Serious problems with Skyrim

Hello All

I'm really hoping someone on here may see this and be able to offer some advice as I have hit a brick wall in my attempts to solve my Skyrim issues.

Even if i set my detail level to low (which i didn't think i'd have to do) i get severe fps drops. When i swing a sword in anger the FPS drops to single figures and basically freezes the game for a brief moment then runs ok for a few seconds then drops off add infinitum.

I have been running razer game booster to close off background programs, instlled latest drivers, i've run malware bytes, i've gone into nvidia control panel and set skyrim to use high performance. Im so stumped have spent 2 evenings trawling the net and im no better than i was. I've re-installed and still no joy.

I'm ok on a computer but i wont get the abreviations etc but i can work my way around if anyone could offer any advice.

Thanks in advance for any help

M11xr3 - I7 - 4gb RAM,

 

You may want to monitor you CPU+GPU temps.

Hardware monitor is a good program which will give the max temps of both CPU and GPU when gaming.

Have you set the computer to high performance on the battery symbol in the bottom right hand side of the desktop?

If you are experiencing high temps it will be worth stripping and repasting the heat sink on the CPU and GPU.

Alienware User Support

Regards.

C.

 

Thanks very much for your reply.

CPU is around 50 degrees likewise with the HD. I can also confirm i am running off AC and i'm set to high performance. Are these temperatures above and beyond what you'd expect?

 

Those temps are fine, it does sound like the M11x is not using the NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M.

As a rule if my little fan is not screaming l am not using my dedicated GPU.

You should expect at least 41fps at low preset and around 28 with medium preset with 4xAA.

You may want to up your ram to 2x4gb 1333 as this maybe causing some bottle neck.

I would suggest uninstalling the Intel display driver then the Nvidia driver.

After this install the latest Intel drivers and after that install the latest Nvidia drivers.

See it this helps.

Regards.

C.

 

Try to do a Clean installation of your Video Drivers.

1. Open Programs and Features --> Uninstall all Nvidia related software (you may need to restart a couple of times to properly uninstall everything.

2. Open the Device Manager --> Under display adapter, right-click and uninstall your video adapters (check the box to "delete device driver software"). Again, you may need to restart a few times until you see "Standard VGA adapter" instead of your card's name.

3. You may want to clean up the registry too, it can be done manually or with a tool like driver sweeper or driver fusion.

4. Download and install the latest video drivers for your laptop.

5. Set-up your games in the nvidia control panel to have them run with the right GPU.

 

Thanks to you both. I have attempted your advice. However, once i have re-started the notebook my new hardware wizard automatically re-installs the nvidia drivers. Do you think it would help for me to just restore to factory settings and start from scratch or would this likely be a waste of time?

 

A factory reset should fix this if not.

Do this:

1. Download windows 7 iso (This is legal).

2. Download and install Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

3. Buy a 16gb usb stick.

4. Fit USB stick to the 2.0 USB port (left hand side of M11xR3).

5. Run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool software.

6. Follow prompts and select Win 7 iso.

7. Select USB drive.

8. Press go/start sit back till done.

9. Restart M11xR3 and boot from USB stick.

10. Select custom install.

11. Select advanced options.

12. Delete all partitions.

13. Select HDD and select new.

14. Press ok.

15. Install Windows, use key on bottom of M11xR3.

16. Follow this guide : How to install drivers after clean install.

17. Then finally follow this guide: How to get Alienware look and feel back.

18. Job done.

19. If fault with GPU still apparent then suspect GPU/Motherboard U/S.

Regards.

C.

 

So did this work out? The factory reinstall?

 

This probably happens because you had a LOT of previous versions, every time you restart it will look for a version that hasn't been uninstalled and try to use it.

That's why I mentioned you might need to restart a few times until all the versions are removed.

 

I see you've already checked your CPU temps, but what about the GPU? I was having a similar issue with Fallout 3 and then I noticed my GPU was getting hot. Turns out the GPU exhaust fan stopped working.