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Maninha's avatar
Maninha
Seasoned Novice
6 months ago
Solved

New pc and many TS3 crashes

Hi! I used to play The Sims 3 - for long time - in an old and weak laptop (i3, 8gb ram, integrated video card), but the game used to run very well, without memory issues, even with all changes I've ...
pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    6 months ago

    @Maninha  Sims 3 usually cannot "see" the video memory of a newer graphics card.  So it thinks the card has zero VRAM and assigns as 32 MB override.  This is listed as "texture memory" in DeviceConfig.  You can easily edit GraphicsRules.sgr to fix this, and it's fine to do so.  My point was that this is the actual problem, not something else buried in the game files.

    The errors in your dxdiag are very clear in that the game crashed because of a fault with the graphics driver.  However, that doesn't always mean the driver itself is the problem.  It could be bad cc, for example, or a system resource that uses the driver incorrectly.  Still, when we see an error like that, step one is to DDU and reinstall the driver.  When that doesn't help, we look elsewhere, and in your case, it sounds like bad cc could easily be the issue.  And since you've already tried DDU multiple times AND tested a new save without issues, it's reasonably clear that the driver is fine.

    And that's sweet of you to say.  I try to do what I can.

Maninha's avatar
Maninha
Seasoned Novice
6 months ago

@puzzlezaddict - Hello!  I'm on pc now. Just ran dxdiag to send it to you.  About 1h ago I ran the game but 2min after it crashed to desktop.  In my Documents/ElectronicArts folder there's a ''xcpt'' file about the crash (breakpoint). I've read it trying to understand what the heck is going on, and I think it's something related to ''Windows Photos'' (because I took some shots of the game yesterday and was seeing them -  the game wasn't running yet - but the program ''windows photos'' kept running after I started the game...I just think it's the issue...). If you don't mind, I'll attach ''xcpt'' here and the ''dxdiag''. 

About TS3 memory usage: I always check task manager to see TS3 memory usage and the higher I've seen lately was 2.240gb while running the game. 

I don't know whether it can be relevant, but I've made few changes in Sims3.ini file according to a trustful youtuber.  The default ''texture memory'' is 2048. I downloaded a program called ''vramsizetest'' and its result was something like 9000mb but I felt unsure to set so high number then I set it to 6144mb. So in my deviceconfig it's 6144 to texture memory. I haven't changed everything that youtuber suggests because I'm not sure if my machine supports all those changes.  And I just remembered I've also ran ''TS3 RAM Editor by Alpha1295-Nexus'' that limits the game to use 4gb of ram.

I don't know if something of my windows is eating memory while I play the game... I'm used to close all programs/tasks that I can before running the game.  Normally my game starts with the OS memory usage of 9%... and I'm always checking the ''mem reduct'' to see OS usage and refresh the memory - back to 9%.

About ''page files'' -> I've tried to leave it in all the possible ways:  ''managed by windows'' (game crashed), ''no page files'' (game crashed), ''recommended limit'' (game crashed) and the best way until now was setting it to ''minimum 16.384gb and maximum 24.576gb.

Well, I hope I haven't forgotten any other details to give you as for you to help me to fix this annoyance. 

Please, let me know if you received the attached files (deviceconfig.log, dxdiag, xcpt.txt)

Thank you so much! <3

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 months ago

@Maninha  First, the easy parts.  A Sims 3 crash log is mostly useless, but it does have one helpful feature:

Total physical memory: 13234 Mb
Available physical memory: 9796 Mb
Total page file memory: 29618 Mb
Available page file memory: 23485 Mb
Total virtual memory: 4095 Mb
Free virtual memory: 1789 Mb

This is a report of the RAM use, from the game and overall, at the time of the crash.  You can see that there was more than enough physical memory available for the game plus a buffer (9796 is far more than 4096), and that the "free virtual memory," which is how the game reports its own memory use, is nowhere near the limit.  Anything above 500 MB means the crash was likely not memory-related.

Please repair the game in the EA App (Sims 3 > Manage > Repair) to undo the changes you've made to the .ini file and anything else.  There is, somewhat surprisingly, a lot of misinformation still floating around about which values in which files correspond to what and how far they can be pushed, or whether changing them does anything at all.  It's best to run the game in as close to a default state as possible while troubleshooting.

