Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th Jul 2018 at 2:50 AM Last edited by M.M.A.A. : 13th Jul 2018 at 3:08 AM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default Sims 2, W10, Nvidia, Flashing Pink, Crashes, the whole 9 yards...
Hi everyone! Wow! It's been a while since I've been here! Got all caught up with college and life in general...

So, I've been roaming around recently here and over at leefish, because I too am running into issues with pink flashes and "access violation crashes". It seems as though this is a sims-community-wide issue.

I got a new laptop last year because my old laptop can't handle 3D rendering programs, with W10, of course. I've been looking around to figure out what was going on with my game as it seemed to just get buggier and buggier lately. I am aware of the W10 update that seemed to have caused some problems for a lot of people. At random times, especially on community lots though, everything starts flashing pink. I've looked up several solutions to this and I've come up across the following fixes:

-4GB Patch
-Memory Allocation
-Graphics Card Recognition by videocard.sgr
-DEP
-Graphics Rules Maker and manually modifying the graphicsrule.sgr and videocard.sgr
-Jessa's Video about Memory Allocation and Task Scheduler, etc... > Thank you, Jessa! :lovestruc
-Downloading .sgr files from leefish for Nvidia, Texture fixes, resolution, etc...
-Deleting caches/thumbnails > slight improvement
-test play without CC (I only have less than 400 MB of CC) > still crashes
-ETC... (If I remember any, I'll add them...)

*I'm playing a Non-UC game. All EPs/Sps.*

For some reason, I feel like I've been going back and forth between solutions but none of them seem to have solved the problems I'm facing. It's as if though I get rid of the pink flashing for a bit, only to run into crashes due to "access violation" which I still don't know what's causing it. And vice versa.

Now, over at Leefish, I was going through their threads; I've tried Kiri's Nvidia graphicsrules and videocard files, but those don't seem to have fixed any of my issues. The GRM might only seem to be able to fix the resolution of my game to1920x1080, unless I need to adjust that manually. Oddly, my game DOES recognize my video card even though it's not mentioned in the videocard.sgr. Adding it to the list doesn't seem to help with anything either.

I tried following Jessa's video, did the memory allocation thing, thinking that might've been the problem since the 4GB patch already worked for me, according to my config-log.txt file. Unfortunately, that didn't work either.

The thing I'm most confused about in the graphics rules file is the "seti MemoryTexture" line, which in some threads, over here and at Leefish, I read it's the dedicated memory I need to put in that line, yet others say it's the display memory. I'm not sure at this point if this has anything to do with the problem... Also, when I used the GRM, I did set the Force Texture memory to 4095 MB, yet I'm not sure if that really did anything...

However, I noticed that there was slight improvement when I deleted the thumbnails and caches altogether, but that only lasted for a while before everything went back to the way it was...

Sorry for the random blabbering but I'm not quite sure what I'm doing anymore or what I need to do... I am simply... lost.

To conclude, I'm still getting random pink flashing after some time of playing or when visiting community lots. Crashes might occur, sometimes if I keep the game running and playing with the pink flashing going on for a while. Other times, it's the "access violation" exception crash.

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

P.S. I have a feeling I should be posting certain files here, like my DxDiag, config-log.txt, etc... So I'll post these ASAP if necessary.

Also, I was planning on posting this in Jessa's pinned thread above, but I wasn't sure if I should, because it'll look like I was hogging the thread with such a long rant post.

Specs from DxDiag:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 24576MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Display Memory: 18316 MB
Dedicated Memory: 6052 MB
Shared Memory: 12264 MB
Advertisement
Test Subject
#2 Old 15th Jul 2018 at 7:16 PM
Hello! It seems that you've done everything that you possibly can do to ease your problem. I have AMD graphics card, but I too experience crashing and/or pink flashing when the game RAM usage reaches about 2GB RAM, despite the 4GB patch and all.

You didn't mention about your graphics cards drivers. Have you tried updating or falling back them? And I would be interested in what specific Windows 10 version are you running? You can check it by clicking the windows button or start menu -> settings -> System -> information (it's on the very bottom of the list). For example, I have Windows 10 pro, version 1607, build 14393.2214.

