I haven't played Skyrim for a few weeks. I tried to start it up today. The launch screen comes up, and I click on "Play". I get a Windows popup asking if I want to let Skyrim Launcher to make changes to my hard drive. I click "Yes" (or "No", makes no difference), and it goes back to the launcher screen.

What can I do to make the game actually launch?

Wait, the Launcher is asking if you want to make changes to the Hard Drive? Mine has never said that.

Anyway, this sounds like it can be a corrupted save. Try this, move the most recent game save out of the Save Folder and then try it again.

Let's go back to square one and then work our way forward, all right? Pretend it never did run, and we are asking for the usual basic starting information:

Basic Hardware Specification Chart (Empty so far)

Processor Manufacturer: AMD / Intel
Processor Name / Type: Athlon X2 / Pentium D / C2D / dual core / quad, etc.
Processor Speed: ?.? Ghz
Operating System / Service Pack: WindowsXP with SP #?, Win7, Vista ?
System RAM: ? ? GBs (MBs, if less than 1024 ? )
Video (GPU) Manufacturer: ATI / Nvidia (only those two are supported, PERIOD, so please answer which of them you have)
Video Card Model: (examples) Radeon HD 6670 / Geforce GTS 450
Video Card Driver Version: Catalyst ?.? / Nforce ??.??
. . (please use the numbers, and dates, *not* the word "latest")
Video display's default screen resolution
Video Card onboard RAM: ? ? ? MBs
Sound Card Manufacturer:
Sound Card Driver IDs:
Sound Card Model:

(And this is only for the raw hardware & driver variations. Potential software conflicts are far more likely to be game play problems, and developers cannot test for all possible program loads.)

If it's installed in Program Files on the C drive, moving the installation elsewhere could potentially help with issues.

I have the same issue as Sapient and like him\her have not played skyrim for some time, when first I installed Skyrim it worked beautifully, I guess I should have gotten the ps3 version instead, so sad!

Start a thread (or point one out) see if the Minds here get you going again. The Game is a blast , I play every day for hours. Lets get you with a smile..

@ OP...is that a UAC prompt?...is Steam installed to "Program Files"?

Many thnx for your reply Camaro, I've had a look through the forum and found some usefull things to try, hopefully it will solve the problem.... :0)

The PS3 version? Look I know that not being able to play Skyrim is a terrible fate but no one deserves the PS3 version

Use Steam to verify the game's files, I know its a standard canned response but this very much sounds like a corruption and that is indeed the cure. Steam->Library->Right-click Skyrim->Properties->Local Files->Verify Integrity of Game Cache.

I'm having the same issue. Was playing fine for a couple of hours . closed the game, came back about 30 minutes later. click play.... nothing. windows thinks about it and then just does nothing.

Everyone having this issue, please post your FULL system information. There may be a pattern here that needs to be tracked down.

It also may help if we get all these reports confined to a single thread so that the information could easily be compared...

Hi! Guys thnx for the advice, I solved the issue by uninstalling the game and doing a reinstall, now everything works ok again, if you choose to do the same I suggest backing up your saved games. I hope this helps.... Bye.. :0)

It'd help more if you would provide the information requested. As I said, there may be a pattern here and, ideally, it'd be nice to find it.

Intel Core i7 950 Nehalem 3.06Ghz
Ga-x58a-Ud7 motherboard (onboard sound)
Gigabyte ATI HD6870 1Gb GDDR5
Catalyst 12.1 8.93.10-111208a-130017E-ATI
Corsair 6gb DDR3-2000 Dominator GT
Corsair Force F120GB Sandforce Solid state HD Sata II
Corsair AX1200 Gold professional series modular power supply.
Monitor rez 1920x1080
Windows 7 professional 64 (up to date)

Really want to avoid re-installing due to the number of mod's I am running, and advanced configurations, because what;s too say it's just going to happen again anyway?
Normally i would do this, but absolutely no changes to the game were made it just stopped working, there must be some answer..

*updated*

Driver version and PSU information as well, please. All information that is available would help, methinks.

Edit:

Alright, once the rest comes in and we can compare we can start working on this one. My gut tells me there's a pattern here...

Hi! death_soul I can't see the need for the information you are requesting as the game was able to function perfectly before the problem initiated, which means the system is capable of running the game software at some graphic level selected automaticaly by the app, however I sympathise with Darkforge and wish I had an answer to his\her dilema reguarding uninstalling and reinstalling mods, sorry guys my knowledge is limited to if it won't work hit it with something heavy.... Jane.

The reason is because it is happening a lot and my gut tells me there is a pattern. A reinstall seems to be the remedy, so the issue is now tracking down the problem. It may be a hardware thing or something, who knows. That is why I'm requesting the information. My gut tells me something is going on here...

If a re-installation resolves then its local to the skyrim folder, I'd look there for any files that are updated beyond say what your tesv.exe's last modified date is since its the last thing that officially got updated due to the patch back in late december. However, if a quick re-install fixes things that might be all people want to deal with.

Well, it could also be a driver specific thing or something. Better to rule it all out with the information than ruling it out this way. That last bit doesn't exactly make sense, does it? >.>

You know what I mean

Ok, deaths_soul I see where you are going and the only common denominator that I can point a finger at is the steam app which is after all a third party app inflicted upon genuine users, after I reinstalled the game Steam was also updated and so the problem went away, BTW I have the store bought dvd and not the Steam download. A closer look at the Steam App might be help solve the issue..

Please post the system information all the same. It would help.

Verify Game Files worked for me.

Ill continue in my other thread because I think this is actually a different problem.

(I just reinstalled, same issue)