Random game freeze in San Myshuno

[crinrict]

The problem is that Windows needs space as well for temp files and stuff. I don't know if it will help or if something else is causing your issue but it's better to have more space on c for Windows. 

I'll tag @roberta591 to explain this better than I can.

[roberta591]

@Allisas  First I notice you have a large page file. IMO you don't need a 27Gb page file but that is in line with the default size created based on the amount of memory you have. Memory management is very complex and the demands of the operating system can change the needs depending on many parameters. The page file (virtual memory which is space on the system storage device) of 27.5Gb could be reserved from the free space if the operating system thinks it needs it. Simple math 35.7Gb - 27.7Gb = 8Gb of free space. I usually leave the page file alone and if anything I increase it if I feel it is not large enough. The Sims games create temp files and depending on game play and these files can be large. Check to see if you have the audio driver Nahimic loaded. MSI has included this with the audio driver. This is for sound effects and not required. If this is disabled you should still have audio. Nahimic has been known to cause game crashes. One fast way to determine the issue is to gen up a 1Tb drive and see if the game runs. The last time I went to the computer store they had 1Tb 7200 rpm drives for 29TIf the game runs then that means your machine is good - you just need a larger system drive. If you are playing games that have expansion packs and create temp file, I wouldn't recommend less then 500Gb system storage. If you want to get fancy get 2 500Gb drives and raid them for a performance boost. BTW Windows 7 SP1 EOL is January 14, 2020.

[Allisas]

I'm not sure I understood all of that but I'll try to address your suggestions and ask questions where I'm confused.

- Is it really true that the page file is "taken" from the free space that windows show you? When I change the page file to a manual size the amount of free space on my drive changes accordingly. To me that suggests that the paging file doesn't "eat" your free disk space but is already allocated.

- I tried freeing up another 12Gb on my c:drive earlier to see if that made any difference. It might have taken the game a while longer to crash but I'm not entirely sure. It still crashed on the second or third in game day.

- I don't have the Nahimic audio driver loaded so that can't be the culprit.

- What do you mean by "gen up a 1Tb drive"? That I should install the game on my 1Tb drive just to see if the crashing persists?

- "1Tb 7200 rpm drives for 29T" (?) What do you mean by 29T?

- From what I understand it's not a question about how large to original system disk is but rather how much free space you have left on it?

- I've now manually edited the size of the page file and window tells me I have 70Gb of free disk space. I'll try to run the game again when I have time to see if that does the trick. If it still crashes I'll try to re-install the game on my 1Tb drive. That way I can at least determine whether it's a hard drive problem or not.

Thanks for trying to explain and help out, I really appreciate it!

[roberta591]

@Allisas  I also said that Windows memory management is very complicated. It would take a college level semester to try to explain it and everything wouldn't be covered. The algorithms used were very complex in the beginning and I can only imagine how extremely complex they are now. I doubt that even the Microsoft engineers completely understand their memory management. When you change the size of the page file you have to reboot the computer to make the change take affect. When you download a file, the file is created in a temp folder until the download is complete. When the download completes, the file is then copied to the target location. The temp file may or may not get deleted (probably not) - it may be saved in case there is a need to recover the file. Depending on the application parts of the code may be paged to the virtual memory. This depends on the program code and how the cpu executes jump instructions. To completely explain this you would have to know the limitations of cpu instructions. This is further complicated by compilers rather then assemblers. Again this could be explained in a college level semester about microcomputers.

- to gen up a drive means to start fresh and install the operating system and the application on a new 1 terabyte conventional drive and see if the game runs. If it runs that means your rest of your system is ok and the problem is probably the ssd (or size of it).

- 29T was an oops - I meant to say I saw 1Tb drivers for $29.95 usd. You can get brand new WD blue $53.99 usd from Amazon. They must be popular because they go on back order a lot.

- the amount of free space you need depends on how you use the system drive. Many of the functions can not be relocated such as file downloads. This will happen on the system drive. The sims games with expansion packs and creating temp files, save games, etc will continue to eat into the free space so while you may fix the issue now by freeing up free space, the issue will probable return after some time of installing packs, saving games, downloading files and the many other things that go on in the background. A student/business computer usually doesn't need a lot of resources to do homework or work from a spread sheet. 

-As a gamer you need a basic understanding of the operating system in use.

As a word of caution, I wouldn't mess with Windows default settings too much unless you really understand the functions of the Windows operating system. I would suggest experimenting on a new drive. After your done you can always put the old drive back in and your up and running. If you experiment on your only drive if the system goes down your only recourse is to re install your operating system

[Allisas]

Alright, so I still haven't been able to fix my crashing. It's no longer only in San Myshuno but happens at anytime in any save and it seems to be happening more often all the time. While loading a lot, building, playing, taking pictures etc.

I've tried re-installing the game on my larger E:drive with 476GB of free space (after install) and I have 81GB free space on my windows drive. The game froze after 10 minutes in build mode on the fresh install. I think we can rule out the "not having enough free space on my C:drive"-theory.

I've also monitored my memory use and free disk space while running the game and I can see no peaks in either. At the most the game reduce my free disk space with a 100 MB or so. The game doesn't seem to be particularly taxing on my system. I've discussed the monitoring, memory and disk space with my boyfriend (who has a master degree in computer science) and he doesn't think it has to do with memory or free disk space either. 

When searching for a solution I've been reminded of a roll-back from windows 10 to windows 7 I did when windows thought it good to force an upgrade back in 2016. I've read somewhere that the roll-back often messes with a few drivers and doesn't clean up all the files which could possibly be damaging to your system. I'm leaning towards upgrading to windows 10 again and doing a clean install to make sure that my operating system is all good.

I've read in other threads that one might try to create a new user profile and see if the problem persists when running the game from the new profile. I think I'll try that before re-installing windows.

I'm not going to spend §50-60 on a new drive though. I think that advice is a bit harsh especially since I have no problems with any other applications on my computer. I haven't experienced any problems with windows either but it's nice to do a clean install after a few years so I'll do that nevertheless.

I'll try to keep this thread updated with my further testing.

[Allisas · Accepted solution]

I've managed to fix my crashing issue with a clean install of my OS (Windows 10). I suspect that the rollback from Windows 10 to Windows 7 messed up some of my system files and one of many Windows Updates might have resulted in The Sims 4 crashing. I can't be 100% sure of course but with the extensive troubleshooting I did before re-installing the OS I think it's more plausible than anything else. 

I almost forgot about updating this thread when I didn't have any more crashes but I guess it can be useful information if someone else is experiencing random game crashes without any other explanation.

[crinrict]

Hi @Allisas

thank you for updating the thread.

It's always helpful to know what helped if someone else has the same issue.