The Sims 3 crashing in a peculiar way

[ziekinka]

hello! while playing the sims 3, i've encountered a major issue which has been ruining my game ever since. the matter is, my game is crashing... not just randomly crashing, always after some time. whenever i create a new save, it works perfectly fine, until i get to, let's say, the second or the third generation and so forth. after that approximate period, it begins to crash at random moments during my gameplay, and one save even crashes to desktop right after i load it up, not letting me do anything. as i already said, after creating a completely new save file, until some time everything seems normal, however when i, let's say, create a new save file and then put my old sims from the broken save in there, the problem reoccurs.

the file's size also has nothing to do with the matter, as it's been occuring on saves which were 50mb large, 100mb large or even 400mb large – always the same result. i've run through my mods folder as well with delphy's dashboard, and there are no signs of corrupted or conflicting files there. i've tried increasing my vram but it's done nothing, i've adjusted my CPU, my graphics card, tried lowering graphics settings, running my game with lazy duchess's launcher and without it as well, tried nraas error trap and overwatch, repairing my game through EA app, reinstalling it multiple times, heck, even reinstalling Origin/EA app – all this for nothing... 

it's really frustrating as i personally love generational gameplay and get really attached to my sims, therefore i wish i didn't have to replace them overtime. the thing that confuses me the most is the fact that it starts over time and not from the beginning, and also that back then it used to be an issue with only one save file but now it's also "infected" every single one i create. it's extremely vexing not to know the reason behind this.

i do have quite a lot of mods and cc, however, as i said, the dashboard hasn't detected anything sus and also i suppose i haven't downloaded anything new before the crashes started striking so aggressively

i'd be unspeakably thankful to anyone who could help me with my problem. perhaps anybody's encountered a similar pattern, yet i think i've tried every method of dealing with crashes known to me and all of them failed, i'm out of ideas

kindest regards

~ Aurora

[puzzlezaddict]

@ziekinka  Delphy's Dashboard is good at detecting conflicts but not necessarily at finding corrupt custom content.  So cc might be the culprit here, although there are other potential causes to look into first.

Please keep ErrorTrap and Overwatch installed, and also install NRaas MasterController.  When you load one of these saves, let the game clock run for a few sim-minutes, then click on City Hall and select NRaas > MC > Town Options > Reset Everything.  This could take a few minutes, depending on the size and complexity of the world and the speed of your computer.  When it's done, use "save as" to rename the save, quit to desktop, and delete the five cache files in your user folder:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simCompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

Then reload the save and see how it runs.  Once the game clock is running forward, put Sims 3 in windowed mode (but don't minimize it), open the Task Manager, and let me know how much RAM the game and your system overall are using.

[ziekinka]

Unfortunately, what you mentioned here is exactly what I had tried right before posting my message. I forgot to mention it previously, but I always used to clean up my cache files too, remove the 'featured items' folder, clean up the save with Regular Save Cleaner after quitting the game, and also playing in the windowed mode has become a habit of mine since a couple of months already. On my most recent save I've noticed that my game would crash around 8a.m. in game, so before I had started the thread, I did everything as you mentioned – reset everything with Nraas Master Controller (I've also been using MC on a regular basis for quite a long time), however this caused my game to crash again right after everything got reset. that was the moment since which i cannot open the save file for more than a few seconds, so it's really difficult to spot the RAM as well – the game turns off before i can even click on anything after loading up the save.

Should I try looking at the RAM on another save file or try to look for a piece of cc or a mod which could possibly casue this behaviour? i've got quite a lot of it (around 2GB in my mods folder and almost 4GB in my downloads folder) so i suppose trying one by one would be a bit tedious, however i could always try. also, if some cc was the problem, i should also check the ones from the downloads folder, downloaded using the launcher, right?

[puzzlezaddict]

@ziekinka  If the game is crashing at or around 8 am every time, that suggests that a sim is trying to change into a corrupt work or school outfit and crashing the game as a result.  That's not the only possible cause, of course, but the first step is definitely to test with no cc present.

The simplest way to do that, in turn, is to create a new Sims 3 user folder and copy your save into that.  Rename the existing one in Documents > Electronic Arts, open the launcher to spawn a new folder, and copy over the save and your NRaas mods, but nothing else.  The only other exception is if the save takes place in a Store or custom world, in which case you'd need to reinstall that world.  If it's a custom world and comes with cc, please try to uninstall that cc through the launcher before testing the save.

If this helps, then you know the issue is something in your old folder—maybe cc, maybe another mod, maybe some other corruption—and you can start testing that content in the new folder.  Let me know if you need help with the process.  If the save still crashes, then try the backup instead: the folder with a .backup extension in the same Saves folder as the original.

[ziekinka]

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I've run a few tests and I think I have come closer to the root of the problem. I've tried running my game with no mods or cc from the Mods folder, only with Nraas, as you mentioned, and at first the game would still crash. However then I tried running the it without custom/Store content THROUGH the launcher option (simply disabling all the CC from the Downloads folder) and I met with no crash, everything seemed to be alright.

I've been trying different combinations and I realised that as long as I have that option checked in the launcher, my game doesn't crash even with all the mods and custom content from the Mods folder. Unfortunately as soon as I decided to check how the game runs with only one single piece of CC from the launcher (I tried a few times with different categories; once a Store world, once a download lot, a custom texture, a custom object or a piece of clothing from Store and the result would always be the same), it crashes.

I am pretty convinced now that the issue is somehow connected to that Downloads folder. Is there a chance that my launcher is broken or that I lack some file which might be crucial to run even the legally purchased Store content (not to mention CC made by Internet users – an instant crash in both cases with various pieces) or a lot/family downloaded through the Exchange?

[puzzlezaddict]

@ziekinka  There is a decent chance that the problem is not every single cc item you've installed but rather something else in the Sims 3 folder.  That's why I keep suggesting you test in a clean folder.  Disabling cc through the launcher is not the same and doesn't provide the same data.  So please try the clean folder and get back to me.

[ziekinka]

I did as you said, however the results hasn't been much different since the last time I posted.

I cut and pasted my old The Sims 3 folder onto desktop and then created a new, fresh one. Everything worked just fine when I put my save file along with my Options.ini file (I just find it irritating not to have my game settings as I like them) in there and opened the game without any mods. Then I copied in my Mods folder and I suppose it's important to emphasise – it all went smooth as well, no crashes, nothing. Lastly nonetheless, I tried opening it after putting in all my sims3.pack files and installing the CC and Store content from the Downloads folder; I copied it in and installed them through the launcher because I had a few items and Store worlds in there that I tended to regularly use, and I even decided to delete some old ones not necessary to me anymore to make more space. From then on, after no crashes so far, having a fresh clean The Sims 3 folder and almost 1GB of old CC out, I had some hope that my game would be fine but again it was not. After I turned on my save with the stuff downloaded through the launcher, it crashed immediately. Are you sure it is not the core of the problem? I have honestly no idea how to deal with it or what else could be the issue after doing what you had said.

Also, while installing this Store content, I had a problem with a small numer of items which hasn't occured to me ever before, as they wouldn't get installed with a message alongside saying "Please make sure your game has the latest Software Updates and try again". Not sure if it is any significant in this situation (sorry if it is not, I just don't want to skip any changes I notice) however in the past it would be installed just fine. My game version is 1.69.43.024017. It's the latest version, isn't it?