Black Screen during Gameplay- No 'fix' works. (Solved)

[Bazerk83]

Hey guys,

I'm really hoping someone will help so I'll try to keep this as short as possible. I have installed The Sims 3 and almost every expansion and stuff pack there is. Just recently my game has been doing the same frustrating thing, whilst playing, from 10-30mins in, my screen goes black. I can hear music but have no cursor and can't hear any sounds being made when I try moving the mouse pointer around blindly. It's just a blank screen with some audio.  I have to ultimately power off my computer and power it back on. I don't get any error messages, nothing.

Here are my PC specs and they handle demanding games like Crysis, Fallout 3 (with mods) etc.

PSU - BFG 800W
Processor - AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz
GPU - Nvidia GEforce GTX 260 (Driver = Newest (337.88))
Motherboard - ASUS  M4N82 Deluxe
RAM - x2 2GB DDR2 400mhz (Total - 4GB)
Monitor - Sony Bravia 720p HD TV 32" (Connected via HD Graphics Port and HD Adapter)
Screen Resolution - 1360x768 /60Hz
Directx - 11

Here is the installation I have (default install location)

- Base Game
- World Adventures
- High End Loft Stuff
- Ambitions
- Fast Lane Stuff
- Late Night
- Outdoor Living Stuff
- Generations
- Town Life Stuff
- Pets
- Master Suite Stuff
- Showtime
- Katy Perry's Sweet Treats Stuff
- Diesel Stuff
- Supernatural
- Seasons
- 70s, 80s, and 90's stuff
- Island Paradise
- Movie Stuff
- Into The Future

Things I've tried.

- Full defrag and drive optimize + reboot
- Entered TS3.exe, TSW3.exe PLUS all Expansions/Stuff's .exe's into DEP
- Downgrading graphics to previous driver
- Reinstalling latest driver AGAIN
- Windowed Mode
- Compatibility Mode to XP SP3
- Run as Admin (using TSW3.exe)
- Ran Turbo Boost from iobit Advanced System Care Pro 7.3 and then launching game
- Ran game through iobit Game Booster 3
- Ran Smart RAM to clear up free ram
- Checked savedsims folder for downloaded.sims file (does not exist)
- a command console command to run 4GB ram instead of 2gb (forget the actual command line entered)

and that's pretty much everything that I can remember trying. None of the above have worked.

Is there ANYTHING else I can do?

I suppose I could remove all CC but my game used to run with all of the CC installed. The latest patch is installed through the launcher update. So yeah, I am absolutely stumped.

If anyone can think of anything else to try, PLEASE, let me know!!!

Thank you! and thank you for reading through all of this. I really appreciate it!

[Dellena]

You could try installing the SuperPatch.  Maybe the patch through the launcher didn't work properly.

[MrsFlynn]

Back up your Sims 3 folder, for safe keeping. Then with a copy of it, try running the game without custom content. -- Open the launcher, click the Installed Content Tab. Checkmark Run Game Without Custom Content. Then click the Play button.

As sometimes CC does mess the game up for whatever reason, regardless if it ran fine before.

Removing Bad Custom Content
http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/custom-content-cc/bad-cc

If you do not want to do this with your main save-game, make a copy of it and use the copy to test-play.

Put your CC back in a little at a time to see if it's causing the problem.

Also, while searching out possible fixes, I found this link that maybe of help.

Black Screen, long loading times and TMP files in DCCache
http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2013/06/black-screen-long-loading-times-and-tmp-files-in-dccache.html

MrsFlynn

[Bazerk83]

Awesome, thanks guys.

I'll try the Super Patch first then if it still does it i'll try the CC tip.

[Bazerk83]

Ok here's another thing. I've counted all the expansions/stuff packs I have, added all of their exe's to the DEP AND 2 .exe files from the base game and it adds up to 21, yet when I checked the DEP just now after being absolutely POSITIVE that I added everything, there are only 15 items listed.