For the record, there's no way to force-limit Sims 3 to using 4 GB RAM, or to make it use more.  And the default texture memory is 32 MB if the game doesn't pick up the GPU's VRAM on its own, which it usually doesn't with newer devices.  The default of 2048 you found a reference to is either something else or not a default at all.  Besides, since Sims 3 can only use 800 MB VRAM, seting the value higher than that has no practical effect.

For the issue itself, two of the Sims 3 errors in your dxdiag are crashes of the AMD graphics driver.  Two are breakpoint errors, which have several causes, one of which is an issue with the graphics driver.  So that's the place to start: with a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver.  Here's how:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

You can get a fresh copy of the newest driver from AMD here:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/processors/ryzen/ryzen-5000-series/amd-ryzen-7-5800h.html

Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator."  Restart the computer afterwards and before trying to play.

  • Maninha's avatar
    Maninha
    Seasoned Novice
    6 months ago

    @puzzlezaddict  Hi, cat lover 😉   It's a relief and an honor to have a help from someone like you, I mean it!  

    1) Sims3 crash log -> low free virtual memory is something that made me think why could it happen... I couldn't find an answer after exausting searchs.  It's like this since the first game crash. In my searchs, looking for help to understand and fix it, I only found answers about increasing ''page files'' amout.  That's why I've changed it to those values I told you before.  :/

    2) I'll replace my original Sims3.ini file that I have in safe place. Well, as a matter of fact, I'll replace whole TS3 game bin, as I've also installed LD's smooth patch.

    3) About texture memory -> wow, I didn't know that... It's been so long I've changed it to 2048, and for years I've used it like this, that I had forgotten the default value. You probably have seen a trustful source give this ''clue'' (to set it higher). Anyway, I'll leave it as you suggest.  I'm sorry, but I couldn't understand what you said:  ''And the default texture memory is 32 MB if the game doesn't pick up the GPU's VRAM on its own, which it usually doesn't with newer devices.''  The game picks up GPU's Vram of newer devices or not? 

    Only for record:  yesterday I've taken out my Sims3 game folder from Documents and ran the game to create a fresh new Docs folder. I played about 3h in Isla Paradiso, created a new Sim, build a house, played a while and had no issues. It made me think my last saves were broken... or maybe some ''cc''...  But now I see can it be related to graphic driver, as I always take a look to devices drivers and about graphics driver there's a message in details that it was not started.  I've used DDU at least 4 times, reinstalled the driver with ''amd software adrenaline edition'' but it's always ''not started''. :/ 

    I'll try those links you provided and I'll be back to let you know the results.

    Thank you very very very very (hey, stop!) much! :D

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      6 months ago

      @Maninha  Sims 3 usually cannot "see" the video memory of a newer graphics card.  So it thinks the card has zero VRAM and assigns as 32 MB override.  This is listed as "texture memory" in DeviceConfig.  You can easily edit GraphicsRules.sgr to fix this, and it's fine to do so.  My point was that this is the actual problem, not something else buried in the game files.

      The errors in your dxdiag are very clear in that the game crashed because of a fault with the graphics driver.  However, that doesn't always mean the driver itself is the problem.  It could be bad cc, for example, or a system resource that uses the driver incorrectly.  Still, when we see an error like that, step one is to DDU and reinstall the driver.  When that doesn't help, we look elsewhere, and in your case, it sounds like bad cc could easily be the issue.  And since you've already tried DDU multiple times AND tested a new save without issues, it's reasonably clear that the driver is fine.

      And that's sweet of you to say.  I try to do what I can.

      • Maninha's avatar
        Maninha
        Seasoned Novice
        6 months ago

        @puzzlezaddict  Thank you very much for your help! 

        When I told you I had used DDU many times and installed graphic driver (also many times), I could not imagine it hadn't been installed correctly... for some weird reason. 

        When I checked the device manager I noticed in "update driver" "details" that it was installed but not "started".  I always found it strange, but as my graphics was working okay, I didn't mind it.

        After reading your help, I made a search on YouTube to understand what the heck was going on with this driver.  

        I found a 2min video, excellent, that helped me to install the graphic driver and have it started.

        In other words, now I can see that the driver is installed and started.

        ...and now I can play TS3 without crashes or errors.

        I can't thank you enough for giving your time to help others!

        Have a nice week, a wonderful a Christmas day and a very happy new year!!! <3 <3 <3

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