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Game crashing with no warning

This has been happening with TS2 and TS3 for awhile for me. The game will “crash” to the desktop, but there’s no message, no sound, the game just exits and I’m back in origin. It’s making me think it’s a problem with origin. How am I suppose to diagnose the problem if there isn’t a proper crash? How do I go about fixing this?

Comments

  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    The way to fix an Origin issue is to clear its cache, and if that doesn't help, uninstall and reinstall it (the hard way).

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/

    But in case this is not an Origin issue, it would be good to see a dxdiag on your computer. That would cover issues with your hardware, drivers, free storage, and some other stuff I wouldn't notice (but igazor would). You can post it in pastebin (free) and then provide a link here.

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/HOW-TO-DxDiag-PC-Only/m-p/1049584/thread-id/47181
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited September 2018
    Given that the OP has mentioned heavy loads (I think) of CC in the recent past, I would also ask if the crashing happens if the current TS3 user game folder is pulled out of Documents and a new test game is started on the no-content game folder that will spawn to replace it on the next launch. I assume TS2 can be handled the same way as TS3 in this regard, someone else will have to correct me if it works differently.
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  • Olivesplum06Olivesplum06 Posts: 1,076 Member
    @igazor I don’t have that much CC in TS3 (lots in TS2) I just take out which folder? And when do I put it back?


    I’ll also post my dxdiag later. I have plenty of RAM and free space, as my pc is only 6 months old. But I can still post it.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited September 2018
    The folder is called The Sims 3. It is Documents\Electronic Arts. It's the one that contains your added content, saved games, caches, mods, etc.
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  • Olivesplum06Olivesplum06 Posts: 1,076 Member
    @igazor I’m aware of the sims 3 folder, I just take the whole thing out or what?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited September 2018
    The entire folder. A new one will spawn to take its place on the next game launch. It will have no saved games, installed content, store or custom worlds, mods, etc. but those will all be safe back in the pulled out TS3 folder. This is called The Clean Folder Test and is just that, for testing.

    The point is to help separate content issues from those caused by hardware when the game acts up.
    Post edited by igazor on
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  • Olivesplum06Olivesplum06 Posts: 1,076 Member
    igazor wrote: »
    The entire folder. A new one will spawn to take it's place on the next game launch. It will have no saved games, installed content, store or custom worlds, mods, etc. but those will all be safe back in the pulled out TS3 folder. This is called The Clean Folder Test and is just that, for testing.

    The point is to help separate content issues from those caused by hardware when the game acts up.

    I’ll try that later! Thanks!

  • DianesimsDianesims Posts: 2,867 Member
    I had that often with TS3, but with a macbook I wasn’t surprised. I thought maybe my Mac had the game crash to prevent overheating too much, is it possible ?
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    edited September 2018
    @Dianesims It's certainly possible that your mac was crashing due to some overheating issues. Mac OS is very good at protecting its hardware from heat damage, throttling apps that are causing trouble, but if dialing back the power isn't enough, the OS could shut down the game entirely. Some macs will refuse to even launch TS3 after a system update, even though the game ran successfully beforehand.

    However, your issues were likely caused in part by your only having an integrated graphics card, at least if you're referring to the same computer you described in this post. Running either Pets or Seasons on an integrated card is asking for trouble, and you had both installed. Furthermore, these packs require a lot of RAM to run, and TS3 can only use 2 GB total in mac OS. So whether the cause was overheating, going over the RAM limit, or your graphics card being unable to keep up with the demands placed on it, the crashing was probably inevitable.

    Reading that post again, your crashing could also have been caused by being so low on free storage. Mac OS needs less free space in which to operate than Windows, but 2 GB is cutting it way too close. In response to your previous posts, igazor recommended keeping at least 25 GB free at all times, not only for sims games but for your OS to function properly, and for the overall health of your computer as well.
  • DianesimsDianesims Posts: 2,867 Member
    @puzzlezaddict yes it crashed on that computer several times. But at least it was playable, before that I had the old white macbook, there was only 2go of ram on it, which is what is required for TS3 (base game), so add Pets, Seasons and a lot of cc, it was just so slow it was unplayable.

    It crashed way less on my Macbook pro, with the dowloaded version of the game instead of the CD.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited September 2018
    Dianesims wrote: »
    @puzzlezaddict yes it crashed on that computer several times. But at least it was playable, before that I had the old white macbook, there was only 2go of ram on it, which is what is required for TS3 (base game), so add Pets, Seasons and a lot of cc, it was just so slow it was unplayable.

    It crashed way less on my Macbook pro, with the dowloaded version of the game instead of the CD.
    The game with those EPs will often require up to 2 GB for its own use, but the operating system, even if no other programs are running at the time, needs a fair amount for itself. With 2 GB total on a Mac, that's just not enough RAM to go around despite what the official minimum requirements might say. And heavens forbid we need to open a web browser or something while playing, that's only going to make things worse. :/

    It's sort of like the capacity of a refrigerator. It might say x cubic feet of storage capacity, but that doesn't mean we can cram something that large into it without taking into account what is already inside plus the shelves, drawers, and other forms of overhead.
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  • MimitheTabbyCatMimitheTabbyCat Posts: 1 New Member
    I have this problem, too, but it occurs when I try to save.
    My family went to Egypt, and everything went fine. I can save normally when I am there. As soon as they got back home and I tried to save I got an error 12 message. I tried deleting the .bad folder in the Sims 3 folder, and went back to the game. I saved while in Egypt to see if it worked, and it did. As soon as I got back home and tried to save the game, it crashed to the desktop without any warnings. I tried the Save as, and it crashed. So I tried cleaning up their entire inventory as well as the family inventory cause I read somewhere that all the gems and relics and everything they bring home from a vacation could be the problem, and it still crashed again.
    I've been traveling before without any issues and I don't have any mods that could be causing this. Any ideas, please?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited March 2019
    @MimitheTabbyCat - This particular thread ended up being about all different issues. Can we get a sense of your hardware please, are you playing on a PC or a Mac? And some basic specs (processor, RAM, graphics card, drive space) or, if on Windows, can we get a dxdiag report to see the full picture?

    How to run one: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information

    What to do with it: If you could, send it up to Pastebin (the free version is fine, no account needed) and provide a broken up link using something like h.t.t.p.s. because of your New Member status so we can read it.

    World travel is very jarring to the game and uses a lot of resources going in either direction. There are mods that can help (as opposed to cause) this, but let's see what kind of environment the game is running in first if we could.
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