[Catherine Harte]

There is at least one other component, you didn't swap out, which is your gfx card. In your case, I'd try to underclock the card. If that helps, you have some reinsurance that it's a faulty hardware.

I don't think it's the MB, but that would be a possibility as well.

As a software developer, you should know how unlikely it is, that they coded the game in a way that is compatible with your configuration in general (i.e. your gfx card, your sound chip and your Windows config) but not with your specific machine. That would actually be quite hard, even if they would like to do that intentionally.

And again, it's the driver crashing, not the game.

I have extensively tested my graphics card. I am near 100% certain my graphics card is fine. I have run several games such as crysis 2, witcher 2, portal 2. Nothing seems to be an issue. I have run cycles of various futuremark benchmarks for hours on end (close to 20 hours total) and there were no issues (I was looking for artifacts/etc... for about 5 of those hours). And I have run furmark burnin/extreme burn in stress test for 5 hours straight with absolutely 0 issues(I took a close look at it, no artifacts the whole time, average 15 fps, temps were well within acceptable range). Also, I wrote my own program that basically is like a memtest86 for my graphics memory, thats fine too.

I have tried underclocking it to various memory and gpu clock speeds (anywhere from only a few MHz below factory all the way to the lowest that ccc allows me). There is no difference, my skyrim game hard crashes within minutes.

I have had a motherboard go bad on me before about 6 years ago and there were tons of problems popping up everywhere. It could be the motherboard but I kind of doubt it. The motherboard is kind of difficult to diagnose. But if I never played skyrim, there would be no reason for me to suspect anything is wrong anywhere.

With all that said, I refuse to spend money on a video card if the one I currently have is working more than fine. I understand that you want something to be wrong with my computer (I do too actually, it would mean that I would be able to play my game that I have been dying to play for many months in anticipation). But to my disappointment, I am finding nothing wrong hardware wise with my computer. If I had 100% assurance that if I bought a nvidia gfx and a i7/intel MB and it would run skyrim fine, I would probably buy them. But there's always the possibility that buying the stuff would do nothing. I don't have cheap stuff in my computer, I have an HD 6870 and an 1100T x6 black. While they aren't top of the line intel products, they are quite decent near top of the line amd products and are running with no hardware faults(and believe me, I have tested my hardware extensively since 11/11/11).

edit... oh and before I forget to mention. I have tried every ccc from the newest 12.1 and 11.12 released today all the way back to 11.7. None of the change the outcome of crashing near instantly. And every time I change CCC I use driver sweeper by phyxion.net and clean the whole amd graphics option.

[Tyrone Haywood]

Yeah i had this stupid black screen crash too.i was using a 560 gtx 2gb from zotac.
when i used my old PNY 430 GT 1GB the game ran fine.

Ran some tests on my 560GTX all okay ran fine on other games until Batman Arkham City it crashed with the black screen and noise again so i new it was the card faulty or drivers for card (using new nvidia abeta drivers) i only had the 560GTX 3 weeks so i returned it and got a MSI 560 GTX 1gb and have had no problems since. I've played hours upon hours with no crashs at 60fps ultra spec si it was my new(old 560GTX at fault).

[Avril Churchill]

Yeah i had this stupid black screen crash too.i was using a 560 gtx 2gb from zotac.
when i used my old PNY 430 GT 1GB the game ran fine.

Ran some tests on my 560GTX all okay ran fine on other games until Batman Arkham City it crashed with the black screen and noise again so i new it was the card faulty or drivers for card (using new nvidia abeta drivers) i only had the 560GTX 3 weeks so i returned it and got a MSI 560 GTX 1gb and have had no problems since. I've played hours upon hours with no crashs at 60fps ultra spec si it was my new(old 560GTX at fault).

I've had my card for a total of three days. It's an EVGA 560Ti 1GB. It's not my card. Everything else runs fine.

[Naughty not Nice]

I don't want to add any senseless noise, but The Elder Scrolls Twitter posted about a preview of the new official ATI drivers.

http://twitter.com/#!/ElderScrolls/status/146658917328502785

Not sure if it'll actually fix anything, but I think it's worth a shot. I'll let you know if it works for me anyways.

[Lizs]

I don't want to add any senseless noise, but The Elder Scrolls Twitter posted about a preview of the new official ATI drivers.

http://twitter.com/#!/ElderScrolls/status/146658917328502785

Not sure if it'll actually fix anything, but I think it's worth a shot. I'll let you know if it works for me anyways.

