Crashing to Desktop June 2025

Kissyalove14​  The first thing I'd like to see is 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.

Please also let me know what changes you've made, if any, to the game's program files, for example getting your graphics card recognized or editing an .ini file or adding the Smooth Patch or DXVK.  I'm not suggesting you do any of this, and in fact I would recommend not making any (more) changes until the game is stable, but I'd like to know its current state.

Separately, please test the game in a clean user folder, but specifically looking at RAM use.  Move or rename the existing Sims 3 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts so that the game is forced to generate a new one when you open the launcher.  You can change some graphics settings at the Main Menu if you want, but then quit to desktop before loading a new save.  Create that save in Sunset Valley; it's fine to pick some random premade household.

After about 20 sim-minutes, put the game in windowed mode (but don't minimize it), open the Task Manager, and see how much RAM the game is using.  If it's showing as a percent, right-click the Memory header and choose absolute values.  Write down the number, and go back to the game and play for let's say 12-16 sim-hours, then check RAM use again.  While playing, be sure to pan the camera over a few community lots or at least other households so the game has to load their data too, however briefly.

puzzlezaddict​  So I use window borderless gaming for windowed mode, I use the TS3 GPU addon to match my graphics card, set "seti texturememory" to 4096 & "CPUlevel" to 4/3/3/3 in the graphicsrules.sgr file. Yesterday, while I was deep down the rabbit hole, found DXVK by Criisolate. Installed that because I believe there was something going on with my GPU because it would stay at 90% with no other app open when I would load my save and move around just the home lot. Crashing was constant. My fps is set to 60hz through the Nvidia control panel and, now, DXVK. It hits 60hz pretty fast when loading my game, and hovers around 58-60hz before I open a save. Basically stays at 60hz the entire (short) session.

Last night, I created a new sims 3 doc folder, ran another clean game (no mods at all, not even Nraas or noIntro) in sunset valley with the Langrabs. Crashed to desktop in 15min. They were just in park swinging. Here is what Razor cortex reported for those sessions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oOJNoSpM1Ev-ljN0_ffoU4AykXASzhZ_z8VZdjPNY60/edit?usp=sharing

As i tried to work through this over at Nraas discussion/help boards, I had an idea about reshade. I had the modded version of reshade before my issues started - thought i fully uninstalled it when I installed reshade 6.1 which is the compatible version to DXVK (I didn't have any presets yet). I do think it did because each time I opened my game the maxis screen would lag as it constantly tried to compile all the files . So I fully uninstalled both (deleted any remnants) and was able to play a full day in the clean sims 3 folder (no mods at all, only DXVK) with the langraabs without crashing. Went to the park, movies, pool, overnight a burglar came, next morning Nancy went to work )overnight played 3x speed). Then I closed the game. RAM never went over 1.7. Here's what razor reported for fps for that session: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MSC3FWjmT8e5-nTRfSUnR2YF889g4BtGpWhoWSbCipA/edit?usp=sharing

However, I just tried to load my main sims 3 folder and it crashed in eight minutes. No movements around town just home lot. Here's that report (second picture): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MSC3FWjmT8e5-nTRfSUnR2YF889g4BtGpWhoWSbCipA/edit?usp=sharing

Kissyalove14​  It's definitely possible that you have multiple completely separate issues here.  Reshade was (probably) the reason the game crashed in a clean user folder, and there's also something in your main user folder that's a problem.  So now that the game is stable with no added content, you can start testing your old content in the new user folder.

Your CPU and GPU usage looks fine, by the way, a bit low but not necessarily in a problematic way.  I think it's clear that the crashing wasn't coming from your hardware.

I would start with testing your mods.  NRaas mods are likely fine, so try the rest in batches, and split and retest any batch that gives you trouble until you find the culprit.  Then move on to your custom content, and then transfer your saves.

I would also strongly suggest not merging mods at all, or downloading fresh copies if you've already merged some.  Having merged mods makes troubleshooting more complicated and can also sometimes break the mods.  On the flip side, you're not helping the game all that much by merging mods (as opposed to cc) until you get to such a high number of mods that you're likely to run into problems due to the sheer number.  Point is, there really isn't a safe zone where your mods collection is under control but you'd see a worthwhile improvement from merging them.

Custom content is a different matter, since collections can get relatively large without completely tanking game performance.  But I'd still keep the originals somewhere for those times when you need to track down bad cc, or a merged file appears to be corrupted, or you want to do a refresh without having to download everything from scratch.

puzzlezaddict​ Okay, I'm soo glad to hear there's nothing wrong with my actual system. Thank youu! Also, I never merge mods, only cc (hair, etc). But there's something in there that causes the problems even though I've checked all my merged cc file soo many times. I'm going to start with adding mods into the clean sims 3 folder starting with Nraas, and work my way through. Question though, would it be smart to test my cc unmerged? like in a batch of 50 single packages at a time? Or would that make the game run harder, reading every small single package? It would definitely add up eventually 

Kissyalove14​  I would always test .package files unmerged first.  A batch of 50-100 isn't going to drag down performance in a noticeable way, at least not when the individual files are fine.  And if you do see a problem, you'll want to be able to split and re-test without having to track down the original files.  I would only merge files once I'd confirmed they all worked separately.

And by testing, I don't just mean having them in your game, although that's a good place to start.  You can't really know whether a cc item is fine until you use it in-game and nothing bad happens.  That means placing objects and having sims wear any clothing or hair.

If you want to be thorough, I would also suggest allowing a baby to be born as you test, because some bad cc is fine until it sticks to a baby and gives it a Grim Reaper robe or a centaur body or whatever.  You can use NRaas MasterController's Instant Baby command, or have a test save where a sim is about to go into labor and play through until the baby is born and is confirmed to be intact.

For content that's already merged, you could test one merged file at a time as long as you were sure to test each and every item it contained, as in, placing the objects, and assigning the CAS parts and forcing sims to display them.  While it's better to test before merging, you might at least be able to find a single merged file that has a problem this way, and then only need to track down the originals from this file.