The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Näytä tilastot:
Skyrim will not work in Win8.1
Problem:

1) After anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, the game freezes with windows popup message "Application Tesv.exe has been blocked from accessing graphics hardware." On rare occasions, it will recover and continue on for a few seconds, then freeze or crash.
2) BSOD crash, with error message 0xa0000001

System & etc:

Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: 500-046
Processor: AMD A10-5700 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (4 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 7366MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Card name: AMD Radeon HD 7660D
Chip type: AMD Radeon HD 7660D (0x9901)
Display Memory: 4191 MB
Driver Version: 13.250.18.0

What I have tried so far:

I have tried disabling all services except the bare minimum necessary (steam, internet, audio, video). No change.

I have tried updating to the latest drivers (there are no drivers later than 13.250.18.0). No change.

I have tried uninstalling and downgrading to to earlier drivers. No change.

I have tried uninstalling all video drivers and software and just using the base MS drivers. No change.

I have tried re-installing directX. This was tricky - DX11 is part of the OS and Win8 automatically updates. No change.

I have tried setting the sound to the preferred sound setting of 24 bit 44.1khz. No change.

I have tried contacting Bethsoft support, and Steam support. They haven't replied.

I am utterly out of answers, but am still open to suggestions.
< >
Näytetään 1-15 / 23 kommentista
I haven't ‘upgraded’(?) to Win 8.1 because of several problems I've seen on this forum about problems with it. This seems to be a driver incompatibility issue. New Win 8.1-compatible drivers may not yet be aviailable.

I suggest the best place for you to look for help might be the HP forums. They were much more help to me than HP Support for other problems I had in the past (HP dv6-7200 Laptop). (Do not use ‘SmartFriend’. It is neither!) You may have to try a few different searches, but you will either find the answer there or find a number of other people who are as angry and unhappy as you are over the same problems.



Also, I got a ‘blue band’ across my laptop screen yesterday telling me to upgrade to Win 8.1 ‘For Free!’ (that obviously did not include the ‘cost’ of aggrivation I've seen posted here and on other fora). I was obligated to click on it (there were no other options) and it was difficult for me to get rid of (since I do not intend to install Win 8.1 until at least early 2014 when new dirvers should be available). The only option I had was to restart my computer, which I did. No ‘blue band’ reappeared, so I was spared the Win 8.1 pseudo-upgrade.

____________________

NOTE — The easiest way to locate the HP forums is through the ‘HP Support Assistant’.
Viimeisin muokkaaja on Alembrik; 31.10.2013 klo 11.05
I have a different GPU than you, but I upgraded my drivers and it works fine. Have you tried contacting AMD about the issue since it seems to be with your GPU? I ask since Bethsoft and Steam could help, maybe AMD could.
xaa 31.10.2013 klo 3.07 
hatchet5891 lähetti viestin:
Have you tried contacting AMD about the issue since it seems to be with your GPU

Well, steam still hasn't replied, but Bethsoft has, and they basically don't know what the problem could be - from looking at the DXDiag files, they say everything looks fine.

I can try AMD, see what they say.
Ever since I installed windows 8.1, skyrim keeps on crashing...ugh. Am using a 760 with the latest nvidia drivers
Viimeisin muokkaaja on hachoo!; 31.10.2013 klo 4.32
xaa 2.11.2013 klo 15.58 
Okay. AMD's answer was "because you tried upgrading and downgrading several times, you may have conflicts between older and newer driver components. You need to run our uninstall tool to remove all AMD driver components, then make a clean driver install."

And you know, that made sense.

So I did it.

Mistake. It instantly turned the PC into a boat-anchor, would not boot, not even into SafeMode.

I just spent the majority of today re-installing Windows. I lost all my files, folders, bookmarks, passwords and updates, we're back to square one with a blank computer. Although I did have backups of critical files, I am now forced to use those backups, thanks to this.

As you can imagine, I have screamed many unpleasant things into the air at AMD.

I am left with only one conclusion: Skyrim will not run in Windows 8. And anyone who says "Oh, I have windows 8 and it works perfectly!" is lying. Lying and laughing at you. Because Skyrim does NOT run in Windows 8. Period. End of story.
xaa 2.11.2013 klo 17.33 
Sorry - tried to edit above post, can't, forum glitch won't let me.

