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Geminiagre's avatar
Geminiagre
Seasoned Ace
16 years ago

CAW crashing on high end computers? Solution now obsolete,latest CAW has it active by default

Well I had this issue since forever. I couldn't play around CAW for more than 5 mins. I also had a similar problem with the game. The game would exit to desktop with no warning at all. The only diff is that CAW was givning me an error about corrupted memory or something. The workaround for the game itself is everywere from here to MTS, so i'm not going to get into details for that.

Well since the CAW was giving me a memory error , i figured to try the same thing that fixes the game. And gues what... It works like a charm. CAW apparently , as the game did, cannot recognise my 8Gigs of ram.... Step by step now

1. Download and install CFF Explorer: http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php
2. Go to : C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create a World Tool and find the CAW.exe file and copy it somewere safe .This is your backup.
3.Run CFF explorer as administrator(right click on it, don't double click)

4.File>Open and navigate to the adress above and select the CAW.exe file
5.Click on File Header at the left, find characteristics at the right and click the "Click here" blue button.

6.Tick "App can handle >2GB address space
7.Ok that and save by clicking the disk icon or going to FILE >> SAVE
8.Overwrite the file when it asks you to.

DONE!Now your CAW will not crash any more

Don't forget that you need to do this everytime you download CAW after a patch of EP/SP installation

Many thanks to MTS for the original tutorial for the same game issue

UPDATE:
CAW.exe file can be found here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Create A World Tool


IMPORTANT NOTE: Be aware that after pets and pets patch. CAW is crashing more often, especially when painting, even if you have used this fix. At least with the fix it will not crash ALL the time. Just remeber to save regularly when painting.

26 Replies

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  • Thank you so much for sharing this info. I didn't think there was hope for me getting CAW to function long enough to create anything, even after I got a newer much better PC! This solution seems to have worked for me. Though now I've probably jinxed it for myself :? At least I have hope for building my world now!
  • kmce wrote:
    IS IT THE caw.exe that i copied that i change or the original caw.exe


    the copied one is your backup, you change the original one.

    Offinlalaland wrote:
    i did what you said but mine still crashes whenever i try to save a lot.
    its says caw.exe has stopped working it gives me the option to close or debug both of which close the whole thing


    This is a completely different issue. I have no idea how to help you with that.

    SimsAddict8 wrote:
    I ran it as administrator but it won't let me save original file

    If you are sure that you run it as administrator, it should let you ovewrite the original file.
    If it still doesn't , i have no idea what's up with that. There is a chance that if you are not loggged in as administrator on the computer itself that you might not have enough privileges to do that. However I'm not sure if in that case that option would come up at all
  • @geminiagre - I know you've been helping quite a few people with the link for the explorer suite. However, I just right-clicked (and normal clicked) on that executable file, and an error message just popped up: The setup files are corrupted. Please obtain a new copy of the program.

    I don;t have a high end laptop, but I've also recently been getting the SAME CAW error that everyone else has been getting. But since I can't even install the Explorer Suite, what can *I* do to stop having the CAW from crashing on me?


    (and Rflong.... if you happen to see this, can *you* help me??)
  • Step 4...I'm very confused...theres a file I found called CAW.exe.config is that it?
    Step 5...I cant find file header...

    MESSAGE ME ON MY PAGE
  • I just re-downloaded CAW after a long time , and as i was trying to do this little trick, I noticed that it is now activated by default. No idea how long back they fixed this, but this solution is now obsolete with newer versions of CAW

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