sims 3 crashing as soon as I load up a household.

AlexJH14_  Have you added any content to the program files aside from the Smooth Patch, or edited any files?  If so, remove anything you've added and repair the game (EA App > Sims 3 > Manage > Repair).  You can make backup copies of any edited files if you want, for example GraphicsCards and GraphicsRules if you've added your GPU to the database.  But I'd like to know how the game runs without any added or edited content, either program files or mods.

Please also let me know whether you've taken steps to limit your in-game framerates.  If you haven't, I have a guide here, under "limiting in-game framerates" (ctrl-F to search; the anchors don't work here):

[Read First] Running Sims 3 in Windows | EA Forums - 8323446

I'd like to see a dxdiag as well.  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.

The only files I've edited were the graphicscards/rules, and the smooth patch was the only file I've added. I tried running the game after a repair and with no mods/cc and I had the same result; crashing a few minutes into gameplay. I've tried limiting my frame rates too. 

I've linked my dxdiag text, let me know if you need anything else. 

AlexJH14_  Are you playing at a 4k resolution, and does it help to reduce the in-game res to 1080p?  I realize that might not be ideal, but it's an easy test.  And please test in Sunset Valley, at least for now.

If that doesn't help, please 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.

If that doesn't help either, 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 your most recent Sims 3 crash, while your computer was offline.  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.

I’ve tried 1080p and offline but neither seemed to make a difference. I’ve tried a couple times and the game crashes every time yet nothing seems to appear in my reliability monitor, even if I have left it for a couple hours to update - does being in windowed mode affect this? If I play in full screen I can’t get out of the game at all once it crashes, I have to do a full pc restart. 

AlexJH14_  Windowed mode shouldn't have anything to do with this.  If the game is crashing, there should be a crash dump.  But perhaps something else is crashing instead and taking Sims 3 down with it.  There isn't anything at all from around that time in the Reliability Monitor?  If not, we'll need to look for information some other way.

First, look for a Sims 3-related crash.  Click Windows key-R and copy and paste this:

%LocalAppData%\CrashDumps

When you enter, you'll see a list of .dmp files.  If one of them is from Sims 3 or the EA App, please upload it to a third-party filehosting site (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it here.  If you see a crash dump that was written at exactly the time the game crashed, I'd like that too.  But in either case, please only upload files from after we started troubleshooting here.

If there is no Sims 3 .dmp file, you can enable them:

• Hit the Windows key, type "command prompt" in the box, right-click on Command Prompt in the search results, and select Run as Administrator
• In the window, paste "reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\devenv.exe" /v DumpType /d 2 /t REG_DWORD" without the outside quotes into the box, and enter
• Launch Sims 3 and wait for it to crash (whether you can play at all or not)
• After it crashes, wait for any crash dialogs to finish
• Then hit Windows key-R and paste "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" without quotes into the box, and enter
• Upload the last .dmp file to a free filesharing site and link it here
• When you want to undo the auto crash log dumps, open Command Prompt as before, paste "reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps" /f" without the outside quotes, and enter.

If nothing turns up even after this, look for a corresponding file in C:\Windows\Minidump, and if you find one, upload it as described above.  You'll need to copy the file where it is and paste it onto your desktop before you can do anything else with it, as this is a protected folder.

sorry for the gap in replies! i managed to get a dump file of some description but let me know if its the right thing or not. 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lqggqb6eq4p5b8h2p9eky/TS3.exe.13604.dmp.lnk?rlkey=jji4jdgybldcwx8wmsf74ejpv&st=qqxy2l9h&dl=0