DEP Crash Despite Totally Disabling DEP

[TurtleShroom]

Good afternoon.

For the past few days, my "Sims III" game crashes a few minutes after a game begins. I had just finished purging everything I downloaded in 2020 AD to rid myself of corrupted content that caused crashes prior. Thinking it was resolved, I was stunned to see it crash again. My "Sims III" game is a physical disc version, not from any digital distributor. It is Version V1.67 .

The Crash Log Analyzer attributed the crash to Data Execution Prevention.

Here's the problem. I disabled Data Execution Prevention. All of it. I used this command: [I]"bcdedit.exe /set nx AlwaysOff"[/I]. This is because the recommended action was to add "Sims III" as an exception to DEP. I added every EXE file in the entire Sims directory, in every single Expansion Pack and Stuff Pack, and everything else. That also failed.

The Crash Log Analyzer informs you when it's your graphics that fail, and it wasn't that. It wasn't Custom Content. It was DEP, but I don't have DEP on my computer anymore.

That probably means that the program declaring it to be a Data Execution Prevention error has misfired.

You will find my Direct-X Diagnostics attached.

Thank you.
-TURTLESHROOM

P.S.: The one other thing I did was follow the instructions in [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131162350]this guide[/url] to the letter. I then applied the Four Gigabyte Patch to all of my "Sims III" applications. I was promised sped up performance and no lag. It worked completely; the difference was night and day. Could this have corrupted my game?

DeviceConfig.log

[puzzlezaddict]

@TurtleShroom  There is a lot of misinformation in the Steam forum post you've linked.  First of all, Sims 3 is already Large Address Aware, meaning it can use close to 4 GB RAM on its own, with no patch needed.  This has been true since 2010.  The number you changed refers to the script heap, and the initial value is 20 GB.  It's best not to mess with that number, or to revert any changes you've made.  Sometimes the change doesn't have any measurable negative effect, but if you're getting crashes, it's best to return the game to vanilla form, at least for the moment.

On that note, please run the Super Patch to restore the default versions of the game's program files.  The direct download link for the Super Patch is here, under "Cumulative Base Game Super Patcher":

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/175477/official-ea-download-link-for-the-sims-3-cumulati...

While your graphics card is recognized now, other changes you made might also have negative effects, and you can add your GPU to the appropriate files again without too much trouble.  The information about VRAM in that post is also inaccutare—TS3 can only use 800 MB of video memory no matter how much your card has.  Your deviceconfig also reflects that the edit suggested isn't quite right; I can write out what you need to do later, if you want.  The VRAM override value the game assigns sometimes does not usually cause crashes itself.

The Crash Log Analyzer is also not always accurate.  Other than an out of resources report, its results are generally not reliable.  Better is Windows's Reliability Monitor, which will list crashes and other errors related to the game (and anything else).  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see an overall chart as well as entries for each day.  Please look for any crashes that mention Sims 3 or its launcher, as well as any entries with timestamps that correspond to crashes.  (You may need to look at the details to get a true timestamp; sometimes the one in the overview is delayed.)

For any such entry, please click "View technical details," copy the information, and paste it into a text document.   (Notepad is fine.)  You can attach the text here just as you did with your dxdiag.

And please test in a clean game folder, as in, move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  Play in a well-made EA world like Sunset Valley or Twinbrook, and let me know how it runs in a vanilla state.

[TurtleShroom]

The game in its true Vanilla rendition form has no issues. It is irrelevant.

The Reliability Monitor does not recognize the "Sims III" crashes. No data exists. Does that mean that the game was closed against my will by the machine? I've attached the XML that said Monitor generates just in case.

Other than applying your Super Patch, are there any specific, concrete instructions you can give me? What configuration files do I need to revert?

[TurtleShroom]

Oh, and I should note that using the Four Gigabyte Patch system mentioned in that link DOES create a back up of the original program, as it was prior to being patched. Do I still need to use your Super Patch anyway, or can I just restore from the back up?

