What's causing my game to crash?

CarryOnMyWaywardSons

A few days ago I started playing Sims 3 again after playing Sims 4 for a while, and now I'm having an issue with my game crashing constantly. It happens a lot in CAS but it happens in-game too. According to my most recent xcpt files, the cause isn't DEP (Data Execution Prevention) forcing the game to close, but it's something else and I have no idea what it is. Here's the exception info copied from the most recent xcpt file.

[Exception info]
date: 2017-09-12
time: 11.54.57
type: ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x00000008
address: 0x004fe0f7 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3W.exe":0x0001:0x000fd0f7

igazor

Just a shot in the dark, but by any chance do you have TS3 installed by way of disc/Origin and Steam at the same time? That can cause no end of corruption to the user game folder in Documents, including the saved games.

Crash logs are almost useless. The only thing they usually tell us is that the game crashed. That's all that the RAM (memory) address "violation" means. DEP has not been an issue for TS3 since patch 1.50something and Steam would have you on Patch 1.67 with no choices given.

Without yet getting into what kind of hardware you are running on, if the game worked properly before but doesn't now, I would suspect CC or some kind of content failure. If you haven't added anything recently, or even if you have, clear (delete) your five user game folder cache files if you don't already do this on a routine basis. Just the five that appear on the top level under TS3, nothing deeper.

If that's no help, then try pulling your entire TS3 user game folder out of Documents to the Desktop or some other place for safekeeping. The game will spawn a new one on its next launch. Can you run a new game, edit a sim in CAS, and save on the clean game folder with no added content of any kind?

CarryOnMyWaywardSons

@igazor I uninstalled my Origin version back when I got the Steam bundle, so no.

Oh. Well at least DEP is completely ruled out. Also I clear those five cache files every few times I go to play the game, and I delete everything from the featured items. Maybe I need to get rid of some cc I don't use, particularly the installed worlds I downloaded but never bothered to play. I'll try running a clean game first though.

MagicPiggyPigg

Hello!

What kind of cc do you have? And where did you get it from? It might be a hazard to your game.
Clearing cache files and featured items usually works to reduce lag, not fixing your game from crashing. It's probably the cc.
Also, do you play TS3 fullscreen or windowed mode? Because sometimes fullscreen mode can cause your game to crash. It's happened a lot to me in the past, so I just play in windowed mode.
Lastly, do you play it on a PC or Mac? I tried playing it on my MacBook Air but it constantly crashed.

Thanks, and good luck!
- Kiwi

igazor

@MagicPiggyPigg - We can see from the small portion of the crash log that the OP provided that they are playing the Steam version of the game, therefore they must be on Windows. TS3 for Mac is a different program, yes it certainly has more than its share of limitations, but is not available on Steam.

Chickaroo

Hello! Im having crash issues too, but in a different fashion...
I have most of the EP's and SP's, and currently my sim is in the middle of an adventure from China that wants her to travel to France. She got back home from China just fine, but when i tried to travel to France the game crashes during the loading screen. I have tried the Overwatch and ErrorTrap mods from NRaas, and also Traveler, but nothing is working out. The closest I got was a combination of Overwatch and ErrorTrap, which at first allowed my sim to get to France, but the adventure she had was cancelled from her list and when she tried to return home it crashed during that loading screen.

igazor

@Chickaroo - Hi there. The suggested combination of NRaas mods to smooth out broken travel transitions is all three: Traveler, Overwatch, and ErrorTrap. Although they are each removable, the mods are really supposed to stay in place, they aren't meant to be pulled out and put back in whenever an issue is encountered in case this is the way you had been using them.

It sounds like something is wrong with the instance of France in this particular ongoing game. If you can live with losing all relationships with any sims who live in France now if your sims had ever been there prior, I would suggest keeping all three mods but pulling out the nhd file for France (the larger of the two, not the small export file) within your ongoing Save folder corresponding to this one save. The next time you travel your sims to France within that game, a new nhd file for that world will spawn and you should be presented with a fresh copy of the world as it would have existed in the very beginning. You will probably want to make an extra copy of this save first just in case something further goes wrong with it.

