'the sims 3 has stopped working' crash - tried everything :( please help!

Hi, im hoping someone can help me. I have all the expansions installed but I have applied all the fixes and patches and cracks there are. I have also tried removing all CC and the game still crashes after diff amounts of time, usually 5-20mins of low res play. Please help I havent even had a chance to try seasons

In the lower left hand corner of the box that pops up when the game crashes there should be a button that says "Details" or "View Details". Can you click that button and post the information shown please?

there is no box with expandable details.. the game is playing perfectly fine and without warning it crashes to desktop and its the standard generic windows 7 box about sending an error report to microsoft that comes up, nothing else!

Sounds like it's an unresponsive program, and not really a crash. A crash (or unhandled exception) will show you a stack trace [depending], module names, and various other information.

Too many things can cause these, so I can't say "do this and it'll work" .. but here are some things you can try. If these fail, try upgrading your graphics drivers and make sure your system meets the minimum requirements.

https://games4theworld.forumotion.com/t857-the-sims-3-crashes-freezes-to-desktop-fix-updated-on-29-09-2012

it definetely meets the requirements - brand new asus with 600gb hard drive, 4gb ram, windows 7 64 bit!! but thanks ill try that.. failing those steps would a complete reinstall help?

Just because it meets Microsoft's minimum standards for Windows 7 doesn't mean it meets EA's minimum requirements for Sims 3. Here's a comparison:

Windows 7
- 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver


The Sims 3
- For Windows XP -
- 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalen
- 1 GB RAM
- 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
- The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
- Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
- At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games

Windows Vista+
- 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
- 1.5 GB RAM
- 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
- Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1
- At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least:
- Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above
- 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
- 0.5 GB additional RAM

So, as you can see, The Sims 3 requires a bit heftier setup than Windows 7 does - even if you were playing it on a machine with XP you would still need a better setup than what Windows 7 requires.

Lady ElDi wrote:Hello,

Maybe, but I don't think it will to be honest. These type of crashes have become more common with patch 1.42 and Seasons. I was hoping EA would've come up with a patch by now.
Unless you stick to Supernatural/patch 1.38 I'm afraid it's just a waste of time.

I doubt it being unresponsive is an issue with Seasons. For it to be an issue with Seasons they would've had to put something in that creates something like an infinite loop (which EVERYONE would have issues with, and not just some people), or something specific for people with a very specific hardware/software setup (which is pretty rare). Crashes and unresponsive programs aren't the same thing. The best thing he could do is just wait it out and see if it does throw an exception ("crashes") or starts responding, but that may require more patience than the average user has.

i understand what youre saying, but i have never had this problem before - i have been able to play all sims3 games with expansions and cc perfectly since i got this laptop then all of a sudden i install seasons and it doesnt work! seems like a coincidence to me, i really dont think its my machine i meet all of those criteria! but thankyou for your help i will try everything youve suggested!

beciwallen wrote:i understand what youre saying, but i have never had this problem before - i have been able to play all sims3 games with expansions and cc perfectly since i got this laptop then all of a sudden i install seasons and it doesnt work! seems like a coincidence to me, i really dont think its my machine i meet all of those criteria! but thankyou for your help i will try everything youve suggested!

The minimum requirements is very broad on purpose. They don't typically say "don't run xyz software!" and things like that. The Sims Studio's QA team does not have the time nor the resources to test every possible configuration of drivers, software and lower grade hardware that are known to man - you are running a PC and not a Mac, keep that in mind. You can expect that many things they will not know about until long after a release because of this fact. I haven't said it IS your setup and I haven't said it isn't, I simply stated that you should check to ensure it meets the minimum requirements for the game [NOT Windows 7]. If it meets those requirements then fine, but that doesn't ensure you that the software will work properly with your specific setup. Unless you're sitting there running it in a debugger and know assembler then you don't know if it is your setup or not. Eventually one of two things will happen 1) an exception (aka "crash") or 2) it'll start working again, and as I stated to Lady ElDi - it will take patience to figure out which happens as an end user. It could take hours or even days turning to weeks for the program to start responding again or crash, and if it does take that long it's not indicative that Seasons is the issue (it could be Windows causing the issue in Seasons in your specific setup, for example). It's easy to blame Seasons because it's brand new, but in reality no one here (and quite possibly The Sims Studio/EA) knows what's going on with your specific setup.

yes but what im asking is how can it be a hardware problem if it used to work fine?

//EDIT

i have the intel hd graphics 3000 card with 2gb ram which i believe it should work fine with

Because there is no "used to" unless you played Seasons perfectly fine previously. Based on this quote:

but i have never had this problem before - i have been able to play all
sims3 games with expansions and cc perfectly since i got this laptop
then all of a sudden i install seasons and it doesnt work!

I assume there is no "previously." Saying "all the other expansions worked fine" is great, but the other expansions are -not- Seasons on your specific setup. Again, I'm not saying it IS your setup, and I'm not saying it's not - I am saying there is not enough information to make even the slightest educated guess as to what your issue is because nothing has told us what the issue is. "Unresponsive" means just that - it hasn't responded. That doesn't mean there -is- a problem, but there -could be-. Nothing says anything has to respond to Microsoft Windows poking it saying "hey, what you doing?" Hell it could be Microsoft Windows itself that is causing this issue - it could be waiting for a scheduled read or write or many, many, MANY other things. We simply do not know and will not know unless more information is given.

ok well ive uninstalled seasons and its working better, startup time is quicker and less laggy etc, how can i uninstall the latest patch??

//EDIT

what kind of information do you need?

You will have to wait it out. One of two things will eventually happen - as stated previously, this could take a very long time to happen. Even in what is called an "infinite loop" eventually it will crash (most likely due to one of the various overflow exceptions).

1) It will start responding again. If this happens there is no "issue" to tell us of because whatever it is (ie: I/O blocked) is something that we can't fix (ie: if it's I/O blocking it'll be hardware, driver or Windows kernel related, and only the hardware manufacturer or Microsoft can fix that).

2) It will do what is called "throwing an exception" or in laymans terms "crash". When this happens a dialog box will show up that has a button that will allow you to get more details of the exception. From those details we might be able to help you solve the issue.

Also, just because it's not responding doesn't mean it's not working. One way you can ensure that it is still doing something is by watching it in ProcMon - in fact, that's what I'd be doing if I were you but I wouldn't suggest you do it because it may give false impressions.

Well I am also having the same problems and I am also sorry to say it happen after I update to 1.42 patch and I add on seasons. I also get the same response about windows. I have done all the steps to try to stop the crashes. Also before I play my sims I make sure to delete my catches and defrag and clean up my disk c: before playing and I have also reset my town. There are days that everything is fine and sometimes it just crash like it to me just awhile ago. There really isn't a need to argue. Its just a problem we have to wait to see if it is fix. Just want to let you know you are not alone. :newfag:

cheryljb wrote:Well I am also having the same problems and I am also sorry to say it happen after I update to 1.42 patch and I add on seasons. I also get the same response about windows. I have done all the steps to try to stop the crashes. Also before I play my sims I make sure to delete my catches and defrag and clean up my disk c: before playing and I have also reset my town. There are days that everything is fine and sometimes it just crash like it to me just awhile ago. There really isn't a need to argue. Its just a problem we have to wait to see if it is fix. Just want to let you know you are not alone.

Hello,

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