Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

by ManicGlitter
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Original Post

Accepted Solution

[Solved] Crashes Nightmare: Please Fix (With thorough documentation)

[ Edited ]
★★★ Apprentice

I've spent an inordinate amount of time with your technical support on the phone. I've been elevated to Tier 2 and have spent over 7 horus on phone with EA since the rise of this issue (09/09/2014 to be exact). I've since then created 3 help cases, one of which has mysteriously vanished from the "My Cases" area under account management on help.ea.com 

 

Current state: "Still to this day there is no fix, at least I've not discovered one that works for me. Game crashes every 10 minutes "

 

Below is an extensive list of troubleshooting topics I have covered. Perhaps my work might be someone else's fix despite my problems still existing.

 

Reference to original thread on Forums.thesims forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/782763/requesting-help-random-crashes-100-guaranteed-act-2#lates...

 

Specs Reference: 

 

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Manufacturer Intel
Speed 3.4 GHz
Number of Cores 4
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Chipset GeForce GTX 770
Dedicated Video-Memory 3.1 GB
Total Video-Memory 4.0 GB (soldier to card, not to be confused with windows allocations)
Memory 16 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit
Service Pack 1
Size 64 Bit
Edition Ultimate
Display Maximum Resolution 1920 x 1080
DVD JONKN JC5QN0DA SCSI CdRom Device
CD JONKN JC5QN0DA SCSI CdRom Device
Drive 1
Size 465.8 GB
Free 277.1 GB
Drive 2
Size 465.8 GB
Free 143.0 GB
Drive 3
Size 107.2 GB
Free 37.2 GB

Here is a log of things I have done. 

 

Startup Programs:

 

  • Teamviewer
  • Razer Synapse
  • Ai Suite (asus fan control)
  • Corsair Link (pump control)
  • Nettime (advanted time sync as opposed to windows time)
  • DisplayFusion (multiple monitor windows taskbar app)
  • Auslogics DiskDefrag (Only for HDD)
  • Oirigin
  • Steam
  • Nvidia control panel
  • dropbox
  • OneDrive
  • Evemon (EVE online API monitoring)
  • ESET Security
  • GoogleChrome

 

Note to parties of interest:

 

I've done extensive testing and searching; Countless users are experieincing similar difficulties, and the
most of them started showing after the sep 9th - check your forums and you'll see. It is not my
equipment - My system is top of line, custom built by a certified technician (myself)  and stress tested with industry standard tools and soft-sets (Therefore I can vouch for the complete stability of my system).

 

It's not my windows operating system - All other programs & games I have and run operate perfectly, even higher stress softwares such as Civilization V, Skyrim, Photoship x64, etc run without hastle.. It cannot be my system, it cannot be my software, it cannot be my security. Everything else produced and maintained by any other Company besides EA runs without a hitch.

 

I've included a small library of files besides this one.. And I'd appreciate it if your answers are not
uninstall. Please don't ask me to re-install windows. Please don't ask me to run SFC or Scan disk. I've done everything except re-install windows (clean), which I refuse to do because my system plain and simple works when it comes to non EA product. 

 

 

Things I've done..

 

  • Game re-install (2x through origin, 1x manually/latest)
  • Repair (3x)
  • SCF /Scannow (cmd) (2x)
  • Scandisk (1x) 
  • Test with event manager - test with task manager
  • Disable all Origin in game functions

 

  • Windowed mode
  • Full windowed mode
  • Low graphics options (all)

 

  • Delete unused sims from household management (not in town sims)
  • Delete sims game folder in Documents - started game - injected saves - still crash.

