Re: DEP Crash Despite Totally Disabling DEP

The game in its true Vanilla rendition form has no issues. It is irrelevant.

The Reliability Monitor does not recognize the "Sims III" crashes. No data exists. Does that mean that the game was closed against my will by the machine? I've attached the XML that said Monitor generates just in case.

Other than applying your Super Patch, are there any specific, concrete instructions you can give me? What configuration files do I need to revert?

Oh, and I should note that using the Four Gigabyte Patch system mentioned in that link DOES create a back up of the original program, as it was prior to being patched. Do I still need to use your Super Patch anyway, or can I just restore from the back up?

@TurtleShroom  The Super Patch will undo any changes you've made to graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, as well as most other changes to the contents of the game's program files.  I'm not sure whether it affects the changes suggested by the 4 GB patch, since I've never used it; please undo that change separately, just to be thorough.  Again, this is about seeing how the game runs in its vanilla state and then applying helpful changes, if necessary.

I can't give you concrete instructions without knowing why the game is crashing, or at least having some clue; the crash log analyzer referencing DEP errors isn't reliable.  That's why I asked for Reliability Monitor entries.  In Windows 10, the dxdiag lists the last 10 Windows errors, but that section is not included in Windows 7.  So aside from looking for that info, the most efficient approach is to start with an unaltered game and then build from there.

Are there any entries in the Reliability Monitor that have the same timestamp as a crash?  If so, I'd like to see the technical details on those crashes specifically.  They'd look something like this:

Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: TS3W.exe
P2: 0.0.0.32
P3: 52dec247
P4: StackHash_6b25
P5: 0.0.0.0
P6: 00000000
P7: c0000005
P8: PCH_2C_FROM_ntdll+0x0006AB0C
P9:
P10:

(This is from a Windows 10 dxdiag, but it's the same information.  In case you're wondering, that reflects an in-game error with a lot, with the tent on the lot, or with the sims sleeping in that tent.)

Even unrelated errors from the same time will help.

I uploaded everything that the Reliability Monitor said in my previous posts.

My last "Sims III" game lasted three or so hours before it crashed. "Sims III" always crashes if you leave it open for more than three hours, so I actually believe that I solved the issue.

I am going to try it in its current state one more time, and log how long it takes to crash. Then, I will revert every change I made to the SRG and the EXE files and compare it. This will take a while, but I promise that I will get back to you.

Okay, I played the game for several hours and it crashed in normal fashion, due to the usual memory leaks and instability of staying open. "Sims III" is practically designed to crash if it runs for a few hours in a game with intense Mods, so a duration between crashing of that length is perfectly acceptable.

The Crash Enabler said my issue was with Custom Content, which I removed when I first posted this, so all is well. I haven't found another DEP crash in a while. I'll wait until I see the next one, unless it occurs at something like three or four hours in.

As it stands, it seems that my game is back to functioning as it should. However, I still would like to figure out if my updates to the game's performance (seriously, it's like night and day and I would prefer to keep it) would assist it. The next time I get a DEP crash, I will revert the changes to the EXE and then the SRG changes the second time, and compare the two.

Thank you so much for helping me.

@TurtleShroom  Yes, crashes are unfortunately not uncommon with Sims 3, especially if you own most or all packs and like to play for hours at a time.  Among other things, you may want to keep an eye on the game's memory use in the Task Manager.  Anything above ~3.5 GB is in the danger zone, where a temporary spike in RAM use can cause a crash.  While a typical new save in an average world might only use a bit more than 2 GB on startup, and maybe level off around 2.5 GB, a well-progressed save, or one in a complicated world, can easily use more.  At any rate, it's worth checking.

Long CAS or Build/Buy sessions can also cause out-of-resources crashes.  Many of us are in the habit of building and creating sims in new saves, then saving our work to the bin and placing it in our existing saves without having to tinker.

But yes, it will definitely be interesting to compare performance with the various settings.

Okay, I got my first DEP citation since last time, and since you mentioned RAM making the game commit suicide, I should note that I got it when I clicked a Decorative Relic as a character with a Job allowing him to use the Swipe Action.

You will find the file that the Crash Log Analyzer produced in the attachments of this message. As is the usual case, the Reliability Monitor you mentioned did not generate anything when my "Sims III" game crashed.

I have now reverted the Four Gigabyte Patch that I manually filed in pursuance to the instructions outlined on that Steam Launcher Program guide. The next time I get a crash cited under DEP, I will inform you.