I mean to type "Win 8.1", as that's what I was using. I repeat - Windows 8.1

I do not know for certain if Skyrim will run in Win 8.0 - but I'll find out and let you all know if it does.
xaa 3.11.2013 klo 0.41 
Okay. Fresh install of Win8. No conflicting programs because the only program I installed was Skyrim. No mods. No nothing. Result: BSOD after about half an hour playing.

Yay.
Sorry you had problems. Were any on the HP fora able to help, or was everyone equivalently frustrated?

Was yours a ‘typical’ Windows BSOD with an error message and a stack dump, or something with no information and only a large ‘ : ( ’ in the middle of the screen? I've gotten those a couple times (usually while playing Skyrim), and have no idea what generated them or what they mean. Had to do a cold reboot with each one.

I don't have a problem running Skyrim on Win 8.0 (this machine came with it, so everything worked from the outset), even though I'd rather have the ‘friendliness’ and Gadgets available in Win 7. I've seen many posts here and on other fora about serious problems with Win 8.1, so I'm refusing to ‘upgrade’ until some time in 2014 at the earliest. When I see a lot of posts saying ‘I upgraded to Win 8.1 and everything works great’ and none with experiences like yours, I'll consider the ‘upgrade’ myself. Maybe Win 8.2 will be Win 7, but with a few tweaks to make it more efficient?

The ‘personal computer’ became popular with the original M$ DOS and the standardisation it and the original IBM PC open-source hardware design created, so standarised software became plentiful, and DOS-based PCs dominant. First with Win 8, and now with Win 8.1, M$ seems to be intent on destroying the PC industry it helped create.

Linux, anyone?
xaa 3.11.2013 klo 11.11 
Alembrik lähetti viestin:
Was yours a ‘typical’ Windows BSOD with an error message and a stack dump, or something with no information and only a large ‘ : ( ’ in the middle of the screen?

Same error code - 0xa0000001. Which, from what I've found, is a code unique to AMD APU's, and indicative of a driver problem. However, I've already been down the road of driver upgrade/downgrade, that only ended in pain, tears and screaming monkeys.

Alembrik lähetti viestin:
When I see a lot of posts saying ‘I upgraded to Win 8.1 and everything works great’ and none with experiences like yours, I'll consider the ‘upgrade’ myself.

Ayep. I didn't have a choice, however, my Win7 box went down in flames with a serious failure of the internal HD and total data loss. The verdict is still out on whether or not that box is recoverable, since the issue may be more serious than "replace the HD and re-install", we're waiting on the local computer tech to get around to it. Hey, I live in a small town, there's only one computer store, and that store's got one guy who runs it, and he's busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kickin' contest.

To be completely fair to Win8, it's basically Win7 with a different user interface. Underneath the hood, nearly everything's the same. Having had several days to poke at this problem, I think the real issue is the GPU manufacturers haven't quite caught up with it. If this box was crashing with every graphics program, I could honestly say "Win8 sucks." But it doesn't - it's just Skyrim I have this issue with. All the other programs it came with work fine, no crashes or errors.

If someone says "Works for me!" well, fine, it works for you. But, it doesn't work for me. I will keep pokin' at it until I have a solution. Because I'm stubborn, I guess.
you could check your security options and list steam as a "friendly" (their website...)
and basically you can EXPLORE your skyrim install disc and copy all files to your c drive
and run the game without steam being accuated (utilized) to check and see if it then runs
for 30 minutes without crashing. Also run the game as admin and with steam in offline mode.
I live in fear of that sort of crash. One reason I like HP machines is that they seem much more stable than the non-HP machines I've had over the years, some custom-built. I got tired of trying to make all the drivers work and play well with the OS and the hardware. I bought an Alienware (Intel) machine for gaming a few years ago that for all that I paid for it was an expensive disaster. It wouldn't boot to ‘Safe’ mode, I couldn't flash the BIOS, boot from a floppy (or anything else), and I couldn't even access the Command Prompt. A couple months after I got it, it crashed to the extent that it wouldn't even boot no matter what I tried. It didn't have anything on it that was in any way sensitive, so it simply got recycled. Lesson learned. All my HP machines are still running, one now for about 5 years.