They don't for my situation, I tried them a few hours ago (got lucky and was checking guru3d when they posted them). But I think anyone having these problems should give it a try if they feel up to it, maybe this is their lucky break.

[Aaron Clark]

I've had my card for a total of three days. It's an EVGA 560Ti 1GB. It's not my card. Everything else runs fine.

that does not mean its not the card at fault i had my 560GTX 2gb from zotac for 3 weeks Kept black screening with noise.
when using my old PNY 430GT 1gb game ran fine.
560GTX Zotac ran all other game fine (misled me) until i ran batman arkham city it did the same thing and the new assassins creed game.
i stress tested the card with furmark and kept a log of temps when it crashed it ranged from 66c to 76c not hot really ( i would hazzard a guess that a true test for the card would be a intense game like skyrim itself)

so because the card was new i swapped it for another one MSI 560GTX 1 gb ( and by magic all problems gone )..

[Carlitos Avila]

@ everyone:

I want to share a bit of my good ol' experience and that might not be as conforting to some but it is the way how things go.

When Oblivion came out ( meaning brand new) a lot of people where also experiencing these type of hardware problems, from random CTDs to quest bugs. After some months these problems started to diminish, better yet, try to play Oblivion now and u wont have any of these issues.

So in other words be patient and a fix will come out sooner or later and remember not for nothing did Bugthesda got its name from =P

[Emily Shackleton]

that does not mean its not the card at fault i had my 560GTX 2gb from zotac for 3 weeks Kept black screening with noise.
when using my old PNY 430GT 1gb game ran fine.
560GTX Zotac ran all other game fine (misled me) until i ran batman arkham city it did the same thing and the new assassins creed game.
i stress tested the card with furmark and kept a log of temps when it crashed it ranged from 66c to 76c not hot really ( i would hazzard a guess that a true test for the card would be a intense game like skyrim itself)

so because the card was new i swapped it for another one MSI 560GTX 1 gb ( and by magic all problems gone )..

Actually, as far as hardware stability goes. Stress tests and stability tests are far better indicators than any game. But yeah in your case the graphics card was obviously the problem, 66c-76c is fine (76c is starting to get a bit warm, but its quite acceptable for furmark, I've seen people get up to 85-90c with furmark and not crash).

[Princess Johnson]

Screen turning black while playing is almost always an GPU overheating issue. The stock fan speeds often aren't enough in some games. A year or so ago I had the same problem with NWN 2, the screen would turn black while playing in irregular intervals. Installing MSI Afterburner and changing the fan settings to keep the GPU temp below 60° at all times fixed the issue and I never had a similar issue since.

[Victor Oropeza]

Actually, as far as hardware stability goes. Stress tests and stability tests are far better indicators than any game. But yeah in your case the graphics card was obviously the problem, 66c-76c is fine (76c is starting to get a bit warm, but its quite acceptable for furmark, I've seen people get up to 85-90c with furmark and not crash).

no i disagree the true test is an intense game itself but i agree my originl 560gtx was a dud (made on friday) but there are so many (1000's) of chipsets, etc on gfx cards who the heck know what you get may the game hate certain chipsets.
But on the other hand Fallout 3 crashed like hell on launch..

i'd be interested wether all you people still black screening ( i do feel sorry for you all not being able to enjoy this game) suffer with skyrim only or other new games i.e batman arkahm city....games launched after or around the same time a skyrim.

[Elle H]

It's not an overheating problem, to those saying it is. I've done benchmarking, testing, and intensive gameplay and none of them have any problems. My EVGA 560Ti is brand new and runs incredibly cool. It's a Skyrim problem. Not a driver or hardware problem, or else it would happen in other games and applications.

Looks like only a stability patch will fix it.

[Joanne Crump]

It's not an overheating problem, to those saying it is. I've done benchmarking, testing, and intensive gameplay and none of them have any problems. My EVGA 560Ti is brand new and runs incredibly cool. It's a Skyrim problem. Not a driver or hardware problem, or else it would happen in other games and applications.

Looks like only a stability patch will fix it.

not trying to beat on a dead horse...but I have the exact same card. EVGA 560ti I play the game Rock solid. I do believe i have the same game as you. 1.1 or 1.3 work for me.My longest straight run playing was 15 hours. Actually 3 weekends in a row...15 hours on each Saturday. \

Before anyone can say...PIC or it didn't happen......http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee72/camaro_69_327/Skyrim/Skyrim15hours.png

Wow 65 million Page faults...somebody is scribing in the memory....lol

There has to be some combination of parts in your computer, that is keeping you from enjoying the Game. Hope you figure it out.

