Open the Map, Black Screen of Death

[Keramane]

Hello! Now, this is probably somewhere on the forums someplace, but I've only found listings similar in my browsing, not the exact situation SO new thread.

 

When I load the map, I have a 1 in 5 chance to crash. The map loads, does its little zoom out and bam, my screen turns black. All sound continues, but my computer ceases to receive commands and I have to manually shut it down via holding the power button in order to get it working again.

 

This error happens ONLY when I open the map. At no other time do I even hear the tiniest complaint from my computer and Skyrim. I run this on my laptop, everything goes perfect, it's selectively my desktop PC.

 

My graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD 5800, 1024mb memory. I use ATI Catalyst (which I believe to be the source of the problem) version 12.4, This problem has continued through many many updates so I don't think it's a driver issue. I'll list the rest of my computer specs in a minute, but like I said, I figure it's a Catalyst issue, so to specify, these are my 3D Application Settings (since this tends to be where I need to mess around when other games have issues, such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution).

 

Smoothvision HD:Anti-Aliasing - Use Application Settings

Smoothvision HD:Anisotropic Filtering - Use Application Settings

Tessellation - Use Application Settings

Catalyst AI - Texture Filtering Quality set at Quality, Surface Format Optimization unchecked

Mipmap Detail Level set to High Quality

Wait for Vertical Refresh set to "Off, unless application specifies"

Anti-Aliasing Mode set to Multi-Sample AA

OpenGL Settings, Triple buffering unchecked

 

If you need more details, I can post more about it, but like I said, messing around in here tends to get my other games working when there's a hiccup.

 

Anywho, the rest of my computer stats are as follows:

Dual-Core Intel i7 2.8GHz

4 gigs of ram

ATI Radeon 5800HD

Sound card lists as AMD High Definition Audio Device, so not a clue in that regard

 

That's about it. I would appreciate any help/advice I can get. And before anyone posts the obvious, yes, I have repeatedly updated catalyst and therefore my drivers. I have fully uninstalled my drivers for it and reinstalled fresh, no change.

[Georgiegril]

I do not have much experience with your card, and when I tried to look it up, I could not find an actual 5800, rather a 5830, 50 or 70. I use a NVidia card anyway, so my help there would be limited.

 

However, It seems to me that it might not be a graphics settings problem, but rather a mod problem. Are you using any mods that affect maps, like better maps with roads (or something like that), or any of the cities mods? It might be an issue with one of them.

 

Also, have you tried verifying the game cache? That works at the strangest times for me....

 

Trying to think about the map and how it might affect the graphics card...I know all overlays cause an increased load on the VRAM, (and maybe RAM?) but from what I could tell (not knowing your card exactly) it doesn't seem like that would be a problem unless you were running a lot of mods that were pushing you right up at the limit. Seeing that you are running the game on high without any other trouble, it seems unlikely that your problem is related to memory.

 

The only other thing that crossed my mind is that if your card uses Crossfire (couldn't tell) I know people have had some odd problems related to that, and you might try disabling it to check.

 

Sorry, if you list more info about your card and mods, I will try to think harder. Or maybe a wiser person will seize upon the chance to help you!

[Keramane]

I don't use any map mods, the only one I have being a beautification mod to make the ladies of Skyrim more appealing (hur hur hur). I had this issue before that, though. As far as Crossfire, no idea. I'll check the game cache now, see what happens.