So, recently got my hands on the Legendary Edition of Skyrim. Installed it, started thinking about what mods I'd get, getting kinda excited. Then...game won't launch. The Skyrim Launcher itself will boot, but when I click 'Play' I receive no response.

I updated my drivers, to no affect. I'm running a NVIDIA GeForce 660ti, but the game sets the video quality to low as the best option, if that means anything.

Ran a validation on the cache files, also no affect. Got a message saying that "1 files failed to validate and will be reacquired". 752 byte download occurred. Same failure to launch.

I've tried running the .exe file as an administrator, I've tried running the Launcher as an administrator from within the SteamApps folder, but no dice. The Launcher runs fine, but when I try the .exe file it's the same as if I'd clicked 'Play' on the Launcher.

I just want to play me some Skyrim, guys . Help most appreciated.

Edit: Oh my god I'm an idiot. Nevermind. Could someone please delete this?

 

Oh come on, you may as well tell us how your an idiot after all that.

 

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

Um, it's mod-related obviously. If you install two mods that aren't compatible with each other, any of the following things happen:

1. Your client won't launch
2. Your client will launch but fail to do anything at the loading screen
3. Your client will never finish loading
4. Your client will crash upon finishing loading
5. Your client will crash upon leaving the cave / character creation junk

A best case scenario is everything runs, but shit is broken. I once had a mod conflict that resulted in me being catapulted ten thousand feet in the air upon the creation of a new character. That was fun...

The only way to get Skyrim working with multiple mods is to constantly restart the client and make a new character, slowly enabling each mod one by one if everything initializes okay.

Unless, by "looking at mods" it's implied none were installed yet, in which case, it could be that the application isn't detecting the video card or something? I've had that happen, where if you have on-board integrated graphics, it tries to run that instead of the dedicated card.

 

Ok, it's entirely possible I may have plugged my HD cable...into the wrong port. The motherboard port.


DON'T JUDGE ME. IT WAS NEW AND CONFUSING AT THE TIME.

 

Hahaha, yeah, setting up new computers is fun.

I also lol'd at Chime's completely useless post.

 

Actually, Chime's post was on track.

TWT's monitor was plugged into his integrated graphics port [ie. the motherboard], rather than the dedicated graphics card [660ti].

Chime guessed it was a hardware detection issue rather than a cabling one, but aside from that he was spot on. His primary guess at the reason for failure [ie. Skyrim was trying to use the integrated graphics] was correct.

 

I've never worked in customer service, but I've heard that the first rule is to make sure it's plugged in to the right socket. Always assume you've done something wrong before assuming it's broken.