[Enny Labinjo]

It's a Skyrim problem. Not a driver or hardware problem, or else it would happen in other games and applications.

That doesn't mean a thing.

It's a problem that happens in kernel-mode. That means it's either:
1) A bug in Windows. Very unlikely.
2) A bug in a driver. More likely.
or 3) Hardware problem.

Faulty hardware can be cause by many thing. Just plain broken hardware. Overheating. Overclocked. Not enough power from the PSU. Etc. Just because you don't see problems in other games doesn't mean it is Skyrim's fault.

It's very easy. If Skyrim does something weird, something wrong, something unexpected or something illegal, then the driver should just return the DirectX library calls with an error message. Then Skyrim can do with that error message what it wants: it can stop the program, or try to continue the program, or crash,or whatever. But it is *NEVER* an option for the driver to crash. Never ever. if you see a BSOD, or a black screen, then the driver has done something wrong. No matter what weird library call or system call that Skryim has done, the driver should *NEVER* crash. End of story.

So it's nice of Bethesda that they want to help nail this down. But the problem lies not with them. Mark my word. If it is a driver problem, then in the next weeks or months, AMD and/or Nvidia will bring out a new driver. And suddenly Skyrim doesn't crash like that any more. Although there might be people who have similar problems as this one here, but because of faulty hardware. The new drivers will not help them, and they will keep complaining, and insisting that the fault lies with Bethesda. I am starting to understand why companies don't want to deal with customers on PC anymore.

Looks like only a stability patch will fix it.

A patch for Skyrim ? Nope. That won't fix this particular class of problems. A fix can only be made by AMD and/or nVidia.

It's good that users are trying to nail down what the problem is exactly. That will help getting it fixed. But don't look at Bethesda. Look at your GPU vendors.

[Christine Pane]

That doesn't mean a thing.

It's a problem that happens in kernel-mode. That means it's either:
1) A bug in Windows. Very unlikely.
2) A bug in a driver. More likely.
or 3) Hardware problem.

Faulty hardware can be cause by many thing. Just plain broken hardware. Overheating. Overclocked. Not enough power from the PSU. Etc. Just because you don't see problems in other games doesn't mean it is Skyrim's fault.

It's very easy. If Skyrim does something weird, something wrong, something unexpected or something illegal, then the driver should just return the DirectX library calls with an error message. Then Skyrim can do with that error message what it wants: it can stop the program, or try to continue the program, or crash,or whatever. But it is *NEVER* an option for the driver to crash. Never ever. if you see a BSOD, or a black screen, then the driver has done something wrong. No matter what weird library call or system call that Skryim has done, the driver should *NEVER* crash. End of story.

So it's nice of Bethesda that they want to help nail this down. But the problem lies not with them. Mark my word. If it is a driver problem, then in the next weeks or months, AMD and/or Nvidia will bring out a new driver. And suddenly Skyrim doesn't crash like that any more. Although there might be people who have similar problems as this one here, but because of faulty hardware. The new drivers will not help them, and they will keep complaining, and insisting that the fault lies with Bethesda. I am starting to understand why companies don't want to deal with customers on PC anymore.



A patch for Skyrim ? Nope. That won't fix this particular class of problems. A fix can only be made by AMD and/or nVidia.

It's good that users are trying to nail down what the problem is exactly. That will help getting it fixed. But don't look at Bethesda. Look at your GPU vendors.

all hail the psychic techy

from vast distances and with no knowledge or experience...PRESTO !
he diagnoses the problem and clears bethesda of any wrong doing.

[unless of course it happens on his system,then of course it is bethesdas fault]

what a kermit

[Alberto Aguilera]

That doesn't mean a thing.

It's a problem that happens in kernel-mode. That means it's either:
1) A bug in Windows. Very unlikely.
2) A bug in a driver. More likely.
or 3) Hardware problem.

Faulty hardware can be cause by many thing. Just plain broken hardware. Overheating. Overclocked. Not enough power from the PSU. Etc. Just because you don't see problems in other games doesn't mean it is Skyrim's fault.

