I stopped playing Skyrim a while back due to these black screen crashes (sound loop, screen dies and only hard reset works). Before that I had reported this issue on this forum and sought help on the nexusforums... there was at that time no solution for this.

This week i though "hey why not give Skyrim a shot again, it's afterall been nine months since me and others with the same black screen crash first reported that issue... Bethesda must have fixed it by now."

So, being naive i bought both Dawnguard and Hearthfire and started playing... it went well for a few hours... and then... KABLAAAM!

Black screen, sound loops and only way to get out of it... hard reset.

I checked the nexus forums... and sure enough found the same thread i had once posted in... still no solution. Read it, funny read, people trying to fix an issue that should be Bethesdas to fix, collectivly people there must have tried everything except selling their souls. 153 (roughly 1500 posts) pages of testimony to Bethesdas ignorance.

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/456889-skyrim-complete-pc-crashes/

I feel cheated, on money, on gaming experiences promised, most of all I feel cheated in my belief that Bethesda actually cares abouth their customers.

This issue STILL AFTER NINE MONTHS makes this game unplayable. And im not the only one with this issue, just check the link i provided, and check the "crash report thread" on this forum, where several posters describe the same issue, and those are just the ones who actually cares to post.

I want an answer, I want official response from Bethesda that they are aware of this issue and on what they are doing about it.

I will NOT post my dxdiag... I have already posted my dxdiag in mails to Bethesda and on this forum, so please spare me the automatic answer "please post your dxdiag blablabla".

I saw the thread, but I didn't see anyone, proposing anything to fix it there...

Anyways, make sure you download and install http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109. Microsoft for some unthinkable reason, keeps DirectX updates off the Windows Update list.

Also, make sure your graphics card runs on a recent driver set:

• If it's ATI, your driver of choice should be Catalyst 12.6. Later ones have been reported to cause weird graphics behavior in Skyrim, like "transparent" book pages and malfunctioning ingame menu.
  
• If it's nVidia, I don't have any info. The latest should -propably- be fine.

If the problem persists, you should post a dxdiag report, so that somebody can take a look into it.