Sims 3 crashes after 5 to 10 minutes of play.

by Liadian
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Original Post

Sims 3 crashes after 5 to 10 minutes of play.

★★★ Novice

#1 .. my last computer course was in 7th grade before Windows 3.1 (the first one, I think that's right one eh..) became common place and I am horribly frustrated at the moment and have been to be honest. I have gone through various different posts, following people's directions without really understanding what the hell I'm doing here. We recently had to reinstall everything on the computer, I foolishly thought "Least I'll be able to play Sims again." I'm also really pissed that I have to understand software to play the game, used to be you put the disc in, click the icon and have fun. WTF? So what I've done so far as best as I can explain...

I've put TS3 file thingys on the DEP exception list, I followed the directions and did this  with all my expansions.

I have clicked on the icon's, gone to properties, selected compatibility and clicked disable visual themes, disable desktop composition, run this program as an admin and I picked windows xp (service pack 2) for run this program in compatibility mode.

I do have some CC content but it's stuff I've had before and we're talking a couple rugs, patterns and some kitchen stuff that decorative. I have taken all else out. I have a bunch of stuff from the EA store, freebies and things I've bought like the Stone's Throw Greenhouse.

The game was running okay after I did the DEP thing, at least for a while then it got bad again, without me adding ANYTHING at all. Now this new patch, which I honestly hoped would help, it crashes after about 5 to 10 minutes and it doesn't matter if I'm logged in or not, I've tried both. I turned off the auto log in. Taking it out of full screen doesn't help either I've tried that.

I've also been deleting some the cache files, specifically CasPartCache.package, compositorCache.package, scriptCache.package, simCompositorCach.package and I've been emptying the Thumbnails folder.

I have windows 7, Sims 3, Ambitions, Generations, Late Night, Supernatural, Seasons, Pets, 70's, 80's & 90's, High End Loft and Showtime. No mods though my son tells me he could probably find someone who could mod all the errors out of my gameplay.

DirectX tells me no problems found.

 Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130318-1533)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
       System Model: p6754y
               BIOS: BIOS Date: 09/07/10 08:41:32 Ver: 6.04
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4096MB RAM
          Page File: 2089MB used, 6098MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

 

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 210
       Manufacturer: NVIDIA
          Chip type: GeForce 210
           DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A65&SUBSYS_082E196E&REV_A2
     Display Memory: 2770 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 978 MB
      Shared Memory: 1791 MB
       Current Mode: 1600 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
       Monitor Name: Dell S2009W(Analog)
      Monitor Model: DELL S2009W
         Monitor Id: DELA044
        Native Mode: 1600 x 900(p) (59.978Hz)
        Output Type: HD15
        Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 9.18.0013.1106 (English)
     Driver Version: 9.18.13.1106
        DDI Version: 10.1
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 2/26/2013 00:32:38, 18055184 bytes

(There's a WHOLE bunch of stuff here called Deinterlace Caps ... I left all that out)

  D3D9 Overlay: Supported
            DXVA-HD: Supported
       DDraw Status: Enabled
         D3D Status: Enabled
         AGP Status: Enabled

     Drive: C:
 Free Space: 523.5 GB
Total Space: 940.5 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: ST310005 28AS SATA Disk Device

 

 

And under System Devices there's a bunch of locations for the NVIDIA but I thought there'd be another graphics card in there too since the computer came with a built in one? It was a computer in a box from Best Buy and we upgraded the graphics card a year or so ago.

 

I don't know what else to try without accidently frying my computer so I'm asking for help now. And yes I could do that, I once clicked on a Windows Update, only to get blue screened and spend the next 3 or 4 hours on the phone with computer support. All did was say 'yes' to the update. And oh, before the latest update for Sims 3, it was still freezing but I'd manage a good 45 minutes to sometimes and hour of game play.

Thank you for any help you can give.

Lia

 

Message 1 of 4 (566 Views)

Re: Sims 3 crashes after 5 to 10 minutes of play.

Hero

Hi, 

 

sorry you're having so many issues.

 

According to this: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements your graphic card is not really a good one that can run the game fine.

 

Also those Nvidia february drivers give many people issues. I would check for newer ones.

 

 

 

 

---------------------------------
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Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



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Message 2 of 4 (563 Views)

Re: Sims 3 crashes after 5 to 10 minutes of play.

★★★ Novice

New video card and I'd bought University while it was on sale so it's been installed. Nvidia GeForce GTX 650, it's got a 1 gig and ddr5 ram ... and now I'm lucky if it lets me log in before freezing and crashing. I really thought the video card would help.

Message 3 of 4 (548 Views)

Still not working!!!!!!

★★★ Novice

So I posted this

http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/Sims-3-crashes-after-5-to-10-minutes-of-play/m-p/1223380#U122338...

Then I got a new graphics card:

 

  Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
       Manufacturer: NVIDIA
          Chip type: GeForce GTX 650
           DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0FC6&SUBSYS_326319DA&REV_A1
     Display Memory: 2765 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 973 MB
      Shared Memory: 1791 MB
       Current Mode: 1600 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
       Monitor Name: Generic Non-PnP Monitor
      Monitor Model: unknown
         Monitor Id:
        Native Mode: unknown
        Output Type: HD15
        Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 9.18.0013.1106 (English)
     Driver Version: 9.18.13.1106
        DDI Version: 11
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 2/26/2013 00:32:38, 18055184 bytes
        WHQL Logo'd: Yes
    WHQL Date Stamp:
  Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4C86-11CF-387E-6E121CC2C435}
          Vendor ID: 0x10DE
          Device ID: 0x0FC6
          SubSys ID: 0x326319DA
        Revision ID: 0x00A1
 Driver Strong Name: oem70.inf:NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1:Section062:9.18.13.1106Tongue outci\ven_10de&dev_0fc6
     Rank Of Driver: 00E02001

 

And I checked it for Sims 3, all the boxes were green except University and Island Paradise. I FINALLY got the game to load, a brand new one after deleting the sims3 folder from documents\electronicarts. I played for about 60 minutes and love the new graphics card when I tried to save because I'm paranoid now and I got an Error Code 12. Then it didn't freeze exactly but tool bars were missing and all I could do was move the camera around. So I closed it out without saving using the Task Manager. Each time I've logged in since, it's let me play less before freezing and crashing. Still have DEP thing set, deleting caches, etc etc that I listed before. I added Island Paradise and University. Should I try doing the hokey pokey while while repeating some spell for Sims 3 and bashing my head into the keyboard? Would it help? Because I really liked the whole idea of Island Paradise and the University and bloody hell I want to play. I would have done the uninstall/reinstall already but I just had to reinstall everything but the new stuff a month ago when our computer crashed.

 

Please help ANY ideas would be welcome just spell it out; I'm computer literate but let's say grade school level. Thank you.

Message 4 of 4 (537 Views)