It's very easy. If Skyrim does something weird, something wrong, something unexpected or something illegal, then the driver should just return the DirectX library calls with an error message. Then Skyrim can do with that error message what it wants: it can stop the program, or try to continue the program, or crash,or whatever. But it is *NEVER* an option for the driver to crash. Never ever. if you see a BSOD, or a black screen, then the driver has done something wrong. No matter what weird library call or system call that Skryim has done, the driver should *NEVER* crash. End of story.

So it's nice of Bethesda that they want to help nail this down. But the problem lies not with them. Mark my word. If it is a driver problem, then in the next weeks or months, AMD and/or Nvidia will bring out a new driver. And suddenly Skyrim doesn't crash like that any more. Although there might be people who have similar problems as this one here, but because of faulty hardware. The new drivers will not help them, and they will keep complaining, and insisting that the fault lies with Bethesda. I am starting to understand why companies don't want to deal with customers on PC anymore.



A patch for Skyrim ? Nope. That won't fix this particular class of problems. A fix can only be made by AMD and/or nVidia.

It's good that users are trying to nail down what the problem is exactly. That will help getting it fixed. But don't look at Bethesda. Look at your GPU vendors.

1. Please tell me how it can be a hardware or driver problem when I've stress and benchmark tested the hell out of all of my equipment. I built it using entirely new parts, new installation of Windows, all recent drivers.

2. If it's a driver or hardware problem tel me why it doesn't happen in other games or program. Just Skyrim. Just Skyrim.

3. I've applied every possible solution to it, and nothing works. I cannot get into Helgen to even freaking start my game. Please tell me how my new machine is at fault?

A problem this widespread that does not occur in other programs is the fault of the isolated program. Sorry, but that's how it is. Please tell me how it's possible otherwise.

Snippet of My DxDiag:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 12/13/2011, 09:23:01
Machine name: XION-2
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: BIOSTAR Group
System Model: TZ68A+
BIOS: BIOS Date: 06/17/11 14:32:20 Ver: 04.06.04
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8174MB RAM
Page File: 1202MB used, 15142MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

It is not an overheating issue. It could be a driver issue, but that doesn't make sense, since no other games have this issue. It could be a hardware issue, but all of my stuff is brand spanking new, and all other programs scream with my machine. Or it could be a Bethesda problem, since they emailed me and told me that it will be addressed in the next patch. Read the first post of the thread. I cannot play my game past rolling into Helgen. Someone, feel free to explain how my machine is at fault. I've rolled back, tested, and updated all drivers. I've applied every troubleshooting technique/fix. Nothing works. It is a Bethesda problem. I feel scammed out $60, I love this game (for the 360-but it's still buggy, I randomly received 1025 Briar Hearts in my inventory for going to jail in Riften), but seriously, my machine can handle everything, except this. I've put in close to 20 hours of troubleshooting. Don't say it's a hardware/driver problem, it is a Bethesda problem.

I'm not mad, just irritated by the people who post saying that it's a hardware or driver problem. It is isolated to Skyrim only. That doesn't rule it out completely, we could all just be crashing due to the same hardware/driver problem. If you have a solution feel free to beat the dead horse and tell us that it's a hardware problem, but if you're just posting to say that it is without a solution, we're going to infer that it is not. All of us actually experiencing the problem have tested the hell out of it, to the point where it isn't a pain, it's irritating.

It is very likely a patch could fix that problem.

This problem made me take an arrow to the knee. I used to be a calm minded individual, but then this problem took an arrow to my soul. /dies.

Seriously, I just want to play the game I bought. All other games I own work amazingly. Not Skyrim. It just works amazing on my six year old console.

Nvidia hasn't said anything, ATI hasn't said anything. Bethesda has said something, so the onus is on them to release a fix or tell us all we're stupid and that it's a hardware issue.

Update: emailed nvidia, we'll see what they have to say. It's unlikely that it's both an ATI and nVidia problem, as users of both are crashing. Sorry for the length of my rant, but I've put way too much effort into getting the game to work.

[Multi Multi]

@Grestorn

Stop being silly, if changing driver versions wont help than u practically eliminate ur well placed argument.

Why would changing the driver version rule out my argument?! Are you saying that two driver versions can't contain the same bug?!

[bimsy]

I have extensively tested my graphics card. I am near 100% certain my graphics card is fine.

You know that there is no way to prove that something is 100% correct just by repeating tests. But, I have to admit, you wrote "near 100%"

One game causing problems is enough. If, for example, only one game uses a certain combination of functionalities in a certain way which leads to a crash on your hardware for some reason - even though everything the game does is perfectly legal and valid.

