My computer has grown increasingly less stable and I don't know what to do and was hoping for some help.


What is happening:
it was running OKay... CTD from sim occasionally maybe every week or so and then
Then it started not only CTD but giving me BSOD in late NOV.

To my knowledge I have only had BSOD if sims 3 is open somewhere on my computer...
I have not always been playing it...
some times happens when the game is paused, or minimized while i am doing something else,
It also can happen when I am playing in live mode, build mode, buy mode, etc. seems to happen faster the more Creat-a-style I have been doing... but not always.
Rarely happen in the first 15 minutes of game play, more often after an hr or more

Error messages go by so fast on auto reboot but I have seen
memory manager
PFN_LIST_Corrupt
page fault in non page file (?) not sure of the exact
and on that says make sure you have enough disk space (what????)

CTD on the other had ( i did over a week of test playing other games and not playing sims 3)... happen with RailRoad tycoon 3 once after about 4 days Roller coaster tycoon 3 frequently. But these are old games... So they might not stress the situation enough to get BSOD. Tired Tropico 3 this week, CTD a lot too much to want to play... but then i have never played it before so I have not Idea how stable the game is normally.

What was different:
1. I backed up to a previous patch level to build some lots for WIP Praaven (1.42 to 1.36)
which of course required an uninstall and reinstall. (done according to MTS steps)

2. Computer cleaned. by spouse

3. drivers updated
(new video drivers make it worse. 306.xx 310.xx crashed sooner. With 285.63 I was not getting BSOD but that does not seem to be true anymore so might have been coincidence. Not positive what driver I was running before the BSOD started happening but think it was 285.63. by dates on computer.. and yes completely uninstalled old first)

4. Two Fans that where dieing replaced. both axillary. CPU, GPU, main fan all were fine.

However I looked at my stability history.. as i thought this was just happen since the I did the uninstuall reinstall in late NOV... but it started before that it just was very rare ...now CTD is very day! I Have with the 285. driver gone 3 days without a BSOD and thought it was solved... but alas not. That has been the pattern I try something.. so about a day to three and then it is back... so try something else.

5. I might have changed or updated virus protection at this time too... so got rid of the new one.

What I have:
Desktop
OS: MS Windows 7 SP1- 64bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP5t-UD3P
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9650 3 GHZ
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX+
RAM: 16 GB DDR3 PC3 667MHZ
HD space: 1Tb (739 gb free)
Power supply: 700 watts
monitor: nec lcd 1712

The build is approximately 5 years old. Built by spouse for sims 3. Ran fine for about 4 years in England. With the exception of "error 12 messages" about two years in which is why upgraded the 16 Gb RAM and Windows 7 - problem fixed.

After less than a year in the states (power supply is auto switching) it is to the point I can't play sims without it crashing to desktop or Blue screens of death. and now just about any game crashes to desktop but only sims 3 gives blue screens of death.
I can play for 1 sim day to about 10 sims days before CTD or BSOD. Saved games error sooner the fresh sim games, (i. E. new test game started sunday Might not crash. But the save of the game might Crash the next day in just 15 minutes of play even w caches cleared before starting.



Thinking it is not a sims 3 issue as
I have been through the Sims 3 Check list:
1. uninstalled sims 3
2. reinstalled only the base game..patch level 1.48 ... patched Origin too
3. No CC including no Store items, no modes, no Riverview
4. Playing off line (have not uninstalled Origin does it matter if off line?
5. DEP set
6. running from exe file not launcher.
7. fresh games and fresh sim file over and over

Basically I have been through the Sims3 trouble shooting dozens of time, and am left to think it is hardware or drivers.

Hardware:
I am NOT computer savvy... and the darn spouse has gone over to Macs so he is less help than he use to be
But all the test and research he has done shows the hardware is fine.

any suggestion here on what to use and how to test would be appreciated.

Spouse wonders if going from 220v to 110v even with an auto switching PWR supply could be the cause.

Drivers:
Any input on the best driver for the GEforce 9800 GTX at least for testing purposes appreciated.

Try to right click onto your disk, then Properties -> Tools -> Error-checking -> check now,
check in both options, then when it ask - click to shedule it. Then reboot your computer.

It may take fiew hours to finish so do this when you will go to sleep and leave computer overnight to finish its work.

Why :
If you simply cut off power while computer is running, the hardware have no time to set itself to safe state.
While this is not that dramatic for most of hardware parts, its deadly for your hard disks and its data,
because when you suddenly cut power off, disk stop spinning and his heads fall onto sensitive disk surface
scratching it like a deadly blade.
This is why windows must always be 'closed' because when it close it also set your computer hardware
to safe state (eg. move hard disk heads outside of disk surface) where power may be safely turned off.

What for :
This operation will attempt to scan your hard disk physical surface for scratches and damaged areas,
and if found will disable these areas from further use.

Cause :
It seems like you most likely turned off your computer by force many times which damaged your disk.
When hard disk surface is physicaly damaged (scratched ect.) when computer try to read or write
some informations to these areas it will ofcourse fail, and attempt to execute / use broken data
will cause in most cases BSOD.

Xialyun: Thank You for the suggestion.

I ran it last night. It was 50% through phase 5 when I went to bed. No error reported or bad area reported at that point.

This morning I can't find the event log. (spouse promised to look for it when he gets home )

Question: What is the best way of going about eliminating what it could be and figuring out what it is?

other info:

BIOS was check and is up to date


I have very little on my sims computer that needs back up... So I could just reinstall windows 7. Is that best next step? If I do that are there any does and don't to keep in mind?


EDIT: (Feb 24)
I never could find a report.
But so far no more BSOD. I have gone as long as three days without them and since it has not been that long. I am not holding my breath yet
.
However Sims 3 is still CTD So back to working my way through the STILL CRASHING LIST.
Found my Sound driver also needed updating. I had forgotten that one.

Since I am back to sim related questions... I guess I need to post in a different area


Edit: Feb 25 another BSOD while test playing a vanillia base game not even patched...

I want to up grade my graphic card any way. So thinking of trying that


Looking at a geforce 660. Not sure what model or company. Would love input and sugestions

But as it is still ctd and i had a blue screen with a test game of sims medeival

I don't know it is my gpu. But it is my best next guess that it is going. And since i want a new one anyway.


Sorry for double post but thought better than starting a new thread. If i am wrong moderator can combine post tell me to start new thread

Try running Memtest86 to check your memory. Sounds like a similar problem I had a few months ago on another PC.

http://www.memtest86.com/

If all checks out, take a look at your drivers or perhaps your video ram is goin' south.

YEAH! I HAVE ERRORS!!! I know weird thing to be excited about but I am just sooooooo hopeful that RAM is the problem and that I can fix it!

Thanks for the suggestion on that test. and a direct link. I messed up and had the husband do a different one that I thought was this one several weeks ago that really didn't work, and then he ran the ones that came with windows 7, which did not reveal any errors. You saying this was the one to do and giving a link to it made convincing him it was worth the effort it much easier , after my early miss direct. So thanks again.

I have one pair showing errors and one pair not. So going to play with pair not showing errors after six passes and see if i still get CTD and BSOD. I realize there is still a chance they are bad. so If i do i will test again.

off to maybe finally play after months!

EDIT: March 8th... Potentially bad RAM was the issue.

edit: March 16th no more CTD or BSoD so RAM seems to have been it...


playing a unpatched base game for 3 sim wks without CTD or BSOD pretty hopeful..
going to patch game and see what happens.