-Update-

Ok, seriously what the...

I've just removed everything from DEP and gone all through every exe again. 21. Hit apply, hit ok. Closed out of the window. Went straight back in.... 6 items. Why is it doing this?

-Update 2-

Ok. I just tried it AGAIN. This time pain-stakingly adding every exe one at a time and clicking apply and ok and closing out the window every single time. Weirdest thing is, they all seem to have stayed now. Should I have been adding them one by one and hitting apply each time? I assumed you added them all and THEN hit apply at the end. Well anyway, they're all in DEP now....for now.

[MrsFlynn]

Not sure why that's happening with the DEP. Never had to tweak the DEP setting for Sims 3. With tweaking those settings though, does it help?

Also while searching some more I found a suggestion of making sure your anti-virus program isn't blocking Sims 3. From what I understand, when the anti-virus program is blocking Sims 3, it tends to cause problems.

MrsFlynn

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum, Bazerk83.

I haven't seen anything about reinstalling the game.  That's probably what you need to do at this point.

[Bazerk83]

Mrs Flynn - Yeah it's weird right? No, even with them all added to the DEP list it still blacked out on the next try, I just paused the game and left it. 10 mins later it had blacked out.

Pam - I REALLY don't wanna have to reinstall every single expansion pack all over again only to find it didn't solve the problem. I'd rather try and exhaust  all other problems first. My anti-virus isn't even running when I play.

[Bazerk83]

Further Update

Removed CC. Still doing it. Except now it's doing it after 5-10mins, even with the game paused. *sigh* I guess this is typical EA though. One day they'll make a game that they bother to care about making stable and patching thoroughly. HA! Oh, I crack myself up.....

[Flynn Arrowstarr]

Hi, Bazerk83.

After reading through your issue and what you've tried, I think you may have to reinstall the game. But, take heart. One thing you can try is just reinstalling the base game. The blog post from Crinrict that MrsFlynn linked to earlier did suggest reinstalling only the base game can fix the black screen issue. If it doesn't work, then you'll likely need to reinstall everything.

Hope this helps and happy Simming!

Flynn

[Dellena]

I wonder if ErrorTrap from Nraas would at least help identify what's happening when it crashes to black.

[Bazerk83]

I wish I'd read this last post sooner. I would've tried just the base game. Alas, I'm already half way through uninstalling everything, lol. Oh well! good to know for future reference.

Thank you everyone! I'll keep you posted.

[Bazerk83]

Update

So I completely removed EVERYTHING and ALL traces of the Sims 3 and meticulously installed everything again in the correct order, updated to current patch and all went fine. Added everything to the DEP list and ran the game. No CC, No saved games or Sims. Tested the game by moving in a pre-installed family and just letting the game play on its own on high free will. Barely 5 mins in and black screen again.

Seriously starting to give up on this game and just not bother anymore.

[Pam]

@The Flynns:

Do Bazerk83's computer specifications look adequate for the game with all the expansions and stuff packs?

@Bazerk83:

When you did the re-installation, did you start up the game after each installation?  Like, after installing the base game to see if works, then again after World Adventures to see if it still works, etc.?  And did you use the manual uninstall directions?  (Also, be careful about what you say about EA.  We don't allow EA bashing here and your comment was borderline.)

[Bazerk83]

No. I didn't go through them and run them one by one after every install. There is no reason for these expansions not to work from a fresh install as they have ran previously just fine. I realise you're just trying to think of another possible option but honestly it just seems pointless. There is no reason for them not to work as, like I said before, they ran fine previously even WITH my CC.

With this new fresh install, at no point was there any problems with any updates after each install or with the final patch.

At this point I'm beginning to think something on my PC is conflicting with the game, perhaps a background process or some kind of extremely obscure graphics driver glitch. Despite the fact that I've done numerous fresh, clean installs of the latest official NVidia driver.