More Awesome Than You!

I have had this problem for a long time, despite the fact that my computer's specs are well above the minimum requirements. Every single time I open the Sims 3 it freezes just as the EA logo appears and the program stops responding. I am patched to 1.55 and have all of the expansion pack besides Island Adventures. I also have High-End Loft Stuff and Outdoor Living Stuff. I do NOT have any custom content, mods, or pirated games.

Here are the things I have tried, none of which have worked:

Running TS3 as administrator

Running TS3 in Windows XP (service pack 2) compatibility mode

Updating my video card

Making sure I had DirectX and an updated sound card

Starting TS3 in windowed mode (by changing the full screen setting in options.ini to "fullscreen = 0")

Removing my Sims 3 folder from My Documents/Electronic Arts

Reinstalling base game, expansion packs, and stuff packs (this one made my game work for a while but then it randomly started freezing again about a week after reinstall)

Adding all the application in the bin folders to the DEP exception list



Here is my DxDiag info: http://pastebin.com/1ys2vtTC


Hopefully given all this information, somebody will be able to help me. Thanks in advance. I'm really not sure what else I can try that I haven't already so I'm at a loss.

You might want to try checking out your hard drive. I had a problem getting the game to load and then it would freezes on and off through out game play.  I reinstalled windows and reinstalled the game but the problem continued. It eventually made the game totally unplayable like what you are experiencing.

I used Crystal Info which provides information about your hard drive. The program said my drive was good. I followed up by using Crystal Mark which benchmarks your hard drive. Turns out the reading speed of my drive was the problem. New drive and my game plays fine again.

You might also want to try IObit Game Booster (http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4842-game-booster.html). It turns off all non-essential crap while you're playing a game. It could be that something is running in the background interfering. I've never used it for the Sims, but I had a lot of crashing issue with GTA IV, and this solved it.

Have you verified that EVERY EP/SP is patched properly, not just the base game?


I also find this claim to be borderline given that people seem to think saying this makes everything perfect.  If you really have no mods/CC as you claim, what are you doing here looking for help instead of EAxis?  The people who have reported similar problems ended up with either old/out of date mods in their folders or an improperly patched game.


What do you classify as a "LONG" time?  Seems like if you haven't been able to load and play for so long, why have you bothered patching and adding EPs/SPs that you can't play?

@Firefly
Hmm, both of these things say that my hard drive is in good health

@SJActress
Thanks, that's a nifty program.  It didn't seem to fix my Sims problems, but I'm definitely going to keep it for other stuff.

@wizard_merlin
I patch from the launcher so I think everything is all patched up.  And I'm posting here because the official Sims 3 forums kind of suck.  I did have some mods and pirated stuff before, including awesomemod, but I deleted them when I reinstalled so I could see if I could run TS3 if it was completely vanilla.  As for how long I've had this problem, it's been at least two years.  One thing I probably should have mentioned; I CAN play my game if I leave it frozen like that for about 3 hours.  Then it just pops back to normal and plays well, without freezing.

Completely vanilla, no CC hairs? This happened to me with bad downloads, I had to use process monitor to sort out which ones were loading over and over again.

You should patch using the Superpatch, the launcher is suck.

Funny thing is, that is no guarantee that the earlier EPs/SPs updated properly.  Use the updater from MTS to verify every patch.