Problem: Skyrim suddenly won't launch anymore

[ANewbDoucheBag]

So I've been merrily playing Skyrim for a couple months now and logged in 92 hours of play with no serious problems. I tried launching the game today and suddenly it won't launch. I get a message that says "Performing first time setup... Installing (step 1 of 3)" but it made 0 progress even though I gave it an hour. I tried verifying the games integrity and I get a message that says something like "1 files failed to validate and will be reaquired" after which nothing happens. I tried reinstalling the game, restarting my PC (I have Windows Vista), restarting Steam, and tried launching the game with steam in offline mode and I still get the same message about first time setup. I have no mods other than Dawnguard (if that counts) and I've had dawnguard for weeks now without any problems.

This is really annoying because I get very little videogame time these days and I finally had a couple spare hours and now I'm spending it trying to get my game to work. Also keep in mind I'm computer semi-retarded.

[ANewbDoucheBag]

I did get an update from steam yesterday so I don't know if that maybe has something to do with it. It was working fine when I played last week

[lu Shi hawaito]

disable mods i think will help. My keept crashing to desktop

[ANewbDoucheBag]

I don't know how I can disable dawnguard though, I can't even get to the screen where I can look at my mods because of this first time set up garbage

[Denethor, Steward of Gondor]

People have been getting this first time setup problem on several games since the update. I haven't had problems with Skyrim, but a few other games I have have been affected. Hopefully Valve will rectify the problem soon.

[webdz9r]

same problem here but how do I fix it?

[ANewbDoucheBag]

don't know yet. I was tinkering with it for a couple hours last night and couldn't figure it out. I've seen a couple other people on the forum complaing about the same problem with Skyrim and other games as well, all since the last update so I think it's connected to that. So far it looks like no one else has figured out a solution either. Looks like we may just have to wait till the steam people sort it out. I sent a message to steam about it yesterday but still haven't heard back.

Also the only "mod" I have is dawnguard which I downloaded through steam. I don't know if that really counts as a "mod" but it's the only thing in my data file list. But I can't even get to the intro screen to see my data file list anyway. So I don't think mods are what's causing the problem for me or presumably anybody else with this "performing first time seup" problem either

[76561198076908076]

Same problem here, crash or freeze when trying to load a saved game. After Steam update last saturday, I can't load any recent game. Game worked fine, nothing else changed. A save from earlier than 2 weeks ago can be loaded. Tried all sorts of things, removing all mods, starting without SKSE, nothing helps. Hope Steam is fixed ASAP. This sucks...

[martino]

Do you run with User Access Control (UAC) enabled ? Do you see a process elevation message box from Windows ? Does it go away if you run as admin ?

[ANewbDoucheBag]

with tx3000's help i was able to get it working (actually he got it working I just did whatever he told me to do). Not sure exactly what did it. I disabled UAC and also deleted my saved game files (after copying and pasting them to my desktop of course) and then it was finally able to perform the first time setup, and now it works.

[martino]

I'm trying to figure out the root issue. Is your Steam.exe running in Compatibility mode ?

[martino]

The "Performing first time setup" issue even happens for games that have no mods etc. To me it looks more like a UAC issue

[76561198076908076]

Still strange that without doing any changes (mods or otherwise) and after the Steam update, suddenly my last 42 savegames won't load anymore (CTD). The latest file that loads, is from Jan 27th. The save from 30min later (no changes made) also doesn't load anymore.
I did a fresh install, no mods, no SKSE, still the same... :-(

[76561198076908076]

It seems to be solved now. Re-installed SKSE and basic mods and now the 'broken' can be loaded again. Weird though.

[gunlord-Xx243]

everytime i start skyrim it starts playing 3 seconds later it goes to the desktop anyone have ideas why its doing that

[Zakalwai]

for people still having problems, I just un ticked some certain mods from my data files.
I found out that everything other than the Winter is Coming mods PATCH worked perfectly fine, but as soon as I ticked that mod, the game wouldn't start.