Getting constant BSODs when playing Skryim

[frau kaleun]

Altho as I've just discovered, this seems to be a problem when playing in fullscreen mode. I just played for about 10 minutes with the game windowed, so I could monitor the temps of the CPU and motherboard while the game was running - and the CPU went up by 10 C at most (topped out in the low to mid 50s) while the MB's temp hardly budged at all. They both stayed well below the manufacturer's default temp for an "alarm threshhold" or whatever according to their software for monitoring and configuring such things.

So to back up a bit - I started a new game and played enough hours to get to level 15 or so with no problems whatsoever - no lag, graphics looked awesome, everything was fine. Then all of a sudden the game starts crashing. Like, less than five minutes into a session, BOOM - and I don't mean the game crashes to desktop, I mean the entire system freezes up with either a BSOD and a restart or else the screen goes black and eventually I have to turn it off manually by holding down the power button. Or some combo of both, sometimes it BSODs and then can't seem to restart without me forcing a shutdown.

I have gone through the events log and done my best to see what errors were coming up, there was a repeated error which turned out to have something to do with video card drivers - found what looked like a fix for that and applied it, didn't help. I upgraded the drivers to the newest version - didn't help. I've uninstalled them and reverted back to older versions - didn't help.

In the midst of all this, I started having trouble with Steam itself - I'd get an error when trying to start it up, that the Steam Client Bootstrapper couldn't open or whatever. Then I started wondering if maybe Steam itself was crapping out mid-game, so I searched around for stuff on that. Tried some different things with Steam such as troubleshooting for compatibility, Windows wanted to run it in the comp mode for XP SP3, so I let it, which seemed to fix that problem.

Then after reinstalling the latest GPU drivers I was able to run it without any special comp mode and it was fine. Now tonight I can only start it in offline mode, altho they seem to be having issues according to the website so that may be their problem and not mine. I'm not getting the error about the program crapping out, at any rate.

So at first I thought it was my CPU crapping out, but at least in windowed mode that doesn't seem to happen... I ran my PC through a couple of areas that are very intense due to the Warzones mod, and had no lag and no crash - everything went fine. Just prior to that when I booted up in fullscreen I couldn't even walk blithely across a mostly empty field with getting a BSOD after a couple minutes at most.

I'm looking for something on my system that will let me monitor the GPU temps but I can't seem to find it... doesn't appear to be included in Catalyst Control Center at all. Is there a free program I can snag somewhere that will let me do that? I have an HD Radeon 6950.

Barring a way to monitor the temps on the GPU I guess my next option is to take all the mods off and start a new totally vanilla game and see if I still get a system crash, altho I'm not convinced it's overloading due to mods as I've been playing with the same set up for quite a while. I added a couple new texture mods for this latest game but removing them doesn't help and I'd already played 15 levels with them in place with no problem, so I dunno. I am having ZERO problems doing anything else, it's just running the game (fullscreen) that seems to be impossible.

Either some bit of hardware is getting seriously overloaded when I do that - or else there's a driver or other software issue that I can't figure out... not that I know where else to look at this point. I tried downloading the Windows Debugging tool to be able to read the dump files from the crashes, but THAT won't install properly so no luck there. I am getting a Locale ID of 1033 but after searching that I still can't tell if it means hardware itself or hardware bugging out due to driver errors or other software problems.

I'm actually at the point of thinking I should just back up everything and reinstall Windows and all other software and drivers, but if it's an actual piece of hardware that's dying then that would be a lot of hassle for nothing.

[Arclight]

This should give some comprehensive feedback on temperatures and such: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Keep an eye on temps and voltages I'd say, see if they don't deviate too much. If the issue isn't there it becomes a bit of a guessing game.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Arclight

This should give some comprehensive feedback on temperatures and such: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Keep an eye on temps and voltages I'd say, see if they don't deviate too much. If the issue isn't there it becomes a bit of a guessing game.

Thanks, I will take a look at it.

I've got one little app running right now that came with the CPU, I guess, that monitors frequency and voltage.

