Hi all, I just purchased a new pc. First new one in 11 years. I did a digital install of all my games ( since the pc tower doesn't have a disk drive ). But I am having a problem. The game will load a new town / save. Then a few moments into it, crash to the desktop.I enabled V-sync for the sims 3 in my nvidia controller. I set up the options in the game and made sure that it isn't running any fps higher than my monitor can handle. I downloaded and updated my windows 10 and my graphics card drivers.I went through and enabled the game to recognize my graphics card. It shows in the device configuration log that it is found and matched. I am working off a brand new game and all new folders. The new pc wouldn't recognize my store DCCache. So I redownloaded and installed everything. Tha game currently has sims 3 store items installed only. No CC. I click on new save. Then choose a random town. Then a few minutes into it, crash to desktop.I have no mods currently installed. I am running out of things to trouble shoot. I am a windows 10 newbie. My old pc was a windows 8.1. Anyway, does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I would really like to play my game again. It has been years since I have been able to.

Do a repair of the gameReinstall VC++ 2005 x86Reinstall DirectXYou say you went through and enabled game to recognize your graphics card - you don't need to do that anymore. I don't know why this myth keeps persisting.An update years ago meant that if your graphics card isn't listed the game will automatically assume it's newer/better and default to high settings. You may have corrupted something changing that file, a wrong ' or > anywhere. So definitely do a repair on your game first through origin.Let us know if it's still crashing after doing the above

I have never heard it said that formal graphics card recognition is no longer a thing or is somehow mythical. I'm sorry, but for TS3 that is not true and there hasn't been a meaningful update (patch) to the game since Jan 2014. The 1.69 Origin tie-in patch doesn't really count as meaningful in this context. But formal card recognition isn't known to help with a game that is crashing either, what that does is help assign a better set of defaults, in certain circumstances such as if and when to send inactive sims to populate community lots it will help the game react better because there is no need to throttle these functions on higher end hardware, and in some small ways it may help the card perform better than when remaining unrecognized. The 32 MB texture memory override should also be looked for and taken care of if it is showing up on the DeviceConfig log, as that is totally not necessary on higher end cards either. Which card do you have, by the way? And how are you doing on hard drive space? Which worlds are you testing with -- Isla Paradiso and Bridgeport should be avoided for such testing as those worlds have some special issues of their own that can be dealt with once the game is running in a more stable manner. Some good choices for testing would be Sunset Valley or Twinbrook (if you have Ambitions). Or Riverview, if you have that.Although you already have a new TS3 user game folder, you may want to try pulling it out now and try a test game on the next new no-content folder that will spawn to take its place. And you are certain that with the fps on cheat code, or by whatever other means you have, that your game's fps rate is still staying within range and that nothing has changed there?If all else fails though, you may wish to cross-post on the TS3 Answers.HQ board. There are helpers there who might ask for some Windows crash logs and other diagnostics and who can better help pinpoint why the game is crashing on you when it sounds like it shouldn't be and whether some very recent Win 10 updates have been known or proven to cause these issues.

"Cororon;c-17825936" wrote:Have you disabled the Game Bar in Windows 10? Go to Settings -> Gaming -> Game Bar and turn it off. You don't need it and it it known to cause problems with some games.Good point. So do GeForce Experience's Optimize function, and in fact running the game in full-screen mode for some players on current Win 10 builds. I forgot to mention the latter -- does the game behave any better in windowed mode?Edit: Also, how about if you play offline, meaning not logged in at all at the Launcher level or in-game? The online "features" of TS3 that require the game to keep "phoning home" during gameplay can make game sessions less than stable. Any better?

"McTosh;c-17826300" wrote:"igazor;c-17825944" wrote:I have never heard it said that formal graphics card recognition is no longer a thing or is somehow mythical. I'm sorry, but for TS3 that is not true and there hasn't been a meaningful update (patch) to the game since Jan 2014. The 1.69 Origin tie-in patch doesn't really count as meaningful in this context. .It's true. I never edit that file, haven't done in many years. The first time you boot up the sims it tells you its self "your graphics card is newer than the ones listed so you've been defaulted to high settings". That's the first pop-up you see. The need to manually add your GPU thing is a myth, it's just not how it works. The game automatically assumes your GPU is better than the last one listed.I do remember needing to edit that file at one point, but it was so long ago I can't remember when exactly it changed. Many, many years.I'm glad that you got such good results with an unrecognized card, that's probably more along the lines of as it should be.But for most players, it just doesn't work that way. I don't want to discourage any energy for sharing helpful things with other players and you do have a lot of great things to share. But I'm sorry, for most players on modern hardware this one item is just not correct. Formal recognition doesn't solve much, it's not entirely necessary in most cases although the sometimes related texture memory override fix is known to be very helpful. But it is still very much a thing that players wish to address so they can at least rule it out as a possible cause for other issues, as they arise.

I bought a new PC a few months ago, my card is a GeForce 2070 S and I had to go through the entire usual rigmarole of editing my Graphics files and what not to get my card recognised. My game set everything at the lowest possible setting before I did that, because it claimed I was using an unrecognised card. It isn't a myth, this still happens.Because it defaults to high settings for one individual doesn't always mean that it will for everyone else. I would always recommend to all new or returning players to take the time to go through their graphic settings and allow the game to recognise their hardware, even if it is a few extra steps. I am using the disc version and not origin and I honestly suspect that a lot of the time, Origin is the cause of some annoying issues. I didn't know about the game bar @Cororon , thanks for that tip I'm going to go and look at it now.

