skyrim/le/ Does anyone play this game on Windows 10 64-bit

[Moricano]

My Skyrim LE version is SKSE 1.9.32.
The game ran perfectly when I played it on Windows 7 64-bit. Now I have a slightly more advanced PC—Windows 10 64-bit, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (which is a bit outdated now), and an SSD. I installed the game and the mods I’ve always used, but when I launch it, the game opens fine; however, right at the start, the cart, the horse, the guard, my character, and the three prisoners all start spinning uncontrollably.
I need a solution. Does anyone here use Windows 10 and manage to get that opening sequence to run perfectly when starting a new game? I’ve tried everything, and every time I test it, the same thing happens—everything goes haywire and flips over.
If anyone has a solution and could send me their SkyrimPrefs.ini file, I’d really appreciate it. I’ve wanted so badly to play this game with better graphics, and now that I have a decent PC, I can't even get things to move in a straight line.

[Kastagir]

 

3 hours ago, Moricano said:

The game ran perfectly when I played it on Windows 7 64-bit. 

You mean when you played through the intro?  How many mods did you have then?  And how many do you have now?
This has nothing to do with your Windows version.  You have too many mods installed.  The startup sequence may seem boring to you but the game is doing a great deal of work under the hood.  It is initializing scripts and quests, loading menus and animations, processing sequences of actor dialog and behavior on a level that isn't often encountered in the game.  The more mods you have installed the more instability this causes.  This is why saving your game before you've exited the cave under Helgen is a sure way to corrupt your save.  Your solutions are to either wait until you leave Helgen before installing/activating your larger mods or find a mod that allows you to skip the Helgen intro entirely.

[Taki17]

I used a setup not-to-dissimilar to yours (Win10, i7 4770k, GTX1060, SATA SSD) and the game can be made to run perfectly. Since then, I've transitioned to using Skyrim SE on this very same setup, however I ran Skyrim LE for a long enough time on this. The issue you are facing is most likely down to higher framerates, Skyrim can "technically" do above 60 frames per sec, but some parts go crazy - like physics, as you are experiencing.

 

First, check the framerate you are getting, and try to cap the game to 60 frames first, also make sure vsync is enabled (it should be by default). See if the issue with the physics going wild still persists, and we go from there if needed.

 

If you wanna run at higher frames unlocked, install this

 

Edited August 8 by Taki17

[Moricano]

On 8/8/2026 at 3:55 AM, Taki17 said:

I used a setup not-to-dissimilar to yours (Win10, i7 4770k, GTX1060, SATA SSD) and the game can be made to run perfectly. Since then, I've transitioned to using Skyrim SE on this very same setup, however I ran Skyrim LE for a long enough time on this. The issue you are facing is most likely down to higher framerates, Skyrim can "technically" do above 60 frames per sec, but some parts go crazy - like physics, as you are experiencing.

 

First, check the framerate you are getting, and try to cap the game to 60 frames first, also make sure vsync is enabled (it should be by default). See if the issue with the physics going wild still persists, and we go from there if needed.

 

If you wanna run at higher frames unlocked, install this

 

Thanks for your help, friend; I managed to get it running now.
Here are the steps I took:
I installed the latest driver version for my graphics card from the NVIDIA website.
As soon as the installation started, I clicked "Custom" and checked the "Clean install" box; this replaced the corrupted drivers with working ones.
I restarted my PC and opened the NVIDIA Control Panel.
On the left side, go to "Manage 3D settings." Once that opens, go to the "Program Settings" tab on the right, click "Add," browse to the game folder, and select the executable file. In my case, I always launch Skyrim via SKSE, so inside the folder, I selected `skse_loader.exe`. After selecting it, scroll down the list until you find "Max Frame Rate," turn it on, and slide the bar to 60 FPS; then click OK and Apply.
Next, go to the "Vertical sync" setting above that and set it to "On"—click Apply and restart your PC.
That's it; the game will now launch without any issues, and the frame rate will never exceed 60 FPS. It took me a while to find this solution on my own, as I thought it might take a long time to get an answer here... The game is running at my monitor's native resolution of 1440x900, and I'm very happy with the result. I used to play the LE version on Windows 7 64-bit without any problems, but this is my first time running it on Windows 10.
Thanks to you and everyone else for your help, and sorry for my poor English—I'm from Brazil, so my native language is Portuguese... Cheers!

