Skyrim crashes during the opening sequence, so I can't even start a game - let alone actually play. I'm guessing there should be video playing on the screen where you select to create a new game, but I can't click on anything, can't see my mouse, though my keyboard arrows work. The screen is black other than the menu items to start/load a game. I have no clue how to fix this.

I'm playing Skyrim installed with DVD disk but it went through Steam in the installtion process for some reason. I'm guessing that's normal.

My OS is Windows 7 Home Professional 64 bit (OS is fully updated)
Intel Core i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67 GHz
4 Gig RAM
NVIDIA Gforce 500 series with updated drivers

Any help? I'm dead in the water here. I'm getting the same issue with Batman Arkham City by the way.

Neither the 510 nor the GT 520 meet the minimum requirement. The GT 540 just squeaks by.

The term "updated drivers" is meaningless, just like the term "NVIDIA Gforce 500 series"

Corrected Skyrim Minimum Requirements

* Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
* Processor: Dual Core 2.3 GHz C2D or equivalent CPU
* 3GB System RAM
* 6GB free HDD Space
* Direct X 9 compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM (and
sufficient performance to actually put that VRAM to use)
* DirectX compatible sound card
* Internet access for Steam activation

Hmmm... didn't know that my video card wouldn't be sufficient. It's only a year old. What a downer.

Is my processor sufficient? I'm not sure what C2D means. I'll upgrade my video card if it'll work with it, but if I need to update my processor, it's just too much.

An i5 is an Intel C2D, with minor enhancements. It isn't anything special (at least a 2.67 GHz one isn't), but it should be better than merely adequate.

Never forget that "new" is meaningless, when the basics aren't covered. The key specs for graphics cards do not include the amount of the VRAM, but rather the number of shader processors, the speed of the cores, the speed of the RAM, and the bandwidth of the card's memory system, which are all very low for the Geforce 510, and "relatively low" for the GT 520. If you are a diehard nVIDIA advocate, get nothing less than a GTX 550 Ti, and be sure your power supply can support it.

Thanks for thei nfo. If you were going to suggest a video card (I'm not married to nVIDIA) that would work my Intel i5 and 4 Gigs of RAM, what would it be?

Not sure on the mention of power supply. I'm just a normal dude with a PC who was given these games as gifts... and only 13 years old. I've never heard power supply mentioned in quoting needed specs for a game.

It would be good to know what kind of display you're planning to play on. What is your current resolution? (Right-click desktop and check 'Display Resolution').

It's 1920x1080

Anyone?

For the past year, the Radeon HD 6870 has offered a very nice balance of performance and price, if you have a 500 watt and upward quality brand power supply.

For the past couple of months, there have been a lot of year-plus-old Geforce GTX 460s at various eTail sites, with very generous mail in rebate offers. It not as good as the 6870, but may be cheaper after the rebate by enough to accept the loss in performance between them.

How can I tell what power supply I have? I have a pretty standard computer.

They all have a comparatively detailed label on them. I do like Cooler Master cases, and some of their PSUs are quite good. I chose this one's listing, however, just for the photo, showing the label, no other reason:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171053

Wow - I don't even understand what you wrote!

OK - let's look at it this way... if I wanted a new graphics that that'll work with my processor, and assuming I have a normal off the shelf system as far as power goes, what graphics card should I get?

All PCs are different; there is no such thing as a "normal, off the shelf" PC. I could buy a fully-built PC, you could also buy one (even from the same retailer) and they could be very different - including PSU specs.

Have you established precisely what your Geforce 500 series card is yet?
There's no point making recommendations for a replacement without knowing if what you already have is infact capable.

Download & run http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/. It'll tell you precisely what your GPU chipset, memory & clockspeeds are.

I used GPU-Z. I currently have a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450. (When I checked in the control panel it just said 500 series.)

That is a respectable card, unlike the two lowest of the Geforce 500s, so for the present, look elsewhere other than graphics hardware to solve the crashing.

So it's not a video card problem? Back to the drawing board. I'm so screwed.

Should have asked for these damn games on PS3.

I'd actually guess the ram... Make sure you have AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE running in the background. I have 8 gigs of ram and was getting non stop CTD's cuz I had Itunes open

PS3 is having it way worse. just popped into their forums, they are still stuck on issues we had solved a month ago.

IMO, it's something on the order of Asus' Gamer OSD, or Xfire, or one of the many uncooperative AVs / software firewalls.

The best way to find the guilty software is a Clean Boot.

But I have 4 Gigs of RAM which is more than the min requirements.

English please?

Follow the instructions here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Holy crap - it worked!!! I disabled everything but Microsoft stuff in the MSCONFIG window but the game wouldn't play, so we re-enabled Steam and all nVIDIA entries and it worked just fine. Thanks all for your help.

Now I have to try and figure out which of the disabled services is causing me so much trouble.

Black Viper's guides may help with that.

http://www.blackviper.com/2010/12/17/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/

Make it a ritual to refuse to allow anything you don't ABSOLUTELY need to load with Windows.