This morning, un-installed Skyrim. Followed all referenced steps for a clean install. Re-installed, no mods..just vanilla. Steam patched up to date. (for the 5th and final time)
Good news...no BLACK SCREEN crash.
Bad news... Screen freeze after 20 mins, computer locked up and had to hard reboot.
Question 1: Why did the game work fine, no problems until a certian patch around Sept.2012 or so.
Question 2: If nothing changed on my end, hardware,software wise, what changed?
Question 3: Why do I have no issues with any other programs, games,video editing software,flash programming, action script 3, java, music composition software..etc. and just Skyrim?
Question 4: Why have none of the supposed "fixes" all over the internet worked?
Question 5: How can we go back to pre 1.8 patch?
Question 6: Does anyone care?
Question 7: how long before Im banned from the forum?

Computer Specs: Alienware Area 51 7500 (yea its a huge box)
Dual Core E8500's running at 3.16GHZ
XP Pro SP3 (4gb DDR2 6400 ram installed but of course it only reads 2.75 being a 32 bit Op but never had issues prior to 1.8 patch)
Video: Nvidea Gforce GTS250 w/1GB Ram

Monitoring voltages and temps with HWMonitor Pro and Nvidia System Monitor
Mem86 test passed
Tried with new 2gb vid card, same results
Tried replacing with new ram sticks. same results
Basic questions Im always asked:
Dxdiag...its fine, trust me I know.
Latest video drivers?....please
Sound Drivers.....see above
Device Manager conflicts? nope

My assessment?
Since its not overheating components, and the timing of the crashes is always around
the same amount of game time....its a memory leak. Once your memory is used up,
you lockup.

Thanks for any imput.
Kintudo
A+ certified
25 yr computer tech and web developer
USMC Retired
Semper FI Platoon 3072 , Oct. 1982