I have serious problems of LN freezing up and totally "locking up" the game that I can't even alt+tab or ctrl+alt+del my way out to the desktop! I have to hard reboot or shutdown my pc completely. The problem comes out whenever I'm in map view (whether I press "M" or as a consequence of other actions like moving & selecting a new home, etc..).

I had removed all ccs & mods completely and transferred to another hard drive.

My games installed: The Sims™ 3 (1.17.60.009002), The Sims™ 3 World Adventures (2.12.8.009002), The Sims™ 3 High-End Loft Stuff (3.8.6.009001), The Sims™ 3 Ambitions (4.5.6.009001), The Sims™ 3 Fast Lane Stuff (5.2.4.009001), The Sims™ 3 Late Night (6.0.81.009001).

I have completely uninstalled all of the above games, used Delphy's Sims3Dashboard (always used this before & after each game as s.o.p.), used cc cleaner in safe mode, made disk clean up, restarted and started reinstalling all my games and patching each one of them to their respective versions. I even manually deleted the documents folder containing "electronic arts/sims 3" and completely cleaned out using cc cleaner and cleared registry files.

N.B. I test played after each installation of the BG, EPs & SPs before patching and after patching these to the latest and NONE have shown any problems until LN was installed. I even used Sims 3 Patch Downloader. I don't have EADM installed and I don't use EA's Launcher.

I discount that custom contents or a mods are doing this as there aren't any.

Would hardware be an issue in my case? I doubt it very much. here are my specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 (Quad-Core) Black Edition
VGA: ATI HD 4870 GDDR5 (with drivers updated to 10.10
MOBO: MSI K9A2 Platinum Edition
RAM: 3 g

If need be I'll post dxdiag.

I have read thru and followed this site's game helps & tutorials on DEP, LAA and about installing cc's & mods. I'm quiet familiar about this already.

There is a solution suggested in other threads to use Twalan's Overwatch but I fear this wont work for me as my game's freeze up occurs shortly after choosing a new sim to play right after creating her on CAS and going into map view to choose neighborhood (house or vacant lot). there would simply be no opportunity to use Overwatch as the freeze or lockup happens on the very first instance of map viewing. Arrggh!

I don't know if there are other solutions out there or steps I may have overlooked. If there's anyone who can help me with this I'll be forever grateful. cheers.

Is this a new game or a pre-LN-game? Which town is the game on?

And you have removed caches & thumbnails after removing CC?

You're including Sims3Packs in this no CC list? And ALL CC, not just mods/hack-type CC, right? ie including CAS CC, and Buy/Build mode CC, and scripting/tuning/core mods CC?

Or did you do a rename on the Sims 3 folder and start over from scratch after installing LN?

And what OS are you on? Did you remember to check the VirtualStore path as shown in the cc removal & Uninstall FAQs?

Wow a quick reply. Thank you Ellacharm3d.

1. a) Yes it is a new game after my first round of uninstall & reinstall. I should have stated that I first installed LN last Friday, Oct. 29. It had run well enough at first (w/o cc's & mods) until it started freezing up. After doing some workarounds I gave up and decided to uninstall everything and reinstall all from scratch and patching along the way. Note, that before installing each EP & SP, I tested by playing a game for 15 minutes (pure vanilla & w/o a single cc or mod), exit game, clear all cache (using dashboard), use cc cleaner (to be safe & sure) before moving up to the next EP or SP to be installed. No problems encountered until I finished up with LN and started playing with a test subject sim (I named as "Tess Test" go figure). Never installed cc's or mods at this point when it started freezing & locking up soon as I'm brought to map view.

b.) I tried every town, Bridgeport, Twinbrook & Sunset Valley. It doesn't matter. The effect are the same.

2. Yes Maam. removed every caches & thumbnails using Delphy's dashboard. I even checked the documents/electronic arts/sims directory just to be sure before I also deleted this entire folder.

