Hello.
So, the problem I have is that Skyrim crashes quite frequently. It runs absolutely fine for some time, and then will freeze, I suppose? The frame rate seems to drop until nothing happens when I move my mouse, and the audio goes compeletely wrong; it kind of stutters and plays this sound that's difficult to describe. This seems to happen fairly randomly, although I can usually only play for about 20 minutes before it does. It doesn't always cause the crash straight away, either; sometimes it manages to recover for a bit before it completely shuts down. The only way to get out is ctrl+alt+delete; alt+tab, and the microsoft button stop working.

It happens both while I'm stood still just looking at stuff/strolling through the wilderness, and during fights; however the frame rate almost always consistently drops during fights (and the audio does the thing).

If I manage to exit skyrim, I have to restart my computer to get it functional again; there's just a massive delay on everything? If I move the mouse it takes a couple seconds for the monitor to show it; similarly with typing, there's a lag before the words show on screen. Just, everything is slower.
Also, for a few minutes after exiting skyrim, there's this weird screen flicker? You can see it most clearly looking at text; it's like tiny horizontal lines across the screen are displaced slightly from each other, if that makes sense?

I always thought mods were causing the problem but when I got ESO I had trouble with that too; at first it wouldn't work at all, so I contacted support. They managed to get it working, but the same issue ^ started happening. I emailed them about this, and (as far as I remember, I deleted the emails) I vaguely remember them saying something about my audio drivers being weird? They told me they were referring the case to a higher team, so I waited to be contacted, but never was. It was exam period for me so I wasn't playing ESO and my subscription ran out, so I didn't bother to contact them again.

I think there might be something wrong with the audio stuff too because Skyrim is really quiet; I have to crank up the volume way higher than for using any other program on the computer. I saw people with a similar problem on forums but the fix for that didn't really seem applicable to my problem.

EDIT; I found a good way to describe the noise from my speakers! It's like the noise you get when you only plug an audio jack in halfway. And it plays it stuttering for a bit and then just constantly until I manage to quit the game.

Here's some dxdiag I thought might be vaguely relevant? Not sure whether it will help but I'm just trying to provide as much info as possible:

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System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 6/10/2014, 19:21:00
Machine name: LAURA-PC
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600) (9600.winblue_gdr.140305-1710)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: 700-060ea
BIOS: 80.09
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16338MB RAM
Page File: 1816MB used, 14520MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.03.9600.16384 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 660
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1185&SUBSYS_6889103C&REV_A1
Display Memory: 4035 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1475 MB
Shared Memory: 2560 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic Non-PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: unknown
Monitor Id:
Native Mode: unknown
Output Type: HD15
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 9.18.0013.3523 (English)
Driver Version: 9.18.13.3523
DDI Version: 11
Feature Levels: 11.0,10.1,10.0,9.3,9.2,9.1
Driver Model: WDDM 1.3
Graphics Preemption: DMA
Compute Preemption: DMA
Miracast: Not Supported by Graphics driver
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Not Supported
Power P-states: Not Supported
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/4/2014 15:35:23, 17755424 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-52C5-11CF-4F7E-84481CC2C435}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x1185
SubSys ID: 0x6889103C
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Driver Strong Name: oem5.inf:0f066de3d3889a44:Section088:9.18.13.3523:pci\ven_10de&dev_1185&subsys_6889103c
Rank Of Driver: 00DA0001
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C ModeVC1_C ModeWMV9_C

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Speakers / Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_111D&DEV_76C7&SUBSYS_103C2AF3&REV_1001
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: stwrt64.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.6486.0000 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 5/2/2014 19:50:28, 550912 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: IDT
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX™ 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2™ Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura™ ZoomFX™: No

Description: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_111D&DEV_76C7&SUBSYS_103C2AF3&REV_1001
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: stwrt64.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.6486.0000 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 5/2/2014 19:50:28, 550912 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: IDT
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX™ 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2™ Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura™ ZoomFX™: No

There's also Nvidea audio stuff on my computer, not really sure what it is.
Oh, also, I can't open the Nvidea control panel, it just stops responding instantly and closes itself. So that might be an issue. Not sure.

Sorry about the wall of text. Please please help me sort this out; I've been wanting to play skyrim without restarting every 20 minutes for a long time now.

Have you done a virus/malware scan lately?

I'll run one now to be sure. I have Norton Gold (came with the PC) and use a private torrent site to do most downloading though so I think it's unlikely. But yeah, I'll do a scan now.

Also, I installed fraps and what seems to happen is the FPS starts at 60 for 5 minutes, then deteriorates to 30 for most of the time, but during fights it'll drop to between 7 and 20. And then it just slowly gets worse and worse both in and out of combat until it completely freezes up or I quit.
Still affects the rest of the computer after quitting though, even if I manage to get out before it freezes.

Have you tried playing Skyrim with Norton disabled? I've heard terrible things about Norton from IT professionals about how it often blocks more beneficial programs on your computer than harmful ones.

are you just shutting down the Program, or are you killing the process as well?

when your PC Starts to slow down significantly, check your Process List, is there anything using up a large amount of Memory? and if so what?

what Entreri said,

I used to work in the IT field, and have seen numerous issues with Norton in the past..

Norton was decent at one time, but it than just gets more and more troublesome over the years....