Sims 3 keep crashing when I proceed to map view

[Blanchflower]

OK, this is indeed frustrating. I just bought a new laptop with Windows 8.1 installed. My RAM size is 32GB. MY graphics card is a 780M GTX. I have installed all the EPs and SPs. I did not install any mods or Custom Content for my game yet.

The problem is, when I am playing the game and then click on the map view, the game always crashes. A message appears which says Sims 3 has stopped working..."

This is my first time playing the game after a 1 year hiatus. This is indeed frustrating. Please advise.

 

EDIT: And the last thing I forget to add is that my game version is 1.67.2.024017

[LivvieLove]

Hi there!
So it seems like you have one pretty powerful computer!
My boyfriend recommends that you make sure you have the GeForce Experience (for NVidia cards), as you might need a graphics card update of some kind. It's also very good for optimizing computers for games specifically, even if your card is up to date.
I would recommend trying a factory reset (found here), and if that doesn't work, try something like Game Booster or Large Address Aware to make sure Sims is using the full amount of RAM it can be allowed to use.
I can see why you're frustrated! This is quite the rig you've got.
Anyways, if all of this fails, please come back and I'll keep trying to figure something out.
Believe it or not, someone mentioned on the ModtheSims community that they were having an issue with Deer, but I mean, I'm not going to go into it unless we've eliminated some of these bigger exceptions.

[Pam]

My first question is whether this happens in more than one game file.  Be sure to test it with a different file and see what happens.

[MrsFlynn]

I'm curious too if the crashing happens with other saved games as well. If you're unsure. Try creating a new game as a test. Play it for a little while and then go to map view to see what happens.

Did you try a factory reset as LivvieLove suggested? -- Copy your Sims 3 folder to the desktop. Rename your current Sims 3 folder to something like Sims 3 Current. Click the Sims 3 icon to create a new Sims 3 folder. Then copy your game saves, files and such over to the new game to see if that helps.

If you need to know what to save/backup. Have a look at this thread.

How To: Saving folders/files to use on a different computer or to use as backup
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,16414.msg313134.html#msg313134

Hope this helps,

MrsFlynn

[Blanchflower]

My first question is whether this happens in more than one game file.  Be sure to test it with a different file and see what happens.

Yes, it happens with every save file. However, I would also like to play with Twallan's mod installed as well although I have not tried it yet.

 

[Blanchflower]

Hi there!
So it seems like you have one pretty powerful computer!
My boyfriend recommends that you make sure you have the GeForce Experience (for NVidia cards), as you might need a graphics card update of some kind. It's also very good for optimizing computers for games specifically, even if your card is up to date.
I would recommend trying a factory reset (found here), and if that doesn't work, try something like Game Booster or Large Address Aware to make sure Sims is using the full amount of RAM it can be allowed to use.
I can see why you're frustrated! This is quite the rig you've got.
Anyways, if all of this fails, please come back and I'll keep trying to figure something out.
Believe it or not, someone mentioned on the ModtheSims community that they were having an issue with Deer, but I mean, I'm not going to go into it unless we've eliminated some of these bigger exceptions.

Thanks for the information. The problem is, I just installed all the EPs and SPs in my laptop. When I played without mods, it did not crash. When I added the traveller's mod by Twallan it did not crash. However, when I added in the Master Controller mod, my game crashed always when I went to the map view.

I really want to play the game with the Master Controller mod installed. Lastly, I don't have to do a factory reset right, because I just installed my game. It seems redundant.

 

[jesirose]

Thanks for the information. The problem is, I just installed all the EPs and SPs in my laptop. When I played without mods, it did not crash. When I added the traveller's mod by Twallan it did not crash. However, when I added in the Master Controller mod, my game crashed always when I went to the map view.

I really want to play the game with the Master Controller mod installed. Lastly, I don't have to do a factory reset right, because I just installed my game. It seems redundant.

 

You originally said this happened without mods. But in this post you say it didn't happen until a specific mod. Well, there's your problem.

Also, while it might seem useless to you to do the reset, it's fast, easy... why not try it?

[LivvieLove]

Maybe this is more of a question of mods then, I see no reason why your computer should not be able to handle a few mods, so maybe you got a corrupted download of the mod or haven't put it in the right place? Sometimes even having the wrong Resource.cfg file can lead to problems. Let's delve into the mods part of your game and see if we can figure out what's causing the crashes.
I've never used Twallan's Traveller, but I have used Master Controller.
Are these your only mods or do you have others?

I'm not trying to (in any way) say you haven't set your folder up right, but here's a walk through on the Mods folder to double check if things are in order: How to Set Up your Mods Folder.

If you have more than those two mods, here's a way to make sure they don't conflict with each other: Mod Organization and Avoiding Conflicts.

Asides from mods, do you have a lot of Custom Content (not store content, but hair, clothing and other items) that have come from a 3rd party source - like modthesims, thesimsresource, so on?

The Sims 3 is a very finicky game. I mean, my computer is not as powerful as yours, but it was top of the line when I bought it two years ago. It can play Sims on high (along with many, many other games), but the Sims just has it's limits. The reason I recommended a factory reset is sometimes the game will get overloaded after a full reinstall. Not always, but sometimes - I've had it happen to me before. A Factory Reset is very easy to do, and takes a lot less time than a full uninstall/reinstall, and it seems to get the game to shape up when it does odd things that it normally wouldn't do. I once had a game that crashed while I was saving, and you think that would only corrupt that one save? Nope, it carried over into all fresh starts. I did a Factory Reset and that seemed to get it in gear. That's why I mentioned trying it.

I'm going to keep doing some digging on crashing in map mode with Master Controller.