[puzzlezaddict]

@TurtleShroom  The Super Patch will undo any changes you've made to graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, as well as most other changes to the contents of the game's program files.  I'm not sure whether it affects the changes suggested by the 4 GB patch, since I've never used it; please undo that change separately, just to be thorough.  Again, this is about seeing how the game runs in its vanilla state and then applying helpful changes, if necessary.

I can't give you concrete instructions without knowing why the game is crashing, or at least having some clue; the crash log analyzer referencing DEP errors isn't reliable.  That's why I asked for Reliability Monitor entries.  In Windows 10, the dxdiag lists the last 10 Windows errors, but that section is not included in Windows 7.  So aside from looking for that info, the most efficient approach is to start with an unaltered game and then build from there.

Are there any entries in the Reliability Monitor that have the same timestamp as a crash?  If so, I'd like to see the technical details on those crashes specifically.  They'd look something like this:

Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: TS3W.exe
P2: 0.0.0.32
P3: 52dec247
P4: StackHash_6b25
P5: 0.0.0.0
P6: 00000000
P7: c0000005
P8: PCH_2C_FROM_ntdll+0x0006AB0C
P9:
P10:

(This is from a Windows 10 dxdiag, but it's the same information.  In case you're wondering, that reflects an in-game error with a lot, with the tent on the lot, or with the sims sleeping in that tent.)

Even unrelated errors from the same time will help.

[TurtleShroom]

I uploaded everything that the Reliability Monitor said in my previous posts.

My last "Sims III" game lasted three or so hours before it crashed. "Sims III" always crashes if you leave it open for more than three hours, so I actually believe that I solved the issue.

I am going to try it in its current state one more time, and log how long it takes to crash. Then, I will revert every change I made to the SRG and the EXE files and compare it. This will take a while, but I promise that I will get back to you.

[TurtleShroom]

Okay, I played the game for several hours and it crashed in normal fashion, due to the usual memory leaks and instability of staying open. "Sims III" is practically designed to crash if it runs for a few hours in a game with intense Mods, so a duration between crashing of that length is perfectly acceptable.

The Crash Enabler said my issue was with Custom Content, which I removed when I first posted this, so all is well. I haven't found another DEP crash in a while. I'll wait until I see the next one, unless it occurs at something like three or four hours in.

As it stands, it seems that my game is back to functioning as it should. However, I still would like to figure out if my updates to the game's performance (seriously, it's like night and day and I would prefer to keep it) would assist it. The next time I get a DEP crash, I will revert the changes to the EXE and then the SRG changes the second time, and compare the two.

Thank you so much for helping me.

[puzzlezaddict]

@TurtleShroom  Yes, crashes are unfortunately not uncommon with Sims 3, especially if you own most or all packs and like to play for hours at a time.  Among other things, you may want to keep an eye on the game's memory use in the Task Manager.  Anything above ~3.5 GB is in the danger zone, where a temporary spike in RAM use can cause a crash.  While a typical new save in an average world might only use a bit more than 2 GB on startup, and maybe level off around 2.5 GB, a well-progressed save, or one in a complicated world, can easily use more.  At any rate, it's worth checking.

Long CAS or Build/Buy sessions can also cause out-of-resources crashes.  Many of us are in the habit of building and creating sims in new saves, then saving our work to the bin and placing it in our existing saves without having to tinker.

But yes, it will definitely be interesting to compare performance with the various settings.

[TurtleShroom]

Okay, I got my first DEP citation since last time, and since you mentioned RAM making the game commit suicide, I should note that I got it when I clicked a Decorative Relic as a character with a Job allowing him to use the Swipe Action.

You will find the file that the Crash Log Analyzer produced in the attachments of this message. As is the usual case, the Reliability Monitor you mentioned did not generate anything when my "Sims III" game crashed.

I have now reverted the Four Gigabyte Patch that I manually filed in pursuance to the instructions outlined on that Steam Launcher Program guide. The next time I get a crash cited under DEP, I will inform you.