# Computer freezes random times/Issues while playing Skyrim



## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

*COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS:*

Operating System:
Windows 7​CPU:
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30 GHZ​Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology​Ram:
8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 824 MHZ (7-8-7-20)​Motherboard:
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8P67 PRO REV 3.1 (LGA1155)​Graphics:
SA300/SA350 ([email protected]) (my monitor)
1280MB GeForce GTX 570 (EVGA)​Hard Drives:
1954GB Western Digital WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 ATA Device (SATA)​Optical Drives:
DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device
DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S243D SCSI CdRom Device​Audio:
Realtek High Definition Audio
​*THE PROBLEM:*
Well first off the computer freezes and crashes and I have to restart it with the power button cause I can't move my mouse or anything, happens over a course of about 2 hours maybe but has happened faster before. I had a guy put this rig together for me, I got the specifications off of a website, specifically here How To Build a Future-Proof $1500 Gaming PC - Tested//. There's a video on there that shows you how to build it, I didn't show the video to the guy who made the PC but he works as a Computer Technician at my workplace. I believe he mentioned something about lose connections and using tape to fix the problem but it still persisted when I got it back, only doesn't happen for longer periods of time now.

Another problem is that when I play Skyrim, I used to be able to play for at least 30 minutes or so with minimal screen blinks occuring. My display just almost turns off for 5 seconds, comes back to the game screen, then maybe does it again and then it might go completely white then back to the game again. It got worse now to the point you can't play the game, you hear everything in the background but the visuals just stop working, I eventually closed the screen down fast enough one time to catch a glimpse of an error popping up saying my nvidia driver stopped responding then was recovered. Lots of people seem to have that problem on many forums, I updated the driver, tried to change the power setting to best performance and everything, no luck... So I'm wondering what could be the problem and if my computer freezing and the display going off are connected in a way, maybe due to the hardware not being installed correctly.

Thanks in advance for any help


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

Hello and welcome to TSF
what your Power Supply Unit? (PSU)
the GTX 570 needs at least a 650 W High Quality Power Supply
a 700 W with at least 34 Amps under the +12V line is recommended

what is happening to you is for sure a power issue


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

Well I don't believe it's the power supply

I use a Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850 Watt power supply which provides plenty of power to even upgrade later on if I wanted to

Edit: PS are you also inferring that the two problems are connected? That they're coming from the same source?


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

your power supply is high quality and can handle your system

let's check the temperatures
download HWmonitor from my sig, open it and check the temps
play a game for a while (15 or more mins)
minimize the game and recheck the temps again
post both temps states idle and under stress


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

I used Speccy to determine the temperature here

Idle:


CPU - 34 degrees celsius
Motherboard - 60 degrees celsius
Graphics - 39 degrees celsius
Running Total War: Shogun 2 (all settings maxed out):


CPU - 38 degrees celsius
Motherboard - 60 degrees celsius
Graphics - 47 degrees celsius
*Added note: Computer runs fine while playing Total War: Shogun 2, the screen doesn't blink and the error message that the driver has stopped responding then been recovered doesn't pop up.*

Running The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (all settings maxed out):


CPU - 35 degrees celsius
Motherboard - 60 degrees celsius
Graphics - 51 degrees celsius
*Added note: I could only play Skyrim for about 5 seconds before the issue completely shuts down the game but those are the temperature right after.*


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

Download the latest Driver for Nvidia, get the Beta Driver 290.53 it's made to improve skyrim performance

Graphics Driver - GeForce 290.53 Driver - GeForce

this is for 64 bit windows 7


Download Revo uninstaller from my sig
open it and select Nvidia Drivers from the list right click and uninstall it
do not restart yet, just first remove all its remains from the registry and from your HDD when prompted by Revo
be sure to remove all Nvidia related (like PhysX) as well remove all the remains
restart your PC and then install the driver you downloaded


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## sjc33 (Dec 24, 2011)

RockmasteR said:


> Download the latest Driver for Nvidia, get the Beta Driver 290.53 it's made to improve skyrim performance
> 
> Graphics Driver - GeForce 290.53 Driver - GeForce
> 
> ...


Hi, just registered here because I found this thread through Google. I am having a very similar issue to OP (although my GPU is not as good). I installed this new beta driver you mentioned and it fixed the problem... for about 2 days. Then the new 1.3 patch came and I am getting crashes again. If you'd like any info from my end, let me know. I have tried EVERYTHING to fix this problem, and nothing works.