 

  • Patched TS4.exe to 4 gig (saved copy of original executable for backup troubleshooting purposes)

 

  • Disabled tutorials.
  • Disabled DEP (Data execution protection) through advanced sys properties and command lines.
  • Disabled windows firewall and other msse protection suites such as malware removal
  • Disabled all startup programs and run TS4 with nothing else running (diagnostic startup >> msconfig)
  • Create new local admin account - played new game and still crash

 

  • Force run Origin as Admin (in properties menu - permanent selection) in installation directory. 
  • Force run TS4.exe as admin (in properties menu - permanent selection) in bin folder.
  • Tried new game on new local admin 
  • Tried new game in normal accounty
  • Tried removing mods - Tried removing mods with new game and tried the same on my (new) secondary admin acount with new game.
  • Manual uninstall - remove registry, unistall game, clear bin. 
  • Uninstall - change default origin install directory from A:/storageDrive to C:\Programs
  • Upgraded to H110i Corsair CLWC (because I wanted to, not to fix the game) and dropped my idle to 20C and load to 55C
  • Upgraded i4570k to i5 4690k (because is cooler running proc)

 

Further.. I've a 3rd party Taskmanager monitoring TS4.


Game crashes when

 

  • Changing lots
  • Saving
  • Exiting
  • Exiting and saving
  • When ram consumed (documented in Taskman logs) is between 1.65 - 1.75 private memory
  • consumption-
  • Play game 10-20 minutes (related to memory consumption)
  • Click "Manage Worlds" in escape(d) menu.

 

----

 

Only recently have I been able to produce an error when it crashes (after run as admin configurations) and found this...

 

http://i.imgur.com/Bi7W3lp.png

 

The above is proof of memory exeuction / leak error. How do I know this? Windows uac, DEP, firewall, and security software is turned off. 

 

Also, Event Manager logs that show crashes exactly 10 minutes apart to the second... 

 

Proof of immaculate crash loghttp://i.imgur.com/kyiskHl.png - Results of interested are highlighted in screenshot. 

 

Event Viewer Crash Sample - http://i.imgur.com/hu6FZFv.png

 

TS4 LastCrash Sample - http://pastebin.com/8X6Fmqns

 

DxDiaghttp://pastebin.com/L1vnBG69

Msinfo32 - http://tny.cz/49ad9676

Message 1 of 42 (1,854 Views)

Accepted Solution

Re: Crashes Nightmare: Please Fix (With thorough documentation)

★★★ Apprentice
I think I fixed my Crashes! Holy cow.. 2 hours play no crash....

What I did - removed Razer Synapse completely - re-installed clean, but it still crashed... and then proceeded to disable it's start up with autoruns. Ever since then no crash!

So, ladies and gentlemen if you have ANY software that directly interfaces with the game it might cause a crash even if it is not active at the time of your game-playing. I would suggest that programs like Razer Synapse , Logitech Game Configuration, etc be uninstalled, re-installed and then removed from system start-up. However, these crashes were not happening prior to Sep 9th patch - So, something in the game code is not working correctly with software that tries to interface with games since last patch!

I hope this thread and this final post helps those still having issues!

View in thread

Message 32 of 42 (1,477 Views)

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Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

Hero

I believe those errors normally occour when a background program is messing with your active program, in this case, The Sims 4.

 

First of all, I see you already run a nice and fairly updated system. But please make sure you have everything fully updated, like harddrive firmware (if it's an SSD), motherboard drivers (I can see it's an Intel based system so www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect might come in handy in case as well as your motherboard's brandname site), etc.

 

Secondly, you should try and disable all 3rd party software and services running in the background, also called a clean boot:

http://help.ea.com/en/article/how-to-clean-boot-your-pc/

 

Lastly, you might want to check your memory for errors ( http://www.memtest86.com/ ) and disable all overclock (if any).

 

Let me know if this helps or notStandard smile

carbonic signature

Message 2 of 42 (1,820 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

★★★★★ Apprentice

We shouldn't have to reprogram our computer to get a game working! I'm having the exact same problems, and EA isn't doing a thing about it at all! They do not care now that they have our money. I cannot play this game at all, and they won't give me a refund. I will never ever buy or play another EA game ever again!

