I'm currently unable to reach my awesome computer, but decided to try Skyrim on my single core machine. I have installed it, and when I first started it I got to the main menu where all the options (Continue, Load, and so on) are. The smoke was coming from the bottom of the screen and so forth. Then I remembered I wanted my saves, so I exited the game, put my save in the folder, then went back in. Now the menu won't show up, I only have the Imperial emblem on a black background, no smoke. I can't even alt+f4 or ctrl+alt+delete out of it. I've tried to take the save out, delete the two .ini's in the folder. But I can't think of anything. It's wierd that I got it to start up once but not again :/ Any help?
Hmmm. It sounds like you did what I'd have suggested i.e delete the .ini
I've not poked around in the Skyrim folders yet, since I haven't yet started on mods, but is it worth doing a search to see if you need to delete any more .ini files? A quick wildcard search on *.ini will show what you have on your machine. If I remember correctly, the one that always needed deleting in Oblivion was in the 'My Games' folder, not in the Oblivion folder.
Sorry not to be more helpful....
Turning off music can help with FPS, at least it did in Oblivion. You have to go into the config file to turn it off. Just lowering it I understand doesn't help. It is a shame to turn off the music as it is so great. Check the WIKI to see if there are any hints for lower end computers. I can play Skyrim on my laptop with poor graphics and sound but it will play with out problems.