Sims 3 Crashes (unless I downgrade to 9.12 OR play in Windowed Mode)

[Black Panther]

I discovered a way to do this by accident. I was playing around with the bios for my 5970 and accidentally flashed both cores with a master bios, instead of master and slave. When I got to windows, CCC recognized each core separately and I was able to set CF from the CCC.

Lol that same thing had happened to me, then I realized my error!

I'll try disabling AI when I next update driver. Currently I'm using 10.1

Edit - I installed 11.1a
Disabled catalyst ai and still had the game crashing.

Back to trusty old 10.1

 

[n-ster]

this is bizarre, have you tried in safe mode or something like that?

I don't remember if I ever tried Sims 3 when I was CFed, but I believe I did.... not sure I understand if you can disable CF or not, but do try if you can Sims 3 won't benefit from it much anyways.

Do you disable MLAA? that is the only thing I can put in common with 11.1a and 10.10e. Is AA disable both in CCC and Sims 3?

I'll be googling to try to help you, but I'm sure you already did that

 

[Black Panther]

Sorry for the epic thread necrophilia, but this is just bat-shit crazy, I can't believe I still have the same problem!

So I spent more than a year without playing this game, and moved on... updated drivers (was on 12.2) played Fallout 3, New Vegas, Skyrim... etc etc...

Today I decided to install the Sims 3 to play a bit, and guess what? The game doesn't even load, the sound starts looping and it freezes.

That jolted my memory... and I searched for this thread.

I upgraded driver to 12.3
Tried the solutions offered in this thread.
Googled for more solutions.....

Finally, I rolled back to ancient driver 9.12 and the game works fine.


Can't figure out what gives here.
I'm not going to stay on a driver which is more than 2 years old just for this one game! Heaven knows the performance of Skyrim on this driver

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

You can build a rig just for that game and use it as another cruncher to boot. Dual purpose

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Have you tried the latest catalyst and underclocking the card?

There has to be some setting the newer drivers enable by default that 9.12 has disabled. Crossfire, forced AA, forced AF, etc. maybe.

 

[Black Panther]

Have you tried the latest catalyst and underclocking the card?

There has to be some setting the newer drivers enable by default that 9.12 has disabled. Crossfire, forced AA, forced AF, etc. maybe.

I've tried the latest 4 catalysts all with the same result.
The Sims 3 only works with 9.12 and earlier drivers.

All my games work fine otherwise. Heck I forgot I had 9.12 and playing Alan Wake I wondered why fps never went over 30. So I upgraded to 12.4 and got 50 fps. Needless to say, I can't play TS3 now unless I roll back again. But this is frustrating.

I won't underclock the card because it's not overclocked in the first place....
And I'm pretty sure that since all my other games (50+) work fine then the problem's not with the card but either with the game or with the driver. Most probably the latter.

I just sent an email to AMD today about this.

 

[Black Panther]

UPDATE:

The game works using the latest driver.

But, only if I disable full-screen mode.

Well, always an improvement I guess...

__________________________________


I got a reply from AMD. I really think now that my problem is specific to the HD5970 - in all these months of searching I've never as yet encountered a Sims 3 player who's using a 5970....

Thank you for contacting AMD

I understand that you are unable to play Sims 3 with the new drivers. You must always revert back to 9.12 or older. All other games play perfectly fine on the new drivers. If I have missed any critical information please let me know as my suggestions may change.

There have not been any reported issues with the new drivers not working with the Sims 3. My recommendation is to make sure that the game is up to date. Also check their webpage to see if there are any hot fixes that can fix the issue.

I will also forward your request to our engineering team. In the meantime can you submit your feedback to the catalyst crew feedback which will go directly to our engineering team, in this link: http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3

You can check our upcoming drivers release notes to see if your issue has been resolved

I believe the information provided will help address the issue of Sims 3 not working on our current drivers. If we do not hear otherwise, we will assume that the issue has been resolved and the service request will be permanently closed after 10 days. If more time is needed to evaluate my suggestion please let me know and I will ensure this service request remains open for you.

In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.

Best regards,

AMD Global Customer Care

And my reply:

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

Yes you are right: Sims 3 runs fine with 9.12 or older and all other games run fine with all drivers and run even better with the newer drivers.

Recently I also found out that I can run Sims 3 on 12.4 but it must be in windowed mode which doesn’t look great and even worse I get 25 fps or lower that way! It is barely playable. On 9.12 I get a full 60 fps if I have vsync on, and over 130 fps with vsync off.

I understand that there have not been any reported issues with drivers newer than 9.12 not working with the Sims 3 but please keep in mind that I have an HD5970. In nearly 2 years of trying to find a solution to this problem I have never encountered a Sims 3 player who has an HD5970.

I searched a lot, in Sims forums, asked advice on Techpowerup, I made sure the game is up to date and that I didn’t miss any hot-fixes. I even tested the game after doing a clean install of Windows 7 on my system. I even tried various fixes like disabling DEP for the game’s exe files just in case the crash was related to memory, underclocking both CPU and graphics card.. etc etc... I’ve been trying and trying since the update following 9.12!

I’m an enthusiast, my hobby is building and fixing computers, but after so much time and trouble taking nearly 2 years I didn’t manage to fix this problem, and neither did I find anyone else who has the same problem. That’s why I contacted you.

Please do not close this service request because my issue still hasn’t been resolved.

 

[Black Panther]

Now I'm really eager to solve this issue!

Within a week or so, the rest of the parts for my new pc will arrive and I'll be passing on my current rig to my daughter.

Her favorite game is The Sims 3 and she'll be very disappointed if she can't play it well!!
I'll be re-installing 9.12 for her if no solution is found. But there's a glitch with 9.12 because randomly youtube videos would turn green... Not the entire screen but only the youtube window (whether maximized or minimized, will turn a solid green color) and she loves to listen to music on youtube.