3. Yes to all of these. sims3packs, cc's, mods, you name it. It's the entire folder of sims 3 directory in my documents.

4. Didn't have to do renaming although I've tried in the distant past. I just deleted everything to be safe. I should mention also that before starting the reinstall beginning with Sims 3 base game, I re-started my pc, press f8 and went into safe mode. ran dashboard for the nth time, cc cleaner to clean up "windows", "applications" and "registry". I then ran disk clean up before restarting to normal mode.

5. I'm using Vista 32-bit. Yes I run through Virtual Store but the only thing I found under "electronic arts" was "Spore" a different game that I have installed a year back and still functioning. In fact I have more than a dozen games of different genre, latest of which is Starcraft II & Medal of Honor and they function just fine on optimal settings.

I'm really stump and quiet frustrated. I have been playing this game since July 09 and I had encountered a lot of problems along the way but was easily resolved. those old glitzes & bugs are nothing like this. There are other post in this wonderful forum (it helped me a lot in my other problems in the past) that talks about freezing and CTD's but they are not like my case. I'm desperate. Help.

p.s. a little side note. after my first post I uninstalled LN only (but did the usual clean up routine) leaving Sims BG, WA,HELS,Ambitions & FastLane behind. I started Fast Lane but the freezin' & lockin' problem I had with LN survived. Should I uninstall the whole shebang again but this time not install LN????? It would be sad. I just love the tons of new features in LN.


-------------
I'm not sure if I'm double posting or what.... but just in case anyone would like to know this is a short view of my dxdiag:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 11/2/2010, 08:57:38
Machine name: JBP-PC
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.090803-2339)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
System Model: MS-7376
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) 9950 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 3070MB RAM
Page File: 1393MB used, 4955MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x9440)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9440&SUBSYS_22671787&REV_00
Display Memory: 1785 MB
Dedicated Memory: 505 MB
Shared Memory: 1279 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Driver Name: aticfx32.dll,aticfx32.dll,aticfx32.dll,atiumdag.dll,atidxx32.dll,atiumdva.cap
Driver Version: 8.17.0010.1047 (English)
DDI Version: 10.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 9/29/2010 09:55:02, 536576 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-D700-11CF-2070-6D02BEC2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x9440
SubSys ID: 0x22671787
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C
Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,UYVY) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,UYVY) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,UYVY) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x32315659) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
{3C5323C1-6FB7-44F5-9081-056BF2EE449D}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(IMC1,UNKNOWN) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(IMC2,UNKNOWN) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(IMC3,UNKNOWN) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
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DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

1. OK, wait...so this is a brand new game where you had just loaded CAS, and bring that random EA-made (or self-made) Household into the game and you start to get freezes and lags immediately?
   
   Or is this a game that has been played for a few days?
   Then you definitely need a StoryProgression mod and twallan's Overwatch (if you'd rather not have Awesomemod).
   The game is totally unplayable 100% mod free on EA's StoryProgression, after a few Sim days...
   
   
2. Have you gone through the town's map to remove any badly placed Ambitions Lots? These contribute to lags and crashes, too.
   
   
3. And when you installed the next EP/SP and to bring the base game up to 1.17, was the patching done using
   - the Patch Downloader or
   - the DVD's patcher or
   - manually from our wiki links?
   
   
4. Had you messed about with DEP and/or LAA before this patch 1.17 series? Are the exe reset back to defaults or still have the DEP/LAA stuff applied to them, since you had done an uninstall+reinstall?
   
   
5. Hardware-wise, there's a new Catalyst 10.10 drivers released 10/22, and how about DirectX? When was that last updated?
   The computer looks to be fine - should be plenty strong to handle Sims 3 and the packs up to this point.
   
   
6. You could also use the Process Monitor to see what files are being processed at the time of the freeze/lag.
   

Other than that, I'm stumped too.

I went over the posts over again multiple times so as not to repeat myself or suggest stuff you had already tried, but I may still have missed something and repeated myself anyway, sorry.
But you seem to know what you're doing, so if the above don't work...

