Skyrim Blinking Out/Rebooting

I ordered a new gaming system from CyberPowerPC right after Thanksgiving, taking advantage of their sale at the time.  It was a great deal and the folks at CyberPowerPC were great with the order and the subsequent follow-ups, informing me of a backordered CPU and offering good alternatives.  The system I ended up with came in before Christmas in great shape and it worked out of the box (the shipping, packing, etc was great, no issues whatsoever).

I should note upfront that I've contacted them and they've graciously offered to upgrade my power supply.

Here's the specs:

ITEM            DESCRIPTION                                           QTY 
=============== ===================================================== === 
KB-152-101      BLACK XTREME GEAR MULTIMEDIA/ INTERNET USB KEYBOARD     1 
MO-115-101      BLACK XTREME GEAR OPTICAL USB GAMING MOUSE              1 
NC-USB-117      EDIMAX EW-7811Un IEEE NANO 802.11n USB WIRELESS ADAPTER 1 
HD-403-308      2TB SATA III 6.0 GB/S 3.5" HDD                          1 
RM-317-802      4GB CORSAIR VENGEANCE 1600MHZ DDR3                      4 
FA-WATER-101    ASETEK 510LC 120MM WATERCOOLER                          1 
FA-104-116      CASE FAN 120 MM                                         1 
CS-157-519      BLACK THERMALTAKE COMMANDER MID TOWER NO POWER          1 
CD-128-101      BLACK LITE-ON 24X DVDRW                                 1 
MR-104-101      12-IN-ONE INTERNAL CARD READER                          1 
MB-374-101      GIGABYTE Z68MA-D2H-B3 INTEL Z68 CROSSFIRE DDR3 SATA3    1 
               USB3.0 MICRO ATX LGA 1155
PS-119-108      APEVIA 700WATT POWER SUPPLY                             1 
SC-102-144      CL SB X-FI XTREME AUDIO RETAIL                          1 
SW-170-113      WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM SP1 64-BIT                       1 
BOX1            SYSTEM BOX AND FOAM                                     1 
SERVICE-201     SOUND ABSORBING FOAM ON SIDE, TOP AND BOTTOM PANELS     1 
SERVICE-202     POWER SUPPLY GASKET                                     1 
SERVICE-104     ANTI-VIBRATION FAN MOUNTS                               1 
CU-208-206      INTEL I7-2600K 3.40 GHZ 8M LGA 1155 RETAIL              1 
VC-207-108      GIGABYTE GEFORCE GTX 570 1.2GB DDR5 PCI-E               1 

It ran every recent game I had (HL2, Portal 2, GRID, Just Cause 2, Batman:Arkham City, Assassin's Creed 1/2/Brotherhood, etc) at the highest settings without complaint. But I really got this rig for Skyrim.

I wanted to finally see the Aurora Borealis.

Of course, as Murphy predicted, the problems started when I installed "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim".  At first, it was great, and the adventures started.  But after a few hours, everything turned off and the system restarted.  It could have been anything at this point, and I didn't think much of it until it started happening over and over again (Skyrim is a looong game).  I was unable to replicate the problem even after hours and hours of Batman:AC and other games.

Let the troubleshooting begin!

Symptoms:

• Skyrim causing system to reboot.
• No other issues observed on system

Related Info:

• Skyrim is a DX9 game and is designed to run on anything from XP to 64-bit Windows 7.
• Batman:AC and other games utilize DX11 and is significantly more CPU and GPU intensive (IMO).
• No issues with ANY other game.
• OS is 64-bit Windows 7.
• When system reboots, temperature and fans are not high.
• Logging with HWINFO64 and other tools confirmed this.
• Power supply that came with system is possibly APEVIA brand (boo!), but I haven't removed it from the case to confirm this.
• Power Supply specs (from side panel pic):

•   700W (Sticker says ATX-CV700W - can't find info on this PN)
•   +3.3V = 38A
•   +5V = 40A
•   +12V1 = 23A
•   +12V2 = 26A
• System should need under 600W and the +12V rails seems to be sufficient (based on Internet research)
• Running two 21" LCD monitors: One monitor at 1920x1080 and the other on 1680x1050

Troubleshooting Steps so far that had no effect on the symptoms:

• Lowered the clock rates on the video card (GIGABYTE 570 is OC a little)
• Lowered settings and resolution in SKYRIM
• Installed latest BETA Nvidia drivers (290.53)
• Re-installed latest STABLE Nvidia drivers (285.62)
• Cleaned out old video drivers
• Disabled the (unused) onboard video (Intel HD)
• Updated Creative Labs drivers (SB X-FI XTREME)
• Disabled the (unused) onboard audio
• Uninstalled "extra" stuff that Nvidia loads (i.e. 3d vision drivers)
• Verified no OC on the CPU
• Removed 2nd monitor
• Ran Skyrim in Window mode
• Reseated all components (memory, video card)
• Verified power and cable connections
• Reinstalled Skyrim

Last night I loaded the Heaven DX11 Benchmark to do some load testing.  It ran for over six hours without any issues!

I also logged the system stats using HWINFO64 and the system was under heavy load (much heavier than Skyrim and Batman).  Here's a summary of the results:

Test period: 01:30:45 - 06:42:35

Starting GPU Temp: 53C

Max GPU Temp: 72C

Ending GPU Temp: 65C

Stating GPU Fan: 2400RPM (48%)

Max GPU Fan: 3510RPM (70%)

Ending GPU Fan: 3330RPM (66%)

Starting CPU Temp: 41C

Max CPU Temp: 57C

Ending CPU Temp: 47C

Starting CPU Load: 0.8%

Max CPU Load: 31.7%

Ending CPU Load: 0.9%

The chassis temperature range for the test was: 31C - 34C.

GPU Memory allocation went from 130MB to 836MB and then back to 137MB, following a linear curve correlating the load.

Here are some charts from the data gathered:

GPU Temperature stats for the entire 6-hour run.  Note that it stabilized at 71-73C, well below the "danger zone"

GPU Fan Speed stats for the entire 6-hour run.  Note that it stabilized at around 69%, well below the "danger zone"

CPU temperature, CPU utilization and Chassis Temperature stats for the entire 6-hour run.  These are well below the "danger zones"

Since Skyrim is a DX9 game, I also ran a benchmark (15 minutes) using the DX9 settings and found the same stats as above.

It's interesting to note that when actually playing Skyrim, there is a CPU load on only one core (out of four).

I had originally been leaning towards the power supply being the issue, but the test results (and lack of issues with other games) causes me to lean more towards the Skyrim code doing *something* that causes my system to have issues.

Skyrim was released in November and it already has three (four?) patches and unsubstantiated reports by other gamers indicate that some Internet developers have made patches that bypass and optimize some poorly-written routines in the game, improving performance.  This leads me to believe that something in Skyrim is causing the "blinking out/rebooting" issue I'm (and a lot of other people) are experiencing.

UPDATE 07 JAN 2012: Tested with Kombustor DX9 and DX10, 8X MSAA, 1920x1080, POST-FX, FULLSCREEN for about an hour with no issues or crashes.


UPDATE 07 JAN 2012: I was able to play Skyrim without crashing by starting a new game.  I think my save file is corrupted somehow!  Will test this out thoroughly and will post findings later. This was a false lead - it still crashed, although it took a while longer.


See Part 2 Here.