Tried everything and can't get pets to stop crashing...[SOLVED]

Every time, I try to play the game and it plays for 5 mins and then it freezes badly. I have to hit CTRL+ALT+DEL, cancel and then it says it stop working, hit cancel and back to desktop

I have World Adventures, Ambitions, and Late Night regular. I have Generations and Pets from here.

I tried running in compatibility mode, but first the launcher wouldn't work so I undid those then the game would run but it would start a brand new game. I couldn't figure out how to get to any of my saved stuff through it. So it didn't work. I tried playing without my mods. Didn't work.

I added all the files to DEP from the selected folders, except some launcher .exe's that it wouldn't load. That didn't work.

I did the verticle sync for my Nvida card, restarted, same thing.

I ran that check. I have the minimal requirements. I turned pretty much everything to the lowest setting except sim detail. Nothing.

I also, updated the game with that specific update. Then did the ultimate fix.

I may have messed up somewhere along the line. I did update without removing mods (forgot). I have a feeling I'm going to need to start from scratch and check along the way every time. It just sucks that it crashes after so much time.

But anyway, someone help? :'(

Admin edit: Topic moved to right section.

- ADMIN

Lady ElDi wrote:Hello,
When you say you have the minimum requirements to run the game, does that mean that you should be able to run the game barely, or is some of your hardware exceeding the requirements and by how much?
I'm on a pretty low end pc myself, my CPU speed doesn't cut it and I only have 1GB RAM but my graphicscard is reasonable so I can play with the settings on medium.
If your graphicscard barely meets the requirements, you may have to put all your in game graphic settings on low, lower your resolution and try windowed mode.

No, everything I have passes. The bare said minimum, which I actually found odd. My video card is WAY over.

Specs:

CPU
Minimum: Pentium 4 processor or equivalent
You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6600 @ 2.20GHz
PASS

CPU Speed
Minimum: For XP 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor or equivalent; For Windows Vista and Windows 7 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor or equivalent
You Have: 2.2 GHz Performance Rated at: 3.63 GHz
PASS

Bios Name
Minimum: Info
You Have:
Name: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A15
Version: Dell Inc. A15
Click here for the latest BIOS updates.

RAM
Minimum: For XP 1 GB RAM / Windows Vista and Windows 7 1.5 GB RAM (For NVIDIA ION computers, the game requires at least 2.0 GB RAM)
You Have: 4.0 GB
PASS

OS
Minimum: XP SP2 / Vista SP1 / Windows 7
You Have: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition Service Pack 2 (build 6002), 64-bit
PASS Click here for the latest Windows drivers.

Video Card
Minimum: 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 [Nvidia GeForce 6 series or better (GeForce 6100 and 7100 cards are not supported), and all NVidia G, GT, GTS, and GTX video cards. ATI Radeon™ series card 9500 series or better, and all ATI X, X1, and HD video cards; Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA): GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series]
You Have: GeForce 8400M GS
PASS Click here for the latest Video drivers.
Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card
Required You Have
Video RAM 128 MB 1.9 GB
Pixel Shader version 2.0 4.0

Free Disk Space
Minimum: At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
You Have: 51.4 GB
PASS

Lady ElDi wrote:Hello,
Well that really should do it. I have the geforce 7600GS myself with all settings on medium.
How about your drivers though, are they up to date?
I don't think its caused by forgetting to remove your mods before patching, I always forget that myself and my game works fine.
I think your best bet is to have a look at your drivers.

I tried updating my drivers before and it messed up my computer. The site gave me the wrong driver.

Hello,

Then try to look for the correct drivers and install those.

Admin wrote:Hello,

Then try to look for the correct drivers and install those.

I went to my device manager. My drivers are up to date. There are no new drivers compatible with my particular system. There's nothing wrong with my card.

Hello,

Device Manager doesn't check for new versions. It's recommended to look for a driver manually via the manufacturer's website.

Admin wrote:Hello,

Device Manager doesn't check for new versions. It's recommended to look for a driver manually via the manufacturer's website.

I told you, there's nothing there compatible with my computer.

Also, I started a fresh download. I cleared the sims completely including the registry. I'm loading Generations now to make sure my problem is not with this game. I'm going to then install pets, see it stays stable, add downloads and check again, then add mods and check again.

Hopefully my game just corrupted somewhere along the line of these downloads since I think I flubbed with transferring files somewhere in all this and uninstalled and installed these last two a few times. It WAS working fine and then I couldn't play without crashing. So it has to of corrupted somewhere.

Lady ElDi wrote:Hello,
The Nvidia website allows you to detect which drivers you need automatically.
Anyway, It may be a good idea to do a clean install of your game. Hopefully it'll work right this time because it really should and you should be able to get more out of it than all graphics settings on low.

I don't know if I'm saying this weird, but again, I've gone to the site. There are no drivers that are compatible with my system. I have a chip that doesn't work with their newest installs and any driver they give me messes up my computer. I've gone through it with people on the Nvidia site. There's nothing new to put into my system that will work. They all fail and mess up my system and I end up having to do a restore.

But anyway. I installed the first three games, the ones I bought. Worked fine. Left sims playing on their own for about 15 mins and it didn't freeze. I installed generations. Did the same and worked as well. I installed pets, same thing. Then I added my saved games to check them, worked out. Then I added downloads, still worked, then mods, still working. I just finished adding mods and letting the game sit and the sims live life without me for about 20 mins until my computer went to sleep. I woke it up and it's still working. Seems something went wrong before.

I did however do a couple of things differently than instructed. For one, I updated my game before installing the two cracked games. Second, I never changed the TS3W.exe nor TSLHost.dll files from the fixed up date. Generations wouldn't start and gave an error so I did the ultimate fix, BUT, I didn't change the files for every game. I just took the most updated files for the base game and kept those in place after installing pets, just to see if it would run.

I don't know if the game had an error at some point or if all these file changes made it unstable (it's weird that it would play for AWHILE and then crash instead of just not starting or crashing immediately) but I wanted to do everything piece by piece to see if I could find out where it went wrong and I only did this and it seems to be working for now. But we'll see if it works while I'm actually participating in the game and not just letting it play. It would freeze immediately when I came back to the game after minimizing the screen for awhile so I think it might be working now.

UPDATE: Well I've been playing since I wrote that and it's playing just fine. I guess I fixed it! I don't know if the changing of all the TS3W.exe and TSLHost.dll files messed it up or it the game just corrupted beyond repair, but I guess this solution is something to consider for others because my saves are all here and my mods/downloads all work.