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Splotchish's avatar
Splotchish
4 years ago
Solved

Sims 3 Frozen Can't Close

Hello all. I was playing the Sims 3, and it was running fine until it randomly froze. The camera can't move, and the cursor is greyed out everywhere you move. Usually when it gets like this, it crashes, but it is just stuck. None of the buttons will respond, and you can't close it from the taskbar or Origin either. I haven't installed any new CC or mods recently. Help! 

pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    4 years ago

    @Splotchish  If the game is still running (but frozen), try to bring up the Task Manager: click crtl-alt-delete, select the TM, click on Sims 3, and End Task.  If you can't see the Task Manager, you can use crtl-alt-delete but log out of your account instead; this will close any running programs.

    If your computer isn't responding to keyboard commands at all, it's frozen and needs to be manually shut down.  Holding the power button will do the trick.

    As for why your game keeps freezing, there are a number of possibilities.  Please start by running a dxdiag and attaching it to a post.

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

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  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    4 years ago

    @Splotchish  If the game is still running (but frozen), try to bring up the Task Manager: click crtl-alt-delete, select the TM, click on Sims 3, and End Task.  If you can't see the Task Manager, you can use crtl-alt-delete but log out of your account instead; this will close any running programs.

    If your computer isn't responding to keyboard commands at all, it's frozen and needs to be manually shut down.  Holding the power button will do the trick.

    As for why your game keeps freezing, there are a number of possibilities.  Please start by running a dxdiag and attaching it to a post.

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

  • Splotchish's avatar
    Splotchish
    4 years ago

    By the way, the task manager method works, thanks for that as well.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    4 years ago

    @Splotchish  Some of the errors in your dxdiag could be related to the Sims 3 freezes, but it's not clear from the info provided.  What is clear is that your graphics driver is quite old and could be a problem all by itself.  Try installing the newest driver available from Intel:

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29969/Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-15-33-

    Restart your computer after installing it.

    If and when the game freezes or crashes again, please look for any related errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes.  You'll see a list of errors and updates, with a column for each day.  (Today is all the way on the right.)

    For any errors that mention Origin or Sims 3 from after you install the new driver, click "View technical details," then copy the information and paste it into a text document.  (Notepad is fine.)  You can attach the file to a post as you did with your dxdiag.  Sometimes the Reliability Monitor doesn't update right away, so if you don't see any related errors, be sure to check back an hour or two.  The timestamp on the initial chart can also be off by up to an hour, so that's not an entirely reliable metric, but the one within the technical details should be accurate.

    If you see a freeze but there is no accompanying RM error, that's useful info too; please let me know.

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