Major Crashing Issues with Brand New Laptop - SOLVED!!!

[fortheloveofcake]

I just purchased a new laptop a few days ago.
Specs...
Model: Asus N56V
Windows 7 Premium, 64 Bit OS
Processor: Intel Core i7 3610QM, 2.3GHz
RAM: 6GB
750GB Hard Drive
Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce GT 630M, 2GB Video RAM

I have installed the Sims 3 and all expansions and Stuff Packs. The game loads fine, runs fine, but after about 10-15 minutes it crashes to desktop (sometimes with a pop-up message saying Sims 3 has stopped working, sometimes without it), or freezes and stops responding.
I have spent literally hours and hours working on this problem, along with my brother who knows a lot about computers.

So far, I have done the following:
- 2 Complete Re-Installations, once including the installation of Origin and Digital Download of Diesel Stuff, once without Origin or Diesel.
- Selecting the High Performance Battery Power Plan
- Disabled Vertical Sync in the NVidia Control Panel
- Uninstallation of all Store Content
- Added all .exe files to the DEP tab in System Properties > Performance Options
- Bypassed the Launcher using the TS3W.exe file
- Installed the Sims 3 Crash Log Analyzer: Message after crashing reads "Insufficient Memory Installed - Upgrade Your Computer to have 4+ GB of Memory" (As noted above, I have 6GB)
- Installed DirectX 11 (for some odd reason this program was not preinstalled)
- Changed all graphics settings to the lowest possible, and switched to Window mode instead of full screen
- Re-started the computer after changing anything.
- Installed all Windows updates, Asus updates, Graphics Card Drivers, etc. that my brother could find.

After several crashes, my brother started opening the task manager while the game was running to see what was going on. The Sims 3 was using around 3.5GB of RAM, while total RAM being used was around 4.7 GB at the time of the crashes.

Currently, I have all Expansions except for World Adventures and Late Night, and all Stuff packs except Katy Perry Sweet Treats installed. Diesel is a Digital Download from Origin.

I am out of ideas. I'm incredibly surprised that after all of these "fixes", nothing has improved. Any suggestions are most welcome. Thanks in advance.

[Ricalynn]

I have recently come across the same problem but in only one of my games.   I'm not getting any crashing as long as I don't travel which is when my game goes from using 3.75 GB of Ram to 6.8 GB RAM and then crashes because it can't finish loading the location.   The crash report tells me I need more RAM and I'm not the only person getting this error as sdhoey was also getting it. 

Have you been playing a long game or a new one when the crashing happens?   All of my newer saves aren't having this problem at all.  It's only the one very large file. 

[fortheloveofcake]

It is a brand new install. I havent even been able to finish making a sim so I havent saved anything yet. Im going to try saving a town as soon as it loads, I dont know if that would make a difference or not.

[Ricalynn]

I didn't know if you had ported your saves over from somewhere else.  I keep all my saves on an external so it doesn't matter what computer I'm on.  So even thought it was a brand new install you could have had saves from another computer.

I have a question and you could ask your brother if it's possible, Did you recently do the NVidia graphics card update?  I can't remember if I was crashing before or after I updated mine but you've got a new laptop so you had to get the latest and greatest driver right?  Is there a way to go to a prior driver?  I have no idea if it's possible.    Like I said I have 8 gigs of RAM with all EPs/SPs and Sims is using 3.75 on startup and beyond that it goes up to 6.8 before it crashes due to lack of memory. 

There are some people who had similar problems with Late Night and Pets when they came out.    It concerns me that several of us have had this problem in the last week which is why I asked about the graphics card driver.

[fortheloveofcake]

I didn't keep any saves unfortunately because I played on a Mac before and I wasn't sure if they would even open on a PC.

I think going back to a previous driver would be possible. He made backup discs for me, and since the laptop is new I wouldn't be losing anything. I'm willing to try anything at this point. Thanks for the suggestion 

[Ricalynn]

I play on a Mac & a PC and anything that has to do with Sims files that's not an .exe transfers over really well including saves, saved sims and userpresets.package.   Let me know how it goes for you.

[fortheloveofcake]

Excellent I believe I still have a backup of my current dynasty on my mac.

[fortheloveofcake]

The NVidia drivers were not updated, the driver date says March 22 2012. Good news though, it is running fine in the town. I have been playing the Altos in Sunset Valley for over an hour without issue. It may be an isolated issue with CAS, hopefully.

[wednesday21]

I'm just throwing a suggestion around here, but have you tried running the game in XP/Vista compatibility mode? I've read that it worked for other people who were having crashing issues, so it's worth a try.

[fortheloveofcake]

No I have not tried this. I did not even know that was possible. Do you know how to go about doing that? Or know where I could find directions on how?

[pallyndrome]

The only thing I can suggest is what turned out to be the problem for my own laptop - I was getting out of the game while it was loading (hitting windows button) so I could pass the time on the internet while waiting for it to load. As far as I have discovered, if I do that it always crashes sometime in game. If I let it load on it's own, it doesn't seem to crash.

[fortheloveofcake]

Hmmm while the game seems to run fine if I switch back and forth I have not really paid attention to whether there is a connection between switching windows and having crashes occur later on. I'll have to test this out. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Zyffyr]

No I have not tried this. I did not even know that was possible. Do you know how to go about doing that? Or know where I could find directions on how?

Go to  <Sims Directory>\Game\Bin
Right-Click TS3W.exe
Select Properties
Compatability tab

[amyrose]

The one thing that always crashes my game is the scheduled scan by my anti-virus software, AVG 2012.

[fortheloveofcake]

I figured it out!
The issue was, my computer was for some ridiculous reason only using the integrated Intel HD 4000 Graphics card, rather than the much better suited nVidia GT 630M dedicated card. After some poking around online, I found out how to set the nVidia card to always be the default card. My game is, for the first time EVER, running absolutely beautifully on nearly maxed graphics settings with almost all expansions and stuff packs as well as a lot of store content installed.