Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

by TiaMaria0780
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Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

[ Edited ]
★★★ Newbie

OK I need some help, PLEASE.

 

I have uninstalled sims3 base, all EP and SP I have and all creative content from the official sims 3 site. I then reinstall base game, EP and SPs and same crash happened. Sims version 1.69.43.024017, GPU is up to date, played game from low to very high settings still crashes. The game usually crashed during create a sim the black menu UI happens say when I click to pop-out the hair menu to change hair per outfit, the pop-out menu goes black, sometimes has dark blue texts then it crashes. I read somewhere that  the game may not recognise the GPU in the DeviseConfig notes, could this be the issue?

 

Attached is my DxDaig, the last crash note that came up when sims crashed and DeviceConfig note

NOTE: the crash notes don't always show up

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Accepted Solution

Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

[ Edited ]

@TiaMaria0780  What kind of frame rates are you getting?  Even if it's not causing your crashes, it's still critical to lock those down.

 

But for the crashing itself, the next thing to try is a clean game folder, as in the one in Documents.  If you saved it when you uninstalled and reinstalled the game's program files, you could have a corrupt file in there.  Or if you added in mods or custom content, even items that worked before, that could also cause the crashes.  A clean game folder will take care of everything.  Pull your existing one out of Documents and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game again, a clean folder will be generated.  Try using Create a Sim in this new folder to see whether you get any crashes.
 
If the clean folder doesn't help, it would be great to see another dxdiag, only this time, please include a bit more information.  Unlike Windows 8.1 and 10, 7 doesn't include error reporting, so you have to gather the info separately.  This post by Holger1405 describes how to gather that information:

 

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Anthem-help/m-p/7684157#M22660

 

Please include all error reports, even those that don't mention TS3 specifically.

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I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.

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Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

@TiaMaria0780  An unrecognized graphics card doesn't usually cause crashes on its own, especially when it's a more powerful model like yours.  On that note, however, your deviceconfig lists the wrong number for your card's dedicated memory—a 1070 has 8 GB VRAM, whereas your system is only recognizing 3 GB.  I'm not sure whether this is an issue with the card, with your drivers, or something that can be ignored, but at any rate, there are other troubleshooting steps you should try first.

 

Specifically, your crash log references a file called MSVCR80.dll, which is part of a C++ Visual Runtime Library, specifically the one from 2005.  Sims 3 uses this library, and a corrupt version will definitely crash your game.  You'll need to uninstall the old version first, then install a fresh copy.  To uninstall, press Windows key-i and select Applications; the entry you want reads something like "Microsoft 2005 Visual C++ Redistributable."  You can download a new copy directly from Microsoft; you want the x64 version.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26347

 

The other thing you really need to do is take steps to limit your in-game frame rates.  TS3's fps limiter doesn't work, and an Nvidia 1070 is powerful enough to generate rates into the thousands if fps isn't properly capped.  This could easily be the cause of your crashes, and more importantly, the extra work could damage the card over time.  Even if it's not the immediate problem, you really do need to lock your frame rates to 60, the refresh rate of your monitor.

 

To see your in-game fps, open the cheats console (crtl-shift-c) and enter "fps on" without quotes.  A number will appear in the upper right corner of your screen; "fps off" makes it go away.  The first frame rate limiter to try for an Nvidia card is the built-in Control Panel.  But that doesn't always work, and never works in windowed mode, so the next tool up is Nvidia Inspector (free download).  This post has settings for both screenshots, under the spoilers:

 

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16540301/#Comment_16540301

 

If you'd like to get your graphics card recognized, I can help with that too, if you're interested; let me know and I'll send the instructions by PM.  But it's much less important than these other steps.

——————————————————————————————————————————

I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
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Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

[ Edited ]
★★★ Newbie
 
I appreciate your help
Message 3 of 7 (2,323 Views)

Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

[ Edited ]

@TiaMaria0780  What kind of frame rates are you getting?  Even if it's not causing your crashes, it's still critical to lock those down.

 

But for the crashing itself, the next thing to try is a clean game folder, as in the one in Documents.  If you saved it when you uninstalled and reinstalled the game's program files, you could have a corrupt file in there.  Or if you added in mods or custom content, even items that worked before, that could also cause the crashes.  A clean game folder will take care of everything.  Pull your existing one out of Documents and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game again, a clean folder will be generated.  Try using Create a Sim in this new folder to see whether you get any crashes.
 
If the clean folder doesn't help, it would be great to see another dxdiag, only this time, please include a bit more information.  Unlike Windows 8.1 and 10, 7 doesn't include error reporting, so you have to gather the info separately.  This post by Holger1405 describes how to gather that information:

 

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Anthem-help/m-p/7684157#M22660

 

Please include all error reports, even those that don't mention TS3 specifically.

——————————————————————————————————————————

I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 4 of 7 (2,314 Views)

Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

★★★ Newbie

@puzzlezaddict  thank you again the clean folder start up worked. I have made a family and moved them into a house, this is the furthest I have gotton since the crashes started.

 

When the game crashed last time I had the fps locked at 60fps through Nvidia inspector, in the top right corner of the screen shot last post had 56fps. I haven't had any custom content on since my full uninstall of Sims 3, EP and SP.

would you know if there is any issues with the sims 3 Roaring hights custom content pack? If I should even think of installing it?

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Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

@TiaMaria0780  If you're talking about the store world, it's fine, it won't cause any problems.  There are occasional routing issues with the world itself, but that's true of pretty much every world EA ever made, and from the reports I could find, Roaring Heights isn't any worse than the others.

 

If there's some third party custom content pack meant to be used with RH, I have no idea.  Sometimes bad cc can stick to an upload without the creator knowing and then get downloaded by unsuspecting users, and it's a matter of separating the hidden file(s) from the ones you want.  But the advertised files themselves can be poorly made as well, and you might only find out when you try to use an item in-game.  So there's always a risk with cc.

 

If you want to try it, I'd suggest downloading it into another clean folder and testing.  If you see a problem, you'll know you got some bad cc.  Whether you want to go through the effort of removing it depends on how much you like the rest of the content.  Here's a guide for removing bad cc, in case you want it:

 

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/tutorial-how-to-get-rid-of-unwanted-custom-content.html

——————————————————————————————————————————

I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
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Re: Sims 3 Crashing when UI menu goes black

★★★ Newbie

Awesome thank you for looking into that for me. I rather be safe than sorry Standard smile

 

Appreciate all your help and your time.

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