steam community in-game"

4. Click to play Skyrim. When the launcher starts, go to options. turn off antialiasing and anisotropic filtering. These will now be controlled via your vid card's software.

5. Launch the game. Once in load your most recent save (not the autosave).

6. Hit escape and go to save. Make a brand new save in a brand new slot.

6. While still in options, ensure all of the save options are turned off. Please note the only way to save now will be either a quicksave or a manual save from the in game menu. Verify this by hitting tab or pause to make sure "Autosaving" does not display.

 

Hopefully you can now enjoy the game! I have let the game run overnight and it still ran without crash. I even played for 6 more hours today just to make sure, and it has been great. I have also debated starting a new game but I don't have the time right now. Perhaps starting a new game post patch might have fixed this, but I really don't know that. I was able to play the game when I first bought it for about 15 hours before these crashes started, and I truly believe its down to saving over saves, and autosaves corrupting. Somehow the game just flakes when it comes to loading a new area/items etc and trying to autosave at the same time.

 

Again, maybe this won't fix everyone 100%, I'm not going to say this is definitive, but please let me know if you discover anything else that might help, or if it actually works. I'd be happy to know if it helped you.

Good luck and happy gaming all!

 

**Edit, sadly I did have another crash. I'm still hoping we can reach some kind of fix though. So far using this patch, and then re-running the launcher to redetect the card has kept me crash free.

GIve it a shot and see for yourselves.

http://enbdev.com/patch_tesskyrim_antifreeze_v0096.htm

Edited February 16, 2012 by gjm777

[onemiguel]

Hello,

 

If you are as unfortunate as I had been since purchasing this game, countless black screens for no apparent reason only to hear sound before the eventual lockup of your pc. The only way to recover by powering down your rig, and then back up again.

Obviously this is painful, and not ideal for windows, nor your gaming hardware. After hours of troubleshooting this I believe to have a decent fix. It might not be flawless, but I havent had a lockup since, and if you can get more than 10 minutes out of this game, it's worth a shot.

 

First off here are my specs, but I'm convinced it's not a hardware issue.

Skyrim patched to 1.4

Windows 7 x64

4gb ram

intel i2500k (no overclock)

asrock P67 Extreme motherboard with Realtek HD audio

ATI/AMD HD 6870 video

Dual Monitor setup (more on this below)

 

Now,

At this point I'm almost 100% sure this issue has much to do with autosaving and the save corrupting in some manner. One consistant parallel with my crashes would always be ffter some game time, say 10-30 minutes in, I would hit tab to check on some items. In the upper left I saw "Autosaving". Soon after I would always have the crash.

Please do all of the steps below. I have categorized them in order to make them less confusing and lumped together.

 

***Disclaimer***, I can't be held responsible for any damage to your rig so please weigh if these steps are worth it to you. This assumes you are comfortable making changes to your BIOS and other windows settings. It also assumes you have a fully functional rig, and power supply/cooling. Chances are this is the only game causing this type of issue for you.

 

Steps to Take in Your BIOS

1. If you are overclocking, set it to default. You might have an unstable rig, and plenty of games are hyper sensitive to overclocks as it is. This goes for your video card as well.

2. Disable "Spread Spectrum" and other power saving options like "Intel Speed Step" by doing this, you should have constant power running to your motherboard as well as clock speeds of your proc etc.

 

 

Steps to take within OS/Windows

1. If you were using multiple displays like me, disable the non primary via your ATI CCC or Nvidia software. Doing this alone lowered my cards temp by 15 degrees

2. Set all of your AA and other 3D settings via the ATI or Nvidia software. Normally, this might be set for "application controlled" well, here we want the driver/software to do it

3. In control panel, under power settings make sure you are using at least a "high performance" profile. We don't want the screen turning off after 15 min, we don't want power saving options involved on other hardware at all.

 

Steps to take for Game .ini and config related

1.Go to your %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim directory. Make a backup of your skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini files, save them somewhere else.

2. Within the skyrimprefs.ini change the following lines as follows:

bSaveOnPause=0

bSaveOnTravel=0

bSaveOnWait=0

bSaveOnRest=0

fAutosaveEveryXMins=0.0000

 

3. When done, save the file and exit out. These changes should* have disabled all autosaving going forward.

 

Steps to take that are game and launcher related

1. Go to your %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim directory. Make a backup of all your saves. Delete all but your most recent autosave.ess.bak. You can keep the quicksaves.

