My game has stopped working; keeps crashing

[Kaye]

Recently, my computer has started shutting down when I try to play the Sims 3. The game will get to either the loading screen or the screen where you can select a saved game or create a new one, but then, it'll crash. My laptop doesn't actually turn off, but I get an error message that just says an error's been found and the laptop has shut down to prevent issues (that's paraphrased, but it's along those lines).

I literally have no clue as to why this is happening. My laptop has never had an issue with the game before, so it's like this issue has come out of nowhere.

[Frey]

Couldn't it be overheating? I know you said you don't even get to play but I read in this post (official forum - http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/520383.page) that someone was having overheating issues only 5 minutes after loading the game. I say this because I've been having a similar problem since I upgraded my RAM: the laptop shuts down, sometimes giving me that error message. What I did to partially fix it was turn on my graphic's card VSync Settings and get a cooling pad. The laptop is still occasionally shutting down, but only in really long playing sessions, so all I have to do is exit the game every now and then and restart it.

[Kaye]

It's stopped crashing, but now, it just doesn't load. It gets past the introduction and then stays at the black screen.

[Frey]

Oh, I'm sorry about that! The only thing I can suggest is to try and reinstall it (or at least do a factory reset), but hopefully someone more experienced will take a look at this soon

Otherwise you could try to chat with an advisor at the official help site, I've done it before and they have been helpful. 

[Pam]

@Kaye:

Have you installed something recently?  Like an expansion pack?  I'm wondering if maybe you've installed a new expansion and it's just too much for your laptop to handle.  If you have a lot of expansions, the game needs more and more power to run properly.  Just throwing this out there. 

[Kaye]

@Frey: I did uninstall and reinstall. That's what stopped the crashing. I don't know how to do a factory reset.

@Pam: No. The last pack I installed was University months ago and it ran fine. No problems at all. That's why I'm so confused over why it suddenly doesn't work anymore.

[MissPlumbBob]

Factory reset is your best option. It's so much easier than a reinstall, so I'd try it before anything else. The thread is here.

[Frey]

If you already reinstalled the game I'm not sure if the factory reset will help, but it's really easy and it only takes a few minutes, so I would give it a try anyways.

Did you check your Saves folder for corrupt (.bad) files?  And did you install anything else in your computer right before the issues started? There are programs that run in the background and use too much RAM, causing the game to crash. I'm just wondering, because it's really strange that it started so suddenly.

[Kaye]

@Frey: I checked and I had two. I did not know those files were corrupt.

The last thing I installed before the problems started happening was Panda Antivirus, but that was about two weeks before I tried to play the game and experienced this for the first time.

[Frey]

The .bad files could be causing the issues. Did you delete them? That should fix it, I think.

Here's a thread about corrupt files: http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,6.msg9.html#msg9
It may help you recover some of the  progress before deleting the .bad files.

Good luck!

[Kaye]

I figured it out! It was my antivirus program! Someone suggested that could be the problem, so I uninstalled it and the game loaded right up as it always had! I guess I have to find a new antivirus program now.

Thanks for the advice, everyone! And now, I know about corrupt files, so I learned something from this.

[Frey]

I had heard that some antivirus could conflict with certain games, but I used to have Panda and never had a problem. They must have changed something since I last had it.

I'm using AVG Free version and it works fine with the game, in case you want to try it . Plus, it doesn't slow down my computer, like McAffee and Norton used to.

I'm glad you figured it out!

[Kaye]

The person who made that suggestion actually said AVG caused her problem. Guess it depends on the PC. I downloaded Ad-Aware. Hopefully, that doesn't cause a conflict.

[Frey]

Really? I've been using it for a couple of years now and never had an issue. Maybe it depends on the PC or on the antivirus version or something.