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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th Jun 2011 at 10:15 PM Last edited by Wojtek : 20th Oct 2011 at 6:11 PM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
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In the Arena
retired moderator
#2 Old 14th Jun 2011 at 7:37 AM
Default MTS2 Staff Reply
  • Sims 3 - Game Problems
    For generic game related issues, please see this FAQ:Try each of the steps listed to either solve the problem or rule out Custom Content as the cause.

  1. The region numbers are fine. Only the first 2 games have been made with 5 Regions, the rest only have 2 (region 1 and region 7).
    Quote: Originally posted by Wojtek
    ... do I have to add only TS3W.exe or all the executables?
  2. Only add the ts3w.exe and only use this to start the game.
  3. For #3-7, let's start over shall we? I don't use any of those checks to diagnose.
    • Do step#3 of the Game Problem FAQ.
    • Patch the games manually, download the ones that are not in these versions and run each file one after another. Game Help:TS3 Patching:Patch_Download/Currentwiki
    • Remove all the DEP changes, and redo for ts3w.exe
    • Start the game via ts3w.exe

Let's just stop there, report back on how the game performs after that last instruction.
In the Arena
retired moderator
#3 Old 16th Jun 2011 at 3:49 AM
Well, since whatever you've done is still messing up the game, so I need you to undo all that and start over.
There's no point continuing down the same path to troubleshoot if we don't know what caused it. So, next cause of action is to backtrack. And start over.

The latest 275.33 driver is causing issues for GTX 2xx cards, we have a couple of threads on that.
Similar threads on the GTX 2xx series issue (folks need to name their help titles better):
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#4 Old 21st Jun 2011 at 1:34 AM
Yes, you need to patch each EP/ SP. You can do that manually, or as you install each one through the Launcher.

Links here:
http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...ownload/Current
In the Arena
retired moderator
#5 Old 24th Jun 2011 at 4:32 AM
Default MTS2 Staff Reply
The sound being choppy is on a totally new, vanilla game or a pre-Generations games with loads of CC (updated, I hope) ?
You can see if Overwatch helps with that if you haven't followed our Freeze FAQ.

I saw in the CLA thread, you're still using external utilities to do stuff with RAM. Do you mean if you don't do those things, the game cannot start?

The threads I linked to show that driver 275.33 is not working for GT 2xx cards. You're back to the older driver versions now, yes?
How about Sound drivers?
Motherboard BIOS? Did you check the manufacturer's site if there are known issues with this board that need a BIOS firmware update newer than the one you currently have?

And just to be clear, we're still dealing with crashes, yes? On a still vanilla setup? No CC, no previous saves?

I wish you had test load the game after each install+patch of each EP/SP, so we could at least pinpoint where the crash starts. In base game right away or from the last few EPs only, for example.
In the Arena
retired moderator
#6 Old 29th Jun 2011 at 8:03 AM
So, I'll repeat again: if you do not do the CFF or RAM tweaks, the game cannot start?
I don't know how useful these tweaks are on a 32-bit OS. And I thought the patch released with Late Night's release also made these LAA tools obsolete, anyway...

You can try pulling out all but one RAM stick and testing the RAM individually (yes, one stick at a time) with MemTest86+, and make sure the drivers you download and install are for the correct Windows and bit version.
Looping sound accompanied by black screen and then a crash to Desktop are symptoms of drivers issues. Would you like to post an updated specs to show the new dates on the graphics and sound drivers?

Quote:
I usually find an exception report saying that CC is the cause. When I remove all CC there is also a crash but the reason is unknown.
That very contradiction and inconsistency makes me question how useful the tool is. You have to remember the tool is developed based on the programmer's best guesses on what the error code means. It also does not detect hardware issues.

So, you're claiming if you have the game updated to patch 1.19 and no Generations installed at this time, all these issues disappear?
In the Arena
retired moderator
#7 Old 29th Jun 2011 at 1:17 PM
I don't know how amenable you are to uninstalling again, but have you ever tried
  • doing the DEP changes, but
  • not doing the RAM tweaks or CFF/LAA stuff ?
...like I've asked above multiple times...

