January 18, 2012

Skyrim Crashes Revisited

UPDATE:  I'm having success re-enabling Speedstep and disabling CORE PARKING.
  • 2011 DEC:
    • Installed Skyrim, Steam patched it to the 1.3 version, supposedly fixing a bunch of things
    • Skyrim works for a few days and then the dreaded "Reboot/Blinking Out" issue started.  In short, the entire system reboots.
  • 2012 JAN:
    • From late December to mid-January, troubleshooting in earnest.  All tests with other games, benchmarks, stress test, etc showed no issues. Roundup of testing here.
    • Charted voltages, temperatures, etc and found no issues whatsoever outside of Skyrim rebooting the system.
    • Bought and installed a 1000W Silverstone SST-ST1000-P PSU replacing the no-name 700W PSU that came with the system.  No change.
    • Tried a series of changes, systematically testing each one.  The one that made a change was disabling Intel Speedstep.  Skyrim crashed no more.
    • For about a week, no crashes and Skyrim is splendid!
    • The other day, I got a desktop crash.  Restarted Skyrim and no further issues.
    •  Last night, I got a reboot.  Not sure why, nothing had changed system-wise or application wise.  It's the same system that was running fine previously.  Reboots occured twice more and then stopped.  I doubt it's related, but I was at the mead poisoning mission just outside of Whiterun, in the dungeon just before combating the crazy conjurer that lived with the Skeevers.  I restarted the saved game and got beyong that part and no other issues for the next several hours.  (????????)
I am fairly confident (92%) that this is a problem with Skyrim programming.  I'm not bitter about having to buy a new PSU, because that just means ALL the critical components of my system are now high end pieces.  Also, if I ever decide to go dual or triple SLI, then I'm all set.

Skyrim being awesome
Skyrim not being awesome


Skyrim is an awesome game for sure, but these crashes are very, very frustrating.  It takes so much away from the game.  I really, really hope this gets resolved soon, either through Bethesda identifying an issue and releasing a patch or by me figuring out WTF is going on.

2 comments:

  1. I've been dealing with the black screen crash for weeks (only bought the game at Christmas). I thought it was random until...

    "I doubt it's related, but I was at the mead poisoning mission just outside of Whiterun, in the dungeon just before combating the crazy conjurer that lived with the Skeevers"

    I've had crashes occur after hours of play, or sometimes one minute of play, but never more crashes than in the corridor just before the crazy Skeever conjurer. This section was almost impassible due to the reboot-crashes. I think you might be right that the game is doing something that causes these crashes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm 99% sure that the game has something to do with it. I've extensively tested my different hardware components and even replaced the power supply. I cannot duplicate these reboot-crashes outside of Skyrim. Please do keep me in the loop if either disabling Speedstep and C-states help alleviate the crashes as I've seen with my rig.

    ReplyDelete

Please be helpful and courteous. Thanks!