Failed to Initialize Render, Unknown Error

[Kemendin]

I hate to start another thread with this, but I've been through every one I can find with no luck regarding a solution.

I had to restart my computer yesterday, and it apparently needed to update, routine. Skyrim worked fine immediately afterward and for the rest of the evening. I tried it this morning, and I got the error "Failed to initialize renderer. Unknown error creating renderer."

I have seen a lot of other posts with this problem, and I've tried every solution I can find without success. I'm running Windows 8.1, with an AMD Radeon HD 7660G card. I have checked the drivers and directX, which are both apparently updated. I have not installed any mods. I have tried restarting the computer, reinstalling the game entirely, playing in windowed mode, changing the graphics settings, unchecking 'read only' on the .ini files, deleting those files entirely, all with no change whatsoever. When I tried verifying the cache files through Steam, it said that one file had a problem and would be redownloaded, but again, nothing has changed.

I am not a particularly tech-savvy individual, so if anyone has other suggestions, please let me know. This is driving me mad.

[wowszer]

Have you tried this?
You have bad setting in your Skyrim ini files. Maybe your graphics settings are too high. It might also be that you set these files to read-only, preventing the game from updating your graphics settings.

Delete:
C:\Users\<YOURNAME>\Documents\my games\skyrim\Skryim.ini
C:\Users\<YOURNAME>\Documents\my games\skyrim\SkryimPrefs.ini

Launch Skyrim via SkyrimLauncher.exe to automatically create new ini files.
Some have had results from creating a new profile in MO, of course if you are not using Mod Organizer, might not help.

[Kemendin]

Originally posted by wowszer:

Have you tried this?
You have bad setting in your Skyrim ini files. Maybe your graphics settings are too high. It might also be that you set these files to read-only, preventing the game from updating your graphics settings.

Delete:
C:\Users\<YOURNAME>\Documents\my games\skyrim\Skryim.ini
C:\Users\<YOURNAME>\Documents\my games\skyrim\SkryimPrefs.ini

Launch Skyrim via SkyrimLauncher.exe to automatically create new ini files.
Some have had results from creating a new profile in MO, of course if you are not using Mod Organizer, might not help.

Thanks for the reply. I've tried deleting those files, with no effect. I've also tried changing them from read-only, when they were set that way, also with no effect. It's odd, because when I first installed the game, the optimal graphics setting was detected as 'high'. Now when I try that, it's 'low', and this started before I even touched the graphics settings trying to fix anything.

[Aussie Jester]

R.I.P Same issue with me. Spend 9 hours and 30 minutes "fixing it" with no luck.

I have gone from disabling dual graphics to changing audio to 16-bit CD to running as administrator updating graphics ect. I have tryed everything I could find and all I have done is waist a day or the weekend 50 dollars and moral.

Gotta love Skyrim PC.

~Wolfay 21/05/2016

[Bomb Bloke]

Have you ever used a secondary display with this computer? For eg, is it a laptop which has ever been plugged into a TV or something? Or a VR headset, anything visual?

If so, try using the Windows button + P to set your system back to "PC screen only" mode. Skyrim can bug out if you've got more than one display.

You may find that if the external display is no longer connected, you'll need to reconnect it and then switch back to "PC screen only" before the game will stop complaining.

[Call_Me_Jim]

Found this one. You can play it on windowed mode

Originally posted by Eitheladar:

Originally posted by cfs111:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=500687692
Stuck in Windowed Mode section.

Thanks! That one did the trick - SKSE + OneTrick.
I'm still not 100% sure it's using the best definitions for my graphics card, but at least it's fullscreen now!
I still don't understand why it won't give me OPTIONS in the game start menu. And... can anyone say where my saved games have gone? I thought Steam synched them automatically?