That addresses, or hopes to address, the often broken travel transitions. The opportunity evaporating upon arrival may or may not still happen. Those cross-world opportunities are very delicate. You may be able to get it back by using NRaas MasterController if this happens again.
NRaas > MC > (Sim) > Basic > Opportunity (or Opportunity by Category)

Chickaroo

@igazor - Thanks for the input! I just tried it, having all three mods active, and deleting the .nhd file. Didn't work. the loading bar on the way to France got to about 75% and then the game crashed. I also tried China and Egypt, deleting the nhd. files of both, they didn't work either.

igazor

@Chickaroo - Perhaps the problem is with the homeworld then.
-- Clear the five cache files on the top level of the TS3 user game folder in Documents if you don't already do this on a routine basis.
-- Can you travel to any of the WA worlds from a homeworld in another save? Or if you start a fresh game?

Beyond that, I'm going to have to ask the specs of the computer you are playing on -- processor, RAM, graphics card, size and space remaining on hard drive. Or better yet, provide a dxdiag report if you could. You would have to paste the full report in by section as it would be far too long to fit into one response or use pastebin.com and provide a link.
https://help.ea.com/en-au/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information

The above assumes you are on Windows. If you are playing the Mac version of the game, that would require a different conversation.

Chickaroo

@igazor - I tried clearing the cache files, no luck. I was able to travel in a different save game however. So I went back to my 'problem' save game to see if I could save the family to the library and it crashed while doing so in edit town mode.
I did the dxdiag, heres the link https://pastebin.com/8fxmi8nY

phoebebebe13

https://pastebin.com/8fxmi8nY


You need to make sure your fps is capped this game has no FPS limiter @igazor can give you instructions since I am on tablet.

I'm not a build expert but @chesterbigbird is. Not sure if your card is too powerful for your processor. Also what is the wattage of your power supply?

igazor

As @phoebebebe13 said, TS3 does not have a built-in fps limiter like more modern games do and the newer, more powerful cards can run wild on it. The excess frame rates that your monitor cannot possibly interpret can lead to graphics glitches, lag, screen tears, crashes, and over time can burn out your graphics card so of course we don't want any of those things.

Here are illustrated instructions on how to use the Nvidia Control Panel to cap the fps.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14991412#Comment_14991412

Note that the Control Panel's vsync only works in full-screen mode. If it doesn't lock things in, or if you require windowed mode, then we move on to a different tool called Nvidia Inspector. Your laptop's screen is running a refresh rate of 60 Hz, as the vast majority of them do, so the goal is to cap the frame rate to 60 fps. Checking on frame rates in-game is easy. Ctrl+Shift+C to bring up the cheats console, type fps on (enter). As you play and move the game camera around, the displayed rate should never wander above 60. To make the rate display go away, cheats console again and fps off (enter).

Even if you have tended to this already in the past, at the very least you would want to check your current frame rates in game to make sure they are staying locked in and nothing has changed there.

holly55555

My game has been crashing like crazy and I kept getting Error 12. Turns out the issue was that there were thousands of things in my Sims' inventory from gardening! I had no idea that this could cause such a severe issue. Game has been running perfectly now. Try that? Good luck!

Chickaroo

@igazor and @phoebebebe13 i changed the FPS settings, and I lowered all the graphics settings in game to minimum and it worked! i was able to travel to France again and keep my current opportunity in play! I did come across the error 12 message after a couple times of saving. Im saving the game every sim day now so i didn't loose too much progress. @holly55555 I learned my lesson about keeping a clean inventory from the sims 4, I had a similar issue there that was caused by the inventory. Anyway, thank you all for the help! Im so happy I dont have to start my game all over, the super sim challenge for sims 3 is quite .. well.. challenging :D

Happy Simming!

igazor

@Chickaroo - Glad you were able to work through that.