...Perhaps another uninstall? As what I also suggested for this user https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=423774
- reset all exe back
- uninstall everything
- patch base manually to 1.17 and install next pack and patch it to be on the same level
- keep it cc free, test on multiple base + EP towns, and try to replicate the issue when testing, before installing next pack
- skip the DEP/LAA stuff

Hopefully, others may have other ideas that you can also try before you need to resort to another uninstalling exercise.

1. Yes Maam. It's a brand new game I started. I could go in to CAS get out then go to map view prior to choosing lot/house to move into then WHAM! I get a freeze. Sometimes I pass this point in a few of my several attempts, start playing but then soon as I get into another map view WHAM! my game freezes. When it does, I can't alt+tab or ctrl+alt+del my way out of it back to desktop. I had to do a "manual" shutdown, restart in safe mode do my repetitive cc cleaner / delphy dashboard (entire caches cleanup) routine, restart to normal and reload the Sims again, varying between using the launcher or ts3.exe (already configured in administrative mode/xp compatibility). Same result each time.

a. I'm a huge fan of Twallan and have been using his mods and updating whenever necessary. I had previously used his Overwatch, MC, Dresser, SP, Debug Enabler etc..etc... I never used awesomemod or any other mods. Twallan's mods served my needs and more in the past. But in this recent case, the freezing (crashing?) occurs almost immediately that I feel there isn't much time for Twallan's mods to work its wonders. Actually there was that one time, when I paused game, click on the phone (or was that laptop in inventory?...), go to Nrass->Overwatch and viewed objects. There wasn't yet any of the LN taxis being rendered there for me to delete as mentioned in other threads.

2. I've read about bad lots & junkyards in another thread and how it help if deleted. Unfortunately, my crashes come even before I could get to it. If my crashes/freezes occur a few seconds after I go into map view in either sunset valley or twinbrook, the freezes are almost instantaneous in bridgeport. One time when I started new game in bridgeport the game freeze just before Create A Sim / Move into Household option came on screen. Is there another way of removing this lot/s without running the game????

3. I used FordGT90Concept's "The Sims 3 Patch Downloader". Is there an issue with this tool? Since Sims 3 BG came out last year I've most often patch my game manually following MTS tutorial and a few times using launcher. Maybe I should try again by doing manual patching as before???? This is worth trying as I'm running out of options. I have to admit FordGT90concept's tool is quite convenient to use.

4. Yes on both DEP & LAA.

a.) On DEP, I chose DEP on all except those that I chose -> Sims 3 BG, WA, HELS, Ambitions, Fast Lane, & LN. Something weird though about this. When I read on a post (can't remember which) that it is only necessary to add only one (latest EP/SP) I removed the rest leaving LN behind, click apply and restarted. But when I look again, the others that I removed were still there. Weird. After several freezes, I also tried going back to default on DEP (only for essential Windows apps thingy). Same freezes.

b.) Yes I've messed around with LAA. I used a tool (can't remember name but I downloaded here at MTS) and made Sims 3 large area aware. I admit I haven't tried turning this off..... this is something worth looking into when I get home. Can this be reverse? Oh yeah another thing... this must be something... aside from using LAA tool, I've also manually tweaked LAA thingy using bc/edit on dos-prompt (sorry can't remember specifics, I'm in my office now using an older pc with XP os) which I read about in another forum (damn...should stick exclusively to advises on MTS forums from now on). Could this be it???? could this be the culprit????

5. Yes I have 10.10 downloaded & installed from ATI. On the direct X, my dxdiag says Direct X Version: Direct X 10. Is this the latest? I haven't been downloading direct X since or is this part of Windows auto-update? I had my auto-update disabled (I don't trust auto-updates & auto-installing with windows).

Your suggestions to "Aye" seems promising. I will follow your advise when I get back home tonight (it's 11:00 a.m. now Nov. 3) and finger's cross.

