I could use some help. I recently installed Skyrim but I receive the error "Failed to initialize renderer" when I try to play it.

Here are the specs of my PC:

Windows XP sp3
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
2x 7800 GTX Nvidia cards - drivers 6.14.12.8558
2GB RAM
Direct X 9.0
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium mb


Can anyone help?

is steam running? if not make sure it is.

adding more RAM might help.

That's usually a video driver error and those are old drivers. Download the latest from Nvidia's site, do a clean sweep of your old one and install the new one. (DON'T use "Express Install" use "Custom" and only D/L what you actually need.)

Look at the terrific ages of EVERYTHING. The 285 drivers are way too new for such antique cards. The CPU is a single core, and very slow compared to what the game needs.

A64 3000 * 2.0 GHz
A64 3200 * 2.0 GHz
A64 3400 2.2 GHz
A64 3500 2.2 GHz
A64 3700 * 2.4 GHz
A64 3800 * 2.4 GHz
A64 4000 * 2.4 GHz

The game needs two cores running at at least 2.3 GHz that are equal to C2Ds, and the early K8s like those weren't that great. They made the Pentium P4s look sick by comparison, but even a 1.6 GHz C2D can do that.

True enough but nonetheless, here's a choice of drivers - http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us -

[Just hit the Search button.]

Two ancient dinosaurs together, but the K8 is by far the better of the two:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1333458-graphics-issues-spider-webs-water-features-light-beams/

Actually...don't just hit the search button unless you want drivers that won't work with your system.

Fill in the blanks properly first...then hit the search button and try out each driver from the top - down until you find the one that seems to work best for your setup.

Thanks guys. The CPU is proabably too old. I can get on to Steam, so that's not the problem. I'll try downloading the lastest drivers - but they are beta, which worries me. I prefer to go with established software, but I'll give it a try.

Thanks again for your help, it's appreciated.

Bah, the beta drivers are awesome for SLI, you will very likely see an increase in performance out of it.

ED: Sorry, you'd see a better performance out of the SLI if it can get running at all.

Well I took out the old drivers and loaded the beta ones. Same problem. I think the issue is with the CPU. I don't know if what I have is dual core, but I'm thinking it's not. So it looks like I'll have to build a new PC.

Aye, fraid its not a dualcore and yah the system is just 'too old' unfortunately at this point. I remember years back I was running an AMD4200 + 2x7800GTXes, great setup but its time has come and gone. The 'renderer failed to initialize' really strikes me more of a situation where the cards don't support some instruction set that Skyrim is trying to use rather then the CPU being the culprit but if you're going to replace one you'll very likely want to replace the whole she-bang with a new system.

No, it won't. RAM isn't the answer to everything.

The CPU has nothing to do with this error. Yes, it's an ancient processor that will probably run Skyrim horribly, but it's not the source of the error. "Failed to initialize renderer" is a common GPU bug, and is usually caused by broken/outdated drivers. MAKE SURE that before you install new drivers, you not only uninstall the old ones either through the control panel or the card's own uninstallation software, but run a program like Driver Sweeper to clean all remnants of the old drivers.

Actually, know what else once gave me that error? When I get it a resolution setting that wasn't reasonable. Try running the game in a window or at least make very sure that in the setup options the resolution its trying to use is one that your monitor can actually use.