Message 3 of 42 (1,818 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

★★★ Apprentice

Well, I do believe that with time and modder resources this game will be very good in it's final stages by which point the product will sell for half the price and one can pick and choose. I would buy all expansions that are content filled and add to the game (subjecticely speaking). However, you are also right that we should not have to reprogram out computers. The steps and level of documentation I have provided are beyond what any customer (what about those who are less savvy?) should have to do.

 

In my mind it's completely senseless. The game worked wondefully at launch, I percieved no need for a patch. Yet, come the 9th my game is broken down to 10 minute stretches. It strikes me as odd that they are not offering roll back options...I'm now thinking crack your legal game - install again from another source. You paid for this already mind you... Since EA is taking sweet their sweet time I am seeking alternative methods to play the game I paid for, and a rollback sounds mighty fine. I can firewall Origin and Sims to death and launch the game (launch software version). It's funny how quickly they roll out a patch that breaks a game, but can't roll back or release a hot fix when tons of people suddenly have issue because of the first patch... 

Message 4 of 42 (1,814 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

[ Edited ]
★★★ Apprentice

Carbonic wrote:

I believe those errors normally occour when a background program is messing with your active program, in this case, The Sims 4.

 

First of all, I see you already run a nice and fairly updated system. But please make sure you have everything fully updated, like harddrive firmware (if it's an SSD), motherboard drivers (I can see it's an Intel based system so www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect might come in handy in case as well as your motherboard's brandname site), etc.

 

Secondly, you should try and disable all 3rd party software and services running in the background, also called a clean boot:

http://help.ea.com/en/article/how-to-clean-boot-your-pc/

 

Lastly, you might want to check your memory for errors ( http://www.memtest86.com/ ) and disable all overclock (if any).

 

Let me know if this helps or notStandard smile

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

EA, it is not my hardware. I like you am a technician. I've all my drivers updated. Motherboard is on a stable firmware. This includes my SDD, GPU, CPU, Dedicated Sound Card, and current drivers for my Corsair water cooler. 

 

You also mentioned that I should try disabling all startup items - in my opening post I've mentioned I've done this. Clean boot produces no discernable difference. Lastly, the memory I have has been tested and stable for 5 months. I have corsair dominators... they are tested thoroughly before leaving the factory floor - 16 gigs of their ram was 240.00$ and I've been running them like champions.. really you should recheck my original post a little more thoroughly.. I've made a lot of mentions and what not...

 

Also, my rig is professionally built and stress tested with industry standard tools and soft-sets. I personally can assure you my equipment is the definition of stability, but I do admit that not all the software I use is entirely stable every single day! I just know my hardware is rock solid and under stressed my TS4. My windows install is also professionally configured to run as little services as possible. 

 

--> Sysinfo32 logs should provide the most of the details.

 

However, just to entertain the thought...

 

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Manufacturer Intel
Speed 3.4 GHz
Number of Cores 4
CPU ID BFEBFBFF000306C3
Family 06
Model 3C
Stepping 3
Revision 19
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Chipset GeForce GTX 770
Dedicated Memory 3.1 GB
Total Memory 4.0 GB
Pixel Shader Version 5.0
Vertex Shader Version 5.0
Hardware T & L Yes
Vendor ID 10DE
Device ID 1184
Plug and Play ID VEN_10DE&DEV_1184&SUBSYS_1033196E&REV_A1
Driver Version 9.18.13.4052
Memory 16 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit
Service Pack 1
Size 64 Bit
Edition Ultimate
Version 6.1.7601
Locale 0409
BIOS BIOS Date: 06/03/14 17:17:24 Ver: 20.04
Version American Megatrends Inc. 2004
Manufacturer American Megatrends Inc.
Date 06/03/14
Display Maximum Resolution 1920 x 1080
Sound Device 1 Bluetooth Audio Device
Driver Version 6.9.1022.302
Sound Device 2 Sound Blaster Audio Controller
Driver Version 6.0.102.23
Sound Device 3 NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Driver Version 1.3.30.1
Sound Device 4 High Definition Audio Device
Driver Version 6.1.7601.17514
Sound Device 5 NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
Driver Version
Sound Device 6 Sound Blaster Z
Driver Version 6.0.102.23
DVD JONKN JC5QN0DA SCSI CdRom Device
CD JONKN JC5QN0DA SCSI CdRom Device
Drive 1
Size 465.8 GB
Free 277.1 GB
Drive 2
Size 465.8 GB
Free 143.0 GB
Drive 3
Size 107.2 GB
Free 37.2 GB
Browsers
Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.17239
Chrome 36.0.1985.143
Firefox 31.0 (x86 en-US)
Safari
Software
Java 7.0.550
Flash 14.0.0.145
DirectX 11.0
.NET 3.5.30729.5420
QuickTime
Adobe PDF Reader 11.0.7.79