As you are aware, it was a windows 10 fall creators update (Windows version 1709) what caused massive problems for the Sims 2 and rendered many other directx9 games unplayable too. My solution was to roll back to previous Windows 10 version, even though the game still isn't running as good as it was on Windows 7 back in the day.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 15th Jul 2018 at 7:23 PM Last edited by M.M.A.A. : 15th Jul 2018 at 7:36 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by s4rts4
Hello! It seems that you've done everything that you possibly can do to ease your problem. I have AMD graphics card, but I too experience crashing and/or pink flashing when the game RAM usage reaches about 2GB RAM, despite the 4GB patch and all.

You didn't mention about your graphics cards drivers. Have you tried updating or falling back them? And I would be interested in what specific Windows 10 version are you running? You can check it by clicking the windows button or start menu -> settings -> System -> information (it's on the very bottom of the list). For example, I have Windows 10 pro, version 1607, build 14393.2214.

As you are aware, it was a windows 10 fall creators update (Windows version 1709) what caused massive problems for the Sims 2 and rendered many other directx9 games unplayable too. My solution was to roll back to previous Windows 10 version, even though the game still isn't running as good as it was on Windows 7 back in the day.


I did roll back my graphics card to a previous update, but that didn't work either. I ended up reinstalling the update. I usually update the drivers using the Nvidia Experience interface...

I have W10 Home v1803 build 17134.165, if that helps.

How would I go on to roll back to a previous version of windows? (To what version?) Will it actually work? Because I tend to read in other threads that it works for some, but not for others. I hope Windows comes up with a better update that will hopefully fix these problems.

ETA: I've posted about what I did lately in this thread: http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=615178
Mad Poster
#4 Old 15th Jul 2018 at 9:06 PM
I'm starting to wonder if this is some sort of update from a stranger source that is causing this ... perhaps from a source that we can't imagine would be part of the problem.

While I had pink flashing over the last year to a year and a half (never had it before), for months, all I had to do was delete bloated Thumbnails folders and turn off my AV. Get off the game after an hour, rest for a few minutes, go back on. That was it, and it worked for at least nine months or so. But recently, the flashing has become more frequent.

Now I should write that I cannot use the 4 GB patch without disabling compatibility (of course ... we know that). If I do that, though, I lose a chunk of my Happy Holidays, and for the most part, no .... most of it isn't the Santa stuff that I WISH would go away, even at the expense of getting the faceless Santa again. I barely use Santa or Baby New Year, so it would not be much skin off my teeth. No ... most of the clothing and hair that goes missing is the stuff I actually LIKE in the SP and use quite a bit. The ONLY way I can get it back is to set compatibility. There is no other way, and I've tried so many possible solutions I've lost count. Great. I've had two Knowledgeable Ones here work with me to try to solve this mystery, and neither of them could figure it out, either. It seems I'm the only one with this problem (or one of the few that care enough about this to persist, anyway), and no one can figure out why.

But for almost three years, everything worked fine, save for an occasional crash a few times a year. Over most of last year or so, all I had to do was mind the Thumbnails and get off the game after an hour, disabling the AV for good measure, and everything was fine and dandy. it's only been over the last two or three months that things have gotten worse. I have not added so, so much CC that would merit this. In April, back when all I had to do was the Thumbnail/AV/rest stuff, my folder was 4.89 (size on disk). Now it's 4.93. I've been curbing my downloading frenzy over the last year.

I'm on Win 7, by the way, and my Sims 3 plays fairly well. A little lag, but not much. It's SIMS 2 that is giving me trouble. I am on disk-only. Nvidia card as well, but an older one. Not THAT much older.

The other day, I've been going through processes, getting rid of stuff running in the background that really shouldn't be because I don't need it. That seems to really leave more free space, but apparently that free space trick that Jessa mentioned doesn't work unless I use the 4 GB patch. At least I have some more free space, anyway. It was amazing what was running in the background! Many programs seem to think that of COURSE, you want to see their icons in the tray every time you start up!, and you want them running while you surf or play. I thought that some of these monitoring systems, such as the more-recent CC Cleaner one that came with an update, might not be helping. Doing this seems to work when I went into my game a couple of times, but I haven't tested it enough to come to a satisfactory conclusion. (And I believe I should give Jessa credit for suggesting the background processes bit. I would be remiss if I did not.)

By the way, I tried and Googled, but I still haven't figured out how to get rid of the iCloud icon. Maybe that is causing issues? Honestly, I haven't a clue. Apparently, though, many people are not happy they can't disable or start iCloud manually. I've been staring at Apple forums until I am bleary-eyed. You can do it temporarily, but not permanently. Apple has yet to come up with a solution, and I don't think they're sweating it.