New Pc & Sims 3 crashing to desktop

20 Replies

DestinysEcho
Rising Scout
5 years ago
Thanks for all the tips! I really appreciate it.

I only have 1 other game installed, but it isn't anything graphic intensive. The game isn't crashing at all.

For the sims 3, I tested in mostly riverview and in twinbrook.

I did test the fps with fps on. The game was staying within my monitor's range.

Thanks for the tip about the game mode for windows 10. I just looked that up and see that it is causing crashing for a lot of different games. I just turned it off and will see if that helps.

I am playing the digital versions through origin since my tower doesn't have any cd/dv drive ports. I will disable the origin overlay and try playing in offline mode.

Thanks again for all the tips. I really do appreciate how wonderful this community is.
DestinysEcho
Rising Scout
5 years ago
Ok I did everything suggested. I even installed nraas error trap mod so see if that could help. I started up the game and played for about 20 minutes. My sim was at a community lot and crash to desktop.

I checked the file created by the error log mod. It said....
date: 2021-03-08
time: 01.18.43
type: BREAKPOINT

Does anyone know what that means?

Thanks!!
Cororon
Rising Traveler
5 years ago
Can you post the whole crash log?

And you can try this Crash Log Analyzer program to see what it has to say: https://modthesims.info/d/580022/sims-3-crash-log-analyzer-version-1-69-compatible-updated.html
Cororon
Rising Traveler
5 years ago
I wonder if the problem could have something to do with OneDrive? If I remember correctly, if OneDrive is active in Windows 10 and the game has been installed there as well, then maybe when you start the game it loads from the OneDrive cloud instead of from your PC then it's too slow to read the data so it gives up and crashes the game. Just a thought.

A friend had problems with Sims 3 and her new Windows 10 PC and OneDrive. I didn't, because I had turned OneDrive off right from the start.
ZombiePary
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I googled that error, but only found instances relating to Sims 4 and a few other games. It appears to be a Windows issue. Some say it is memory management, or allocating resources, another said it could be a registry problem and to clean out all temporary files and registry using CCleaner, uninstalling and then reinstalling fresh.

I'm not recommending the OP do any of these things, simply that I can only find references to this error that aren't Sims 3 related, but are related to other games.

Edit - Wait, there is a TS3 thread here about it - https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/706642/what-does-break-point-error-mean
Marinuttonen
5 years ago
Did you change the texture memory the game can use? My game kept crashing until I gave the game more of that, after doing it, no more crashes!
Cororon
Rising Traveler
5 years ago
"piddlesim;c-17827415" wrote:
Thanks again for all the tips. I really do appreciate how wonderful this community is.

:) Yeah! For many simmers the game is almost as important as eating or drinking, so we don't want other simmers to suffer! Empathy, empathy, empaty! :heart:

"Pary;c-17827553" wrote:
I googled that error, but only found instances relating to Sims 4 and a few other games. It appears to be a Windows issue. Some say it is memory management, or allocating resources, another said it could be a registry problem and to clean out all temporary files and registry using CCleaner, uninstalling and then reinstalling fresh.

CCleaner can be dangerous to use as it can list files it thinks are redundant and not needed, while in fact they are important for either Windows or applications. CCleaner can be good if you know what you are doing, so you can uncheck certain files before you delete.
ZombiePary
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I've never had an issue with it myself, but as I wrote, I wasn't recommending the OP do any of that stuff, only just repeating what I'd seen written elsewhere about that error.
Fiddling with the registry can be a bit iffy if you don't know what you're doing, but I've found that CCleaner seems to be a lot more conservative in its usage that something like RegEdit, in which you tick or untick reg entries, that aren't always obvious what they're for. I've never had to tick anything or untick anything with CCleaner before, everything is automatic.
Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

Anyhow, as for the Breakpoint problem, until now, I'd never even heard of it before, and can only find two or three threads about it on this particular forum and all from years ago.
Cororon
Rising Traveler
5 years ago
"Pary;c-17828002" wrote:
I've never had an issue with it myself, but as I wrote, I wasn't recommending the OP do any of that stuff, only just repeating what I'd seen written elsewhere about that error.
Fiddling with the registry can be a bit iffy if you don't know what you're doing, but I've found that CCleaner seems to be a lot more conservative in its usage that something like RegEdit, in which you tick or untick reg entries, that aren't always obvious what they're for. I've never had to tick anything or untick anything with CCleaner before, everything is automatic.
Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

I know you didn't recommend it, you said that yourself, but I thought it's best to post a warning because lots of people are reading this forum and might not have experience with the registry and CCleaner. :smile:

It's been a while since I used CCleaner. I had it on my old PC and I think I did change the settings so it only did what I wanted it to and showed me what it found before I could choose to delete. CCleaner can also backup the files you delete and you should always let it do that in case something goes wrong. It may take days, weeks or months before you get problems.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
5 years ago
A breakpoint error can be caused by any number of underlying issues, although the most common are problems with a driver (usually a graphics driver) or the registry. Still, it's often about eliminating potential causes one at a time until something happens to help.

@piddlesim If you're still getting crashes, a dxdiag would be the place to start; there's only so much people can suggest without more info. Just as one example, there were scattered reports of issues with the January Nvidia graphics driver in certain older games when v-sync was enabled. But that wouldn't apply if you didn't have that particular driver installed, and it would be unhelpful to blindly suggest that you update your GPU driver or even do a clean uninstall and reinstall.

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