Powerful pc won't play skyrim, getting annoyed

[Trollonomics]

PC that's more than capable of running skyrim doesn't do it properly. I can start the game fine, but I can play it for approximately 10 minutes before it starts to lag for around 10 seconds, and immediately freezes up, forcing me restart the entire pc. I've been trying to fix it for about a month. I've downloaded latest drivers, same problem. Rolled back, same problem. Properly rebooted into safe mode, uninstalled drivers, rebooted, clean installed new drivers, same problem. I've redownloaded both skyrim and steam at least five times each, same problem.ive tried over clocking and under clocking, same problem. I've tried all the fixes I could find, nothing works. Whether I use mods or not, it doesn't change. The only mod I use is blood moon rising, I've got the official add ons and all the unofficial patches, I've used tes5 edit and cleaned what needed to be clean. Safety load didn't help. Memory allocation might help, but I can't play long enough to tell. Even on a completely newly installed vanilla game with no mods, new ini/prefs with a clean registry, it's the same problem. Nothing is over heating.

My System
---------------
i5 intel 4570 quad core
Atk 750 watt psu
Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 GT
Power color radeon r9 280x 3gig
ASrock h97m anniversary mobo
Windows 8.1
Team Elite 8gig memory
Sea gate Barracuda 1TB storage

 

[g-unit1111]

Nothing is overheating? Check your BIOS - if your CPU is getting temperatures over 40'C (82'F) you might need to replace your cooler.

 

[bigwoofer]

I'm guessing that your video card or CPU is overheating OR your ATK 750 watt psu can't keep everything powered. The lagging is VERY consistent with an overheating video card - it's not lagging but instead the frames are SLOWLY being rendered as it's compromised due to heat, then finally stopping on a final frame. Good thing this is an easy one to start with troubleshooting: Take the side off your case and put a small or large fan blowing cooler air toward your video card. Test - same problem yes or no?

Regarding power supply being suspect: There are capacitors storing power just like batteries to maintain output voltage as demand spikes then lowers. If there's an issue with your power supply, it may not be able to resupply capacitors that are being hit with constant high demand. But I'm going with the video card overheat as the likely issue.

HOLY COW - Newegg's power supply calculator recommends a 912 watt power supply for your build - lol they for real?
http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html?

 

[pecul1ar]

A google search of 'win8.1 skyrim problems' shows alot of other people having problems as well. However it also shows testimonials of people playing for hours without problems on win8.1

On one link, some guys say rolling back to win8 can be a fix (since it worked before the 8.1 patch).

Personally? I'd just install win7, heh.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1949771/skyrim-windows.html
edit: oh look, this was asked here at uncle tom's
more edit:
from this site: http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/34093781748476910/%C2%A0

Aura Nightfox [has The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim] 2 Aug @ 9:48pm
Its the D3D9.DLL in the skyrim folder, just fixed mine today. Found an article and it sent me to this ---> http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34970 worked like a charm.

 

[g-unit1111]

I'm guessing that your video card or CPU is overheating OR your ATK 750 watt psu can't keep everything powered. The lagging is VERY consistent with an overheating video card - it's not lagging but instead the frames are SLOWLY being rendered as it's compromised due to heat, then finally stopping on a final frame. Good thing this is an easy one to start with troubleshooting: Take the side off your case and put a small or large fan blowing cooler air toward your video card. Test - same problem yes or no?

Regarding power supply being suspect: There are capacitors storing power just like batteries to maintain output voltage as demand spikes then lowers. If there's an issue with your power supply, it may not be able to resupply capacitors that are being hit with constant high demand. But I'm going with the video card overheat as the likely issue.

HOLY COW - Newegg's power supply calculator recommends a 912 watt power supply for your build - lol they for real?
http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html?

That wattage calculator is way off. I think it takes into account very poorly manufactured power supplies and not quality ones. The wattage on a particular PSU is one thing, the quality of the construction of said unit is an entirely different beast altogether. If you have a quality 850W power supply it will power an R9 280X no problem. If you have a poorly made 1600W power supply, then you will run into the exact same problem.

