[Skyrim] Crash to Desktop in game

[doom78]

Hey there,

now, I am aware that I am not the first guy with this issue, but even hours of glancing through all the threats i could found couldn't fix the problem.
I am desesperately trying to find a solution.

There's the deal : the game would suddently just dissapear and go back to the desktop with no error message whatsoever.
One second I'm happily slaying an ennemy and the next second Im back to my desktop.
This crashes are apperently not affecting the computer since it's not overheating and works just fine after the crash. I can start Skyrim over again, but it's still annoying, especially if you forgot to save.
The CTD's occur on a random basis, there is no pattern i could find. Sometimes i might be able to play for 2 hours with no problem, and some other times the crashes occur every 10 mins.
It slowly getting me mad....

Appart from that I have no other issue with Skyrim, it works just fine.

I run on a Quad Core Processor with 4GB Ram.
My graphic card is a NVIDIA 440GT 1Gb.
I have Windows Vista x32.
More details upon request.
Also please note that I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to computer, so please be gentle and don't use nerd language

Also, I'm sorry for possible mistakes since english is not my motherlanguage.

Thank you for any help.

Doom

 

[Gothams Finest]

I used to have the same problem as you, I feel your pain, its very frustrating trying to get immersed in Skyrim with a CTD every 10 minutes.

Download the 4GB LAA tool which will allow skyrim to use 4GB of Ram instead of just 2GB, this has improved skyrim for me a lot. I no longer get random CTDs or purple textures.

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1013

Download the file and instead of launching Skyrim through the usual shortcut (or through steam), launch the game through the new 4GB shortcut(.EXE)
that you can download in the link above.

 

[doom78]

Thanks for the link, I will try that tonight.

I'm kinda having a hard time finding the latest patches, mods etcetc. all this stuff is kind of a chaos in my head

Hope that will help, I'm letting you know

 

[Gothams Finest]

No problem mate, let me know how it goes.

Steam will automatically download the latest patches for Skyrim when they are released, as long as you have a genuine Retail/Steam copy.

To make sure steam downloads the latest patches. Open steam, right click on skyrim, go to properties and click on the update tab, then make sure "Always keep this game up to date" is selected.

I wouldn't go modding Skyrim just yet, I would focus on fixing the CTDs for now.

 

[doom78]

Right.

Since we're on it, and you seem to be up to date : I heard that some patches would mess up the gameplay instead of actually fixing bugs.
So for exemple some forum threats say that the 1.2 patch is not worth installing.
That true?

Again thanks for your concern !

 

[Gothams Finest]

Some people reported problems with patch 1.2, but some people didn't have any problems at all.

Personally I didn't have any problems and everyone I know who plays Skyrim didn't have any problems either. Patch 1.3 fixed the issues patch 1.2 caused so everything should be fine now.

If you are really concerned about it you could stick with patch 1.1 and run steam in offline mode, so it doesnt update Skyrim. Personally I would just update, 1.3 is working fine for me and a lot of other people, but it may be different for you.

 

[doom78]

Hey mate,

just letting you know the 4gb patch did it ! I played 6 hours straight this weekend and went through no crashes or other bugs. Thanks again!

No related question though, thought you might know ( looks like i'm kinda damned ..) :

All my Steam games that I am playing ( that is CSS, Skyrim and Fable 3) sometimes just minimize to the desktop during the game. So it's similar to the other problem exept that time it is with every game and it just minimizes, no crash.
Any ideas? :s

 

[Gothams Finest]

Glad it worked for you mate.

It doesn't sound like a steam issue, it sounds like there may be something else on your computer causing it.

Have you scanned for Malware? Your computer may be infected.
Have you installed the latest Nvidia drivers for your graphics card?
Are you hitting the windows key by accident?

 

[doom78]

I will run a Virus scanner, although I already did and found nothing. I'll run Adware and Skybot also.
As for the drivers, i got a new graphic card installed 2 weeks ago and updated the drivers at that time. So i guess they're up to date.

And no i'm not hitting any key as it also occups during idling or so.
Thanks for the advice though

 

[doom78]

Best answer selected by doom78.