Oh! I think I might have something!
Crash Log Analyzer. Whenever you have a crash to desktop, it should create a little text file in your Sims 3 folder. I can't read them for the life of me, but this program can, and it will tell you what the problem is that's causing it.
You can find it: here.
Let us know what the problem is. Sometimes it won't know what the problem is or tell you something that can't be done (like to update your game if you're already fully updated, so on) then we'll go back to the drawing board.

[Blanchflower]

OK guys! I found a solution to my problem! I posted this same problem at the Nraas website and this is what happened. Apparently, my laptop has 2 graphics card as it is a high end model. The first one is the NVIDIA GTX 780M and the 2nd one is the Intel HD Graphics 4600. Surprisingly when I launched the game, Sims 3 was automatically using the HD Graphics. It was the only game which I have installed doing this. I have other graphically intensive games like Total War Rome 2 and Battlefield 4 but these games were automatically utilizing my powerful 780M GTX card.

So this is what I did based on the advise the Nraas members told me. I read this thread here: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/464413.page, and simply right clicked on my desktop, went to NVIDIA control panel and added in the Sims 3 game! Apparently, the game was running using the Integrated Intel Graphics Card on my laptop! The game did not use my powerful NVIDIA GTX 780M card!

Now, when I restarted the game with the Nraas mods installed, the game did not crash! The problem was fixed!

I guess this only applies to users who have powerful laptop NVIDIA cards. I hope that by sharing this solution to other users, other people may also benefit from this. Till now, I really do not understand why Sims 3 by default was using my Intel integrated graphics! 

So should this thread be stickied for the benefit of other members? I am not sure whether this applies to Radeon cards though. Also, this problem seems to pertain to powerful laptops which has 2 different graphics cards. I don't think this applies to desktops though!

Hope this helps!

 

[LivvieLove]

I'm really glad you found out what the problem was! Silly integrated graphics cards!

Happy Simming.

[Blanchflower]

I'm really glad you found out what the problem was! Silly integrated graphics cards!

Happy Simming.

OK, I am having an irritating problem here. I am using Twallan's mods only and all of the mods are the same with the latest patch level. The problem here is that my game keeps crashing (less frequently by the way).

What should I do? If a solution can't be found, I have no choice but to stop playing Sims 3.

Should I post my crash report here? Please advise. Thanks!

 

[LivvieLove]

Have you downloaded the Crash-Log-Analyzer? If so, what did it say?

[Blanchflower]

OK, I know what is the problem. My game does not recognize my dedicated 780M card. It uses the integrated card. I followed the advise here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Getting_new_graphics_cards_recognized_by_the_game but I was confused.

My GrahicsRule file looks like this:  "if (match("${cardVendor}", "NVIDIA"))
if(match("${cardName}", "* 1?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* 2?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* G1?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "* G2?0M*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelMedium
seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*8800*") or match("${cardName}", "*9500*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GSO*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600 GT*") or match("${cardName}", "*9800 *") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*2?00M*") or match("${cardName}", "*3?00M*") or match("${cardName}", "*Quadro*FX 5??0*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 1?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 150*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 250*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GeForce G2??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GeForce 3??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 4??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTS 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 5??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GT 6??*") or match("${cardName}", "*GTX 6??*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelUber
seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*NVS 28?*") or match("${cardName}", "*NVS 30?*") or match("${cardName}", "*5?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "*7?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "*NVS 32?*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 1500*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 1600*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 1700*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 2000*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 37?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 4??0*") or match("${cardName}", "*5?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "*7?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "*1?00M*") or match("${cardName}", "*9800M*") or match("${cardName}", "*9600M*") or match("${cardName}", "*7600*") or match("${cardName}", "*7800*") or match("${cardName}", "*79?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*8600*") or match("${cardName}", "*87?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*9400 GT*") or match("${cardName}", "*G100*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelHigh
seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*GO??0*") or match("${cardName}", "*GO???0*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 370*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 470*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 570*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 1400*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 2500*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 3000*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 34?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 3500*") or match("${cardName}", "*3?0M*") or match("${cardName}", "*6500*") or match("${cardName}", "*66?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*6700*") or match("${cardName}", "*6800*") or match("${cardName}", "*7300*") or match("${cardName}", "*7350*") or match("${cardName}", "*7500*") or match("${cardName}", "*76?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*8300*") or match("${cardName}", "*NVS 140M*") or match("${cardName}", "*8400*") or match("${cardName}", "*8500*") or match("${cardName}", "*9100*") or match("${cardName}", "*9200*") or match("${cardName}", "*9300*") or match("${cardName}", "*9400*") or match ("${cardName}", "*NVIDIA Ion*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelMedium
seti isCardMatched true
elseif (match("${cardName}", "*4??0*") or match("${cardName}", "*5??0*") or match("${cardName}", "*61?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*62?0*") or match("${cardName}", "*6300*") or match("${cardName}", "*6400*") or match("${cardName}", "*70??*") or match("${cardName}", "*71??*") or match("${cardName}", "*7200*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 1000*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 1100*") or match("${cardName}", "*FX 1300*"))
seti cardLevel $cardLevelLow
seti isCardMatched true"

I am confused. There seems to be a card for 700M series? Am I mistaken here?

I understand how to change the Graphics Card file. That was simple. But I am not sure what to change in the GraphicsRule file. All my drivers are up to date by the way. This is so frustrating. The game does not recognize newer cards.

Can a kind soul advise me on how to do this?

 

[Blanchflower]

I understand that the Device ID for my card is 119F. Is this correct?

[Blanchflower]

Have you downloaded the Crash-Log-Analyzer? If so, what did it say?

It says "Insufficient graphics capability".

This shows that the game is using my integrated graphics and not my powerful GTX 780M card. This is such a waste!

Please advise!