I have tried underclocking it to various memory and gpu clock speeds (anywhere from only a few MHz below factory all the way to the lowest that ccc allows me). There is no difference, my skyrim game hard crashes within minutes.

Ok... so much for that idea.

I understand that you want something to be wrong with my computer (I do too actually, it would mean that I would be able to play my game that I have been dying to play for many months in anticipation). But to my disappointment, I am finding nothing wrong hardware wise with my computer. If I had 100% assurance that if I bought a nvidia gfx and a i7/intel MB and it would run skyrim fine, I would probably buy them. But there's always the possibility that buying the stuff would do nothing. I don't have cheap stuff in my computer, I have an HD 6870 and an 1100T x6 black. While they aren't top of the line intel products, they are quite decent near top of the line amd products and are running with no hardware faults(and believe me, I have tested my hardware extensively since 11/11/11).

I don't want anything to be wrong with your computer, I just want to help...

But you've got to admit that there's something strange going on, don't you? As far as I can see, almost all people using HD6870 cards are playing the game just fine. If that weren't the case, it would be clearly a driver bug.

It still might be, though, maybe just with the combination of your card on your MB.

What I'm saying is, that it's just highly unlikely that a bug in the game can cause this effect. Just crashing the driver on a very selective group of machines. A bug in the driver is much more likely to cause that. Wouldn't you agree on that, as a fellow programmer?

[Sarah Evason]

@ everyone:

I want to share a bit of my good ol' experience and that might not be as conforting to some but it is the way how things go.

When Oblivion came out ( meaning brand new) a lot of people where also experiencing these type of hardware problems, from random CTDs to quest bugs. After some months these problems started to diminish, better yet, try to play Oblivion now and u wont have any of these issues.

So in other words be patient and a fix will come out sooner or later and remember not for nothing did Bugthesda got its name from =P

For some reason you really hate Bethesda. Well, that's your prerogative.

There is certainly no argument that the game crashes sometimes, especially when running out of memory. The infamous crash to desktop. I also won't deny that there are many bugs in the quests and user interface. I'm not defending Bethesda there. But I understand why there are bugs in virtually all products - if you'd care to listen I'd even explain that to you.

But this particular crash - black screen and system hanging - is just very very unlikely to be a game bug, that's what I'm saying.

If you're saying that older Bethesda games (and other games as well, btw) are sometimes causing driver crashes at first and it's becoming better over time, than that might certainly be true... But the reason is, that the gfx drivers are also improved and bugs with certain games are eliminated over time. In the end, a game shouldn't be able to crash the driver, and it's the responsibility of the driver programmers to make sure it doesn't crash, no matter what.

[Ebou Suso]

It's not an overheating problem, to those saying it is. I've done benchmarking, testing, and intensive gameplay and none of them have any problems. My EVGA 560Ti is brand new and runs incredibly cool. It's a Skyrim problem. Not a driver or hardware problem, or else it would happen in other games and applications.

Looks like only a stability patch will fix it.

Well, this arument works the other way around, too.

If it would be a GAME problem, it would happen to all people, not just you

The driver is responsible to work correctly on your hardware, if the hardware is fine. It doesn't (it crashes). So either your hardware or your driver is faulty. Take your pick.

[Chase McAbee]

"Why would changing the driver version rule out my argument?! Are you saying that two driver versions can't contain the same bug?!"

"For some reason you really hate Bethesda. Well, that's your prerogative."

"But this particular crash - black screen and system hanging - is just very very unlikely to be a game bug, that's what I'm saying."

"In the end, a game shouldn't be able to crash the driver, and it's the responsibility of the driver programmers to make sure it doesn't crash, no matter what."

Correction #1: Multiple driver versions and especially new ones normally wouldnt have the same bugs unless u want to state they dont make any progress..

Correction #2: Hate is a big word especially if u dont know me. Merely stating facts of the gaming industry. Now if u want to start about Not Respecting than that would be the moderators since they are subjective more than anyone else..

Answer to black screen problem: The problem is, it is hard to judge where the problem exactly can come from, by saying to people it is their hardware while they double check their problem, just creates more frustration instead of helping them and/or possible accept the fact that the problem can lie elsewhere..

Answer to last sentence: Indeed games shouldnt crash in the end no matter ur hardware and software, but thats not always the case and can give irritations to those who bought a game thinking to play while they cannot.

[Vera Maslar]

Correction #1: Multiple driver versions and especially new ones normally wouldnt have the same bugs unless u want to state they dont make any progress..