 

 



 

Message 5 of 42 (1,809 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

Hero

Well, I didn't mention any programming, just a few tests to make sure your hardware is properly working and updated and a test to see if this crash is related to interfering background programs/services so I can send it along to EA who can send it along to Maxis (if we find out what interfer they can reproduce it an fix the error quickly).

And Yes, I don't work for EA, this is a community based forum after all, and yes I agree that games, PC's and other software ideally should work together in all the, going towards infinity, ways to combine them but sadly they don't, so please, while I know it's nice to vent ones anger, please just mention if my suggestion works or not, I have no power over EA, MAXIS and the way they do things Standard smile If you want to went, you should probably do it in the general discussions part of the official Sims 4 forum:

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/

carbonic signature

Message 6 of 42 (1,808 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

★★★ Apprentice

I don't mean to come off as vulgar or ungrateful. Thank you for taking your time to reply in the first place. I just ask you understand I've thoroughly documented what I've done and I've done a lot. I am also certain of my hardwares stability.

 

However, your answer was at least helpful in that did mention firmwares for SSD's and you also ask for specific vendors. Thank you for trying to at least point me in the right direction. 

Message 7 of 42 (1,805 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

★★★★★ Novice

 

Btw sims have any techsupport site?
Same here!
Message 8 of 42 (1,792 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

Hero

Ah, what I called clean boot you called diagnostic startup, sorry I didn't catch that .

 

Now, the last thing I can think of before I go to bed is to check the underlying software foundation that has access to the memory of the game.

The 3 things I'm thinking about is:

  • vc found in The Sims 4\__Installer\vc\vc2013\redist
  • vp6 found in The Sims 4\__Installer\vp6
  • and reinstalling DirectX from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 (I know this is more stupid + silly than the two above and should be unnecessary but sometimes it just works, I don't know how patches and other gameinstallations does it but sometimes a tiny part of DirectX just needs to be reinstalled)

carbonic signature

Message 9 of 42 (1,786 Views)

Re: EA Please check out these Crashes (With thorough documentation)

[ Edited ]
★★★ Apprentice

@Carbonic wrote:

Ah, what I called clean boot you called diagnostic startup, sorry I didn't catch that .

 

Now, the last thing I can think of before I go to bed is to check the underlying software foundation that has access to the memory of the game.

The 3 things I'm thinking about is:

  • vc found in The Sims 4\__Installer\vc\vc2013\redist
  • vp6 found in The Sims 4\__Installer\vp6
  • and reinstalling DirectX from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 (I know this is more stupid + silly than the two above and should be unnecessary but sometimes it just works, I don't know how patches and other gameinstallations does it but sometimes a tiny part of DirectX just needs to be reinstalled)

Now that's something I've not tried... re-installing Dx.

What would you suggest I do in the redist folders you mentioned above? 

Running that link and the file from it tells me I am up to date.  

Message 10 of 42 (1,770 Views)