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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
13 years ago
Solved

The Sims 3 crashing and freezing

I have recently brough The Sims 3 and I have spent the last four hours trying to fix the crashing issues I am having with it. I will try to provide all the infomation I can to get as much help as I can.

I downloaded it digitally through Origin.

The graphics will glitch on the Sim being created and the options windows will sometimes turn black.

The game will also sometimes freeze completely and will not respond to Alt Tabbing nor Alt F4

The game will sometimes crash fully leaving me with the screen going black and Windows telling me it has crashed and is looking for a problem.

What I've tried

I ran in in a window

I ran it at the lowest graphical options

I ran it with compatability mode Windows XP Service Pack 2, Disabled visual themes and Disabled desktop composistion

I tried the above all at the same time

I added the correct files to the DEP that I was told to

I have tried waiting for the Sim's clothes to fully load before editing them


Required Information

  • What is your operating system

Windows 7

  • At what point does your game crash ? Any regularities ?

When trying to create a Sim

  • How long can you usually play ?

5 mins, never been able to actually create a Sim

  • Which EP/SPs do you have installed ?

Not sure what EP or SPs are, this is just The Sims 3 and nothing else with it

  • Are you using custom content and mods in your game ?

No

  • It's also good to include your DxDiag

Not too sure what you want to see and been as there is a 20,000 character limited, see links below:

http://puu.sh/2w0nz

http://puu.sh/2w0pJ


I hope all of this is helpful and useful, it would be nice to get a fix for this game as it cannot be returned due to EA's policy of digital copies of their games. So it'd be nice to not have wasted £29.99 on this game.

19 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I turned the autonomy settings down but it still crashed.

    Acording to the guide you sent me to follow last night I can confirm that my game recognizes my card if that guide is correct.

    I still don't understand how I can be out of memory if The Sims 3 needs 4GiB but I have 8GiB, twice as much as is needed. It must be a problem with this game as my computer and all other games on my PC recongizes that I have 8GiB of memory. Is there a way to allocate memory to The Sims or do I need to turn off other settings?

  • crinrict's avatar
    crinrict
    Hero+
    13 years ago

    The game is a 32 bit application and as such cannot use more than 4 GB of the 8 GB you have. You can as much RAM as you like, the game will never be able to use more than 4 GB (unless EA decides to make a 64 bit version which most probably ain't going to happen).

    Did you try this: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/FAQ-Troubleshooting-Steps/td-p/714/ to see if that helps ?

    Something is eating up your RAM. On a new game, it shouldn't use that much. It should be around 1.2 - 1.4 GB.

    What town are you playing in ?

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I am playing on SunSet Valley right now and I have included a screenshot of my Task Manager's performance tab when it's running The Sims. It doesn't look like anything is eating up my RAM.

    http://puu.sh/2xD8G

    I will try to restore factory settings now and reply back on how it goes.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    It would appear the issues has been fixed. Been playing The Sims since 09:21PM to 7:08AM (taking breaks during of course) and I've not run into a single error.

    So thank you for all the help you've given in dealing with this frustrating issue.

    I do have one last question though. To be safe, I chose to not install a store content patch when I ran The Sims... could that also be a cause to the problem?

    Screenshot of the patch notice

    http://puu.sh/2xUuy

  • crinrict's avatar
    crinrict
    Hero+
    13 years ago

    Don't think that has anything to do with it. I would guess that the game is finally recognizing your card ok.

    As for the task monitor, check the process tab and see how much RAM the ts3w.exe process uses. The picture you're posted is just the overall usage which does take the whole 8 GB into account since the operating system is 64 bit.

    --------------------------------

    If your issue is solved, please accept a solution. XP is also appreciated 🙂

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Here is the screenshot of how much it uses

    http://puu.sh/2yhFl

    Also yeah, it might've just needed to have that folder reset. Thank you very much for your help.

  • crinrict's avatar
    crinrict
    Hero+
    13 years ago

    Well, this is now that it works, right ?

    That's exactly how it should be 🙂

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Yes it is.

    Again, thank you very much for fixing my issue and getting me to play The Sims. 😕mileyvery-happy:

  • My sims 3 has been freezing & crashing as well ... : 0a1696c37001dc61 thats the number they gave me the last time it was reported . I have a windows 8 ... I wish they would fix this .... 

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