[Moricano]

On 8/8/2026 at 2:26 AM, Kastagir said:

 

You mean when you played through the intro?  How many mods did you have then?  And how many do you have now?
This has nothing to do with your Windows version.  You have too many mods installed.  The startup sequence may seem boring to you but the game is doing a great deal of work under the hood.  It is initializing scripts and quests, loading menus and animations, processing sequences of actor dialog and behavior on a level that isn't often encountered in the game.  The more mods you have installed the more instability this causes.  This is why saving your game before you've exited the cave under Helgen is a sure way to corrupt your save.  Your solutions are to either wait until you leave Helgen before installing/activating your larger mods or find a mod that allows you to skip the Helgen intro entirely.

Whether you have 1 mod or 80 at the start of the game makes no difference.
Back on Windows 7 (64-bit) with a much weaker graphics card, I used to start a new game to create my character without ever experiencing lag—even with 83 mods installed and only 4GB of RAM. I never had the issues I was seeing on Windows 10.
The problem here was that the frame rate was exceeding 60 FPS.
Once I capped the frame rate at 60 FPS in the NVIDIA Control Panel (under "Max Frame Rate") and enabled V-Sync—after adding the game to the program list—everything stabilized. The issue I mentioned happened because the frame rate was going above 60 FPS; the PC I'm using now has 16GB of RAM and a graphics card that, while older, is very powerful for this game... Anyway, the main thing is that I managed to stabilize the frame rate at 60.

[belegost]

I have almost exactly the same setup as yours on my old machine, down to exact GFX card. Plus a 3rd gen i5. And my Win10 is actually a Win7 upgraded in 2022 through that MS freebie program, with original installation date of 2012 on some system files and a registry that's full of junk from all those years of heavy use.

 

Except I play SE (1.5.97) not LE or AE.

 

It runs fine, though there are two caveats: the game launch takes anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes and the entire machine works as backup heater during winters when it's below zero. I don't even bother turning it on with temperatures above 30C in summer. Had to actually redo the thermal paste two years ago since the origial coating crumbled away. But "it just works (tm)". I have around 300 mods and 200+ plugins. A huge portion of those are SexLab mods. 

Edited August 9 by belegost

[belegost]

On 8/8/2026 at 4:25 AM, Moricano said:

right at the start, the cart, the horse, the guard, my character, and the three prisoners all start spinning uncontrollably

Get rid of LOTD if you have it installed. This is what causes it. Or get LAL or similar alternate start mod and don't use vanilla option. 

Edited August 9 by belegost

[Moricano]

On 8/9/2026 at 9:28 AM, belegost said:

Get rid of LOTD if you have it installed. This is what causes it. Or get LAL or similar alternate start mod and don't use vanilla option. 

I've already sorted it out; thanks for the suggestion.

[belegost]

On 8/8/2026 at 7:26 AM, Kastagir said:

You have too many mods

What is this heresy? There is no such thing as "too many mods".

[Moricano]

14 hours ago, belegost said:

What is this heresy? There is no such thing as "too many mods".

I agree; I always used around 80–85 mods—even back on Windows 7 64-bit with just 4GB of RAM—and it ran smoothly with zero lag, and the animations worked perfectly. The issue I originally mentioned was that I hadn't capped the FPS at 60. Once I went into the NVIDIA Control Panel, added the game, and locked the FPS to 60, the problem with the cart spinning wildly like a top at the start of the game went away—lol. The animation played perfectly without any lag. On my current machine, I'm running Windows 10 64-bit with 16GB of RAM and a great graphics card; going through doors is instantaneous, and I'm using an SSD instead of an HDD. The graphics are perfect with everything set to Ultra.

 

 

 

[belegost]

22 hours ago, Moricano said:

I always used around 80–85 mods