Game keeps crashing in live mode

[amicablywhim]

I've tried a lot of fixes so far. I've done all the cache clearing, removing mods, and starting up a new neighborhood. I'm actually playing in a neighborhood I made myself and it's the smallbeachmountainriver template so it's not even nearly as big as Sunset Valley or Riverview.

But I have a LOT of lots. Like a lot. But most of them are pretty small for faster gameplay and easy building. Maybe a hundred? I didn't mean to; it just happened to be that way. But I have about 18 families in the neighborhood right now. Half of them are just single-member households though. Except I haven't started playing this neighborhood yet! I've spent most of my time building and making sure the parks were pretty to look at.

For now my 3 families are (don't laugh!; I like names that make the neighborhood lively)
- Darlings
- Bristol
- Pistachio

So after I tried all the fixes in the FAQ, I decided to do something else instead since my game loads up pretty quickly. I realize every time I was in the Darlings' home, the game crashed to desktop. So I decided to play the Bristols and it was fine. I assumed that there was a glitch in either the Darlings or their home.

I then made a new neighborhood and put the Bristols (attached with house) in first. I played them for a minute and it was fine. Then I put the Darlings on a DIFFERENT LOT than the one they had been on before in the other neighborhood, moved them out of their house, and put the Bristols in the Darlings' home. I played the Bristols in the D's home and it was fine. So I put the Darlings into the Bristol's home and that ran well too. So finally, I put the Darlings back into their original home ON the original lot and that was also fine. So now I was confused.

I decided to put a big household in. That would be the Pistachios and once I entered the lot, they crashed. I thought, oh, so this was the culprit. But when I went back to the original neighborhood, deleted the two families that I thought was causing the crash, the game still crashed anyway. Maybe the file was still corrupted regardless? These are SMALL lots, btw!

But then I had an idea that I didn't have enough RAM to run the game. So as I was typing this, I created another new neighborhood and put in the families one by one. I put in the Pistachios, Darlings, and Bristols in that order and everything ran. I started putting in the single-member families. I have about 7 families on there now. For each of them, after every time I put them on a plot of land, I played them individually for about a minute in real time. Finally, I put in the biggest family on the biggest lot with the biggest house. That was fine too! But the part where I'm confused is that how corrupted can it be when I made a new neighborhood and that crashed too? And the Pistachios crashed when I had only three houses in the neighborhood and nothing else. Not like so many homes like now.

Also, I can't use the S3...SP? Tool because my game won't launch with it and the game also freezes if I click outside of it when I'm playing. Same with the launcher if it's installing or downloading something. I've learned to live with it but it could be contributing to my crashes.

I know this has been a really long explanation but I would appreciate any help! :)

My question is, why is my game crashing annnd...why does it freeze?

//edit:
It finally crashed in my new neighborhood after putting in the 10th family. That would be weird because I haven't updated to the latest patch (I'm too scared) and I've played 3 generations in Sunset with the 3.1.7 patch and also WA. Now when I start up the game, it crashes straight away once it gets off the loading family screen.

[ellacharmed]

In order to better solve your problem, please go through the following as listed below:

General - Post System Specs
We need more information before we can help with your issue. Please post your system specs - instructions on finding them are here: Game Help:System Specs.

If it is not specifically asked, please provide the Quick summary only.

Until we can isolate certain possibilities, let's check hardware to be thorough...

So, this custom beachmountainriver world (urm, what do you name it? easier to refer to it that way) has custom CC or just EA base game + WA + HELS default content? You've verified that it's not a misrouting issue or an overlapping roads issue, etc? See the CAW Create sub-forum for these...

A Household+Lot packaged to be shared would have reset some things - maybe why it works once exported and placed into new games. Is there a common denominator in these 3 households? Like a piece of furniture or pattern that you use for all of them? Or a piece of clothing or any other CAS-related CC on Sims of each Household?

The new neighborhood you mentioned putting the Bristols in to test - that would still be the custom world? Have you tried placing these Households in a new, unmodified Sunset Valley?

That last edit you added - which world was that? Sunset Valley or your custom world?
And with all these testing you conducted, you remembered to always refresh caches and thumbnails?
Just to be clear, you have tried a vanilla game (100% CC-free from both Sims3Packs and .packages) on a new Sunset Valley world and it still crash?
Do you recall what you'd done prior to all the crashing happening? added new CC, patched, installed HELS, etc?

I can't use the S3...SP? Tool because my game won't launch with itDo you mean s3pe? Exactly what tool are we talking about here? And while playing the game or using Launcher to install content, you should not have any other tool running at the same time, as the files would be in use and would raise an error.

To summarise, some standard questions for crashing issues: Have you tried the Loading Crash FAQ to determine if there's a CC conflict or user files corruption?
What game(s) do you have and what patch version(s) are you running?
For each of the games you have, Disc or Digital downloads?
What changed from the Before all the crashing happened? Did you patch, add more CC, add a core mod, install a pack, etc?
If just patched, what patch version did you have before you experienced frequent crashing with this new patch version?
Are you running the game in windowed or fullscreen mode?
Are you starting the game via Launcher or the .exe?
Do you have EADM installed and has it ran an update recently? (current EADM is ver6.0.4.10)
Are you playing on the default graphical settings or have tweaked it higher?


