I know after six years a reply from this thread is a long shot... My story progression is always unchecked, but it still shuts my friggen game with the same damn message "The Sims 3 has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working..."
@prn58 Yes, this thread is quite old, and I doubt any of the original participants are around to reply. But if you provide a few more details, I can try to help. When does the game crash: when loading (and on which screen), when you've been playing for a while, when you enter CAS or Build/Buy; or is it random? Have you tested a fresh save, and if so, do you get the same result? What world(s) are you currently playing in?
It would also be helpful if you could run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
