Ambitions Crashing???

[Honeymooners]

Hi all I am just needing some ideas on how to fix a problem I am having with my game crashing.

** The game keeps crashing when I start any kind of house.  It will load the house I am trying to play and it will start letting me play for about 60 seconds and then crash.  I have tried starting a new household in Twinbrook, starting a new sim from CAS, and starting an older saved game.  So far it is happening on every combo I have tried ***

Here are the things I have tried so far-
* Uninstalling and reinstalling Ambitions ( I haven't tried taking everything off yet but I will if someone thinks it will make a difference)
* Made sure that my DirectX is up to date (Direct X 11)
* attempted to update my Video card but I am not sure what I am doing so I think I updated my VC

I have not had any other problems with any of the other Sims3 games and I am not ready to give up yet! 

[Honeymooners]

Here are my computer specs:

OS  Vista
CPU AMD Phenom 9750 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) 2.4 GHz
Ram 7934MB
DVD Disc Drive OK
Hard Drive   663 GB of free space
Video  ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
          ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series

[Pam]

Are yuou running any mods or third party custom content?

[Honeymooners]

Nope-none just a few things downloaded from EA with the free money they gave with the base game.

[Pam]

I suggest that you wipe all the Sims 3 games from your computer and install everything again. It's always a good idea to do this before installing a new expansion pack or stuff pack. It's just good game maintenance.

You can find all these instructions on the Technical Help Board. Follow the instructions step by step. You need to be sure to save a backup copy of your game files. Then uninstall all of the Sims 3 games in reverse order: HELS, WA, Base game. For good measure, do a Disk Cleanup and Defrag on your computer. Then install each of the games in the order they were released: Base, WA, HELS, Ambitions.

Also, be sure to have your product code handy for the reinstall. You won't be able to install anything without them. You can find the product codes printed on the back of the booklet that came with each DVD.

Good luck and let us know if it works! 

[Valadhiel]

Someone in one of the other threads said his game was crashing, too, but that it had nothing to do with his third party stuff or mods, but with his windows version.  I'm going to paste it here, but don't ask me for more specifics.  My suggestion is maybe you can private message the person to get more detailed information.  Here's the quote:

My version of Windows doesn't like The Sims 3.  I checked the tech forums at the site and found someone who had similiar problems, who turned off his DEP.  I googled "DEP Sims 3" and found a forum post from the FIRST Sims 3 launch with people having the problem.  DEP: Data Execution Prevention.  I followed his directions to open the exclusion list to add my new version of Sims, and sure enough, there are all the OTHER versions of the program sitting on the list already.  Just went back to where I had my first crash, and all is well.

The person is running Windows Vista SP2.

[Honeymooners]

Someone in one of the other threads said his game was crashing, too, but that it had nothing to do with his third party stuff or mods, but with his windows version.  I'm going to paste it here, but don't ask me for more specifics.  My suggestion is maybe you can private message the person to get more detailed information. 

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!  I changed the DEP and I haven't had a problem since!  I now have to re-install WA & HE stuff but ohhh well that is my own fault!!! 

Have a good evening!  Happy Simming!

[Valadhiel]

Yay!  Glad that worked for you, Honeymooners.

[Abyshep]

Hey all,

Just wanted to add my thanks to those who put the solution on this thread. I also wanted to vouch for its success.

Like others I installed Ambitions and it crashed every time. I uninstalled the whole game, cleaned up disks, checked disk and defragged re-installed and still no luck. I then checked this thread and voila - perfect solution. Just proves I should have checked here first!

DEP sorted the problem out and I am happily delving into the delights of Ambitions!

Thanks again, now to catch up on the challenges.

Aby