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dd714a2753aba372's avatar
dd714a2753aba372
Rising Novice
22 days ago
Solved

Game crashing randomly

I have recently purchased a new laptop and reinstalled TS3 on this from my old discs. The game itself runs beautifully, loads quickly, no lag, great graphics. However, it will crash for seemingly no reason at some point in every single game and I cannot fathom why. There's no error message, it will just crash to desktop.

Things I have tried so far, in no particular order:-

  • Reinstalling the game completely
  • Removing my entire mods folder to play a vanilla game
  • Starting a new game in Sunset Valley to test
  • Applied the Alder Lake patch (Lazy Duchess)
  • Applied the Smooth patch (Lazy Duchess)
  • Limited FPS to 60
  • Lowered game graphics
  • Applied the GPU Mod (from Nexus Mods)
  • Applied a 4GB patch
  • Running the game as an administrator
  • Running the game in Windows 8 (and then 7) compatibility mode
  • Ensured Windows is up-to-date
  • Ensured my graphics driver is up-to-date

The issue persists. The only thing that possibly seemed to improve the matter is trying the brand new Sunset Valley save, as I was able to play this for far longer without a crash than previously (a couple of hours versus 20 - 30 minutes).

The only pattern I can discern is that the crashes seem to happen in world view.

Is there anything left I can try?!

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

DxDiag attached.

crashing
gameplay issue
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    14 days ago

    dd714a2753aba372​  This is an access violation, too generic to be of any use on its own.  So the context matters more here: what was happening at the time of the crash?  If your sims were doing anything in particular that can sometimes trigger a crash, I'd like to know.  (For example, I once had a crash every time I sent my sims to the hospital for a birth, until I reset the hospital lot.)

    Separately, I should have asked before, but since this is a disc install, what patch level do you see in the lower-left corner of the launcher?  Did you run the Super Patch at any point, or did you let the launcher update the game for you?

9 Replies

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    21 days ago

    dd714a2753aba372​  Thanks for the dxdiag.  Some of the crashes it lists are from a component of Killer Networks Services, so try ending any Killer-related processes in the Task Manager before you play.

    If that doesn't help, try playing with your computer offline.  You can sign into the EA App and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable before pressing Play.  Even if you wouldn't want to play like this in general, it's a useful test.

    Please also remove any compatibility mode you're currently using.  And if you tried to patch the game to use 4 GB by editing a file, undo the edit.  Sims 3 has been large-address aware since 2010.  The advice to make the game use more RAM is both inaccurate and possibly harmful, and it's a rumor that should have died off years ago.

  • dd714a2753aba372's avatar
    dd714a2753aba372
    Rising Novice
    21 days ago

    Thanks so much for your reply! I was getting desperate when I started trying compatibility mode etc.!

    I did wonder if it was a CPU issue, so interesting about Killer Network Services.

    And I've got no problem with disconnecting from the WiFi before playing, so if it works I'd happily play this way.

    I'll give those all a go and report back! 

  • dd714a2753aba372's avatar
    dd714a2753aba372
    Rising Novice
    16 days ago

    I followed all of your above advice and I've been able to play my Aurora Skies save for a couple of hours today and no crashes! Previously this was crashing after 20-30 minutes, so the issue is either resolved or massively improved; either way, I'm very happy.

    Thanks so much!

    Edit: it did actually crash about 40 minutes after I posted this, but nonetheless still an improvement!

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    16 days ago

    dd714a2753aba372​  I'm glad to hear that the game is running better, at least.  If you'd like to troubleshoot further, please look for an associated error 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 your most recent Sims 3 crash.  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.

  • dd714a2753aba372's avatar
    dd714a2753aba372
    Rising Novice
    15 days ago

    Thanks! This is the error from the latest crash:

    Description
    Faulting Application Path:    C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3W.exe

    Problem signature
    Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
    Application Name:    TS3W.exe
    Application Version:    0.2.0.199
    Application Timestamp:    52393598
    Fault Module Name:    TS3W.exe
    Fault Module Version:    0.2.0.199
    Fault Module Timestamp:    52393598
    Exception Code:    c0000005
    Exception Offset:    001ec231
    OS Version:    10.0.26100.2.0.0.768.101
    Locale ID:    2057
    Additional Information 1:    a89c
    Additional Information 2:    a89cbad0343d4637e5843732a061706b
    Additional Information 3:    f6a7
    Additional Information 4:    f6a717bca780f9dcffee1ab01baffed7

    Extra information about the problem
    Bucket ID:    6b91f7c4888fcf1097fe5b770596c123 (74002703691)

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    14 days ago

    dd714a2753aba372​  This is an access violation, too generic to be of any use on its own.  So the context matters more here: what was happening at the time of the crash?  If your sims were doing anything in particular that can sometimes trigger a crash, I'd like to know.  (For example, I once had a crash every time I sent my sims to the hospital for a birth, until I reset the hospital lot.)

    Separately, I should have asked before, but since this is a disc install, what patch level do you see in the lower-left corner of the launcher?  Did you run the Super Patch at any point, or did you let the launcher update the game for you?

  • dd714a2753aba372's avatar
    dd714a2753aba372
    Rising Novice
    9 days ago

    I let the launcher update the game....I didn't even think to check this before but it's 1.62. I'm about to run the Super Patch. I can't believe I missed this! I feel like such an idiot for not picking up on it sooner after all my troubleshooting so far! I'll let you know how updating the game to 1.67 goes; I wonder if this might resolve the issue!

    At the time of the crash I was just in map view. I'd say about 90% of the crashes I've had have been in map view, not specifically accessing anything. There have been a couple from the home lot.

  • dd714a2753aba372's avatar
    dd714a2753aba372
    Rising Novice
    9 days ago

    This was the solution! I have been able to play for hours today since running the Super Patch to update to 1.67 and no crashing at all. I still can't believe I didn't clock it before!

    Thank you so much for all your help and pointing out the absolute obvious that I really should have noticed before!

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    8 days ago

    dd714a2753aba372​  I'm glad to hear it, and I wish I'd asked right away so you hadn't needed to do all that other troubleshooting.  The errors in the dxdiag were clear and should have been addressed anyway, but still, it would have been nice to have an answer right away.

    Thanks for letting me know everything worked out.

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