Game Crashing

[pokegal98]

Hi. You probably see a lot of these, and I'm sorry. I'd really like to fix this issue, though, and everything I have tried doesn't work.

My game began crashing during gameplay a few weeks ago with 0 warnings. I didn't install anything new (mods, CC, packs, etc.), it seems to have started up randomly. The game now crashes about 90% of the time I play.

Operating System: Windows 8.1 (64 bit)

When the game crashes: Sporadically and on any screen. I've had it crash while loading, saving, during normal gameplay, in Create-A-Sim and in the stylist section, too.

How long I usually play: I usually play for a few hours when it doesn't crash.

EPs and SPs: Ambitions, Late Night, Seasons, Pets, Showtime and Supernatural. No SPs, but I do have Roaring Heights installed.

Mods and CC: I use the nraas story progression and master controller mods. I do have a lot of custom content, but I haven't installed anything new in at least a month.

DxDiag file is attached

What I have tried:

• Reinstalling the game
• Bypassing the Origin Launcher
• Playing the game in windowed mode (Didn't help with the crashing, but it fixed some graphical issues!)
• Lowering graphics settings
• Removing some CC (I really enjoy my mods and cc, so if it's possible to fix the issue without removing them, I'd be delighted)

If anyone can help, that'd be absolutely fantastic! I love this game, and I'd really like to keep playing.

[roberta591]

@pokegal98  First thing you need to do is update the Nvidia video driver as yours is quite old (2014). Go to Nvidia support and download the drivers for GeForce 840M and install.

[pokegal98]

Thanks for the suggestion, it seems to have helped a whole lot! I played for an hour or two last night with no crashes, and the game seems to be loading a hair faster, too.

I'm not going to call it solved just yet, because my game did crash again today, but that was only after a LONG session. Thank you, though! I'm about as computer-savvy as a high school teacher.

[roberta591]

@pokegal98  You might want to watch the heat. Make sure when you play 3D graphical games that none of the vents are blocked as the GeForce 840M will be generating more heat then usual.

[pokegal98]

Hey, sorry for the late reply! I was super busy.

I do have a cooling table to try and help with that, but it's cheap so I'm not too sure how much it helps.
Seems my game is back to its old antics, though. Anything else I should do to try and solve the problem?

[puzzlezaddict]

@pokegal98  Does this crashing happen only in one ongoing game, only in one town, or no matter what you do?  Perhaps this particular save is corrupted (or close) or has some ongoing issues with sims or lots that you can't see.  And which town are you typically using to play?  The Pets EP can cause routing issues in certain worlds, often related to stuck baby animals; when one gets stuck, your game tries and fails to fix it and then might crash.

As a side note, the game itself is 32-bit and can therefore only use ~3.7 GB RAM or so before it crashes (should be 4 GB, but there's some overhead).  Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, but Pets and Seasons are the two most demanding EPs in terms of RAM.  Additionally, nraas Story Progression increases the game's memory usage—much more so than most mods.  You can check your RAM usage in your Task Manager while you're playing; if you see spikes or are consistently above 3.5 GB, that could be causing your problem.

https://www.wikihow.com/Check-Memory-Usage

On a different note, one thing you can do, if you haven't already, is drag your entire TS3 folder (not pieces, the whole thing) out of Documents.  When you launch the game again, it will spawn a fresh, clean folder with no content.  See if you can play a new game without any crashes or other issues.  If so, you can put your existing game back into your saves folder, along with the minimum amount of cc and mods you need to make the game load properly.  If this lets you play without issue, you can add back more content, a bit at a time, until you run into trouble.  When that happens, you'll know that the cause of the problem is likely whatever you added into your new folder.

If you can't play your ongoing save in this new folder without the crashes, the save itself may be the problem.  Reverting to a previous save might help, but if the crashes are sporadic I'd suspect stuck sims (especially pets) or another theoretically fixable issue.  However, if the save is completely unplayable from the time it loads, than it might just be a lost cause.

If you can't even play a new game in a completely clean folder (no mods or cc added back in) for any significant length of time, then it's time to post a new dxdiag so that roberta can look for any more issues with your computer itself.

[pokegal98]

@puzzlezaddict, thank you for the in-depth response. It's really helpful.

Crashing seems to be sporadic and not related to corrupted saves. It's not only crashed while the game starts up, but I've played with several different saves in several different towns. I think the memory usage issue you mentioned is indeed the problem. I tried what you mentioned: dragging the folder out of documents and creating a fresh one, and the game ran just fine. I'll try slowly adding stuff back in, and get back to you on what happens.

On that note, I'll probably be disabling the pets ep when I play! I'm not really fond of it precisely because of the issues routing baby animals (I once found about seven puppies stuck on a lot in the same spot). I keep it on for the CAS content, but I can live without it if it means my game is playable.

[roberta591]

@pokegal98  If you have updated your computer any you need to update the dxdiag. The video driver for the GeForce 840M is out of date and needs to be updated. A note about the GeForce 8xx series is they run hot. They are known to over heat and fail. Your computer has Windows 8.1 which did not go over well. One reason to upgrade is Windows 10 has DX 12 and Microsoft seems to be more aggressive in making Win 10 work. Microsoft is calling Windows 10 a service. Main support is over for windows 8.1. What this means is newer products coming to market may not be supported and older devices may not get updated. The GeForce 840M is now weak for some of today's graphical games but should run Sims 3 but going forward may have issues. With resolutions rising this will require more power to run the newer games and VR which is now starting to become an interest. Update the Nvidia drivers and watch the heat.