Thank you Ellacharm3d for giving me the time of day. Even if it won't work, your effort to help me is very much appreciated. Wish me luck.


update: Uninstalled everything last night, careful to clean up all cache files using dashboard in safe mode as well as cc cleaner, and checked folders and registry files for any remnants of files remotely connected to Sims 3. Uninstalled CLA & LAA after undoing every tweak or configuration I made previously. Ran cleaner again and proceeded to install in normal mode. Installed Direct X 11 restarted and tested with other games and no issues. Restarted again.

Installed BG & EADM (alternative suggestion) & played it unpatch. The game was smooth as silk without issue.

Proceeded to install patch to latest for BG (after cleaning cache with dashboard - this is SOP for me before & after playing Sims), played the game and still smooth without issue for about 30 minutes. Didn't save any game at all. Exited, done usual SOP (no world cache on documents) and proceeded to install WA. Played WA unpatch (vanilla settings & no cc/mods whatsoever) and still no issue. Exited, done SOP, and proceeded to patch to latest. Played new game, went to map view several times, bought things, built swimming pool and left the game at live mode and on map view for 30 minutes while I took a shower.

Went back after, check the game still played but later frooze up. But unlike before, I could move the mouse cursor (Sim's cursor not standard desktop windows cursor) but can't move anything and can't alt+tab or ctrl+alt+del my way out again.

Didn't attempt to retry the game. Done SOP again with dashboard, and clean up registry files with CCCleaner and shutdown pc for the night.

What should I do now? After more than a year (since July 2009) this is the worst problem I have with this game. Is there hope? Help please.


Update: 8 hours since my last post (now 11/4/10 14:38). I'm going to try another tack outside of Sims game. I have now Direct X 11 and latest ATI driver (10.10) for my HD4870 VGA. I notice that on device manager my display adapter shows that my driver version is still at 8.782.0.0 w/ driver date 9/28/10 How could this be when I just downloaded latest driver 10.10 dated 10/22/10? or am I reading things differently? uninstalling ATI Catalyst driver package in safe mode and reinstall thru vista's device manager & see if there is improvement. updating soon.

Update: (11/04/10 17:58) Done the above and installed latest ATI drivers (10.10) without Catalyst Control Center. Clean all cache files, check registry & virtual store then reloaded WA in latest patch. Game ran smoothly without issues for 15 minutes. exited game without saving, SOP cleaning, load the game again 3 times. Still nothing after 15 minutes of gameplay each time.

Now debating whether to install HELS before Ambitions or to install it at all. Except for the aquarium, there is nothing much in HELS that I could find of equal value among the custom content makers out there.

Question: Should I decide later on to install HELS, can this be done without issue if I install this AFTER Ambitions & LN??? Would I miss something of significance in LN if I do away altogether with HELS or FL?????

On newly started games, the freeze and crashing in Late Night may be caused by the Ambitions Lots which the game auto-placed.
As suggested in the thread linked below, you need to manually remove and place them.

On Late Night crashings:


On LAA:
this is reported to be unnecessary in the patch 1.17 series. I'm unsure on how effective the DEP thing was from the start, but it does appear to help on some machines. So, YMMV.

On patching:
I'm used to doing things manually, as I know where the source is from. Plus I know with EA's track record, adding more tools is never a good idea as tracing the root cause of whether
(1) it is the said tool or
(2) the updated game or
(3) the new patch,
is a royal PITA, and just adds another layer to the troubleshooting process.
Because, you never know what the tool is actually changing or if the programmer code things by mistake or simply due to lack of information at that time.

On installation sequence:
EA games likes things done a certain way and trends have shown that in some areas things never change. So, when it comes to anything EA-related - I'm a traditionalist:
- I always bypassed the Launcher when starting the game.
- I follow the install (and patching) sequence of the game's release dates.
- Last but not least, I only have EADM installed at the time when I have Sims3Packs to install, otherwise it is uninstalled and thus not running in Autostartup or services, etc; as I buy retail discs and not digital downloads, not having EADM is not an issue.

