Greetings, Skyrim community! I've encountered a bit of a...problem... I can't get Skyrim to launch. I open up Steam, I click on the 'Play' button under Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and that little window pops up that says 'Preparing to launch...' It disappears, but the launch window never pops up! In Steam, after a second or two Skyrim will start updating or recalibrating or whatever it does right after you stop playing it, and the counter says that I played today even though I haven't played for over four weeks.

I don't know what the problem could be. My computer is more than capable of handling Skyrim - I've played it for 242 hours with no problems before! I usually play it with the CD in the machine, and now the CD is mysteriously missing, but I don't believe that's the problem. I should be able to play even without my CD, right? I've tried running it as an administator, I've tried rebooting Steam and verifying my game cache and turning off my firewall and rebooting the computer. I tried using TESV.exe directly, but it just sat there. When I try to launch (via Steam or TESV.exe), the arrow gets that wheel that says something's loading, but then it gives up.

This is what happens when you disappear for four weeks. Your family steals your CDs and ruins the first computer that's worked properly in 20 years...

If anyone could point me in the right direction, I would me most appreciative!

- Jathan