Author Topic: Sims 3 - Game Crashing? Here's what to do!!  (Read 38101 times)

Offline Seabody

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Sims 3 - Game Crashing? Here's what to do!!
« on: November 23, 2012, 01:18:56 AM »
Since the release of Seasons, I've noticed a couple of threads where people are complaining of Game Crashing. This doesn't just apply to those people, however - it applies to everyone noticing crashes.

After you've gone through the regular steps, such as What to do if your Game slows down (Clean up your game) and Factory Reset: Fix your game with 1/4 the Time of a Reinstall, here is what you do.

First of all - is the crashing one off, or regular? If it's regular, consider investing some bandwidth and downloading this Crash Log Analyzer (Windows Only). If you have an abundance of Mods/CC (as I do), now might be the time to look into Delphy's Dashboard. The former requires .NET version 4.0 (minimum) on Windows. The latter requires .NET 2.0 (minimum) on Windows. Unsure of your .NET version? Navigate to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework - there are subfolders entitled v3.0, v3.5 etc. The latest one (eg v4.0.30319) is your .NET version. Most Modern computers should automatically be running 4.0.

Next up - scan your The Sims 3 Folder. To do this, launch the Crash Log Analyzer (you may need to select "Run" from a popup in order to run it). To put it nice and simply - it will go into your The Sims 3 folder and take a peek inside those .mdmp files (see What are .mdmp's?) to try and determine what caused your crash. Of course, if you're like me and prefer to separate your .mdmp files from the rest of the game, you can set it to scan another folder once (the folder is not saved). To do this, go to the File menu and select "Change Log Directory to Scan..." and navigate to whatever folder contains your .mdmp files.

Right, now that's done, it should tell you what on earth your problem is. For instance, with one of my recent crashes, as FlynnArrowstarr stated to me via email, I needed to update my Graphics Card. If it doesn't, there are buttons at the bottom directing you to helpful links on MTS' wiki. You can also export the information found into a text file, or Copy it to the Clipboard.

For Mac users - I'm afraid there aren't a lot of possible solutions short of uploading your .mdmp's in .zip archives to this thread, where a Windows user with the Analyzer can scan it for you.

What are .mdmp's?
.mdmp files, commonly called by their full name - minidump files - contain general information about your Computer, and information regarding the crash in a usually human-unreadable format - for instance, the .txt files that accompany each one in TS3 don't explain much on their own.

So, if you're experiencing regular crashing, I hope this thread helps you. :) Good Luck, and Happy Simming.

I would also recommend checking out this post. :)

Offline pallyndrome

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2012, 03:58:35 AM »
Great thread seabody - the Crash Log Analyzer helped me so much!



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Offline shibamistress

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2012, 03:16:46 AM »
Thanks for this--it is really useful!  Too bad they don't have a crash analyzer for Mac though!  But I just bit the bullet and bought PC for gaming, so believe me, I will be getting the crash analyzer! 

Offline Gameactive

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2012, 12:20:58 PM »
My game’s been crashing for such a long time I don’t even know. Getting World Adventures and Supernatural yesterday wasn’t going to help one bit. The Crash Log Analyzer told me to increase my UserVA— why I had not already done that beats me, I’ve got more physical RAM than the OS can handle. (Still running XP, FTW!)

Now I’m happily waiting on Supernatural to finish downloading to reboot the system and enjoy crash-free gameplay! ;D
“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!” - Cave Johnson, Portal 2
“You ought to upgrade to Windows 7!”, they said. “It’ll help your games run so much better!”, they said. If I see them again, then they had better know how to stabilize an on-the-fritz copy of The Sims 3 that was working just fine on Windows XP.

Offline Roxanne07

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2012, 01:20:01 PM »
Thanks so much for this, Seabody. I couldn't get past day one in a single game file after Seasons. I downloaded the Crash Log Analyzer, found out what the problem was and fixed it. And now I can play the game with no more crashes! Thank you again!

Offline AmeliaAnne

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2012, 01:13:14 AM »
Anyone willing to analyze an .mdmp for a Mac user? Thank you!!

Offline Seabody

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2012, 03:20:14 AM »
Sorry Amelia, but the Analyzer isn't returning anything. :-\



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Offline AmeliaAnne

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2012, 02:54:39 PM »
Sad panda. Thanks for trying Seabody. I decided to try a new game, see if it was just my save that didn't like Seasons. I think it might be, unfortunately.  :-\ Hopefully, no more issues. But again, thanks for trying!

Offline realromster

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Re: Game Crashing? Here's what to do.
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2012, 09:59:23 AM »
Hi All,

I'm relatively new to the game, but have about 32 years of programming experience under my belt.  I was having MAJOR crashing, lagging and just relative "sluggishness" in the game but was able to fix it quickly using 3 steps without increasing the memory allocations for programs found at http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Insufficient_Memory_Crashes (this has the potential of causing many more issues with your computer and generally  can cause more problems than it's worth, so I recommend trying the below steps first).

First off, (and this can't be stressed enough) as posted on Carl's and other Sims sites- Prior to gameplay, clear your game buffers by cleaning out the following folders from your "MyDocuments\Electronic Arts\sims3\" folder: CASPartCache.package, scriptCache.package, compositorCache.package, SimCompositorCache.package, DCBackup\0*.package, and SocialCache.package.  Also take out the Thumbnails in the main Sims3 folder and the "bad" files from the Saves folder.  Instructions are at http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,3852.0.html.

Next, disable any active "real time" virus software scanning.  Most folks have Windows Defender running in the background anyway to intercept most of the nastys you may run into while Porting your sim or hosting others.  The only major disadvantage to this is that it is wise to not download/run any new files if you are surfing the net while playing Sims.

Finally, and this is the real biggie:  DISABLE INDEXING.  When you start playing Sims, it starts building file upon file upon file and indexing loves to grab on and try to speed up your computer in the process.  The indexing program itself uses very little of your computer's memory, but what it does to your drive is atrocious during game play.  Besides, most modern processors have no trouble handling 99% of Searches you will do without indexingprovided you keep your drive(s) defragmented.  Indexing is a holdover from the Windows 98 days (I wont bother you with the lengthy explanation as to why it's still there).

Fixing this is a two-step process:
1. Click on your "My Computer" link off your desktop (this brings up your document file folders and drives).
2. On the "My Documents" folder that you dump your Sims3 caches to, right click (brings up a scroll-down menu).
3. Click on "Properties", and, on the screen that pops up, uncheck the box that says "Allow Indexing Service to Index this disk for faster file searching".   If this is already unchecked, make sure to go to step 4.
4. Like the "My Documents" folder, do the same thing for your main "C" drive mentioned above.

For me personally (running 3GB memory, Dual-core 1.8GHz processor, 2GB MSI GTS450 Video Card) the difference has been nothing short of "phenominal".

Regards,
RealRomster

 

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