Hey guys, I read that there was a patch released today. Well, since that patch, I can't play Skyrim. It stays in the menu saying "Preparing to launch The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim..." for a long time and never loads the menu for Skyrim. I let it sit there for nearly two hours and it didn't budge.

Now, the only mods I have installed are the ENB Series patch (latest edition AFAIK), and the 4GB patch thing. (worked with those installed) I tried verifying my game cache, it did nothing. I tried exiting and restarting Steam. To no avail.

Do you guys know of anything that will allow me to play it? That's TWO games in Steam that I CAN'T PLAY. Bleeding developers nowadays... they can't seem to realize that Steam is a ruddy clown. -.-

Get rid of the 4GB patch, the update was to be LAA friendly so you do not need a 4GB patch anymore.

What files would I need to get rid of? I tried getting rid of them already, but I don't know which ones to delete.

Which one did you use? 4GB Skyrim or just the 4GB LAA?

Sorry if I'm breaking a rule or something, but this is the one I'm using - http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3211

Just launch the game normally or through SKSE (once updated).

I never used 4GB mods so you have to figure out which files to get rid of.

Just download it again and match the files from the download to the ones in your Skyrim installation folder,

I've been trying to launch it via the shortcut that I had originally (it didn't come from the 4GB mod), and I also tried launching it directly from Steam - no difference. :\

@tgl - It had an installer, and that was it. No files to copy. :\

Oh, then use the installer to uninstall it...

It has no uninstall option.

Sorry for all the junk, I'm just so irritated with this all right now.

Really? Odd. Did it come with any readme anywhere?

Yes, it did, and it says that it automatically makes a backup file (.bak) in case you decide to revert it. Is that a Steam file? If so, how do I revert it?

Wish I knew, sorry...

Well, that's not good. :-\ I'll wait and see if someone else can answer it, and if worse comes to worse, I'll e-mail Bethesda. (That's pretty sad when you go to players before the customer support of the manufacturer )

Bump. Can anyone help, please??

The easy solution: delete (or move out) all the files in your /Skyrim directory. Don't touch the folders under that, like Data. After moving or deleting the Skyrim folder files, bring up Steam, right click Skyrim in your Library, choose properties, go to the Local Files tab, and click "Verify Integrity of Game Cache".

That will force Steam to re-download all the files you just took out of the main Skyrim directory, and ensures you don't have anything else messing with the game launching. If you had any dll injectors, SKSE, Dragon Script, etc.. you'll want to re-install those to the primary directory.

If anything gets messed up, just clear that directory of it's files and try again. Leaving the Data directory alone ensures you don't have to re-download any of the large BSA asset files.

Sidenote: I always keep a copy of my ini files (in your My Games folder), just in case verifying the cache replaces them for whatever reason. I'd recommend doing that as well prior to the verification.

^ ^ This...good advice for anyone. Every 2 days or do, if the game is running smoothly, I create a copy of those ini file in a backup folder (as well as my injector files). I also read-only my main two ini files, and hand-tune any setting changes I want, cause I just don't trust this game's architecture yet. The launcher is buggy and seems to randomly think my settings need checking. And with the stealth Steam updates, I don't want my settings nuked. After I see a patch has been installed, I move my current ini's to backup, then do a "check local integrity" check for Skyrim in Steam. It now creates new ini's...so now I do a "compare" using Notepad++ between 'new' and 'old' inis, just to see if Bethesda has added anything shiny and new that will magically fix stutters, improve the interface to something PC users may appreciate, or whatever (dare to dream).

Seems extreme, but now the Bethesda/Steam kabal can't do anything I can't undo.

I was using the 4gb mod and Steam just updated the .exe and I launched from the normal launcher just fine (now SKSE since it has been updated). Did literally nothing else.

I'm in pretty much the exact same boat. I have not deleted any files from my Skyrim folder yet like Jaga suggested, but I did try the "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" without deleting anything, hoping that might fix it. I'll try to delete files next.

But, I installed Skyrim when it first came out... then patch 1.2 broke the game bad enough for me to where I just stopped playing. Today I heard that the new "LAA" patch came out from Bethesda, so I totally deleted Skyrim and then did a re-install (FROM DISC) as outlined in the sticky at the top of this forum.

After the fresh install was complete I let Stream do its update thing... AND... WALA! Each time I try to restart the game I get taken back to the launch screen.

GRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Well, I've deleted the files as suggested and have done the "Verify" deal. It appears Steam is downloading the files that I deleted.

If this does NOT work, any suggestions on what I can try next? Should I just delete the entire game again, re-install and then let Steam re-install the latest patch yet again?

The "preparing to launch" box not going away could be a years-old Steam bug. I get it often; restarting Steam sometimes fixes it.

I, myself, can get past Steam's "preparing to launch" box, but I cannot, however get past Skyrim's launch box that comes AFTER that one.

And the deleting of files did not work either. guess I'll need to delete the entire mess then re-install yet again. I have such a LOVE/HATE relationship with Steam!!!!

I'm having the exact same problem. Try verifying integrity of game files through right clicking the game in your Steam window - Properties - Local settings - verify integrity of game files. It did not work for me, but I saw other people having the same problem pre-patch, and it worked for them, so you may get lucky. If that doesn't work, backup first and then delete all files in your /skyrim folder (but not any of the folders!) and do the above verify step again. If it still doesn't work (as it hasn't for me), then we may be in for a long re-install. Sigh.

Okay, I've deleted the entire mess and I am re-installing once again, but THIS time, I'm installing directly from the disc (popping the disc in the tray and letting the installer auto-lunch itself from there), rather using the method outlined in the sticky. That's how I installed when I first got the game and it installed fine that time. Maybe it will this time too?

Wish me luck.

Note: reinstalling from disk (or even digitally) won't replace or empty out your My Games/Skyrim folder, which holds your ini files. If you are doing a clean install, it is highly recommended that you remove both ini files from that directory before firing up the game fresh. Tweak the new ones if you feel you need to, but get rid of the old.