I agree with you about the essence of Win 8, although I still miss the Gadgets. They were all right there where I could see them, giving me all the information I needed about my machine and network, among other useful stuff. The Win 8 ‘Apps’ idea just doesn't cut it with me, nor does the fact that I have to jump through hoops to prevent the OS from throwing adverts at me. I expect adverts with browser pages, but an OS I paid for, absolutely not! I spend all my time with the Desktop, and consider the ‘Start’ page something I have to click through to use my computer the way I want to.

I got a less expensive Win 7 machine several years ago that worked fine out of the box. I got it to back up an older Vista machine. I then upgraded the Vista machine to Win 7 and had some initial GPU driver incompatibilities that created some BSODs, but nothing more serious than some lost time. Those lasted for a few months until the GPU manufacturer caught up with Win 7. (I don't believe both machines had the same GPU, but I remember they were both AMD machines because I'm partial to AMD.) Those were the only BSODs I had with Win 7 on that machine, and they went away when the video drivers finally got fixed. With that experience in mind, and all the problems I've seen reported with Win 8.1, I'm in no rush to upgrade.

I have problems with Skyrim that I don't have with other games and other applications, but those that are graphics-related are likely due to the relatively underpowered GPU in this machine, even though it was the best I could get when I spec'd it out. Using it for games was an afterthought, so I don't blame it for occasional graphics problems. It works fine for what I originally intended to do. (I also get too-frequent CTDs in Skyrim that seem to be due either to Steam or to inherent Skyrim instabilities. I have no idea what the problem actually is. I just do frequent saves as the result, and live with it.)

I hope you can salvage your data off of your other HD. I have no expertise in that area, so I can't help. As for a solution to your GPU problem, you may have to wait for HP and the GPU driver writers to develop one that works with 8.1. HP drivers are ‘special’ in some way, so generic Win 8.1 drivers for your videocard may not work. If the available Win 8 GPU drivers don't work with Win 8.1, you will likely have to work directly with HP to get drivers that do.

The Steam forum — Skyrim at least — has had some serious problems over the last week or so. I've gotten quite a few errors saying the server was busy, the page unavailable, that I might not be connected to the Internet, etc. Same problem on the Steam client and the Steam site through Firefox. No problems with other sites. This may be the cause of Skyrim crashes, if Steam feels the urgent need to synch files and finds it cannot. I have no idea how Steam interacts with the game, except that when Steam has an advert pop-up, it generally causes a CTD. Same with the update a couple days ago. Why can't Steam do all these without causing a CTD?
Viimeisin muokkaaja on Alembrik; 3.11.2013 klo 13.17
Just a thought ... have you checked to make sure your gpu isn't overheating? I had that problem with my Vista machine and finally replaced the vid card with a newer one....no more problems.

Another idea would be to try and reduce game settings to the minimum that you would be comfortable with. I had to do that to run WoW and a couple of other games.
I had many difficulties after windows 8.1 to my best advice is to go to skyrims page click support find skyrim it will give you a list of things to reinstall for it you will still have all your data though but it just dusts it off it fixed mine but i found my short cut on my desktop was causing some curruption so i deleted it
xaa 3.11.2013 klo 19.50 
Well, folks, what I ended up doing was going back to Win7. Got my old box back from the shop, first thing I installed was Skyrim. Skyrim works fine, now - no crashes, errors, or other issues. Well, not any more than I already had with this GPU - it hates the forest just west of Riften, and it hates it alot. =P I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions, but the Win8 box is basically gonna be turned into a file-server for our home network.
Viimeisin muokkaaja on xaa; 3.11.2013 klo 19.51
xaa lähetti viestin:
Well, folks, what I ended up doing was going back to Win7. Got my old box back from the shop, first thing I installed was Skyrim. Skyrim works fine, now - no crashes, errors, or other issues. Well, not any more than I already had with this GPU - it hates the forest just west of Riften, and it hates it alot. =P I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions, but the Win8 box is basically gonna be turned into a file-server for our home network.

I wanted Win 7 on this machine, but I was forced to buy Win 8. I may postpone ‘downgrading’ it to Win 8.1 until 2015 — or later!

Hope you got your user files back as well.
Viimeisin muokkaaja on Alembrik; 4.11.2013 klo 9.04
< >
Näytetään 1-15 / 23 kommentista
Sivua kohden: 1530 50

Lähetetty: 30.10.2013 klo 1.38
Viestejä: 23