The voltage seems to be staying stable at around 1.45v, but the frequency keeps bouncing up and down from 800 to 2200 to 3400 MHz and back again. Of course I'm not doing anything right now but looking at a couple of browser windows and typing in this one, but is that normal?

Edit: okay, I'm trying to download it and Windows is telling me the file couldn't be downloaded. Tried both the ftp and html links too.

NEVER MIND, it finally came through. Jeebus H. Cripes, can ANYTHING I try not give me problems? Lol.

Aaaaand NEVER MIND THAT, because whatever got downloaded was a partial file or something because the setup won't run and it's telling me again that I couldn't be downloaded when I go back to try again. GOSH DARN IT I SURE WISH I COULD SWEAR IN HERE.

[HW3]

Try here

http://download.cnet.com/HWMonitor/3...ml?tag=mncol;1

[frau kaleun]

Well I don't know what was going on but for a while there I couldn't download ANYTHING, including small files from the Downloads here. It was like it was trying to download the link to where the file was, instead of the file itself. But I finally got HWMonitor after rebooting the computer AGAIN and going back to the page. Sheesh.

At this point I'm getting more and more interested in reinstalling Windows because it's like a giant clusteryouknowwhat of things, every time I try to do something it's like something ELSE doesn't work right.

[frau kaleun]

Here's a question - would playing a game in fullscreen put enough additional stress on the hardware to cause a crash, when playing windowed does not? Because if the answer is no, then I would think it's more likely to be software related, specifically some setting or file that is causing the fullscreen mode to crap out.

Altho I didn't change anything prior to this problem starting, so I can't imagine what file or setting that would be. Unless Windows did an automatic update that screwed up something somewhere, but I couldn't find anything that looked suspicious in that area.

[frau kaleun]

Found something that would read any .dmp files for me, and got HWMonitor, and now I can't reproduce the crash.

By which I mean I just played for about 15 minutes in fullscreen including running through the same two areas of heavy activity and getting caught up in a battle with numerous enemies who killed me dead, and everything was fine.

I checked HWMonitor a couple times during that and the GPU temp never got above 62 degrees Celsius... and I believe that's well within the safe parameters for the card.

So now I don't know what is or was going on. Granted, that was a small playing session, but for the past week I couldn't go 50 yards without the game crashing.

I'm wondering if it did have something to do with Steam crapping out somehow, that issues seems to have been resolved this evening - either on my end or theirs or both - and since I stopped having problems with that, no game crashes either.

Now I think I'll put back the newer mods I removed and see what happens.

[frau kaleun]

Just played for about two hours straight with all mods enabled, except one that I wasn't sure I wanted anyway - and removing it hadn't solved the problem before so I don't think that was the culprit. But I've gone from Whiterun to Solitude (on foot) with quite a lot happening on the way and NO CRASHES.

I swear I don't know what else to think, except that all the other stuff I looked at was a series of false leads and suspicions and it all just had something to do with Steam crapping out constantly for some reason. Altho why that would lead to a system crash and not just the game crashing to desktop, I don't know.

I'm completely stumped, but as long as things are running fine I guess I won't worry about it until if and when the problem repeats or something else goes wrong.

[Red October1984]

I've had them in SH3 from a very very heavily modded installation.

It was an easy fix for me.

[Task Force]

Whats your hardware setup, and what does the BSOD say?

Its normal for your CPU frequency to jump around as the processor load increases or decreases.

[Skybird]

Just have had serious troubles myself, ended up with replacing three hardware components just to get rid of one or two broken, could not nail it down any other way. System newly installed with gfx card, HD and monitor replaced. So - I feel with you, Fräulein.

In your case, check the obvious things first. Manually remove nVidia driver (the automatic installation of other drivers over the installed ones, as is saisd to be possible nowadays, ALWAYS leaves artifacts on my rig that start to interfwere with the new one), then install a new one. Very solid builds are 275.xx and - I'm just using it for days, but no probs so far - 214.xx.

If possible, reset your mainboard.

Check that dust flocks are not shortcutting something, mainboard circuits or USB plugs.

How old is the PSU, and is the output adequate for the gfx you use? You want to have some reserve there even under maximum stress. PSUs wear out over the years. I had to replace mine some years ago - that silenced a whole bag of gremlins haunting my rig back then.

