Cats and Dogs Expansion Locking Up My Entire Computer «12...Next Go

mizuru007

This is wild, you guys.

So, after purchasing Cats and Dogs, it was made apparent that my computer's graphics card was no longer able to run the game. It fried said graphics card. I decided to just go ahead and buy a bunch of brand new parts. New motherboard, new graphics card, new power source, new wireless chip, new case. The works. And none of it was cheap. Now, literally everything in my computer goes past the game's requirements. We're good.

Or so I thought. After having to completely wipe my entire hard drive and spending literal days updating and installing drivers and the game...I'm still having the game lock up my entire computer.

This isn't being caused by CC or by mods; trying to play without them will *inevitably* cause the exact same problem. What in the world is going on?! Why can't I play my game? I'm so frustrated after trying for more than a week to fix this issue. I've even contacted EA support and they were puzzled.

A link to my dxdiag through pastebin is here: https://pastebin.com/Rf2Q4xpX

Can anyone help me?

rosemow

Hello
I am sorry that you are having these issues
I will ask @phoebebebe13 to look at your DXDiag when she comes onto the forums,

Try also seeing if lowering your in-game screen resolution helps. Try seeing if playing in windowed full screen mode helps. Try closing any open windows on your desktop when playing.

mizuru007

I normally play on windowed full screen. I have closed all windows while playing before. These are issues that have been existing since the expansion's launch and, at this point, no one can seem to figure out why this is happening to my game.

I'll try playing with a lower resolution next after I get out of this EA chat session.

Lucid_bleh

What kind of computer do you have @mizuru007 and are you using origin to play , if not you should try playing trough it ? I am a mac user and I have been playing the Sims games trough Origin and have been considering buying the pets expansion , so I'm wondering is anyone else experiencing this problem ?

DeKay

Hello, sorry that all of that happened! :O Could you elaborate what you mean by the game locking up your computer?

mizuru007

DeKay wrote: »

Hello, sorry that all of that happened! :O Could you elaborate what you mean by the game locking up your computer?

It will mess up the audio coming from my headphones and then the entire computer becomes unresponsive. The only thing I can do is manually turn the computer off by holding down the power button.

DeKay

I see that you have a Windows 7 Service 1 pack. If I recall properly, some simmers have problems with the game with this service pack so it could be that. Maybe the Cats & Dogs EP is conflicting with the service pack?

mizuru007

I'd never heard of it causing problems before now...
Would it cause this much of a problem? And if so, is there any way to fix it?

rosemow

Hello
Try going to Windows Update and check that your computer is uptodate with patches.

mizuru007

I will do so. Thus far with my game playing windowed, I haven't had any problems. Going to see if anything happens.

EDIT: Computer is brand spanking new, so I think I'm going to be doing chain Windows updates for a while.

luthienrising

mizuru007 wrote: »

I will do so. Thus far with my game playing windowed, I haven't had any problems. Going to see if anything happens.

EDIT: Computer is brand spanking new, so I think I'm going to be doing chain Windows updates for a while.

Always a good thing to do with a new computer, before you do anything else! Make sure you update all your drivers, too.

mizuru007

luthienrising wrote: »

mizuru007 wrote: »

I will do so. Thus far with my game playing windowed, I haven't had any problems. Going to see if anything happens.

EDIT: Computer is brand spanking new, so I think I'm going to be doing chain Windows updates for a while.

Always a good thing to do with a new computer, before you do anything else! Make sure you update all your drivers, too.

Drivers were all the veeeery first things I updated! But would Windows updates be enough to make the game wreck my entire computer? We were waiting on your *~*endless wisdom*~* to check out the dxdiag and make sure that I'm not going nuts and that my computer can handle the game. Is it true?!
Please tell me I'm not crazy. The computer is good enough, right?

luthienrising

mizuru007 wrote: »

luthienrising wrote: »

mizuru007 wrote: »

I will do so. Thus far with my game playing windowed, I haven't had any problems. Going to see if anything happens.

EDIT: Computer is brand spanking new, so I think I'm going to be doing chain Windows updates for a while.

Always a good thing to do with a new computer, before you do anything else! Make sure you update all your drivers, too.

Drivers were all the veeeery first things I updated! But would Windows updates be enough to make the game wreck my entire computer? We were waiting on your *~*endless wisdom*~* to check out the dxdiag and make sure that I'm not going nuts and that my computer can handle the game. Is it true?!
Please tell me I'm not crazy. The computer is good enough, right?

Ha! You really do need to update Windows. Having an older version, especially of an older Windows, could cause all sorts of grief. But it wouldn't do any harm to post the dxdiag anyway!