If you're OK to uninstall all over again, I'd like for you to do the above
  1. on patch 1.19 without Generations, and then
  2. on patch 1.22 with Generations

And then report back on how the game performs on (1) & (2).

My theory is that with the TS3W.exe, they have done further changes to the executable that affects how PC resource allocation is done. As the only difference is that you can play on 1.19 (w/o Generations) with the above tweaks but not on 1.22 (/w Generations). So the common element is that RAM + CFF/LAA tweaks.
In the Arena
retired moderator
#8 Old 29th Jun 2011 at 4:20 PM
Yes, return everything that has been tweaked back to default. We can start from there.
Don't even do a DEP change until you get a crash without applying DEP changes. So if game crash after patching to 1.19, then do DEP.

What installer do you mean?
The WA installer? The WA installer will update the base game to 1.5.
The Generations installer? The Generations installer will update the base game to 1.21.

You can follow the Alternative method in Game_Help:TS3_PatchingEPSPwiki, and use the .exe from whichever updates you prefer
  • 1.19 series (from Archived pages linked below) or
  • 1.22 series (from Current pages linked above by me and again by simsample).
That means, update previous game first, and then install the next pack. So, for WA for example, do not let the installer update the game. So, you won't need to update to 1.5 and then to 1.19 - double the work, no? You can go directly to 1.0 to 1.19 and then install WA, and update WA from 2.0 to 2.14 and so on.

If you want to test with 1.19 first (or skip 1.22), you can get the previous patches from Game Help:TS3 Patching:Patch_Download/Archivedwiki.

Didn't read the Patching Guide in its whole entirety? All this info is already there.
In the Arena
retired moderator
#9 Old 3rd Jul 2011 at 12:06 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Wojtek
I installed WA, tested and no problems occurred.
I installed AMB, tested and no problems occurred.
I installed LN and there was a message that I need to update the game to have the same patch level. I ignored it, tested the game and no crashes occurred.

The base game is updated to 1.19 but no expansion pack is updated.


The scenarios you posted above are not plausible,

When you patch base game to 1.19, the game cannot start with WA unless WA is at 2.14. So per your claims, you started the game with ts3.exe with base game at 1.19 and while WA is 2.0? Does WA locales shows up in the map? Are the Sims able to travel, etc?
Same thing when you tested with base game at 1.19, and AMB at 4.0, can you start a new game with Twinbrook?
And lastly, base game at 1.19 with LN at 6.0, is Bridgeport available?

Are you sure the game even started with the above scenarios when starting via ts3.exe? Did the base game recognize the EPs at all? You did not get the "Base game not compatible with EP message..." or something like that?
In the Arena
retired moderator
#10 Old 12th Jul 2011 at 5:57 AM
So no more crashes at this time? The crashing issue is resolved, at least? What version(s) are we on now? 1.22 series for all the games?
With DEP on TS3W.exe? And starting the game with this exe?

Is that still with new game and no CC, ie vanilla config? And you already get lags loading a fresh, cc-free game? Immediately after loading a Household?
Or how long do you play until the lag/freeze happens? Or do you mean it froze and can never get out of the freeze and have to Ctrl+Alt+Del to get back to Desktop?

The image is out of context as we don't know what process is showing that.
Use ProcessMonitor. Game_Help:Package_File_Lag#Process_Monitor_.28Windows.29wiki
In the Arena
retired moderator
#11 Old 12th Jul 2011 at 9:09 AM Last edited by ellacharm3d : 12th Jul 2011 at 9:36 AM.
What I mean by out of context is that image is for ALL processes running at that time. Not just TS3W.exe. So which process is doing that spiking of resources up and down like that?
Or did you double-click on the TS3W.exe process and that spiking image is for that process TS3W.exe alone? (Can Task Manager do this?? I cannot remember)

AFAIR, Task Manager cannot do that, you need ProcessExplorer to monitor one process's CPU and RAM usage individually. But then again it has been sometime since I revert back to Task Manager.

-- eta --
Oh, I guess I should clarify:
Use ProcessExplorer to monitor graphs of TS3W.exe process's CPU and RAM usage.
Use ProcessMonitor to monitor which .package file is being processed at the time of lags/freeze.
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