 

[JerrWolf]

I think based on what I read in your first post, that you already did this but, Completely get rid of any existence of Skyrim from your pc. All registry, temp folders, documents, text files. Anything pointing to Skyrim get rid of it. Mods included and re install as vanilla via the launcher and low spec settings. Act as if you've got a computer that's from 1995. Turn all the settings off with low resolution and keep raising one by one as vanilla to see if you have a problem. IF you have a problem like this then it isn't Skyrim/Steam.

 

[Trollonomics]

Nothing is overheating? Check your BIOS - if your CPU is getting temperatures over 40'C (82'F) you might need to replace your cooler.

Still pretty new to this computer stuff. How would I do that? I know how to get to the BIOS, but, wouldn't I have to figure out some way to monitor the cpu temp in BIOS while playing skyrim? Is that possible?

 

[Trollonomics]

Nothing is overheating? Check your BIOS - if your CPU is getting temperatures over 40'C (82'F) you might need to replace your cooler.

Loaded skyrim, monitored my temps with CPUID. This is what I got for my i5 4590 temps, right after closing skyrim 10 seconds after the lag started, literally right before the freeze:

Temperatures Value Min Max
Core #0 33c 31c 44c
Core #1 28c 27c 39c
Core #2 28c 27c 39c
Core #3 32c 29c 38c
Package 33c 31c 44c

 

[JerrWolf]

Nothing is overheating? Check your BIOS - if your CPU is getting temperatures over 40'C (82'F) you might need to replace your cooler.

Loaded skyrim, monitored my temps with CPUID. This is what I got for my i5 4590 temps, right after closing skyrim 10 seconds after the lag started, literally right before the freeze:

Temperatures Value Min Max
Core #0 33c 31c 44c
Core #1 28c 27c 39c
Core #2 28c 27c 39c
Core #3 32c 29c 38c
Package 33c 31c 44c

Based on my experience those temps are perfectly normal. I'd suggest the painful process I suggested earlier. The first part (stripping Skyrims existence) is usually for the engine bug with slow time but it also helps refresh. But you can try by playing everything vanilla and low as low can be and increase one at a time.

 

[g-unit1111]

Nothing is overheating? Check your BIOS - if your CPU is getting temperatures over 40'C (82'F) you might need to replace your cooler.

Still pretty new to this computer stuff. How would I do that? I know how to get to the BIOS, but, wouldn't I have to figure out some way to monitor the cpu temp in BIOS while playing skyrim? Is that possible?

Depends on what motherboard you have. Most give you options in the BIOS that allow you to view CPU temperatures. It should say in the motherboard's manual what menu options do what.

 

[Trollonomics]

I tried skyrim out again for the hell of it. For some reason, it auto set itself to Ultra High, and my God, it was beautiful, until the lag-and-freeze. This time though I was able to minimize skyrim and pull up my resources monitor to see what was going on. I'm not a pro, but my cpu is 3.30 ghz, and apparently it can go up to 3.70, but with skyrim frozen in the background, its at 3.63ghz. I could be wrong, and yes I know I sound like a noob, but I feel as if this might be the problem. Any suggestions? Screenshot below
http://i59.tinypic.com/2n16yix.png

 

[Trollonomics]

Took my cooler out of the case, reapplied the thermal paste(MX-4) and put it back together. Now I can average around 15 minutes of play time instead of 10. Except now, once it Skyrim reaches it's time limit, not only does the fps go all the way down, but I start to get tears in the screen, and on the last occassion I saw this bright green light coming out of a wall. I'm out of ideas.

 

[Trollonomics]

Took my cooler out of the case, reapplied the thermal paste(MX-4) and put it back together. Now I can average around 15 minutes of play time instead of 10. Except now, once it Skyrim reaches it's time limit, not only does the fps go all the way down, but I start to get tears in the screen, and on the last occassion I saw this bright green light coming out of a wall. I'm out of ideas.