Sims 3 Keeps Crashing, Repeatedly

@TheRaddestCrow  Let's try the a more intensive intervention here.  Please create a new admin Windows account on your laptop and try playing there.  Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account.  Don't download any mods or other content; just see whether you can get far enough to load a save and play in live mode for a bit.  This distinguishes between issues specific to your current user account—anything from a corrupt file in the user folder to broken permissions—and more global problems.

If Sims 3 won't run in the new account, please post a new dxdiag.

Hello @puzzlezaddict!

Alright, luckily I already have a local admin account that I used the last time I was troubleshooting for Sims 3 (Completely different issue, it fixed itself somehow). I loaded up Sims with no mods or other content, just the base game and the expansion packs (I can also try without if that could be affecting it, I know you said Pets was rather glitchy), and I was able to create a new world and play with one of the pre-loaded families for a short period of time. Live mode worked alright for about 8 minutes, but when I popped into buy mode for a moment the game crashed. This has happened previously, I can't remember if I made a note of that, but t hat would also be an inciter for the game to crash. I hope this helps, I appreciate your aid

@TheRaddestCrow  Pets isn't especially glitchy but is very demanding and also unforgiving of hardware that can't keep up.  However, the issue is contained to simulating and rendering the pets themselves; it shouldn't affect Build or Buy mode.  And in fact crashing when entering Build/Buy is somewhat uncommon and usually associated with bad mods or custom content.

Does it help to play with your computer offline, as I described earlier?  Please test in the new account and let me know.

If that doesn't make a difference, then yes, please disable all your packs, just for testing.  Move the Sims 3 folder to the desktop again, so you're working with entirely new user data, and start a save in Sunset Valley, which will be the only available world anyway.

If the game crashes yet again, I'd like to see a new dxdiag.

Hi @puzzlezaddict!

Sorry it's been so long, it got really busy on my end, but I just got enough free time to experiment a little.

I went ahead and tested both versions we're looking into, both offline and with no packs. Offline worked okay for a little bit, but once again when I entered into Build/Buy mode it crashed within 2 minutes

Without packs was rather interesting, because I opened up a new save and played in Sunset Valley for about 5-10 minutes. I was using a family included with the town, and since it's been a stand out issue I also stress-tested the Build/Buy mode to see how it would run. It worked very well and didn't immediately shut down like my other plays, so after hanging out and moving stuff in this mode for a bit I eventually switched back to Live mode to play like regular, assuming the game would be working as intended. I was only able to get about five more minutes of playtime in before the game crashed when I was just observing my family in Live mode, so that was the result of the no-packs experiment.

As requested, I ran another dxdiag and it will be attached to this post.

Also, I don't know if this is relevant but my game also takes a while to boot up, after the launcher it typically takes 2-3 minutes now instead of launching quickly like normal.

@TheRaddestCrow  The new dxdiag shows several serious crashes of the graphics driver, so it needs to come out.  Some of the Sims 3 crashes also cite a component of Windows, so I'd suggest starting with a repair install.  This is the cleanest version of Windows you can get short of wiping your computer (and I'm not saying you need to do that), and given the errors, I think it's best to be thorough here.  Here's how to do one:

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/repair-install-windows-11-with-an-in-place-upgrade.418/

And here's how to clean-uninstall the graphics driver:

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

Instead of manually installing a new copy of the driver, however, you'll need to go back online and let Windows find one.  Microsoft doesn't provide a separate driver download package for your Surface model, instead instructing users to open the Surface app.  More information is here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/download-drivers-and-firmware-for-surface-09bb2e09-2a4b-cb69-0951-078a7739e120

Windows will probably install the correct driver automatically once you're back online, but use the app anyway.  If it doesn't find anything to update, that's fine.

Please test again, offline and with only the base game, and let me know how it goes.  If you don't get a crash, you can start adding back content a little at a time, for example testing online mode and then activating a couple of packs.  If you get another crash at any point, let me know when, and please post another new dxdiag, run after the crash.

Hello @puzzlezaddict,

So a slight update. I did my best to repair install, but unfortunately the forum you advised wasn't synonymous with my computer, so I did the best I can. Alongside that I ran into similar issues clean-uninstalling the graphics driver, because my computer is running a Qualcomm Adreno graphics card and therefore doens't work with the DDU, at least from my understanding. After my attempt at clean-installing both, I started the game again in my tester account and yet again it crashed. Thank you so much for your help so far, though, I just wish my computer was more cooperative to you aid.

@TheRaddestCrow  I'd actually forgotten that DDU didn't support Adreno graphics drivers, so sorry about that.  There's still a way to uninstall the driver, not as cleanly as DDU would do, but it's better than nothing.  Hit Windows key-X, choose the Device Manager, open the Display adapters section, right-click the name of your graphics chip, and under the Driver tab, click Uninstall.  Then restart your computer, and Windows should download a suitable driver, probably the same one, but hopefully it'll work better once reinstalled.

Hello @puzzlezaddict,

Don't worry about it! It's all good.

I uninstalled the driver and restarted like you recommended, and then I started a game in the tester admin account. I was able to play no problem for about 20 minutes, and feeling optimistic I exited and tried a tester world in my regular account with no packs or mods. I was able to play about 10 minutes and was extremely excited before the game crashed. I'm not completely sure there's even a possible fix for this, do you have any other ideas?

@TheRaddestCrow  I'm running out of ideas, to be honest.  You could try capping your in-game framerates at 30, which would reduce the workload on the processor and graphics chip.  And you could try playing in a clean boot:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest as described.

The one other important detail is whether your laptop can cool itself properly.  You'd need an outside tool to check CPU temperatures, for example hwinfo (which is free).  It's worth looking into even if the laptop doesn't feel hot.  The various tools available are all a bit different, but with hwinfo at least, you could leave it open and check on the max temperatures after you were done playing or the game crashed.