I've been in touch with AMD support since 27th May, but so far no solution.

I was waiting for them to find a solution... and they closed the ticket because I hadn't replied within 10 days... Hello... what could I have replied

So I opened another ticket where I forwarded them everything from the previous one.

And I received an ambiguous reply:

This time I'm not risking it so I sent them a little reminder just to keep the ticket open.

 

[n-ster]

Good luck

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The computer has Crossfire'd cards doesn't it? I ask, why not remove one card at least for troubleshooting purposes?

 

[Black Panther]

The computer has Crossfire'd cards doesn't it? I ask, why not remove one card at least for troubleshooting purposes?

It's a 5970...

 

[TheMailMan78]

Forgive me if you answered this but have you tried a clean install of windows?

 

[Black Panther]

Forgive me if you answered this but have you tried a clean install of windows?

Yes. When this problem started over a year ago I did so. Still the game didn't work with any driver later than 9.12

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It's a 5970...

Oops...

I'm playing the game now on 12.4 drivers.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Yes. When this problem started over a year ago I did so. Still the game didn't work with any driver later than 9.12

Well? Try just using 9.12 drivers then? I mean if thats the only game she will play why not?

 

[Black Panther]

This:

But there's a glitch with 9.12 because randomly youtube videos would turn green... Not the entire screen but only the youtube window (whether maximized or minimized, will turn a solid green color) and she loves to listen to music on youtube.

By the way, AMD just replied...

Response and Service Request History:

This issue has been escalated to me to investigate. I have attempted to review the past correspondence to try and discern the exact problem, but I was not able to. Kindly, please let me know the specific problem you now currently face. Please state what specific troubleshooting steps you have gone through thus far, and what possible causes you have ruled out.

If you wish, feel free to create a Word Document, as they may be easier to organize the information. You can attached the document as a file to your reply e-mail.

In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.

OK so this guy couldn't understand all the emails I sent since 27th May which I forwarded to him...

So as he wanted, I copied and pasted them into a Word document, and attached it to my mail.

 

[n-ster]

This:



By the way, AMD just replied...





OK so this guy couldn't understand all the emails I sent since 27th May which I forwarded to him...

So as he wanted, I copied and pasted them into a Word document, and attached it to my mail.

ROFL

Have you tried a clean install with the latest drivers recently? You did mention that it now works when out of full screen mode. You could put it in window mode at full resolution as a last resort yes?

Also try Sims 3 BEFORE installing your sound card... hell, take your sound card out and try with onboard.

 

[Black Panther]

ROFL

Have you tried a clean install with the latest drivers recently? You did mention that it now works when out of full screen mode. You could put it in window mode at full resolution as a last resort yes?

Also try Sims 3 BEFORE installing your sound card... hell, take your sound card out and try with onboard.

I had done it again afterwards either late last year or earlier this year, but not just now with 12.4
Heck I'm not going to do a clean OS install everytime a new AMD driver comes out..

Yes the game works at full resolution in window mode. But as I told the AMD rep in post #82 above I get only ~25 fps (which lags and stutters a lot and is unplayable) whereas with driver 9.12 in full-screen mode I get 100+ fps (which is very smooth and playable).

I also uninstalled the x-fi software, and physically removed the card as well and ran the game on onboard sound. Still the same problem.
And the game always runs fine with the sound card and its driver, as long as I use 9.12 amd graphics driver..

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Have you tried turning all the graphics settings down? On my HD 5870, I run pretty much everything low/off, not because of FPS issues but the game keeps pausing/resuming (animations don't pause).

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Do a clean install of the drivers using Erockers guide. Then install 10.10e. I had really bad luck with anything above 10.10e.

Erockers guide does not work for everyone, and it is much easier to use Driver Sweeper. It essentially does everything that erockers guide tells you do.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Wasn't Driver Sweeper discontinued?

 

[Enterprise24]

Run the Crash Log Analyzer to see if there are any exception files. If there are, click on "copy to clipboard" and paste it into your reply.

FYI, a new round of patches came out yesterday (1.19). If you don't already have them, again, I point you to Patch Downloader.


Edit: a crash after 5-10 minutes sounds like Data Execution Prevention crash (and that's exactly how it works: happy, happy, happy, desktop, WTF?). If it is DEP, Crash Log Analyzer will tell you outright (it has a 100% detection success rate on that one). Just click the DEP link (in Crash Log Analyzer) and follow the instructions to disable DEP for The Sims 3. Mind you, I think 90%+ of DEP crashes are related to bugs in the driver. Again, I've played The Sims 3 (all expansions except Outdoor Living Stuff) quite a bit on my 5870 with 10.11 drivers without any problems. Most DEP errors are actually on NVIDIA cards.

I am sorry to necro this thread but I never face this type of crash before. Crash log and xcpt both pointing at DEP crash despite I already disable DEP for Sims 3.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Checking now but it might need to be TS3.exe instead of TS3W.exe. TS3W.exe is a scant 32 KiB in size. My guess is it just runs TS3.exe and closes.

Could try adding both and see if that takes care of it.

If it doesn't, I'd try running the game without custom content.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I'd try running the game without custom content.

my daughter plays TS3, when in doubt, remove ALL CC/Mods.

also, something like this might help if you DO run mod/CC

 

[Enterprise24]

Checking now but it might need to be TS3.exe instead of TS3W.exe. TS3W.exe is a scant 32 KiB in size. My guess is it just runs TS3.exe and closes.

Could try adding both and see if that takes care of it.

If it doesn't, I'd try running the game without custom content.

Thanks. I try adding TS3.exe and got illegal instruction crash instead. IIRC it must be related to CC so I try removing some and got no crash so far.