SimsloverxX

wait what?? you serious! and i was just about to buy this ep too...

rosemow

SimsloverxX wrote: »

wait what?? you serious! and i was just about to buy this ep too...

Hello @SimsloverxX
You may like to post your DXDiag info here and simmers can offer advice as to whether your computer can handle the ep.
To gather a DXDIAG on your computer, do this :
Press and hold the Windows key and the letter R on your keyboard
You will see a Run box in the lower-left corner of your screen
Type dxdiag in the text field
Click OK
Click the Save All Information button, found on the bottom of the DXDIAG report
Then copy and paste the information from where you saved it, to pastebin https://pastebin.com
and post the link to the file here

You will need to break up the pastebin link though by putting h.t.t.p. instead , because you are unable to post links because you are a new member.

mizuru007

luthienrising wrote: »

mizuru007 wrote: »

luthienrising wrote: »

mizuru007 wrote: »

I will do so. Thus far with my game playing windowed, I haven't had any problems. Going to see if anything happens.

EDIT: Computer is brand spanking new, so I think I'm going to be doing chain Windows updates for a while.

Always a good thing to do with a new computer, before you do anything else! Make sure you update all your drivers, too.

Drivers were all the veeeery first things I updated! But would Windows updates be enough to make the game wreck my entire computer? We were waiting on your *~*endless wisdom*~* to check out the dxdiag and make sure that I'm not going nuts and that my computer can handle the game. Is it true?!
Please tell me I'm not crazy. The computer is good enough, right?

Ha! You really do need to update Windows. Having an older version, especially of an older Windows, could cause all sorts of grief. But it wouldn't do any harm to post the dxdiag anyway!

I posted it up above in my first post! Follow the pastebin link.

rosemow

Hello
Is the game working okay now or are you continuing to have issues?

mizuru007

I didn't have any issues when playing windowed, but I also stopped playing well before the point that it locked up last time. I'm thinking that I'll try it again tonight before I go to bed and if I still have a problem (I really hope I don't), I'll report it here.

rosemow

mizuru007 wrote: »

I didn't have any issues when playing windowed, but I also stopped playing well before the point that it locked up last time. I'm thinking that I'll try it again tonight before I go to bed and if I still have a problem (I really hope I don't), I'll report it here.

I hope that you don’t have any more issues .

phoebebebe13

mizuru007 wrote: »

I will do so. Thus far with my game playing windowed, I haven't had any problems. Going to see if anything happens.

EDIT: Computer is brand spanking new, so I think I'm going to be doing chain Windows updates for a while.

Speak to @chesterbigbird. Your processor may be too weak for your video card and it's possible your bottlenecking. Chester is a computer build expert. We usually advise AMD Fx 8000 series processor or ryzen or an i5 . What case are you using and what specific power supply and what is the wattage? Chester will need to know these thngs

A link to my dxdiag through pastebin is here: https://pastebin.com/Rf2Q4xpX

mizuru007

Hey folks.
Was still having issues and multiple tech people suggested it may be the fact that I had four different RAM sticks with one of them being a 2GB and the other three being 4GB each....but one of the 4GB being at a different speed than the other two. So now I only have two sticks (down to 8GB), but we're hoping that fixes it.

Someone else told me that I was probably bottlenecking, but it shouldn't have been enough to cause the hiccups. My case is new and big and my power supply is 750W.

phoebebebe13

You can't mix ram sticks. . That would cause issues. Your ram sticks should all be same make and model. I think your processor might be too weak for your video card @chesterbigbird

chesterbigbird

It's odd because i would of thought a mismatch of ram would of caused issues straight off the bat and not when loading the game.
Do you have any issues outside of the game?
If you don't mind me asking what motherboard and ram do you have?
I would need to know the exact model of the motherboard and ram.
Is it the MSI 970A GAMING PRO CARBON?

mizuru007

I have issues outside of the game, sure. The thing locks up.
Yes, that is the motherboard. The RAM is....Viper something? It's Viper something and I got it as a set of 4GB at Fry's. Lemme see if I can find it...

https://www.frys.com/product/7796618?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

No issues when booting up. Completely random when it happens and I can't figure out what the heck triggers it. Sometimes, it happens after I've used the computer for maybe an hour. Sometimes, it happens after six hours. It's totally random.

DeKay

Oh you have issues outside the game? Then, I'm sure it's some of the new hardware that you just bought that is conflicting with each other.

DragonAge_300905

Mother boards can conflict with video cards. I found that out when I bought a computer from ibuypower. The motherboard they had installed was having issues with the video card and my computer would shout down. I did a search on Tom's Hardware site and that's how I found out what was causing the issue.

Here is the link for his site. He has articles, reviews, and a forum on his site.

http://www.tomshardware.com/