Computer shuts down randomly when playing Sims 3 after installing Patch 1.66

[femsuii]

I recently patched the game after getting a warning from AM that it would expire and everything went fine until yesterday. I had been playing for a couple of hours and couldn't recall the last time I'd saved that day, so I told the game to save while I went to make dinner. However, when I got back to my computer a little later it was shut down, with only the screen still on and a sad noise coming from the speakers. I had to flip the computer's switch before I could reboot it and didn't really know what to think since I hadn't seen any warnings or been experiencing computer trouble. I started my game again (it had apparently saved my game before shutting down) and was maybe an hour in when suddenly my screen went black and went into 'power saving mode' because the computer had shut down! Frustrated, I went to do something else and eventually tried again: I could play for a little less than an hour before it shut down again. After that I gave up and went to bed.

Today, I did some googling and tried to alter some options on my NVIDIA card as someone had suggested: I played for almost two hours without any problems until it, again, shut down without any warnings at all. I ran the Dashboard for any conflicting stuff and removed a few decrapified packages that had also been installed as sims3packs but the game shut down again after almost half an hour. I couldn't recall which additional CC I had installed after updating the game because that was last week (I had since installed CCMagic, after playing with only AM, a few skins and some XML tuning) and double-checked all mods were updated, before I tried again. It was less than twenty minutes when I was staring at a black screen again. I removed most of the new CC to no avail. Eventually, I gave in and removed everything but AM and NRaas (the updated ones) but every time it was between 5 and 20 minutes before the computer shut down again - it doesn't seem to matter whether I play the saved game or not, since it also occurred when I booted the game up and went to do something else and came back to find the computer shut down without having chosen a game to play.

I left it for the rest of the day until just now, after which I removed all CC. It took about 3 minutes to load to where to choose the game but it warned me I wasn't using the game disk (AM was gone), so I tried again after but it hadn't even reached the screen where to choose a game when the computer shut down again two minutes in.

So, the only thing I can think of that has changed since the previous times everything went well, is that stupid 1.66 patch. There is nothing wrong with my pc, it's not overheating as far as I'm aware (it also happened when it was barely on for an hour) and there are absolutely no warnings coming from the game, be they sounds or otherwise, nor special events in the game itself when it happens. It seems to be completely random!

To make a very long story short: my computer shuts down randomly when playing the Sims 3 and I was wondering if anyone here knows how to prevent this, other than maybe a clean install (and perhaps not patching to 1.66). I don't have any stuff packs, just Generations, Island Paradise, Pets, Seasons, Showtime and University Life and it's patched up to 1.66 (I only saw today that 1.67 is out but I'm not very confident in EA's updates at the moment) - CC seems to make no difference at all.

[jezzer]

Your computer shutting down is more likely a hardware failure than anything to do with an installed patch.

[femsuii]

I suspected it was the patch since it occurred after I had installed it and only when playing the game. However, if it's a hardware failure like you're suggesting I'm obviously looking in the wrong direction. Do you have any specific idea of what it could be? I'm not really looking forward to bringing the computer to a computer store to have it dissected without knowing the probable cause and whether they'd actually fix it.

There were no issues at all yesterday when the game was on for a few hours in the afternoon and most of the evening, but today the computer shut down (again without warning) only an hour in and it had been on for maybe 1-1.5 hours prior to starting the game. It's so unpredictable and my knowledge of computer hardware is limited, making it difficult to figure out what's going on.

[BaronElectricPhase]

When was the last time that the computer has been cleaned out of dust and hair? You might just be getting fooled by the coincidence of the crashes from overheating. And that a cleaning is overdue.

[jezzer]

I suspected it was the patch since it occurred after I had installed it and only when playing the game. However, if it's a hardware failure like you're suggesting I'm obviously looking in the wrong direction. Do you have any specific idea of what it could be? I'm not really looking forward to bringing the computer to a computer store to have it dissected without knowing the probable cause and whether they'd actually fix it.

