Crash on Load up «12...Next Go

ChelleJo

I haven't played my sims 3 in a little over a year. I had along term save going and a year ago, it just, randomly started lagging and giving me issues. I was not in a good place in my life and couldn't devote the time needed to trouble shoot Sims 3, so I just put it away and went back to playing Sims 4.

Well, I'm in a better place now and I thought... I'll see what's going on with my Sims 3. I'd like to play my long term save again (it's on about gen 8). Well, now I've got the issue that I can't even get the game to load up. It crashes on load. And I've been out of the Sims 3 troubleshooting game and in the sims 4 troubleshooting game so long, I honestly can't even recall what my first steps should be to fixing my Sims 3.

Can someone please help me get this game loaded. I'd really love to be able to play again.

puzzlezaddict

Welcome back. I'm glad to hear things are better for you now, TS3 issues notwithstanding. Having read some of your earlier posts, I seem to recall you're pretty well-versed this stuff, but I'll list the simple fixes first, just in case:

• Delete the 5 cache files in your game folder
• Clean game folder, copy the save over with no cc and only NRaas mods
• Rename the most recent backup save and load that instead
• Longer shot, but perhaps turning down your graphics options at the Main Menu, quitting, and relaunching would help
• Since you've probably had system updates in the last year, make sure your fps is still locked in at 60
• (Also maybe check RAM use on startup, just in case it's going way over for some reason)
• If none of this works, try a brand new game (save, quit, reload) to make sure it's not a global game issue

I'm sure there are more in-depth ways to troubleshoot, but that's a start. I hope something works.

ChelleJo

I will try the 5 cache (completely forgot about them, ugh lol It's been too long haha)

The game is not loading at all, to get to the main menu. It will crash during the start up process. I'll try a fresh folder and see if that is helping to cause the issue. I hope not, as it's a nightmare to copy sims 3 cc (far as I know) and all of the store.... Sigh. I hope I don't have to go that route.

I can check RAM usage, but I wouldn't imagine that would be an issues as the game isn't even loading.

I did reinstall new versions of RTSS and that has always done well at locking my Fps in place. If the game would load, I could check, but as it is, I have to assume it's doing it's job for the 30 seconds my game tries to load.

Thanks. That is a great point in the right direction. If none works, I'll be back.

ChelleJo

Well, none of that works. I did the fresh folder and it still won't even get to the Sims 3 logo screen. I am on patch 1.67 so I have no idea how to repair game with it not tied to origin.

puzzlezaddict

It would indeed be weird if RAM use was the issue before the Main Menu; I thought you might be trying to load an overstuffed world.

Do you happen to have the Windows 10 Creator's Update? The associated issues seem to have mostly disappeared now (one year and a bit later), but maybe disabling the effects could still help you.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/15902876#Comment_15902876

Other than that, maybe a dxdiag is in order.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/HOW-TO-DxDiag-PC-Only/m-p/1049584/thread-id/47181

Jazzypoo

I had the same problem when I came back to the game after a long time. (I'm also on a Mac, which unfortunately makes the game unstable). The problem with my game was in the DCCache folder. The file I had to delete was called missingEPs or something like that. After that, I had no startup problems. You can also try deleting the contents of SigCache, FeaturedItems, Thumbnails and IGA cache folders. Look through the Saves folders and make sure to delete any .bad files.

ChelleJo

Yes, I have creator's stuido. I remember I had issues with it when it first was released. I'll see if any of that helps.


Here's my dxdaig: I hope I did that right. It's been a minute. https://pastebin.com/McjActpK

igazor

Hey there, @ChelleJo!

This fresh game folder that refuses to even startup to the Main Menu, does it have NRaas mods in it? Just a reminder, there are a couple of not good combos that will crash the game on startup every time.

1 - The MC Progression add-on module without BOTH MasterController and StoryProgression base mods.
2 - A mod that controls EA store content (e.g., Cupcake) when the store content (bakery set) is not present or refusing to load.

Just stabs in the dark really, but is either possible?


Edit: I would also be concerned about your graphics card being installed/listed in the dxdiag three times. I doubt you have three of the same graphics cards. It may need to be uninstalled and reinstalled, unless you know of a reason why it's showing up that way.

ChelleJo

None of that worked either. Game mode was off and checking the fullscreen thing did nothing. Is there a way to force sims to load in windowed mode? I thought you just put in the "-w" at the end of target but that's not doing it. I feel I might make progress if I could go into windowed mode.

igazor

ChelleJo wrote: »

None of that worked either. Game mode was off and checking the fullscreen thing did nothing. Is there a way to force sims to load in windowed mode? I thought you just put in the "-w" at the end of target but that's not doing it. I feel I might make progress if I could go into windowed mode.

