Variable Crashes

[mistyk]

I am not sure about it being the ram, I have 8gigs of ram and I still get occasional CTD's. If this game needs more than 8gigs of ram then there is something really wrong..

[ShortyBoo]

Well, I followed the instructions I found on MTS for turning off Data Execution Prevention for TS3 and I was able to run my game for like 6 hours straight without any crashing. So that seemed to fix things for me.

I was positive it was a RAM issue because my computer really doesn't get hot at all. I have 5 case fans and a heatsink/fan combo over the processor and I've done a crazy amount of monitoring my computer since getting TS3. Originally, I had my Radeon HD 4850 installed and TS3 would BSOD after just a few seconds in CAS and after lots of testing to rule out overheating, which seemed most likely, as well as other causes, I finally gave up and put my x1900 back in. Nothing in my computer ever goes above 55C and from what I've read, that's not bad.

[angelyne]

I guess I know what Santa is getting me for Christmas heh.

I'm curious to know. My desktop runs Windows XP which can only be maxed out at 4GB of ram and that apparently isn't enough for TS3? What a mess.

XP can't use more than 3GB anyway, so anything above that is a waste.

[cwieberdink]

Well, uninstalling and reinstalling fixed my CTD issues.     I"m running awesomemod and the no-intro mod and all the Sims Store stuff with no issues.  I have not yet replaced any custom hairs or clothes that are not from the store.  So hopefully I can add my stuff in bit by bit without starting the crashes again.

[nanacake]

XP can't use more than 3GB anyway, so anything above that is a waste.

XP will recognize up 3.75GB of ram so it will be faster than having just 3. It's only kind of a waste if you went out of your way to buy more. But since sticks can be bought cheaper in a dual pack, most pre-assembles came with 4gb for XP.

[gethane]

Well, I followed the instructions I found on MTS for turning off Data Execution Prevention for TS3 and I was able to run my game for like 6 hours straight without any crashing. So that seemed to fix things for me.

I was positive it was a RAM issue because my computer really doesn't get hot at all. I have 5 case fans and a heatsink/fan combo over the processor and I've done a crazy amount of monitoring my computer since getting TS3. Originally, I had my Radeon HD 4850 installed and TS3 would BSOD after just a few seconds in CAS and after lots of testing to rule out overheating, which seemed most likely, as well as other causes, I finally gave up and put my x1900 back in. Nothing in my computer ever goes above 55C and from what I've read, that's not bad.

I'm confused as to how this will help. As I understand it, it's only on for Windows services anyway. So by changing it to be on for everything except sims, you are turning it "more on" but it doesn't change whether its on or not for sims. It shouldn't be on for sims to begin with at default setting. Since it is not a Windows "essential program or service."

[ShortyBoo]

Well, I followed the instructions I found on MTS for turning off Data Execution Prevention for TS3 and I was able to run my game for like 6 hours straight without any crashing. So that seemed to fix things for me.

I was positive it was a RAM issue because my computer really doesn't get hot at all. I have 5 case fans and a heatsink/fan combo over the processor and I've done a crazy amount of monitoring my computer since getting TS3. Originally, I had my Radeon HD 4850 installed and TS3 would BSOD after just a few seconds in CAS and after lots of testing to rule out overheating, which seemed most likely, as well as other causes, I finally gave up and put my x1900 back in. Nothing in my computer ever goes above 55C and from what I've read, that's not bad.

I'm confused as to how this will help. As I understand it, it's only on for Windows services anyway. So by changing it to be on for everything except sims, you are turning it "more on" but it doesn't change whether its on or not for sims. It shouldn't be on for sims to begin with at default setting. Since it is not a Windows "essential program or service."

I'm not sure how or why it works, but it is.

[gethane]

Maybe I'll give a try if my crashes come back. Deleting my cache files before play (cross fingers) plus fps limiter (knock on wood) seems to have at least slowed my CTD's. Up until a week ago, I thought they were only happening when attempting to play with AwesomeMod. Then they started happening in vanilla game, freshly installed.

[ShortyBoo]

After turning off DEP I haven't had any crashes. However, it seems to have just swapped one problem for another. What happened was once I disabled DEP, I played my game for like 6 hours with no crashes or anything. The next day, I played about 3 hours or so when the game suddenly froze. I couldn't minimize the game, and nothing was responding so I had to manually reboot my PC. Once it restarted, I booted up the game again and that's when I noticed the houses I had built weren't showing anymore from the map view, they just looked like empty lots until I zoomed in on them. I don't know if it's related or not, but this was the first I noticed it. I saved and quit the game thinking it was just a glitch, but it wasn't. The same thing happened again when I restarted the game. I ignored it this time and went to actually play the game. I sent my guy to China, got him married to his fiancee there and at the end of the vacation, they came home. Shortly after that, as I was moving the camera around to take a pic, the graphics suddenly looked really crappy and a second later, it froze again. I'm going to try turning off DEP to see if it fixes it. If it doesn't, then I have no idea what's wrong.

[SonnetCeles]

On the official sims 3 forum someone said that the crashes happen at game speed 3 and 4 due to frame rates being too fast.

They suggested you lower the frame rate to a steady number (do not remember if it was 24 or something but look on the forum) and while I still blame the code, it was reportedly a fix for some people.

Also, it could be your nvidia driver if you are using up to date ones.

This game requires that you rollback to an older driver version.