Game crashes when I tab to another window

[squeaktastic]

I posted this in the official forums, but have so far had no real help, so I created an account here to try my luck with you fine folks.  I did see there was a similar posting already, but that person's issue involved switching from full-screen mode to another program, and the crashing behaved differently for them.

For the last several (realtime) days, I've been running the Sims 3 (with Supernatural, Seasons, and University Life) just fine in windowed mode on my Windows 8.1 desktop. Two days ago, I created a new family (based on my D&D party) and put them into a large house from the premade selection menu thingie in Sunset Valley. I got their house set up and went to bed. The next morning, every time I would leave the game window to its own devices and click away to Firefox or message windows or anything, I'd return to the Sims to a "The Sims has stopped working" and the game would shut down. I saved the house with the family as well as the family without the house to the export folder and then told Steam to delete all local content. I then removed the folder in Documents and set Steam to reinstall the game while I went to work. I re-added the family with the house as an experiment and tried the game, got the same issue. I was able to play the game with no issues in fullscreen mode as long as I didn't alt-tab to do something else, but for me, that's boring. This morning I moved the family to a new house and bulldozed the other one then restarted the game, still had the issue. I deleted the family from the main menu, deleted the saved family and saved house in the place sims menu thingus, restarted the game, created a new sim from scratch, and still had the issue. I'm thinking I'll have to reinstall the game one more time, but that's a lot of work that I don't want to deal with right his minute, so if there's anything any of you folks know or can think of that I can try, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I have no mods or non-developer things beyond running the game through Steam, which I've done for years and never had an issue. I will happily provide crash logs or whatever, assuming someone can tell me where to find them...

ETA - This machine is just about a week old, and has 8g of RAM and a NVIDIA GT 640 video card, which should be more than enough to handle this game, as my old Compaq desktop with its integrated chipset graphics and 3g of RAM had no trouble playing in windowed mode.  I'm also able to play other games (so far I've only got Star Wars: The Old Republic installed on this machine) and have been able to tab with no issue whatsoever.

ETA (again) - If it matters, the game continues to function normally after I've tabbed to another program, it's only when I click back to the sims that it crashes.

[KhaineGB]

I'll have a think on what might be causing the issue...

But in the meantime, try the factory reset tip. It saves you reinstalling the game and -might- fix the issue.

[squeaktastic]

Alas, that did not help.  I didn't restore save or download data was instructed on the off chance that was what was causing it, but it also eliminates that as the source of the issue.  Hrm.

[bubbles]

Try not doing other things on your computer while playing. That will just rule out whether it's the multitasking that's causing the crashes. Also, trying up your game. What to do if Your Game Slows Down(Clean Up Your Game)

Hoe this helps!

[squeaktastic]

I know it's the multitasking, since the game does not crash or have any issues if I don't click away from the game for any reason.  However, I sometimes like to look up information on the game, or talk to folks while I'm playing.

[Steellace]

I play on two machines, one of them being a laptop running Windows 8.1.  I have no problems with my desktop whatsoever.  However, every time I tab out of Sims on the laptop, Sims crashes within seconds of returning to the game.  It's just like you describe your problem.  So, my solution to the problem after much effort to resolve it?  Don't tab out unless you've saved first and are willing to reload the game.

I tried everything I could possibly think of:  changing households, moving the family out, moving towns, changing games entirely, running without mods and CC, running in windowed mode and not, decreasing all settings to the lowest (and every other setting), resets of all kinds, turning Internet off, turning off antivirus software, uninstalling and reinstalling Sims from scratch, adding things back in item by item, and so on.  I took a good couple of weeks trying everything I could find suggested as well as everything else I could think of (one thing at a time takes a lot of time).  I also had my IT professional son take a look at the laptop, making sure it was squeaky clean and had NOTHING running while Sims was. 

The game would run just fine after any attempt to fix it.  Until I did one simple thing ... jump out of Sims to look something up online, make a change in a spreadsheet, or just be notified that the laptop needs plugged in.  Every single time I went out of the game and returned, BAM--Sims crashed.

So now I have turned off everything on the laptop that could possibly pull me out of the game (Internet and virus protection on but no notifications).  I made sure it isn't in Windowed mode so that I can't accidentally click out of the game.  And I've added in every mod and CC I have on my desktop.  For the last 3+ weeks, I have not had Sims crash once ... not even once!  I just have to remember that I can't tab out of it.

[squeaktastic]

I am so glad to know that I'm not the only one who has had this issue!  I think I can live with never tabbing out when it's running, as I have another computer I can set up beside me during gameplay so I won't be tempted to tab out, I was just hoping there was a magical fix.  Thanks so much for your response!

[Steellace]

You're welcome!  I wish I had the magical fix, but at least you won't need to spend all the time trying to find it.  :-)  I have a tablet beside me when I play on the laptop for the very same reason.

[KhaineGB]

In that case, it sounds like it might be a Windows 8 issue.

Ugh... I hate that O/S.

[squeaktastic]

I actually really like it, especially when compared to Vista, which was what my last machine was, but in this instance I'm annoyed.  But, on the positive side, at least the game remains playable, even if I have to make adjustments to my style.  Ah well.

Thanks for the help, everybody!