2.In your skyrim game folder, set both the skyrimlauncher and the TESV.exe to run under compatibility for XP sp3, disable visual themes, and disable desktop composition. Finally check the box to run as administrator. Remember to do this for both exes.

3. In steam right click skyrim and go to properties. Uncheck "enable steam community in-game"

4. Click to play Skyrim. When the launcher starts, go to options. turn off antialiasing and anisotropic filtering. These will now be controlled via your vid card's software.

5. Launch the game. Once in load your most recent save (not the autosave).

6. Hit escape and go to save. Make a brand new save in a brand new slot.

6. While still in options, ensure all of the save options are turned off. Please note the only way to save now will be either a quicksave or a manual save from the in game menu. Verify this by hitting tab or pause to make sure "Autosaving" does not display.

 

Hopefully you can now enjoy the game! I have let the game run overnight and it still ran without crash. I even played for 6 more hours today just to make sure, and it has been great. I have also debated starting a new game but I don't have the time right now. Perhaps starting a new game post patch might have fixed this, but I really don't know that. I was able to play the game when I first bought it for about 15 hours before these crashes started, and I truly believe its down to saving over saves, and autosaves corrupting. Somehow the game just flakes when it comes to loading a new area/items etc and trying to autosave at the same time.

 

Again, maybe this won't fix everyone 100%, I'm not going to say this is definitive, but please let me know if you discover anything else that might help, or if it actually works. I'd be happy to know if it helped you.

Good luck and happy gaming all!

 

The promising thing from your post is disabling the auto-saving. The last time I crashed, I loaded the second to last autosave game and then made a new one and loaded it. So far I've crashing once every 10-20 hours, but that's still one time too many. This is the black screen/sound looping/reboot required crash.

 

What is your theory on why the autosaves are corrupting?

 

I'll post back if it works. My current setup/test cycle is:

 

No overclocking, all defaults

2600k

16GB RAM

Gigabyte GTX 570

Gigabyte motherboard

Onboard audio (removed SB card from earlier test cycle)

Only the official HD textures mod

1.4 patch

Core Parking disabled

*NEW* Autosaving disabled via config file from your post

 

Question: what is the definition of "it works"? 10 hours? 20 hours? 40 hours? I guess we may never really know since the crashes (at least mine) are intermittent and unpredictable.

[GPYRoader]

Quote:

Delete all but your most recent autosave.ess.bak

 

I have no autosave.ess.bak, just some autosave.ess

[gjm777]

@onemiguel,

I'm not sure how long you might get out of the fix. It could be an hour , it could be another 20. The saves seem to be an issue even with console versions, and certainly were an issue in the older ESS games. I just happened to notice this happened on or around an autosave for me most of the time. If it is hardware related, then it happens to those with ati and nvidia cards it seems. I am going to try and borrow an nvidia card from a friend and see if that even makes a difference. This is the only game that locks up my rig though, i've never had any problems at all with any other game.

@GPYRoader,

You should still be able to rename it to autosave.ess.bak and give it a try.

[GPYRoader]

Well, unfortunately, this does not work for me...

I also tried KurianOfBorgs advice here, neither of them works.

Now my last chance is to go back to patch 1.3 or waiting for bethesda to fix this.

[gjm777]

Just out of curiosity,

Can you all post your specs when it comes to Power Supply and GPU?

I'm going to borrow another power supply from a friend, but I'd really want to know if the amperage on the +12v rail(s) is enough. For example mine has 4 +12v rails at 20A each. There us much debate on whether this matters.

For example my HD6870 needs about 28amps, and I'm sure that is overkill, but what if this happens from outdoor environments/map screens that are heavy intensive thereby require the card to run under full draw/load.

IF your PSU isn't up to the task, or has a low amp rating on the 12V rails, this could* possibly be the issue. Especially since most ATX psus have protection built in to shut off the rails if overdrawn.

Again just curious. Here is a pic of what my PSU sticker says.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules/NDReviews/images/Rosewill_Xtreme/P7060055.jpg

So, in theory the two combined rails on my PSU should be more than enough, but that just might not be the case.

[pinky560]

I freaking love you dude!! Worked a bomb for me, tried like every other suggested help out there and they ALL failed. This worked beautifully!! cheers

 

 

Damn just read your footnote....*waiting for crash still*

 

 

Windows 7 x64

Intel i7 920

6GB Ram

Sapphire Radeon HD 5850

Aztec 750W PSU

Edited February 22, 2012 by pinky560

[pinky560]

Dammit, it crashed! But at least I can get up to two hours of play sometimes without black screen of death. Before it would crash within 10 minutes usually...oh well...