This is starting to get seriously out of hand. I was playing skyrim fine last night, then I come home today, hit play, only for it to say "Skyrim has stopped working"...I thought "Okay it must be a new mod I downloaded at work". So I went, un-clicked all my mods, play, same thing. so I RE-INSTALLED only for it to say the SAME THING with a completely fresh data file! What is going on here?

Bump

I'm attempting a second re-install.

Uninstalling won't remove your .ini files so unless you delete them yourself reinstalling most likely will have no effect.
Follow these steps:
1. Uninstall Skyrim
2. Open Documents/Mygames/Skyrim and move your saves folder to your desktop and then delete the remaining Skyrim Folder
3. DL and Run CCleaner (optional) go to registry tab scan for issues and fix all selected items(when prompted to make a backup say yes) and then run the scan again and again until you have nothing left to clean out.
4. Install Skyrim
5. Start a new game to allow for a fresh .ini generation
6. Move your save files back into the new save folder created by the first few autosaves.

EDIT: Alright, I'll give that a try!

Also, I probably should mention, when I press "Play" the game doesn't even boot to a window at all, it just says that it stopped working.

This is an INI issue. You can reinstall as many times as you want, but until you delete your ini files and allow the game to create new ones, you won't resolve this problem. This isn't new to Skyrim. Oblivion and Fallout3 would behave in a similar fashion if your ini files were corrupt or your hardware had changed. Also make sure you are running the game with administrator privileges so these files can be updated by the game.

Yerp agreed the game uninstall leaves your saves(makes sense) and your .ini(kind of makes sense but not really since anyone with the sense to change them most likely has the sense to back them up before deleting them).

Im having the same problem started right after lunch yesterday found this logfile:
gameoverlayUI.exe
Thu Mar 29 09:45:31 2012 UTC - GameOverlay process started: pid: 6496
Thu Mar 29 09:45:31 2012 UTC - GameOverlay process connecting to: pid: 6828
Thu Mar 29 09:45:31 2012 UTC - BuildID: 1854
Thu Mar 29 09:45:31 2012 UTC - Steam Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
Thu Mar 29 09:45:33 2012 UTC - Generating new string page texture 2731: 256x256, total string texture memory is 262.14 KB
Thu Mar 29 09:45:33 2012 UTC - Generating new string page texture 2732: 128x256, total string texture memory is 393.22 KB
Thu Mar 29 12:38:20 2012 UTC - Detected possibly crashed/killed game, exiting
Thu Mar 29 12:38:20 2012 UTC - Shutting down overlay

game hasn't worked since
things ive tried... delete ini files, reinstall, reload all drivers, renamed and moved skyrim dir. reinstall still no game.
anybody got any ideas

Atleast you get a message saying it won't run my game just closes the launcher when I press play and never runs the damn game.
Really starting to get annoyed at the little infomation I'm getting.
Like hasn't this happened to anyone else after the latest patch?
I've reinstalled and done the stuff above and shut down my pc bla bla but nothing works I can't figure out what is wrong.

Really greatful if anyone can give useful info. Thx.

Are you using Scriptdragon? did you do a completely fresh re-install or use a back up?

It does seem like an ini issue, However Scriptdragon exhibits the exact same symptoms after the game has updated.

Yes for me to I cant play after that fckng update thing.
And no I have no Scriptdragon And I removed everthing on the disc.
Complete fresh install from the disc, BUT with the update from Steam.

Having the same problem. Been playing for a number of months. No problems before today.

Steam is showing that yesterday there was a product update??

Any help will be appreciated.

So dumb question...after your guys reinstall, you run the game vanilla before advancing to the mods?

Yep tryed to play clean with nothing else than de clean game.

Message Skyrim stopt working.

I had a similar problem a few updates ago but verifying the files through Steam fixed it. Obviously that won't help you if ya'll are trying fresh installs.

Are you installing from the DVD or Steam?

Still worth verifying steam cache.

Also delete your ini files, have te game make new ones.

Hi,

How do you verify the files through steam? Which ini files are to be deleted?

Sorry the questions seem stupid but I am new to Steam.

Thanks

Delete Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini from the \My Documents\My Games\Skyrim directory. This directory's location will vary depending on your operating system.
On Windows 7 and Vista, it is in C:\Users\
On Windows XP it is in C:\Documents and Settings\

To verify the local game cache (a good step to do after deleting the ini files but before running the game), open Steam and right click on Skyrim in your library and select Properties at the bottom of the list. Click on the Local Files tab and select "verify integrity of game cache..."

Thanks, I followed your instructions.

However no luck, Skyrim still did not load and had the Skyrim stopped working after clicking on play.

What was the message steam gave you after validating?

The Validating window said: All files successfully validated.
Another small window said: Steam finished downloading files..

How are you launching Skyrim? Ensure that you are using the SkyrimLauncher.exe. It should come up with a dialog box that says your hardware is being detected. Also, you haven't mentioned any mods used during your months of play. Make sure they are disabled and removed. This includes files associated with Script Dragon, ENB, Skyboost, etc.

Launching from the play button on the Steam Games page. The dialog box comes up with hardware detection. Haven't got any mods installed accept for the highres textures, which are disabled.

I've had issues in the past when recreating vanilla .ini files and trying to load older saves using tweaked ini files but you're not even getting into the game to load a save so that's of no help.

You said it was working fine for a couple of months then you got the update and now it stops loading at all but you haven't mentioned if you've tried a full uninstall, deleting all left over data then reinstalling fresh.