Crash to desktop issue

[Cunning]

O great and powerful denizens of MATY, hear my plea:

My game (all EPs and SPs up to Town Life Stuff) keeps crashing to desktop. Yes, it's patched to the most recent version, drivers and directx are fully updated, system exceeds required specs etc. I've removed all CC other than awesomemod, and it still happens. I've manually exempted everything sims-related from DEP, and even tried turning off DEP system-wide to no avail. I've memtested my RAM and there are no issues. I've scoured the internet and read what feels like a thousand threads dealing with CTD issues and extracted what limited wisdom there was like a starving man sucking nutrients from mossy rocks, but my game still crashes, seemingly at random. I've tried different hoods and families: same "0xc0000005" issues.

I've just been putting up with it, but I've got "lucky" and saved immediately before a reproducable crash, and it doesn't crash after taking out awesomemod. I doubt awesomemod is at fault, but it may be exposing a problem that the stock game doesn't. How should I proceed to produce something useful for getting to the root of the issue?

Kind regards,

Cunning

System Specifications:

Windows 7 Home Premum 64 bit
Intel i7-2670QM
4GB RAM
Geforce GTX 580M

Crash event:

Faulting application name: TS3W.exe, version: 0.2.0.173, time stamp: 0x4f7e77de
Faulting module name: TS3W.exe, version: 0.2.0.173, time stamp: 0x4f7e77de
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0095d48f
Faulting process id: 0x133c
Faulting application start time: 0x01cd520743d388e4
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3W.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3W.exe
Report Id: fcf8e07c-bdfa-11e1-a994-9cb70d0024ab

[wizard_merlin]

So none of the other crash threads were worthy of your very special problem?  If you paid attention to the myriad of other crashing threads you would have found the answer you seek.

If as you say, the crash is totally and reliably reproduceable, then if you upload a copy of the save then the mighty FOJ can check it out.

[J. M. Pescado]

So, what do you do after loading the save and unpausing to cause it to crash? Nothing? It just crashes even without touching anything? Does it crash if left paused after loading?

[Cunning]

I could have tacked it on to someone else's crash thread; noted. As I said, I've gone through every crash thread I could find and followed the recommendations therein. I'm pretty certain it's an issue with this computer, but it's one that is being revealed by AM, and I've gone through all the usual ritual sacrifices to try and sort it out without success.

The save in question crashes about 30 game-minutes after loading, whether I do anything or not. I've since done a clean install on another computer, and it doesn't crash (at least not in the same place), so uploading the save isn't likely to be very helpful.

I'm not asking for someone to magically fix my computer over the internet, what I would like to know is where I should be looking to find out why it's crashing, if that's even possible. I'm fairly technically capable, but I know nothing of how this game works internally. If edumacating me is too much effort then fair enough - I realise enlightening the masses is a above and beyond to be honest, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

[Starler]

Can you outline what you have done so far to fix the problem? If so, we can point out what you haven't done.

[J. M. Pescado]

Try to move in closer to the point of crashing. 30 minutes is getting closer, but you should try to zero in on it: Advance 15 minutes, pause, save, wait to see if it crashes, if it does, reload, advance another few minutes, pause, save, repeat until it goes kaboom within about 5 minutes of reloading.

[Cunning]

So far I have:

• Made sure DirectX is up to date
• Installed latest graphics drivers
• Checked windows updates are current
• Added all executables for base game + all expansions to the DEP exclusion list
• Tried turning off DEP completely (using the /NoExecute=AlwaysOff flag in boot.ini)
• Removed all other CC (was just the nointro mod)
• Changed mod location (Installed the oldskool framework and moved from the My Docs folder to Program Files)
• Done a complete clean install of base game + expansions (twice)
• Cleared (script)cache and user prefs files several times
• Checked the RAM with the built in Dell self diagnostics tool, as well as running Memtest86+ from a USB stick overnight
• Temporarily disabled antivirus (MSE) and any other non-essential startup cruft
• Defragged the hard drive (no clue how that would possibly cause a crash, but someone suggested it in another thread, and at this point I'll give anything a go)

Other possibly relevant details:

• All expansions and stuff packs up to and including Town Life Stuff installed
• Game and expansions patched to most recent versions
• The machine was new a few weeks ago
• No other problems/crashes/freezes in similarly memory-hungry applications or games
• The crash itself looks like a momentary freeze, audio hiccup, the game stops interpreting input, and then animations and audio continue for approximately a second before the delightful "encountered an error" message box pops up and the game craps out to desktop.
• One other issue I have noticed, but I'm not sure is related, is that some sims don't seem to be automatically changing into work clothes. Only noticed this last night though.

I'll try to get a save as soon as possible before a crash.

[Starler]

Just to verify, when you say you removed all CC, did you also remove any store .packages and non-mods (like clothes, hair, etc)?

[Cunning]

There wasn't anything to remove, but I've just rechecked that there is nothing in the mods or downloads folders other than awesome.package and aweconf.package (in C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages).

I fired it up this evening, and unusually got to play for several hours uninterrupted; I was just thinking that maybe the problem had somehow sorted itself out when it crashed. Thank goodness for autosave - I'll try and reproduce the crash from the last save point tomorrow.