That's true, but how can you say that two different drivers causes the game to crash is a *prove* that the driver is not buggy? What about the very simple reasoning that this bug might just not have been fixed in the new driver version yet?

Correction #2: Hate is a big word especially if u dont know me. Merely stating facts of the gaming industry. Now if u want to start about Not Respecting than that would be the moderators since they are subjective more than anyone else..

Using defamatory names for people or companies usually impies some kind of hate.

Answer to black screen problem: The problem is, it is hard to judge where the problem exactly can come from, by saying to people it is their hardware while they double check their problem, just creates more frustration instead of helping them and/or possible accept the fact that the problem can lie elsewhere..

True. But it doesn't help to shout against Bethesda or keep telling people to wait for a patch, when it's quite obvious (at least to me), that a game patch will never be able to solve this.

Telling people to look for a possible problem on their own machine might actually help them, though.

Answer to last sentence: Indeed games shouldnt crash in the end no matter ur hardware and software, but thats not always the case and can give irritations to those who bought a game thinking to play while they cannot.

What kind of irritation? If it's an irritation because it points to a faulty hardware or driver, then it's actually a helpul irritation.

What good does it to blame somebody or some company who just cannot fix the problem in the first place?

Again, that's just my opinion. I don't rule out the possibility that there is some obscure bug in the engine, which causes driver crashes on both AMD and nVidia drivers, regardless of the version and actual hardware used, but only in very selective cases.

I just think that this is very, very, VERY unlikely.

[Leonie Connor]

That's true, but how can you say that two different drivers causes the game to crash is a *prove* that the driver is not buggy? What about the very simple reasoning that this bug might just not have been fixed in the new driver version yet?


Using defamatory names for people or companies usually impies some kind of hate.


True. But it doesn't help to shout against Bethesda or keep telling people to wait for a patch, when it's quite obvious (at least to me), that a game patch will never be able to solve this.

Telling people to look for a possible problem on their own machine might actually help them, though.


What kind of irritation? If it's an irritation because it points to a faulty hardware or driver, then it's actually a helpul irritation.

What good does it to blame somebody or some company who just cannot fix the problem in the first place?

Again, that's just my opinion. I don't rule out the possibility that there is some obscure bug in the engine, which causes driver crashes on both AMD and nVidia drivers, regardless of the version and actual hardware used, but only in very selective cases.

I just think that this is very, very, VERY unlikely.

pfff ur tireless, will be my last response to you..

Not talking about 2 drivers if u want to prove ur right yes ur right but not for an infinite driver updates, and yes thats what i was implying ._.

Well great now u learned something new, namely using defamatory and not hating can go together ; )

Am i shouting, Oh rly? Good u can hear me.. U said before that u accept that game patches can solve some cases and now u deny it... Pfff pls dont respond to that I ignore ive read it

Talking about irritation, it seems u like to stir them up among the people..

[Elizabeth Falvey]

Grestorn, I can't fight the feeling, you somehow enjoy what you are doing here. I doubt your aim is to help. People are only getting angry about your comments. Is that your aim? Don't want to attac you, but these are my thoughts.

But back to discussion:

I am following hard crash threads for a while. I can't remember a lot of people telling these crashes do appear in other games as well. And you, Grestorn, brought my main argument yourself. As there are thousands of different hardware settings, it seems to be strange, that the hard crashes have their origin in some bad hardware setting. Because if you were right, there are many bad hardware settings out there. And strange, that there seem to be many games too, which don't seem to be affected by those bad settings... The only fact, everybody has in common is.... Skyrim.

So I don't need to be an expert...

[chinadoll]

Good point - in all my many years of PC ownership I never had this black screen issue happen once before running Skyrim, it only happens when I run Skyrim - therefore the statistical probability is, even if it is the driver that is crashing and not Skyrim itself, that Skyrim might have a teeny something along the way to do with it.

Skyrim is pretty much the guy standing in the room with the blood stained knife. You can't prove he did it and technically the knife is at fault but there wouldn't be a dead person on the floor if the two had not come together.

[Jesus Lopez]

Updated to 1.3 today and had this happen twice.

PC hit a black screen of death randomly with music looping followed by a complete lock-up. Resetting my computer didn't immediately fix the issue, either. I had to remove power from my computer for a good 10 minutes before my PC would load the OS without crashing.

I'll post a DXDIAG if needed; Intel i5 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570. All drivers up to date. Nil issues other than the above.