Sims 3-suddenly closes

[LuisGojim]

Hi to everyone!  I'm currently having an issue with the sims 3. The game loads and is very playable, it doesn't crash at all, and even with high setting I can still play very fluently. I used to play only with 6 ep and 3 sp, and the game didn't have any kind of problem. However, I recently install 3 more ep (Pets, Island Paradise and Generations), and the game still is very playable and fluently, but after a period of time playing (more less like an hour) the game just closes. It doesn't crash, or lag, or anything, it just closes all of a sudden. I've had checked that new files are made in the sims 3 folder (some are called x cpt something, and others are called script) so I think that this may be somehow related to the unexpected close. I only use Master Controller mod, but I don't think this is the problem because as I say, I used to play with 6 ep first and I didn't have this problem before. And my laptop may not be a gamer one, but it meet all the sepcs needed and even more to play this game (I can run Sims 4 and Sims 2 with no problems). I've seen that many people have this problem, and that in each case the cause is different, and I know that providing the DxDiag, makes it eassier to solve the issue, so I attached the file if its usefull for anything. I hope someone could help me, thanks!

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@LuisGojim  Did you play your existing save, or a new save with the same sims?  If it's the latter, it would be interesting that adding your existing sims to a new save would still cause problems, that is, unless you moved them through the phone.  (That tends to bring corruption from the old world to the new one.)  Either way, I'm glad the game is running better for you now.

Given that removing Pets helped os much, it's probably best to avoid the pack, or if you want to try it out, play with only Pets, and maybe the first three or four EPs, not the later ones.  (And as many stuff packs as you want, since they don't add much to the game's demands.)  But it still might not run well no matter what you try, just due to the way the pets themselves are rendered.  If you get a new computer at some point, Pets will still be in your game library.

[puzzlezaddict]

@LuisGojim  I've moved your post to the Sims 3 PC tech section.

The Sims 3 crashes in your dxdiag reference DirectX 9, so you could try reinstalling it.  There's no need to uninstall; just run the installer Microsoft provides:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=8109

That may not help though: DX9 errors are often not due to DX9 itself, rather the game or its user data.  Do you have any custom content installed?  What world are you playing in?  Does the game crash at the same time each day, or when something specific happens on-screen, or is it random as far as you can tell?  Do you have all animals enabled within the game settings?  There are plenty of reasons that adding Pets and Island Paradise could make the game crash.

The xcpt files are just crash logs, and they're mostly useless.  You could open the ones with a .txt extension and see if the game reported being out of memory (it has a 4 GB limit, but over 3.5 GB is the danger zone), but other than that, there's not much to learn.  The scripterrors are probably from MasterController, and you could open those too and have a look.  It would be better though to ask about those errors on the NRaas website though, since the people there can read them and tell you what they mean.  If you create an account on the site, you can drag and drop a few scripterrors into the text window in a new thread.

I'm happy to try to help with the crashing overall, I'm just saying for the scripterrors specifically, the people at NRaas will know better than I would.

[LuisGojim]

@puzzlezaddictThanks for answering! I'm playing with Sunset Valley, Twinbrook and Bridgeport, and I don't have any custom content installed. I've seen that sometimes the game crashes after 15-20 minutes of playing, while other times in almost an hour. But there's nothing special going on in the gameplay, or an specific hour that may inflict in the crash. I do have animals enabled, but I'm not playing with Isla Paradiso at the time (I know may be struggles with this town and pets). Btw, by reinstalling, you mean the DirectX? And if  that's the case, do I just download the file that is right off the link you gave me? Though may not help, I'll try and see if there's any change.

[puzzlezaddict]

@LuisGojim  Yes, I mean reinstalling DirectX, not the game itself.  And yes, you can download the installer from the link and run it without doing anything else.  Restart your computer after it's installed though.

Pets is the most demanding Sims 3 pack, and it's especially hard on a weaker graphics card.  Rendering any pet is resource-intensive, but long-haired pets and horses are even worse.  Additionally, any EA world that isn't Appaloosa Plains can present problems for routing, particularly for baby animals (they can't use stairs) and horses (they get stuck in a lot of places).  The game will try to reroute a stuck animal, over and over, to the point where the game engine can get bogged down or even crash.

The point is, Pets may  be too much for your laptop's hardware to handle.  It would be useful to test a new game in Appaloosa Plains, and a new game in Sunset Valley or Twinbrook with animals disabled, just to see whether you get better performance with either one.  There may be a way to manage things so you can play more or less the way you want, but that could take some experimenting to find.

Since you already use MasterController, I'd highly recommend ErrorTrap and Overwatch too: they clean up various kinds of issues on their own, without your needing to do anything.  Register is also great for controlling the stray animal population, among other things.  (It governs role sims of all kinds.)  There are other useful mods too, depending on your needs and what you see in your game.  For example, if you find your save overrun by ice cream trucks, or Overwatch is removing several thousand vehicles every night, Traffic would be a great addition.

[LuisGojim]

@puzzlezaddict I did everything you suggested and the game kept crashing. Then I realized that this problem I started having it since I played with a particular family, so I tried with a new one with all the ep and sp installed, and it didn't crash at all. Thus, I think my game was somehow corrupted. Also, I tried playing without pets ep, and game ran even smoother, so as you said, pets may be too much for my laptop's hardware. Next time I won't be forcing my laptop so much in order to have a better experience. Anyway, thanks for replying! Those mods you mentioned are very efficent.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@LuisGojim  Did you play your existing save, or a new save with the same sims?  If it's the latter, it would be interesting that adding your existing sims to a new save would still cause problems, that is, unless you moved them through the phone.  (That tends to bring corruption from the old world to the new one.)  Either way, I'm glad the game is running better for you now.

Given that removing Pets helped os much, it's probably best to avoid the pack, or if you want to try it out, play with only Pets, and maybe the first three or four EPs, not the later ones.  (And as many stuff packs as you want, since they don't add much to the game's demands.)  But it still might not run well no matter what you try, just due to the way the pets themselves are rendered.  If you get a new computer at some point, Pets will still be in your game library.

[LuisGojim]

@puzzlezaddictI played with my current save first but it kept closing (I've tried playing with the same family in different towns- Bridgeport, Twinbrook and Moonlight Falls), then I started a new one and played like for half an hour or more, and there were no problems (I played in Twinbrook), and there's when I guessed there was something wrong with my existing save. I'll see if playing with pets alone (or with pets+few other eps) the game still works. If not, as you said, I can wait till I have a pc that can run pets and other content with no troubles. I mean, Is kinda sad since I really wanted to have the whole experience with animals in the game, but there's no case of having it if I can't enjoy it in due to the constant blocking.