Variable Crashes

[HazelEyes]

My game has been crashing a lot lately. At one point it crashed only when I hadn't saved in a while, so I started saving frequently. Then it started crashing when I tried to edit a sim's clothing in CAS through the dresser. I removed a few mods (pregnancy morph, and the NRAAS computer) and tried again. I was going okay for about fifteen minutes, I managed to edit a sim's appearance, and then I got a crash when I tried zooming out. Other than AM, I only have the gym buff and no intro mods, and some non-mod CC, mostly stuff that's been in there a while.

My computer might be borked, but usually when it gives me trouble it's because it overheated, and it's fine now. Any ideas?

[tizerist]

How densely populated is your town? I've temporarily removed nearly everyone because of instability.
Are there big detailed lots? Some taller buildings can be very taxing on the game, causing crashing.

And CAS? Does the screen go black, or is it just a desktop crash?

[J. M. Pescado]

Possible culprit is overheating, if it's occurring in CAS.

[HazelEyes]

How densely populated is your town? I've temporarily removed nearly everyone because of instability.
Are there big detailed lots? Some taller buildings can be very taxing on the game, causing crashing.

AM story mode has been rapidly increasing the procreation in my neighborhood, but this is at least the second generation, and it never crashed this often before. The lot is pretty big, but the house is not so huge, and again, this is at least the second generation that's lived in the biggest lot.

And CAS? Does the screen go black, or is it just a desktop crash?

Desktop crash. I click something, suddenly I'm looking at Firefox, no error message or anything.

Whenever my computer gives me trouble, I put my hand on it to feel how overheated it is. This time it just wasn't that warm. I preemptively closed a bunch of background processes. Still, getting it cleaned is the A-plan, I think.

[tizerist]

As a test I would put your currently family in the sim bin, then 'destroyallhumans', then place them back in their house.
See how it runs with a small population, and save under a different name.
My town with a population of 6 runs crash-free, yet when i place the other 55 sims in there, it crashes left right and centre.
I am also in the process of placing lots back in the hood slowly due to crashing. I placed about 90 lots in the town and it was fine. But then I tried to put the last 5 lots back in there and it started going funny again. Also worth considering.

[J. M. Pescado]

Causes of crashes, especially if you are doing things that are graphically intensive, include overheating, and bad CC. If the crashes occur at during activities like extended use of CAST or normal play, overheating may be to blame. But if the crashes occur when you are zooming in or out, or something new appears, you could have a bad piece of CC that has corrupt LOD settings.

[nanacake]

Whenever my computer gives me trouble, I put my hand on it to feel how overheated it is. This time it just wasn't that warm. I preemptively closed a bunch of background processes. Still, getting it cleaned is the A-plan, I think.

This is not a sure test to see how much heat your computer may be generating inside. You should look up the temperature in BIOS. Since also maybe it only gets hot when you run graphic applications (maybe the graphics card is hot) try using a software program called SpeedFan to monitor all aspects while you run TS3. It is better if you can remove all non-necessary processes, startup items and services before hand. Your CPU should only be 0%-5% when you finish start up at desktop then.

[Tangie]

I got a CTD last night in CAS for the first time ever. I took two sims to the dresser to change all their outfits after aging up to YA (you know, those purple shoes with the outfit just didn't go). First Sim went fine, although I do get this strange static sound when clicking on each different outfit. It sounds like one of those bug zappers. But the zapping sound has been happening for weeks and I'd still never experiened a crash in the past, although I haven't tried editing two sims back to back, either. When I got to the second Sim, everything was OK although things were going more and more slowly and taking longer and longer to generate the image for each outfit. Finally when I got the the second formal outfit, it makes a zapping sound like usual but, and here is the very strange part, the sim looked like it was wearing a black body suit under her dress. All of her skin tone, from her toes to what looked like a turtle neck, were completely and utterly pitch black. Face/head was not affected, but the rest of her body was. I tried clicking back on formal outfit # one but got the same 'cat woman bodysuit' effect. It wouldn't go away although I clicked on a few other buttons for the next minute or so. Strangest thing I've ever seen. Then the program just closed down and I was back at my desktop.

I'm guessing this was a video card failure of some kind, since the card is an unsupported NVIDIA variant that HP used to cut costs on this laptop, and the game will occasionally minimize to the task bar without warning when the card needs a break. I haven't opened the program back up yet tonight but otherwise the PC seems OK. So, yeah, if it works I will know better than to tax the system again by trying to edit several sims in a row. I also have beaucoup CC but all's been working fine for some time now so I don't think it was caused by CC.

[J. M. Pescado]

If the card "needs a break", you're getting the overheating issues and should try 3booter + fpslimiter.

[Tangie]

Normally when the "card needs a break" it just minimizes the program to the task bar, it doesn't close down. So I just leave it there for a minute and maximize it again and go on playing with no problems. In the past I used the FPS command and I don't remember the numbers generated exactly, but it was very low (like 16?) so it didn't seem like the limiter would be useful. I think this was one of the saved games where I was experiencing extreme lagging. I'll take another look at the FPSlimiter.

[kuronue]

You're certain it's not some other program, like an antivirus program, wanting your attention on the desktop and so minimizing your game?

[MizzCerise]

My game chugs like mad now, even in a new, freshly built town with only a few people in it. A lot of stopping/starting, and when they walk they sort of drag along the ground like Tinkerbell fairies. Also the speed is super slow, like it used to be before the last patch when ultra-fast was the same as daytime speeds. Making me nuts, I've resigned myself to just building to get my fix and not even bothering with the characters...