On occasion you might be asked to do a long FAQ - please make sure you do all the steps and don't just skip over them. You'll often find that these long FAQs have all the details you need. If nothing in the above FAQs fixes your problem you may post again detailing exactly which you have done and which steps failed.

[amicablywhim]

So, this custom beachmountainriver world (urm, what do you name it? easier to refer to it that way) has custom CC or just EA base game + WA + HELS default content? You've verified that it's not a misrouting issue or an overlapping roads issue, etc? See the CAW Create sub-forum for these...Err..I actually never gave the town a name. I just named the file Untitled, lol. But I'll use Suburbia for namesakes. It has custom CC with the base game + WA + HELS. At least it did before I took them out to see if the game would crash again. I'm not sure what you mean about the misrouting or roads because I don't see how they can crash the game but I haven't played long enough to see whether all the roads work. They should though because I flattened most of the land and the roads are in a basic gridlock format. Like this:http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/yy211/debmisc/TS3road-1.jpg?t=1269737045 A Household+Lot packaged to be shared would have reset some things - maybe why it works once exported and placed into new games. Is there a common denominator in these 3 households? Like a piece of furniture or pattern that you use for all of them? Or a piece of clothing or any other CAS-related CC on Sims of each Household?No I don't think so. For the 3 households, except for a house that I made which had CC only as decorations, they were all houses downloaded with no CC. The Pistachios and Bristols were newly made. But the Darlings were exported from SV and imported to the new neighborhood. They did have broken line of family relations before I exported them though. (The "dad" was never recognized in the family tree as a member of the family but the other family members still called him their "son", "cousin", etc. But once the dad had a child, the family tree only consisted of the mom, dad, and child.) But it didn't matter anyway since moving did reset everything.
I used different clothes on all of them since I'm ishy about that except for the children/toddlers but those would be default clothing, and I don't have any CAS related CC that aren't mods that have worked well previously with the game back in Sunset.
The new neighborhood you mentioned putting the Bristols in to test - that would still be the custom world? Have you tried placing these Households in a new, unmodified Sunset Valley?No actually I didn't! But after reading this, I went and did that and put 2 households in. I tested the small family of 3, the Darlings first. It was ok, a little lag. Then Pistachios (6 members). There was a lag every few seconds. The unbearable kind where the world seems to be moving but time has stopped for them. I didn't play it long enough to see if it was just the loading. So I switched over to the Wan-Goddards and they seemed fine with little lag. Switched back to the Darlings and it was the same.

I didn't actually want the game to crash to see if it would happen for them so after about 5 minutes of realtime gameplay, I went back to Suburbia and deleted all the bigger households (5+). I went to a 2-member household and they ran really well! Then I went to the original victims (when the game began crashing), the Darlings and they ran well without a lag too. AND the game didn't crash. The game was on pause when I saved but the 10 or so times I unpaused it, after 2 seconds, it would crash to desktop. This time after deleting, after unpausing, the game would continue. So once again, I was thinking of my specs. I decided to put a large family+house in after a bit of normal gameplay. It wasn't until about 3 households back in later that the game did eventually crash and I'm typing this. And I didn't have any CC (both sims3pack and .package) in at the time.

//edit
Okay so it does eventually crash. It takes a little longer though, like about 2-3 minutes.That last edit you added - which world was that? Sunset Valley or your custom world?
And with all these testing you conducted, you remembered to always refresh caches and thumbnails?
Just to be clear, you have tried a vanilla game (100% CC-free from both Sims3Packs and .packages) on a new Sunset Valley world and it still crash?
Do you recall what you'd done prior to all the crashing happening? added new CC, patched, installed HELS, etc?It crashed in the custom neighborhood. I've had instances where a patch would crash my game. Sooo I meant that I didn't update the game with the 3.2 patch. It's still on 3.1.4.
Yep. Cache and thumbnails cleared.
Yep. Well, sorta. I moved the mods but on the launcher, I would click "run w/o custom content" so it's still there -- just off.
I've been playing with WA and HELS smoothly for about half a generation in Sunset. Ever since the unbearable lag from the .package files, I've stopped adding new CC and only install lots from MTS with no CC.
Do you mean s3pe? Exactly what tool are we talking about here? And while playing the game or using Launcher to install content, you should not have any other tool running at the same time, as the files would be in use and would raise an error.Yes I meant s3pe. I used to use it to find out the files causing the freezing lag but when I tried to use it to see if I could find out what was causing the crash, the game would start up without an error message via both the Launcher and .exe. 1. Have you tried the Loading Crash FAQ to determine if there's a CC conflict or user files corruption?
2. What game(s) do you have and what patch version(s) are you running?
3. For each of the games you have, Disc or Digital downloads?
4. What changed from the Before all the crashing happened? Did you patch, add more CC, add a core mod, install a pack, etc?
5. If just patched, what patch version did you have before you experienced frequent crashing with this new patch version?
6. Are you running the game in windowed or fullscreen mode?
7. Are you starting the game via Launcher or the .exe?
8. Do you have EADM installed and has it ran an update recently? (current EADM is ver6.0.4.10)
9. Are you playing on the default graphical settings or have tweaked it higher? 1. Yes
2. 3.1.4
3. Base: Disc - WA: Disc - HELS: Digital
4. Answered
5. N/A
6. Windowed before my game started to freeze if I began clicking anything outside of the game; fullscreen to keep me from clicking anything out of the game
7. Both
8. version 6.0.4 (I didn't realize it was updated; I usu. decline the updates)
9. Default but I think the Sim detail is higher...and the lighting. Neither would be on max settings though.