(11/05/10 - 0951) - Hi Ellacharm3d. After my last post I proceeded to install HELS, Ambitions, FL and then LN. I played each EP & SP after each install (pure vanilla-no cc's & no mods), exit game without saving, do the usual SOP cleaning [The Dashboard/CC Cleaner/Virtual Store (none could be found)/ rename directory as "sims 3 backup" etc..] right after exiting and installing/updating patch to latest respectively. Done the patching sequentially i.e. - install BG, play, SOP clean, patch manually to latest, SOP cleaning, start game, exit w/o saving, etc., etc., until last stage installing LN. Oh yeah, EADM has already been long lain to rest by completely uninstalling it.

All settings in options not only in default but even lowered to make sure. DEP is back in default settings - no exceptions made. LAA & other third party tools had been long "slain" and vanish from my pc. New direct X 11 & newly installed ATI drivers (see earlier post).

Observations: All installations (EPs & SPs) played fine & smooth, before & after manually installing their respective patches to latest. Freezing & locking up reared its ugly head once again when I got to install & play LN. Freezing/Lockup happen when I'm on map view. Discovered too that freezing & locking happens quicker when I started edge scrolling with mouse! Disabled edge scrolling on restarting game (again after SOP cleaning - this is already second nature to me) and the problem freeze/lockup is delayed some more by several seconds.

In the very short time I was able to survive in map view before freeze/lockup occur, I couldn't find any gray lots to be bulldozed. I was hoping it was there for me to delete so I could narrow down the problem.

Didn't experience this problem when in buy or build mode, although once had freeze or lockup on live view when active Sim made that "twister" animation in changing clothes (game cam was too close on her at that time).

Do I have an issue outside of Sims? Maybe....Perhaps. I suspected hardware issues like stressed out VGA or Ram memory but when I played newly released games (and very demanding on resources) like Starcraft II & Medal of Honor at 1280 x 1024 resolutions with max graphics settings there were no issues at all. While I should have been relieved that I don't have to buy new hardware, I am not happy at all as I don't have anything to focus my frustration.

When I first got the LN (about a week before my first post here), I was able to play it for 3 days without any issue. Manage to install Twallan's mods and some ccs then and played it for a while until notice freezing (minor at first) in game. That's when I decided to uninstall & reinstall (the first of many series of uninstalling/reinstalling).

Could it also be a Windows OS issues conflicting with VGA, Ram memories & other hardware? I don't know but I've read up on things like "atikmdag" errors for ATI ("nvlldm" for nvidia). It does show similar symptoms. Unfortunately, "atikmdag" errors for ATI is very complicated with no one particular cure all remedy. But then again, the freeze / lockups doesn't happen in my other games and application.

I'm already out of answers about this mysterious freeze & lockups. It's definitely unique from the other posts here at MTS & elsewhere. Damn.


update: I'm going to try something drastic & nasty tonight in the off chance LN is in conflict with my Vista 32 gaming pc (with so many games me & my son installed). I'm gonna try installing Sims on my wife's PC, after she hits the sack. Her PC has a Windows 7 OS (same hardware specs but use only for lame apps & face booking). She's gonna be furious but the urge to play LN is unquenchable. That's why its drastic...hehehe

I'll post update then.

Done the above last night on wife's Windows 7 but only Sims 3 BG & LN. No WA,Ambitions & SPs. Slightly improve but still with crashes on map view. What is it about map view that brings out the freezing & locking? It's a completely separate rig I'm installing from. The only thing both pc's have in common is a shared network. Could this be a virus or malware that seriously affected Sims LN???? Wife's rig only has garden variety apps & programs. I'm completely stumped. Help.

You have not done that Late Night Crash wiki steps? Even with no Ambitions installed, I think the game still place some weird walls or whatever and cause that gray Lot appearance. Also happens on patched (to 1.17) games with no Late Night EP installed.