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## Sven2157 (Feb 10, 2009)

I would suggest *UNINSTALLING* BETA drivers! You are having issues with *ONE* game, and are seeking help, but the BETA drivers may cause more issues!

*SIDE NOTE: BETA DRIVERS ARE FOR ADVANCED LEVEL GAMERS/USERS/PROGRAMMERS THAT CAN PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO THE STAFF THAT IS TRYING TO LAUNCH THEM TO THE REST OF THE WORLD!*

Go back, to the stable release, of which ever driver is out, for your video card.

BOTH of you, go to your video settings, and turn them ALL to the lowest they go. See if that fixes it. If it doesn't, then you have hardware troubles, and we'll hash it out, to find out where the trouble is at.

*@Djogani*
Yours is sounding like RAM. Not sure yet if it is system ram, or video card RAM. But that was the first that popped into my head....

*@sjc33*
Yours is sounding like motherboard. If the optimized driver helped, for a bit, but now is not... Your FSB may be the cause.

*@BOTH*
I am speculating here, so don't assume the worst... Try what is above first, and then report back...


Happy Holidays! :hide: (<-- Looking for the Fat Man in Red!)


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

@RockmasteR: The driver I had on already was 290.53, I didn't find it on RevoUninstaller, it didn't pop up, but I uninstalled it from the control panel program and features menu. After reinstalling it, same problem... although one thing is if my resolutionis a lot smaller (even windowed mode) the problem doesnt occur as frequently.

@Sven2157: Tried your option, unistalled the latest beta driver and installed 280. something i believe its .63 but the problem still persisted, put everything on low settings and right when i started playing it did it once, then i played for a about 6 seconds and the problem came again this time with the white screen. If this is a ram problem how would you determine whether it's coming from the system ram or video card ram and what are some solutions to those types of problems?

By the way, the problem with my computer freezing and crashing is solved, took it to a shop and they fixed the problem, but the problem while playing Skyrim still persists. The guy at the store told me he went through a few forums and it seems like everyone seems to have problems to this game and it might just be the driver isn't working as well with this game to wait for the enxt one or something, nobody seems to have the exact same problem as mine though...


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## sjc33 (Dec 24, 2011)

OK, so what I did today was clean out all dust from inside my PC. There was actually not much dust at all. Didn't help because I still crashed after playing Skyrim for about 45 minutes, but I got "lucky" this time. When I rebooted my PC, after it loaded BiOS it showed a message that said "CPU Overheated. Press F1 to Resume"

So I guess now I know that Skyrim is causing my CPU to overheat. Now, what do I do from here? What are the simplest fixes I can try? I have never had any issues with crashes/CPU overheating like this before, but then again Skyrim is most "intense" program I've ever run on my PC. 

I played today with the case off of my computer, obviously didn't help. Just thought I should let you know I tried the super simple fix of cleaning out dust and opening my case.


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## sjc33 (Dec 24, 2011)

Forum won't allow me to edit my post so I'll add another one real quick: What if I change "SMART fan enabled" in my BIOS to make my fan run at 100% speed all the time? I know then the fan would require more power usage but how much more would it use? Could that potentially solve my overheating problem? Or is there a way to get my fan to run at a better speed than what my system is telling it to run at? (maybe not 100% all the time, but higher than its auto setting) I'm trying to avoid buying a new power supply just because I've never bought one before and trying to avoid the hassle.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

DO you both have the latest patch > The Elder Scrolls 5 - Skyrim: New Patch v1.3.10.0 Better For More RAM - GameBandits.com

I see it as the Game coding issue more so than then a hardware issue Bethesda seems to have been releasing patches since week 1.


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## sjc33 (Dec 24, 2011)

Yeah I have the latest patch. It's just incredibly annoying because my roommate sits there and plays and has had absolutely zero issues. And his rig is arguably worse than mine. His graphics card might be slightly better. Not a single crash. And here I am stuck dealing with weeks and weeks of trying to get my game to work properly. I just don't get it.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

What are you seeing for temps? 
If you have Nvidia 3D Vision installed make sure it's disabled
Start/All Programs/NVIDIA Corporation/3D Vision/Disable 3D Vision Discover


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

OK I figured something out, while playing Witcher 2 only at certain points would the game kind of freeze and crash but bring me to the desktop, I get a glance at the temperatures with Speccy still on and my Graphics cards was heating up over 70 degrees celsius then after it started to cool down around 65 mark the game responded again and i was abale to play until the next time the same thing happened! So I'm gonna put two and two together and say it's not cooling the GTX 570 enough -_-, does that mean more fans? Could I just open the computer's case a bit and open up a window? I don't wanna wait to order more stuff.