There were no issues at all yesterday when the game was on for a few hours in the afternoon and most of the evening, but today the computer shut down (again without warning) only an hour in and it had been on for maybe 1-1.5 hours prior to starting the game. It's so unpredictable and my knowledge of computer hardware is limited, making it difficult to figure out what's going on.

The problem is, there are a lot of things that can cause random shutdowns.  It could be something as simple as, like BaronElectricPhase said, dust buildup, to something as potentially expensive as a core component in its death throes.  I had a computer once that was randomly shutting down due to a short in one of the interior power supply connectors.  If cleaning out the dust doesn't help, try using a heat monitor to see if any of your components are overheating, and if all else fails, take it to a computer repair shop to see if they can find the cause.

[wizard_merlin]

Are you running 3booter and the FPS Limiter?  If tweaking the Nvidia settings helped a little, it could be the graphics card being the problem, possibly overheating.  As has been stated, it is probably just a fluky coincidence that it coincided with the patch update.

[femsuii]

I downloaded Speccy to keep an eye on the temperatures inside my computer and noticed my graphics card getting pretty hot, even when I was doing several simple tasks and not even playing the game. However, everything went fine when I played yesterday for a few hours until I went into CAS to create a new fambly; computer shut down when I was working on the second's guy face. I opened up the computer and cleared out dust bunnies/hair, although there wasn't terribly much. The temperature was lower when doing basic stuff earlier today but after an hour or so it had climbed to the previous lowest temperature, yet remained stable. I played the Sims 3 for about an hour to see how it was doing and occasionally switched back to the program (I play full screen) to check the temperatures and they remained stable, until I went into CAS again to recreate the fambly I'd been working on yesterday: when I got to the second guy it went up to 107 degrees, if I recall correctly (a little over a hundred anyway). So, I deleted the second guy and made do with the first one. After that I had other stuff to do and quit, but all in all it seems the problem is the graphics card and cleaning the computer didn't help much. It's strange, because prior to these problems starting I had created two famblies in CAS, both existing of three sims, without any problems.


ETA:
No, I don't use 3booter or the FPS Limiter but I have enabled v-sync for the Sims 3 which is supposed to limit the frame rate.

[wizard_merlin]

ETA:
No, I don't use 3booter or the FPS Limiter but I have enabled v-sync for the Sims 3 which is supposed to limit the frame rate.

Might be worth trying the FPS Limiter.  Not sure if the v-sync on the card and sims 3 play nice together, the frame rate might still be high.

[FlerpityFloop]

Funny how all the threads on the top page are from January.... nobody posts here. I wonder why. Hmmmm.

Anyways, disabling Norton did the trick for me. Weird huh?

[Starler]

Necromancy is bad, m'kay?

This isn't the forum you're looking for. Move along.

[FlerpityFloop]

How do you know what Im looking for? Are you psychic?

And how am I bringing up a dead thread when ITS ALREADY AT THE FUCKING TOP OF THE FUCKING FORUM PAGE? Duhhhhhh.

Is this forum full of people with social disorders? Its called Lexapro, fuckers. Get some.

[HomeschooledByTards]

A thread is generally considered dead when there have been no replies to it for a month. WHICH YOU'D KNOW IF YOU LURKED MOAR AND READ THE FAQS YOU PISS STAIN.

[FlerpityFloop]

Um, actually there are no official rules that dictate when a thread is considered dead. Some forums use a 3 month timeframe, some even longer.

So go choke on a dry hairy cock.

The people from S.A said you guys were dicks. LOL. Cute.

[HomeschooledByTards]

OH NOES. Another forum said we were dicks? I'mma cry in my soup.  Go back to S.A (whatever that is) and you can all cry on each others shoulders about how meen we are.

You moron, I *know* there's no universal rule about when threads are dead. HOWEVER COMMA the FAQ, which you should have read, clearly states the dead thread rule.

[Starler]

How do you know what Im looking for? Are you psychic?

No, just observant. Do you really believe in psychics? If so, I have a bridge that I am selling at a very reasonable price.