To get the common issue out of the way, going to Whiterun makes me crash to desktop, but that ones discussed everywhere, making it hard to soft through all the complaints for a solution.

And now for the real problem which has the exact opposite problem for me. I can't seem to find anyone with this particular issue, since Googling gives me a lot of complaints about alt+tabbing making the game crash. That's not what I've got. Basically, if I jump out of the game to chat or something and come back, there's this strange... I dunno, a shadow?

Effects like flames, mist, waterfalls and such turn invisible and if I stand in front of a fire and look around, I see a shadow of a screen shot imposed on the effect, like a dead Draugr I was looking at when I alt+tabbed. Now, that picture shows up over my screen when I'm walking through mist.

It's very annoying and now I don't want to multitask. Is there any way to fix this? I'm afraid I'm not very technically minded, so if it has anything to do with graphics cards or whatever I can try and get the details for you, but I wouldn't know what it means

At the risk of sounding really crass - I know you *can* multitask with a game on the go but I sometimes wonder if - given what processing, etc, is entailed - whether it's entirely a good idea...

...I know it probably doesn't really help buuuut are you just alt-tabbing for the internet, coz if so can't you just use the ingame browser? That would at least provide a workaround.

Sorry if that's not much help...

There's an in game browser? o.o

Okay, I got some screenshots. The pixelation only started when I was forced to turn the graphics on medium... no idea why, I've run the game on high with no trouble since it came out, now it needs to be on medium to not crash :/

[img]http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg513/scaled.php?server=513&filename=screenshot17g.png&res=landing[/img]

Okay, with this one, I'm looking down the hall, with a few candles lighting my way.
[img]http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg207/scaled.php?server=207&filename=screenshot15c.png&res=landing[/img]

And here, I look up slightly towards the roof, where it's darker

[img]http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg404/scaled.php?server=404&filename=screenshot16a.png&res=landing[/img]

Yes, there is. Hit Shift + Tab to enter the Steam Overlay, from where you can access the browser.

The browser is besides the point, but it does make it less aggravating. I just need to know if I can fix this.

What make of graphics card are you using?
Also - is it overclocked?
Are you running any texture mods?

The truth of the matter is most games abhor being minimized. Bethesda Softworks games absolutely hate it. To minimize issues make sure you are using the same resolution and refresh rate ingame as on the desktop. Using vsync may help. Using another application in memory (other then Steam) may ease the transition. Try loading notepad or something else. Hold down alt and then press tab to select the other application.

I tried to alt-tab during skyrim.
Before alt tab, i think my FPS was about the high 30s or low 40s, basically no lag and everything is smooth and steady like butter.
After alt tabbing to go on the internet for a couple of min, i alt tab back and the game gets laggy and laggy and stays laggy, like FPS around 20-30 or lower.
Not sure if this answers your question but i think alt tabing does affect graphic performance, so best not to alt tab ingame

I have an Nvidia GeForce GT 430. As for the texture mods, I have a few, but like I said before, this was happening since day one, and I never modded the game for a few weeks after I got it.

I haven't found a beth game yet that was friendly with NOT being the center of attention..... 99% of the time, it would simply cause a crash. Not a hardware problem, just the way the game engine is. Some folks could alt+tab without a hitch.... really hit and miss.

It means you add an extra step. Bring up a menu screen FIRST, let it load, then Minimize.

In previous Bethese games, like Oblivion and Fallout NV, you could not Alt+Tab because the game would often crash or become unstable. But according to the developers Skyrim has a completely new engine, built up from the ground that will surely fix this.

Oh wait...

As stated already, most games in general have problems when the user switches Windows with Alt-Tab when the game is run in full screen.

Personally, I don't own a game that doesn't have issues with switching windows. And, for the record, I own a lot more than just Beth games.

I have this problem. sofar, the solution seems too useful to possibly be true: Alt+tab again.

But it seems to work! And of course, saving and quitting always works.

This is old bug of the game, from the release date, depth buffer texture is lost. You can try toggle alt+tab several times untill it will "return", but memory leak will happen anyway, so i don't recommend to play for long after this happen. Another solution is to use my patch AntiFREEZE, it use fake videocard which forcing game to run in much more safe mode (but slower), unfortunately latest two patches of the game added bugs even to this area and now grass have bugs and underwater is totally green (fixed only in latest versions of graphic mod, but it's different topic). Why don't you play in windowed mode?

I'm going to try that, but it does break immersion.