Open your current Options.ini file in a text editor and change fullscreen = 1 (assuming that is what's there) to 0.

ChelleJo

igazor wrote: »

Hey there, @ChelleJo!

This fresh game folder that refuses to even startup to the Main Menu, does it have NRaas mods in it? Just a reminder, there are a couple of not good combos that will crash the game on startup every time.

1 - The MC Progression add-on module without BOTH MasterController and StoryProgression base mods.
2 - A mod that controls EA store content (e.g., Cupcake) when the store content (bakery set) is not present or refusing to load.

Just stabs in the dark really, but is either possible?


Edit: I would also be concerned about your graphics card being installed/listed in the dxdiag three times. I doubt you have three of the same graphics cards. It may need to be uninstalled and reinstalled, unless you know of a reason why it's showing up that way.

I completely missed your reply in all that. No. It was a completely fresh folder. I haven't placed anything in it yet. I renamed my folder and started the game. And it wouldn't even load.

The missingdepsx in dccache did nothing, either. For a split second, I thought it was going to work... but, nope. It didn't.

igazor wrote: »

ChelleJo wrote: »

None of that worked either. Game mode was off and checking the fullscreen thing did nothing. Is there a way to force sims to load in windowed mode? I thought you just put in the "-w" at the end of target but that's not doing it. I feel I might make progress if I could go into windowed mode.

Open your current Options.ini file in a text editor and change fullscreen = 1 (assuming that is what's there) to 0.

I'll try this now.

ChelleJo

Nope. All no go's.

It never even gets to the EA or Sims logo. It just goes to a black screen, I get the blue spinning mouse and then it just goes away. No popup, nothing.


The xcpt is saying:
[Exception info]
date: 2018-09-03
time: 11.44.42
type: ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION
address: 0x6939c989 "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\d3d9.dll":0x0001:0x000db989

[Call stack]
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\d3d9.dll
0x6939c989

I tried to repair the visual C++ and I tried to update Directx. But neither worked.

igazor

Are you getting a DeviceConfig.log that shows the game is seeing your graphics card or is it all blank?

Jazzypoo

@ChelleJo - hmmm there is another file in that same folder that has the suffix ".ent" If it's there, you can try deleting that too. Also, are you starting the game up from the launcher? The launcher can have its own issues independent from the game, however I can't discuss methods of bypassing it in these forums.

igazor

There shouldn't be anything taboo about bypassing the Launcher on a 1.67 install. It's 1.69 where this cannot be done.

The dll error is an issue with DirectX. This will go over my head quickly. You may need to get the attention of @chesterbigbird (PM her if she doesn't respond to the page, I do believe you two have "met") and/or a post on EA's Answers HQ board about that and the triple graphics card entry.

ChelleJo

igazor wrote: »

Are you getting a DeviceConfig.log that shows the game is seeing your graphics card or is it all blank?

@igazor It's showing my graphic card:

=== Application info ===
Name: Sims3
Version:
Build: Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 4013 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 4951 RAM: 32667 Adjusted RAM: 32155 Cores: 8
=== Machine info ===
OS version: Windows 8 6.2.9200
OS prod type: 0
OS major ver: 6
OS minor ver: 2
OS SP major ver: 0
OS SP minor ver: 0
OS is 64Bit: 1
CPU: AuthenticAMD
Brand: AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor
Family: 15
Model: 2
Cores: 8
HT: 0
x64: 0
Memory: 32667MB
Free memory: 24738MB
User: s_tho
Computer: CHELLEJO
=== Graphics device info ===
Number: 0
Name (driver): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Name (database): GeForce GTX 1070 [Found: 1, Matched: 1]
Vendor: NVIDIA
Chipset: Vendor: 10de, Device: 1b81, Board: 00000000, Chipset: 00a1
Driver: nvldumd.dll, Version: 24.21.13.9811, GUID: D7B71E3E-58C1-11CF-E345-0D201BC2D535
Driver version: 9811
Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1
Texture memory: 3046MB
Vertex program: 3.0
Pixel program: 3.0
Hardware TnL: 1

Jazzypoo wrote: »

@ChelleJo - hmmm there is another file in that same folder that has the suffix ".ent" If it's there, you can try deleting that too. Also, are you starting the game up from the launcher? The launcher can have its own issues independent from the game, however I can't discuss methods of bypassing it in these forums.

