Crashing, and I have log files. Please help!

[karialSim]

My game has crashed three times today. I very recently installed AL, but I've been playing it for about a week with very few problems. All three times it has crashed today, it was while I was decorating. Twice on one lot, and another time on a separate lot-all in the same 'hood that I've been playing for a while now.

There are matching exception codes on each of the three logs.

Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.

Exception module:  C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSBin\Sims2EP8.exe.
Exception address: 0x006aceff. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x002abeff.

The message I get is the "the application has crashed, and will now terminate"

PLEASE help, I'm so incredibly frustrated I could scream.

[Me2]

Have you installed the AL patch.. ?
Have you downloaded anything new?
I hope you can get the answers you need

[Trepie22]

karialSim I had that problem too.

The suggestions I got were:
-Update graphics card drivers
-Update DirectX
-If you use Multi-Core Processor then set it to use only one CPU in the Set Affinity section of the Task Manager.

You also might want to try removing all downloads and then seeing if it works without them
I had to reinstall mine but they might work for you! You never know

[karialSim]

My husband did mention last night that maybe he needed to make sure the drivers were hooked back up right. He did some messing around a few days ago in there, and he ended up having to go back in and redo my audio. So I'll check the first two out. The third, I'm not too sure I understand. But I think he put a second hard drive in there, so maybe it has something to do with that too.

Thank you very much for the suggestions Trepie22!

Me2, I did download some new things yesterday, and I am kicking myself for not putting them in a subfolder named "new" that I have for just that purpose. I think I got at least most of them removed for now though. They were all furnishings. And yes, I have the patch installed. Thanks!

I don't mind if I have to reinstall, but I'm hoping not to.

[Trepie22]

Here's some info to clear up what I said for you

For Suggestion #1
If you click start, and run, type 'dxdiag' to find out which graphics card you have.



It'll be on the second tab:



Circled in red here:



If it's nvidia go here and choose Option 2 (automatic):
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Then download and install the one it suggests.

If it's not nvidia, then Google the device it comes up with and find the download drivers section of their website.


For Suggestion #2
Go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?pocId=&freetext=direct%20x&DisplayLang=en#
And download any updates for DirectX you don't have.

For Suggestion #3
When Sims is loaded press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up Task Manager.
On the Applications tab click on your Sims 2 task, right click and choose Go To Process. The process will be called Sims2EP# - where # is the number of the most recent Expansion Pack you have installed.
Now right click this process and select 'Set Affinity'.
The follow message will come up:

The Processor Affinity settings controls which CPUs the process will be allowed to execute on.

There will be some tick boxes, leave only CPU 0 checked, and press ok.



Sorry about the long post

[karialSim]

Thank you very much! The drivers were updated within the last couple of weeks I think. (my husband does all the tech stuff lol) Not sure about DirectX though. I'll ask.
Thanks for the explanation for the CPU too. I was looking at the tast manager, and couldn't find what you were talking about.:lol: Now I know exactly how to find it.

With any luck I'll be playing tonight. And I'm going to make a note to remember to put anything new in that subfolder for a while just in case.

[caffeinated.joy]

That error code pops up for a lot of people, and it a bit of an ambiguous thing, unfortunately. What I mean by that is the  0xC0000005-ACCESS_VIOLATION is usually a memory related problem, but it could be caused by any number of things.

A few options have been suggested, but you could try looking into the following:

Clean out your cookies, temporary internet files and scan for viruses, spyware and malware.

Try sorting out your downloads and get rid of any you don't use anymore.

I notice in all three reports you attached you have at least 2 gb of RAM available, but only 500-800 mb free when running your game. Try closing your background tasks and see if that helps.

If, after all that and after making sure you drivers are all updated, you're virus/spyware/malware free and your harddrive is properly defragmented, etc, it could be either faulty RAM, (there's a memory diagnostics tool here) or even a faulty soundcard.

Out of curiousity, what are your system specs (you're on XP right?)

[karialSim]

Knock on wood, but I think the problem is solved. At least I played for over 3 hours this morning with no crash. I cleaned out cookies and temp files, and ran scans. Drivers and DirectX were both already updated. And I shut down everything in the background before playing.

I know I still need to weed out some downloads though. Lots of stuff in there I don't use much anymore.

Thanks you guys! Oh, and Joy-I was going to write down the specs to post, but I forgot. But yes, I am using XP.

[caffeinated.joy]

OK, NP. I'm glad you've got it working. If you do have the problem again, just post here with your specs, and that might help us isolate the problem. Hopefully, you won't need to!