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## sjc33 (Dec 24, 2011)

wrench97 said:


> What are you seeing for temps?
> If you have Nvidia 3D Vision installed make sure it's disabled
> Start/All Programs/NVIDIA Corporation/3D Vision/Disable 3D Vision Discover


My GPU idle hovers between 43-45 C.
While playing Skyrim it ranges from 53-58 C. Not hot at all.
And I don't have 3D Vision installed because that's just bloatware.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

sjc33 said:


> My GPU idle hovers between 43-45 C.
> While playing Skyrim it ranges from 53-58 C. Not hot at all.
> And I don't have 3D Vision installed because that's just bloatware.


What's the CPU temp also?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Djogani said:


> OK I figured something out, while playing Witcher 2 only at certain points would the game kind of freeze and crash but bring me to the desktop, I get a glance at the temperatures with Speccy still on and my Graphics cards was heating up over 70 degrees celsius then after it started to cool down around 65 mark the game responded again and i was abale to play until the next time the same thing happened! So I'm gonna put two and two together and say it's not cooling the GTX 570 enough -_-, does that mean more fans? Could I just open the computer's case a bit and open up a window? I don't wanna wait to order more stuff.



How old is the card?
Make sure it has good air flow and using n-tune set the fan speed to 70% see what happens.


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

wrench97 said:


> How old is the card?
> Make sure it has good air flow and using n-tune set the fan speed to 70% see what happens.


I got the GTX 570 this month maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago, but I think the temperatures I get are within the normal range so actually it might not even be the problem.... more frustration...:banghead:

There's some solution out there saying to go into BIOS and change the CPU Hz from 200 to 180, I didn't see that option in BIOS anywhere


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Slowing down the CPU is not a viable option.
Check the temps while playing another game see if the temps get that warm and if it freezes if it does.


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

With Total War: Shogun 2 the temperature does seem to only go up to 65 degrees celsius or so, I'm thinking though if it is a problem with the temperature, Skyrim doesn't even last long enough to get to that high of a temperature.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Rereading the post i noticed the motherboard temp of 60c?
It should be cooler then the CPU and video card not warmer, are running stock clocks?
Are any of the voltages(cpu, ram, motherboard) turned up?


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

Everything is stock I'm not sure if i5-2500K comes with overclocking or not but I bought and left everything the way it came, when I went to BIOS I saw a few options for hardware like power-saving/normal/performance and recently clicked on the performance one, it looked like as if it the voltages changed but even before that the motherboard has been showing 60c as well as after I clicked on it.

Edit: P.S. On Shogun 2 the video card went over 70c and worked fine, I do get a hiccup but it's not nearly as bad or as often, comes ever few hours sometime not at all and it only blinks quickly and comes right back to the game

Edit**: It was a bug motherboard temperature is not 60 c I'm gonna use HW moniter instead of Speccy and send you guys a screenshot


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy28/Djogani_Fantastico/compspec.jpg


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

That shows the 60c reading as the CPU motherboard sensor, good chance it's either not a sensor, or incorrect reading or faulty sensor.

The only thing I know to try is swapping some parts the video card being the most logical suspect. See if you can borrow a vid card from a friend to test with.


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

Why would we need to swap video cards what would that tell us?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If your video card is the issue.


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## Djogani (Dec 19, 2011)

Alright hombres I have solved the problem. I used the manufacturer's disc for the graphics card and tried to install the driver they install which was a lot older, 266 versions I believe, didn't work after that... so I download some of the other features like EVGA Precision which allowed me to set the overclocking speeds at, I put the GFX settings all the way down along with ram etc, ram was about 1000 something Mhz probably around 1066 and not sure for the GFX settings but they also had an option for the fan speed, I raised that to 70% like Wrench97 mentioned and after that... it worked, I guess the GTX 570's fan wasn't going hard enough. Now I'm happily raping dragons  thanks for all the support!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Are the gpu and memory clocks still turned down?
If they are and the card is now running ok you have a defective card return it.


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