How old is your HD? It also wears out. Try with a different one. Sorry, that means new installation or copying a safe image. You could use an old one with an already existing old installation and see if the problem continues to show up.

Replace the gfx, if possible.

Have a clean installation or image copied over. Check BIOS settings to be back to default, you can change them later.

Unplug all cables and connectors and replug them. Make sure you are free of static electricity when doing so. The resetting of the mainboard should be done after that, to be sure.

If none of this helps, then I fear the chances are raising that there is trouble with the mainboard itself - if for no other reasons than that not many other components are left that could have broken down. You could check the RAM bars one by one to see if one of them is faulty, but I doubt it. You just moved to a new house, boxes and things may have gotten some kicks during that. Could be a micro-fraction on the mainboard's circuits, for example, changing temperatures constantly changing the width of the breach, so sometimes the contact is made, sometimes not.

It'S a PITA trying to nail down the root of such unspecific problems, I just went through the whole dance, and it costed me time and nerves. Good luck!

P.S. Your router, modem, whatever you have, working fine?

[frau kaleun]

Going from memory, as I'm not at home:

PSU is 750W so I don't think it's a power supply issue unless the PSU is failing.

GPU is a 2GB Radeon 6950 so it should be able to handle quite a bit, and has, with no issues up to now and no changes to the game before the problem started - so again, unless the hardware is outright failing, it shouldn't be that. It's the newest hardware on the system, only about a year old.

The rest of the rig was built from scratch two years ago and all relevant internal hardware was bought new at that time... I think the only things I kept from the old set up were an external backup drive and possibly a DVD drive. I checked already and have the latest BIOS stuff, no updates available for mobo or chipset. I did make a couple small changes to the BIOS setup to see if that made a difference but it didn't so I changed it all back since it had been fine for two years up to now.

I check the inside periodically to blow out any dust (and there usually isn't much) and make sure all the fans are running properly; I've got mesh screens over all the intake/exhaust openings and keep those pretty clean as well. And when I was monitoring temps last night, I got no red flags there even when the game was up and running in fullscreen with all my desired mods in place.

Anyway - I played for two hours with no problems, and prior to that couldn't play for two minutes without a BSOD since the weekend. If I don't have any more problems, I'm not gonna worry about it.

[Arclight]

We're talking Windows 7 right?

I've had some issues in the past with games having trouble with the fact I have 2 active sound cards. It was a particular problem early on in Win7's introduction, but it cleared as drivers improved. If it's Win8 you're using it might well be a driver problem.

If it is a software problem, I'd say it has to be something low-level. Even then, at least on Win7, it's more likely to just have the driver crash than the entire system.

[frau kaleun]

Yeah, Windows 7.

The closest I came to finding a possible source with regard to video drivers was a number of posts/solutions in tech forums about one of the errors I kept seeing, apparently to do with versions 4.01, 4.1, and 4.2 of something associated with ATI's graphics cards and software. I kept getting errors saying those services had shut down due to the necessary files not being found, according to the stuff I found v4.01 is an outdated relic and shouldn't be there or be running any more after updates to the gfx drivers but registry entries don't get deleted when they update (despite doing a full uninstall of old software, apparently) and it remains as a "device" in Device Manager and the people reporting the error were also having numerous BSODs, particularly when running fullscreen apps.

I followed the instructions to remove the relevant references to it but that didn't SEEM to have any effect. Of course that was before I started updating/reverting the GPU software in its entirety trying to see if there was ANY version, at all, that would make the problem go away - assuming gfx drivers were the cause of it.

Then I started getting notices about a possible Java exploit being found and deleted, and uninstalled/updated/reinstalled Java just because I didn't know what that might have to do with anything, then I ran virus and malware scans and found nothing, then I noticed Steam wouldn't launch at all, then that problem got resolved and since then everything's fine.

So, to recap, I had a problem and now it's gone and I don't know why I had it or why it went away.

[Kaleun]

Do you have an Asus sound card?? if you do, make sure the DSP mode in the Audio software isn't set to GX - its Asus' emulation of EAX and causes loads of crashes in games.