Forum Discussion

sims_e_c's avatar
sims_e_c
Not applicable
2 years ago
Solved

Game crashes a few minutes in

I recently installed Sims 3 on a new computer and applied the Alder Lake patch. First time I started the game I was able to play for a few game-days before it crashed; on subsequent attempts the game...
pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    2 years ago

    @sims_e_c  All of the crashes your dxdiag lists are of a component of the Windows sound software, with the faulting module being a component of DTS Sound.  So the problem may be that your sound setup doesn't get along with Sims 3, or that a driver is corrupt or needs to be updated, although the drivers are from October and should be fine in theory.

    Anyway, please unplug your headphones and your DAC, or just the DAC if everything else runs through it, restart your computer, and test the game again.  If you get another crash, or the intro is running slowly, please look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day.  Today is on the right.

    Look for an error that happened at exactly the time of the crash, or anything during the play session if it ran slowly.  If you find one, double-click it to see more details, then copy that info and paste it into a reply here.  If you don't see a new error, check back in an hour or so—the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away.

    Just for good measure, please also check whether Documents is directed to OneDrive.  Search in Windows for Command Prompt, open it, and enter this command:

    reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"

    This returns the location of the Documents directory.  If you see OneDrive in the path, that means OneDrive is involved and should probably be dealt with.  If the path is Users > your username > Documents, OneDrive is not a problem.

sims_e_c's avatar
sims_e_c
Not applicable
2 years ago

I updated Nvidia drivers on the evening of the 19th and that seemed to solve it temporarily, I was able to have some multi-hour play sessions without crashing. Now however the problem is back - both the crashing and the slow intro animation. I've attached the dxdiag. I'm using BitDefender for antivirus and OneDrive is running - I think? It shows up as a background process in the Task Manager, but nobody has ever connected to it on this computer AFAIK.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago

@sims_e_c  All of the crashes your dxdiag lists are of a component of the Windows sound software, with the faulting module being a component of DTS Sound.  So the problem may be that your sound setup doesn't get along with Sims 3, or that a driver is corrupt or needs to be updated, although the drivers are from October and should be fine in theory.

Anyway, please unplug your headphones and your DAC, or just the DAC if everything else runs through it, restart your computer, and test the game again.  If you get another crash, or the intro is running slowly, please look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day.  Today is on the right.

Look for an error that happened at exactly the time of the crash, or anything during the play session if it ran slowly.  If you find one, double-click it to see more details, then copy that info and paste it into a reply here.  If you don't see a new error, check back in an hour or so—the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away.

Just for good measure, please also check whether Documents is directed to OneDrive.  Search in Windows for Command Prompt, open it, and enter this command:

reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"

This returns the location of the Documents directory.  If you see OneDrive in the path, that means OneDrive is involved and should probably be dealt with.  If the path is Users > your username > Documents, OneDrive is not a problem.

  • sims_e_c's avatar
    sims_e_c
    Not applicable
    2 years ago

    Thanks, I think that did the trick - when the slow intro shows up I unplug and reconnect the DAC before restarting the game, and after that it runs smoothly and I've had no more crashes.

Featured Places

Recent Discussions