I have tried both with the launcher and bypass the launcher. I just deleted that file, too, but it's still a no-go.

ChelleJo

I'm getting Script errors and XCPT's each time I try to load.

igazor wrote: »

There shouldn't be anything taboo about bypassing the Launcher on a 1.67 install. It's 1.69 where this cannot be done.

The dll error is an issue with DirectX. This will go over my head quickly. You may need to get the attention of @chesterbigbird (PM her if she doesn't respond to the page, I do believe you two have "met") and/or a post on EA's Answers HQ board about that and the triple graphics card entry.

The triple graphics card entry?

Yes, Chester has helped me a lot, she helped me pick out my graphic card and get it set up.

puzzlezaddict

@ChelleJo Your struggles made me paranoid curious if a recent system update might have borked the game (again), so I booted into Windows 10, and TS3 launched fine. Although it's beyond my understanding of these things, I'd definitely go with igazor's assessment that your graphics card showing up three times in the dxdiag could be indicative of a larger issue. Sorry I don't have more to offer.

Also, if you're going to post at AHQ, be sure to tag roberta591 (bob007 from here), or else you'll just get me again.

@Jazzypoo The beauty of a clean folder test is that it removes all the potentially corrupt game folder files in one go. The folders can be easily swapped, and files transferred between them, instead of having to go digging through their contents one file at a time.

igazor

ChelleJo wrote: »

The triple graphics card entry?

Go back a few posts, we were typing at the same time. Your graphics card is showing as installed three times in the dxdiag. Am pretty sure that's not supposed to happen.

If you look at Windows' DeviceManager, I suspect you will see three Nvidia cards when of course you probably really have one.

ChelleJo

igazor wrote: »

ChelleJo wrote: »

The triple graphics card entry?

Go back a few posts, we were typing at the same time. Your graphics card is showing as installed three times in the dxdiag. Am pretty sure that's not supposed to happen.

If you look at Windows' DeviceManager, I suspect you will see three Nvidia cards when of course you probably really have one.

The graphic card would need to be uninstalled and reinstalled?? cause that I am not comfortable doing on my own. But I can remove the driver and reinstall that.

ADDED:

Just showing once in device manager.

ADDED 2: I have three monitors, I'm sure that's why it's showing three times. I forgot about that for a second.

igazor

Sorry, I didn't mean physically removing it from the computer. I meant uninstalling it (and thus its drivers) and reinstalling them. But chester can probably see what's gone wrong here in twelve seconds when we get her attention.

Aha on the three monitors. Did you when you played TS3 prior? How about if we reduce that to one and see what happens?

ChelleJo

igazor wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't mean physically removing it from the computer. I meant uninstalling it (and thus its drivers) and reinstalling them. But chester can probably see what's gone wrong here in twelve seconds when we get her attention.

Aha on the three monitors. Did you when you played TS3 prior? How about if we reduce that to one and see what happens?

I played on two monitors a year ago. I've been running dual's for the better part of 3 years now. But the 3rd monitor is a new addition. I can see if it will do anything.

ChelleJo

Nope. Still no go.

I checked "run without cc" and my game has been trying to load for about 10 minutes. Only on a black screen, no logo's yet.

ChelleJo

Sorry about the triple post... but we have progress!!!

I remembered back when the creator's update first dropped, I had an issue with RTSS and sims 3 crashing on load. So I closed out my RTSS and I am finally able to load the game.

So, I found the cause of the crash, I'm just not sure how to fix it. I need that RTSS to run my game. It's the only thing to keep fps capped (other than bandicam).

Thank you everyone for your help! I'm sure I got it from here, I just got to figure out how to get RTSS to play nice with Sims 3.

igazor

(sigh of relief) Finally, glad to hear we're (you're) getting someplace. Which version of RTSS do you have? If the older version 6.x isn't cutting it any longer, perhaps the newer stable 7.1 or the 7.2 beta will.

ChelleJo

igazor wrote: »

(sigh of relief) Finally, glad to hear we're (you're) getting someplace. Which version of RTSS do you have? If the older version 6.x isn't cutting it any longer, perhaps the newer stable 7.1 or the 7.2 beta will.

I had just updated to the 7.1.0 version, so I updated again to the 7.2 beta and so far, it's loading. It took me about 30 minutes to get RTSS uninstalled and updated, cause apparently - if you have the folder with the downloaded RTSS open - it will adort the installation process. Yeah, that took me a minute to figure out. lol

Now I can go into game, double check fps is capped and then see if I'm still having the lag issues.