I'm aware of that issue as I've read about it on wiki recently. Unfortunately, I couldn't see that gray lot in map view of the city center exactly as shown in that thread. My gray lot (if it exist in mine) could be elsewhere across the bay in Bridgeport. But soon as I tried to move the map, even slightly using arrow keys (I disabled edge scrolling here) I get the dreaded freeze & lockup. I was attempting this like 5-6 times but couldn't do entire search of the entire map aside from my immediate view. So no, I couldn't begin to search a single gray area for me to bulldoze (if, and a big IF, such gray lot is in my game in the first place) before I'm immediately frozen in place. It's so damn frustrating. Any other way to delete such gray area without having to go to map view or edit in town (it's whenever the screen turn to map view - whether pressing "M"; edit-in-town, or moving in lot/house by phone or pc???

Freezing & locking happen as well in different pc in Win 7 OS. Only good news here is that I could alt+tab out of the game then end the Sims game by task manager without having to reboot. Could it also be a data "glitch" (sorry I'm not a techie) in my installer??? Ran updated Kaspersky & no virus or alert found.

It appears that the DEP step is still necessary.

You're still loading a brand new, cc-free SunsetValley or Twinbrook or Bridgeport, each time you get this lockups / crashes? This is most puzzling.

Most who plays in Windowed mode reported less crashing incidents (try Alt+Enter if you cannot enter Options long enough to have time to edit it before it crash; that keystroke would toggle between the modes).
I've also had my go-to-guy (hi guy! ) test the Alt+Tab and he was able to do it on his machine while on fullscreen mode, with no crashing.
If you still cannot Alt+Tab successfully, may mean something else is going on with your setups or your SOPs.
For eg, removing caches after quitting each time or before test loading a game is a bit much, IMO. The caches are there to help speed things up and only need to be removed if it gets corrupted or after removing CC.
How much do you deviate from the wiki guides? In terms of doing what you call your SOP vs the wiki's steps?

Do these 2 steps first to stop crashing - ie DEP on LN's exe and switch to Windowed mode.
Well, hopefully it helps and give you time to do the sweep on Edit Town map for those gray Lots.

My apologies for late reply. Out of town and out of mind.

Followed your suggestions above, refrain from constantly deleting caches more often than necessary. Did the DEP thing once more and playing in windowed mode. The problem is still there with freezing and locking up, but takes longer now in windowed mode. It helped a bit and my thanks. I search the entire Bridgeport map (gain a few minutes at times in map view before the freezing/lock ups) but found none of the gray maps as described.

You have been so helpful ellacharm3d and I'm most thankful for it.

I suspect that my problem now lies elsewhere than the Sims game. I have a host of other problems that crop up lately which points to a corrupted or conflicting Vista OS functions. I'll be doing a reformat of my HD partition hosting my OS and install a new Win 7 64 bit. I'm also thinking of upgrading my 2 year old HD 4870 with the newly released HD 6870 graphics card. I know this isn't even necessary for Sims games but I play other games that are far more demanding. Also upgrading my memory from 3gb to 6gb. Hopefully this will be setup by this weekend.

If the problem still persist by then..... then it's a bloody unsolvable mystery.

thank you ellacharm3d for your sage advise.

If you still have lag issues on a clean install, here's another similar thread http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=424945 that may help further in troubleshooting.
If you had been using Twallan's StoryProgression and other mods, there's been a new update earlier to fix some duplicating Sims or some such, so be sure to get the updates.
And also there's the new sticky with a questionnaire to help you pinpoint areas in troubleshooting these lag and freezing issues.

Don't forget the power supply, check for clearance of the card and have enough free PCI slots open in the mobo/casing for whichever model you settle on, and good luck with your upgrade.
If you have questions on hardware, or need second opinions, our Computer Tech section is usually frequented by good people too, other than our own fabulous mods & admins of course.

Hello again Ellacharm3d. Sorry I must be boring you to death by now with my problems.

I'm still awaiting shipment of the HD6870 through a local store (I have never ordered direct using credit card online...I'm old fashion) here. In the meantime I had my OS hard drive reformatted and installed a brand new OS (Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit). Started installing Sims 3 BG/WA/HELS/Ambitions/FL/LN and patch them manually following closely the instructions here http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...lp:TS3_Patching. Tested also along the way.

