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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 10:15 PM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default The Sims 3 Crashing Mainly When Chrome Is Open
The reason why I'm posting here is that my Sims 3 game seems to crash when Google Chrome is open, well it happens very often but doesn't happen all the time. What will happen is that would minimizze Chrome and click on the opened Sims 3 window, then when I'm back in that window, the games UI is darker and it freezes then crashes. I've troubleshouted many things, but still The Sims 3 will crash when Chrome was open. This only really started happen a couple of weeks ago, and didn't really happen on the old Windows installation, as I reinstalled Windows due to my PC not booting into the old installation anymore,

Here's what I've tried so far which failed:
- DEP (Data Execution Prevention)
- Checking my mods and CC and uninstalling mods that could have been out of date
- Factory reseting the game
- Clean-reinstalling my graphics drivers
- Patching my game with the 4GB patch
- Increasing the Virtual Memory

When I installed the game on the new installation of Windows 10, I made sure I modified the graphics rule, so it would work properly with my GPU.

My PC specs are:
An Alienware X51 R2
8GB RAM
1TB 7200 RPM hard-disk
Nivida GeForce GTX 745
Intel Core I5 4460, running at 3.2 GHz
OS: Windows 10 64bit

But I did recently disabled a setting in my Antivirus, Avast, because I was trying to run an Android emulator called Memu, which wouldn't start up without this setting being disabled. I don't know this could be causing the problem, but you guys can tell me. By the way this setting is called Hardware assisted-virtualization.

Anyway, I hope that's enough information to help you solve the problem, and hope we can find a soloution together

Sims is a game I have cherished ever since I was young. Enjoy it, it's just a game!
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Instructor
#3 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 3:06 AM
Quote: Originally posted by hf29032003

But I did recently disabled a setting in my Antivirus, Avast, because I was trying to run an Android emulator called Memu, which wouldn't start up without this setting being disabled. I don't know this could be causing the problem, but you guys can tell me. By the way this setting is called Hardware assisted-virtualization.


Try this;

1. Disabled Chrome running in the background, you may found it running in your hidden icons tray/box located on your bottom right of your screen.
2. Use the latest MEmu 3.6.7 version

The antivirus should be ok if you want it running, but you need to manage your ram usages as antivirus reserves some as well as chrome and memu. Set your memu's device to use only 2 cores and 2gb of rams at maximum, but this may slow down your android emulator performance overall, if you set your memu's device to use 4 cores and 4gb rams like me then you may not have enough ram and if your core i5 4460 is a mobile processor version because it's a laptop.. then it may not be powerful enough as the mobile core i5 is actually dual core processor.

So the workaround is always checking what's running in the background, because antivirus plus chrome (with its extensions etc) plus memu and TS3 all need free more RAM space, so make sure you don't have so many things working in the background because yes MEmu does utilize all hardware you have set up (when you set up your android device), so make sure MEmu is not running in the background when you want to play TS3.
Top Secret Researcher
#4 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 2:07 PM
Just a quick note on the DEP setting:
Somewhere around Patch 1.63 and 1.67 DEP was already disabled for S3 by default. You might want to check to make sure it is set at: "Use for essential Windows Programs and Services only."
Mad Poster
#5 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 3:58 PM
I will also add that the "4 GB patch" hasn't been necessary on TS3 for Windows (Mac players do not get this benefit) since the game became Large Address Aware (LAA) all by itself as of Patch 1.17.

On the browsers, I know it's wildly popular to have in use but I can't stand Chrome for reasons like this. But even as a diehard Firefox fan (on both Windows and Mac), I can see that they unfortunately took FF in that direction with the latest versions -- the multiple separate processes running thing, that is. That can be done away with by using a simple about:config setting change if wanted. But regardless, at least with FF when the browser is quit one can be reasonably sure that it's not really still running secretly in the background using up all kinds of resources. Chrome seems to assume that our computers are all web browsing machines and that's it -- if the RAM and processor power are there, it's going to try to use them because after all what other purpose could a computer possibly have?
Top Secret Researcher
#6 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 4:08 PM
@igazor has a good point there^^. I am a diehard Chrome user but do not want to start a debate as everyones systems vary. What I do want to add here as an afterthought: Do you by any chance have the Game Folder open when you are playing? Some players do keep it open and I believe it depends upon which folders should not be opened but I have experienced crashing when having the Game Folder open.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 7:28 PM
Let me adress a couple of things. Firstly, I don't run Meumu in the background when I'm playing The Sims 3. Secondly, I know that the 4GB patch with LAN was added in patch 1.17. However, I've heard from many sources that this patch still improves performance, so I don't know is this still true. Thirdly, I have monitered how much RAM Chrome is using while playing The Sims 3 and it seems it is only using 900MB, which is okay as the only things I have Chrome open for when I'm playing the Sims 3 is YouTube, playing music in the background, because I'm too lazy to pay services such as Spotify and IMusic because in my opinion, their charging way too much for their services, though the artists still have to paid in some way. But still, their charging way too much. Fourthly, The Sims 3 is really only untilizing 2GB of RAM, it looks like, as I've seen, using the task manager, but however, that's when the game is paused. Fifthly, I rarely have the game folder open when I'm playing the game. I may have to open it to grap some screenshots out of it, or check something once in a while, but that's it. And lastly, I've swapped Anti-Virus from Avast to AVG, so I'm hoping this could have been causing some of the issue.

Anyway, I will update you again soon on any updates regarding this situation!

Sims is a game I have cherished ever since I was young. Enjoy it, it's just a game!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#8 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 7:58 PM
Okay, I have another update, I've decided to swap browsers from chrome to an alternative chormion browser called Vilvaldi. You may have never heard of it but it seems to using less RAM, about 300MB's less. I'm going to try this browser with the Sims 3 and see how it reacts

Sims is a game I have cherished ever since I was young. Enjoy it, it's just a game!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 10:41 PM
Another update, Vilvaldi seems to be the best browser to use while playing the Sims 3. It seems the game isn't crashing, because of Vilvaldi. As well, I installed an extension called Text Mode, which makes the browser to only show in black and white and doesn't show any thumbnails from any websites, while the extension is enabled. By the way, Vilvaldi supports Chrome extensions, out of the box, as Text Mode is a Chrome extension

Sims is a game I have cherished ever since I was young. Enjoy it, it's just a game!
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