...After answering all of these questions, I just feel like my game has a lot of problems that have been accumulating. :rolleyes:

System Specs

------------------
System Information
------------------
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.091207-1941)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: P5K-E
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 1647MB used, 2446MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 11

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 7600 GS
Display Memory: 1016 MB
Dedicated Memory: 248 MB
Shared Memory: 767 MB
Driver Version: 8.15.11.8593
DDI Version: 9Ex
Driver Model: WDDM 1.0
Driver Date/Size: 7/13/2009 21:16:11, 7592960 bytes

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Driver Name: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385 (English)
Date and Size: 7/13/2009 19:51:47, 304128 bytes

------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
Drive: C:
Free Space: 38.5 GB
Total Space: 88.0 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD3200AAKS-00YGA0 ATA Device

Drive: D:
Free Space: 53.2 GB
Total Space: 217.2 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD3200AAKS-00YGA0 ATA Device

[DarkAmaranth]

Well, your graphics driver could use an update. Thay may help. 2 gig of ram is tight with all the EP/SP and Windows 7 but, with settings on low and maybe sim detial on medium it should work, at least not crash. It is possible that packground processes are interfereing with the game. You can close the manually or via msconfig and rebooting, but I like using GameBooster (a free program- google if you want to try it.)

[ellacharmed]

OK, that was way too confusing - too many variables to conduct any testing with any conclusive results.
Essentially, what do you want to test for -
which household is buggy? or
if Suburbia is buggy?


Based on your answers:

Specs-wise
It is best to have drivers dated after Oct '09, as that is when Windows 7 retail version was released.
For your machine, though, there's no new updates worth getting for the Asus motherboard as most of the drivers are dated July '09 anyway.
But the graphics card needs an update - win7_winvista_32bit_197.13_whql (http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_197.13_whql.html) Update in safe mode
===============
- Download the driver file
- boot to Safe mode (press F8 during boot-up),
- uninstall old driver via Control Panel
- reboot (You'll be defaulted to standard VGA drivers at low resolution)
- install new drivers
- reboot again
The graphical setting I'm more concerned with is if you had set this value to be more than 4? Setting this to 4 or lower has been known to solve some crashing issues, too.maxactivelots = #Based on the GPU, though, you are better off with settings on the lower range than medium, I think. It is on the EA's supported list, but findings by MTS staff has rated it a "Maybe" for the base game with 2.5GB RAM (you have 2GB) for Vista. More than likely newer EPs and SPs would benefit from a stronger card, with your CPU+RAM combo. Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements. :(
After the driver has been updated, first, lets uninstall EADM if you have not done so, as it is an older version anyway. Instructions here: Game_Help:TS3_Patching:Common_Errors#...when_starting_Launcher
Then, I'd suggest to patch to 3.2 and the equivalent for base game and WA as you have Digital version of HELS. And it has been reported that 3.2 has fixed the freezing when Alt+Tab and when minimizing windows. Game_Help:TS3_Patching
Once you're done patching, I'd test with Windowed mode via the .exe and try to replicate the instance where you had constant crashing, no matter which worlds or what households you tried testing with. See if the new patch has improved things any?

Related reading on CAW issues I mentioned:
Create-A-World - EDIT IN GAME?
How do I get rid of that annoying road clipping?

[amicablywhim]

I don't know how I'm going to be able to read any fixes in a medieval theme (lol!) but...

Thanks darkamaranth! I downloaded gamebooster but I haven't tried it yet.

Okay I updated my drivers! And I uninstalled EA Manager and got the new patch. The good thing is that my game no longer freezes from clicking outside of the window! Thank you! But the bad thing is that my game still crashes to desktop without warning. Would the maxactivelots = # be the HighDetailLots in the graphics settings? My game setting for that one is on "2" right now. I turned everything that was high (which wasn't much) down to medium.

Also, I really think it's ONLY the custom world (Suburbia) that keeps crashing. Sunset Valley is working fine and when I loaded an entirely new custom world from CAW for testing, there was no crashing either. Is there any way to test for bad files?

[ellacharmed]

Just channel Shakespeare or Chaucer... :giggler: Did I get the time period right? <*shrugs*>

Back on topic,
If you've narrowed down the cause to Suburbia, then you need to venture onto CAW-land (hehe I mean CAW sub-forum) for custom world crashing issues. Those 2 links I provided are a good start, there are of course, others.
The official EA CAW forum also has some good resources on world-building in the stickied threads.