Tested LN with and without mods (Twallan's latest Overwatch, MC & SP. No other mods). Tested also with and without CC (cc's here were even rebuild using Granthes' S3Launcher). Downloaded latest ATI/AMD Catalyst driver 10.11. Switch on/off DEP. Played in windowed & full screen. Played with lowest and highest graphics settings. The following results are the same i.e.

1. Game works fine when cam is close up or afar (whether in live,buy or build mode) without going to map view. Game runs super smooth even with highest sim detail, shadow, lot, view distance.....etc..... as long as it's not in map view.

2. Game freezes and locks up soon as cam goes to map view (whether pressing "M", clicking on a Sim who is far away, moving to lots, etc...). Also doesn't matter if the cam in map view is focusing in downtown where there are so many lots and sims or in the most isolated corner of the map with no or few lots or objects shown. Result is the same - freeze and lockup.

What's different this time with fresh install in Windows 7 is that - unlike before when freeze/lockup is permanent and needing to hard reboot, now it pauses (everything stops - even leaves of trees, plumbobs, etc.....etc... unlike other pauses reported elsewhere in this forum) but attempts to recover several times. recovery process is similar to playing a very demanding game while using a Pentium era PC, i.e. "framing". Unlike before, now I can alt+tab or ctrl+alt+del may way out to desktop or use other programs.

Whenever I find myself in this "map view" freezing, I click away on the active "Sim button" on the lower left corner (sorry I don't know what its called) that would bring may from map view to "close in" / "ground level" view (?) and wait. Once I get back to "close in" / "ground level" view (?) the game runs smoothly again with hardly any issue at all!

The culprit seem to lie somewhere in map view. Something about map view is triggering errors or is interpreted by windows as a fatal flaw of some sorts. Worst is, I seem to be unique in this forum like an unknown mysterious disease. Maybe this may have something to do with the cam program files (sorry for the inane terminology - I'm not a techie). Would using the new camera fix mod do the trick (now where can I find that)?

Also installed Spore (for my kid), reinstalled Modern Warfare 2, Medal of Honor and the very demanding Starcraft II Wings of Liberty. None of the issues above can be replicated even at its most intense game play.

I'm now in serious doubt whether having the HD6870 video card would solve at all this problem (still pushing through with it for my other games -more direct x 11 games coming next year).

We have some new information here Target NPC's over yonder.

If you could also answer the questionnaire in the Freeze sticky, that could help in determining why some Simmers have game-breaking freeze/lag issues while others are able to play.

Whoa! It's gone! The dreaded freeze & lock-up on map view is gone!

I've tested for 3 hours last night and about 2 hours this morning going to map view (or any other act that brings you to map view) several times and the freezing & locking is gone!

The most recent adjustments I made are the following:

On my OS system (Windows 7 64bit)-

1.) Turn off Aero (New workaround)
2.) Installed latest Catalyst driver 10.11 (It's no longer named "ATI Catalyst...." but "AMD Catalyst....."
3.) Enabled manual control on VGA fan and set it to 100% (hell with power economy if I can't play)
3.) Turn on DEP (done this before)

On my Sims settings:

1.) Windowed mode (done this before too)
2.) Updated NRASS mods (Overwatch, MC,SP, etc... done this before too)
3.) Deleted spawners (rocks & gems and other stuff I wont be using) thru MC->Town->Global Options etc.......(New workaround)
4.) Pasted back all my old saved cc's rebuild thru granthes' S3launcher (New but not sure if it has effect at all).
5.) Installed the old cam fix or mod by Aikea guinea (New but not sure if it has effect at all).
6.) Didn't frequently delete caches these time.

Other than the above.... I'm at my wits end trying to figure out which of these was the solution or did the trick. Not that I'm complaining at all but it would be important as post-mortem so to speak.

I've been playing for a total of 5 hours or so. Am I safe now? Is there a chance that the dreaded freezing & locking up return once more?

Thank you Ellacharm3d.... I would have given up long ago without you guiding me along. thank you Maam!