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Simmer2500's avatar
Simmer2500
Seasoned Newcomer
1 day ago

Crashing and Freezing Problem

First off, I have recently come back to the Sims 3 game after a very long hiatus. I haven't been back to playing very long yet and I also recently got a new computer back in June. It's an HP all-in-one computer and my Sims 3 game has been working fine on the new computer. However, my game started crashing on me last night and froze once. I was trying to send one of my Sims to the Sims University. He left and it was loading to the University neighborhood and then it just suddenly crashed before it got to the University neighborhood. I had saved the game before I sent him to the University, so it just went back to the save from just before I told him to go to University. I went back into the game and I had noticed earlier on when I was playing that day that there was this weird black oval shape on the carpet in my Sims family's house in the living room. The Sims could not walk on that spot and that part of the carpet could not be selected. I wasn't sure what it was, but I figured it was probably some kind of glitch. I hadn't done anything about it before I sent my Sim to the University, so I wondered if this might have had anything to do with my game crashing. So, I used the cheat code moveobjects on and went into the buy mode and was able to select the weird black oval and deleted it. It turned out to be one of those social jig things. I turned off moveobjects code and tried again to send my Sim to University. Unfortunately, the game crashed again before it loaded to the University neighborhood. So, the social jig thing didn't seem to be what caused the game to crash or at least not the main thing. I tried a few times to send my Sim to University and every time the game kept crashing. I decided to wait a little bit before I tried again since my game had already crashed a few times.

The game seemed fine until I went into one of my Sims's inventory and tried to move something and then my game just suddenly froze. I waited a while and it wasn't unfreezing. There were a couple animations still going in the background, but the game was locked up. I didn't know what to do to get out of a frozen up game, so I looked up what to do if my game crashed or freezed while playing it. It said to do control, alt, delete on the keyboard and and then go into the task manager and tell it to exit out of the game. I was able exit of out my frozen Sims 3 game. I also, read that it was suggested to clear a few cache files from the program files before launching the game. I did that also and I have done this before, but it was a very long time ago with a different saved game. The other thing that I read that was suggested to do was to limit the frame rate in the graphic card settings to match the monitor's  refresh rate because an uncapped frame rate could cause crashing. I have never looked at this setting on the graphic card or tried to adjust it before. If anyone one has adjusted this setting, how did you do that and what do you suggest setting it at if I were to adjust it? Or do you suggest leaving this setting alone and hope that clearing those cache files was what needed to be done to fix this crashing and freezing problem? I haven't gone back into the game yet to see if it is working better yet, but does anyone have any other suggestions of what to do if it should happen that my game keeps crashing or freezing even after already trying a couple things?

pc

5 Replies

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    1 day ago

    Simmer2500​  Do you use mods, or would you be willing to add a few?  There are some that help with the travel transition and general data cleanup that may be useful here.

    Please also let me know whether you've successfully loaded the University world in this save, and if so, whether you would like to keep the progress in that world or wouldn't mind starting fresh there.  (This isn't about the homeworld in this save, just the University world.)

    As for limiting your in-game framerates, whether this is necessary depends on your computer's graphics processor.  Some all-in-ones have a discrete GPU, but most don't, and the ones that don't probably don't need fps limited, although it wouldn't hurt.

    If you don't know what GPU your computer has, please provide a dxdiag.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

  • Simmer2500's avatar
    Simmer2500
    Seasoned Newcomer
    1 day ago

    I don't use modes in my game and I would rather not use them in my game. I haven't previously had any trouble loading and playing in the University neighbor hood other than this one incident of crashing I had last time I played my game when I was trying to send my Sim to the University. My Sim never reached the University neighborhood because the game kept crashing before it all the way loaded to it. I don't have any other Sims currently in the University neighborhood, so I don't know that there is really anything to start over in the University neighborhood. Next time I go into my game I will try again to send my Sim to the University and hope that it doesn't crash again anymore.

    I would have give you the GPU info, but I don't understand how to open that window to type the dxiag into it. Do you mean just pressing R on my keyboard or a dash and an R because it doesn't do anything when I do either of that.

  • Simmer2500's avatar
    Simmer2500
    Seasoned Newcomer
    22 hours ago

    oh, okay thanks. I didn't realize I had to press the windows key first. I figured it out now. Here is the dxiag info. for my computer. I have no idea what part of the info. is about the GPU, but if you could look at it and let me know if it looks good or if you think there is any need to adjust the frame rate or not that would be good.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    20 hours ago

    Simmer2500​  You don't need to limit your framerates on this computer.  The GPU is under Display Devices, near the top of the dxdiag:

    ---------------
    Display Devices
    ---------------
    Card name: Intel(R) UHD Graphics

    "UHD Graphics" is a category, not a specific GPU, but it's a group of graphics chips integrated into the general processor (the CPU) rather than a dedicated chip just for graphics.  As such, the iGPU can't really generate framerates high enough to be problematic.

    You can still limit fps if you'd like:  try enabling vertical sync in the Intel graphics command center, whatever they're calling it these days.  I'm not sure exactly what yours will look like since HP provides the software, but look under My Games, add Sims 3 (TS3.exe for an EA App install, or TS3W.exe, with the W, for a disc or Steam install) if necessary, and set vertical sync to On or Adaptive.  Either one will cap framerates to 60 Hz, the refresh rate of your screen.

    Since you don't want to use mods, the best you can do with the travel transition is to lower the stress on the game engine as much as possible:

    • Empty out your sim's inventory as much as is reasonable.  Having a few items is fine, but not much more.
    • Save the game immediately before you want your sim to travel.
    • Exit to the Main Menu and lower all the graphics settings to the minimum.  Turn off the in-game shopping experience and the interactive loading screens as well, then quit to desktop.
    • Delete the five cache files in your user folder: CASPartCache, compositorCache, scriptCache, simCompositorCache, socialCache.
    • Take your computer completely offline.  If you play through the EA App, you can sign in and put it in offline mode before launching Sims 3.
    • Load the game, and once the clock has run for a few sim-minutes, send your sims traveling right away.
    • Once they arrive in their destination, use "save as" to rename the save, then quit.  If you want, you can first exit to the Main Menu and raise the graphics settings again, but be sure to quit to desktop before reloading the save.


    Regardless of how you proceed, it's a good idea to use "save as" to rename the save before traveling, so you have the original as backup should you need it again.  There's always a chance your sim gets stuck at University, with the game refusing to load the homeworld just as it's refusing to load the University world now.  So this way, you can revert to the backup if necessary, and all you'll lose is the time you spent playing through the term.

    Any time the game crashes, make sure to empty out the CurrentGame folder in the Sims 3 user folder as well.  This should always be empty unless you have a save loaded, but it doesn't get cleared after a crash.

    I can also see from your dxdiag that your computer's page file is a bit small, and you have space to increase it.  So if traveling still doesn't work, let me know and we can free up some more system resources.

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