So if anyone can come up with WHY the pink flashies seem to be more of thing recently, 4GB patch or not or lots of CC or not, I would like to know as well!

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 1:52 AM Last edited by Justpetro : 16th Jul 2018 at 2:16 AM.
I found this video and thinks it explains the issue very well : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkmxAg7r3Y

Edit: I use Windows 10 but the UC - I don't believe there should be much difference between the performance of the game whether you use UC or disks.

No Windows or Nvidia updates have ever had a negative influence on my game at all.

I do prefer to keep my cc relatively low because it suits me better if the game loads faster. And I seldom play for more than an hour at a time - I cannot sit still for very long.

I had pink flashing once or twice over the past year and deleting the thumbnails folder fixed it for me.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 2:13 AM
M.M.A.A., did you check the Documents>Logs> config-logs.txt file? Just to be sure the 4GB patch is working? Is your memory and free memory 4096MB?

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#7 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 2:18 AM Last edited by Justpetro : 16th Jul 2018 at 3:55 AM.
I should say that i do have the 4GB patch and the memory allocation fix as well.

The access violation crash; I believe it is caused by cc. I had it about 3 days ago after installing some cc from a site - the game crashed on sims visiting community lots. I removed the cc and it immediately stopped (it was clothing and none of the sims were wearing it).

I just remembered something - have you changed the compatibility mode to XP? It seems to work best on my system that way.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 5:36 AM
Yes, but I thought you couldn't have compatibility mode at all if you want the 4 GB patch?

That video has been very helpful in all this. My fix has been a combo of suggestions from both Jessa's video and the other video, and it has worked great until recently.

I have been thinking if any new process has been running in the background over the last two months or so, when the trouble escalated, and the CC Cleaner monitoring thing was the first that came to mind. I haven't played the game since I disabled it, though. Might be testing time!

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 9:15 AM
@gazania - oh dear - re the compatibility mode - I see my game is no longer set that way (did not know, did not notice, deep sigh).
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#10 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 3:52 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Justpetro
I found this video and thinks it explains the issue very well : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkmxAg7r3Y

Edit: I use Windows 10 but the UC - I don't believe there should be much difference between the performance of the game whether you use UC or disks.

No Windows or Nvidia updates have ever had a negative influence on my game at all.

I do prefer to keep my cc relatively low because it suits me better if the game loads faster. And I seldom play for more than an hour at a time - I cannot sit still for very long.

I had pink flashing once or twice over the past year and deleting the thumbnails folder fixed it for me.


I've watched that video (multiple times!). I'll try deleting the thumbnails. Though, the idea of having to do this every time before starting the game bothers me.

Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
M.M.A.A., did you check the Documents>Logs> config-logs.txt file? Just to be sure the 4GB patch is working? Is your memory and free memory 4096MB?


It was, but then I played around with the compatibility (set it to W7), and that seemed to have removed the patch. I just checked now and it's less than 4096 MB. Looks like I'll have to re-apply it. :/ Does the patch uninstall every time I open the game in/with compatibility mode? Or is it just the first time?

Quote: Originally posted by Justpetro
I should say that i do have the 4GB patch and the memory allocation fix as well.

The access violation crash; I believe it is caused by cc. I had it about 3 days ago after installing some cc from a site - the game crashed on sims visiting community lots. I removed the cc and it immediately stopped (it was clothing and none of the sims were wearing it).

I just remembered something - have you changed the compatibility mode to XP? It seems to work best on my system that way.


I read somewhere that the access violation crash was caused by the game trying to access memory or something that wasn't meant for it. Idk... The last CC I installed where 'open underneath stairs' by HL and Le Carrera.

And no, I haven't tried XP. I tried W7 and W8. W8 didn't let the game launch. I just got a blue window and nothing happened. With W7, it works, but the problems still persist. I'll try XP and let you know if that's helps.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
Mad Poster
#11 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 4:16 PM
@gazania says above that compatibility mode and the 4GB patch don't work together, @M.M.A.A. - and she is probably right, since I have checked and see my game is in no compatibility mode at all at t he moment. I knew that is where I set it last, but that may have been before I got the 4GB patch.

I doubt if the stairs will cause crashing. You are right about that info about hte access violation crash as well - however, I send Sims to community lots all the time; suddenly three of them crash in a row - and I get the access violation thing in the error log. So I removed the last cc I added - I guess there may have been something in one of those files - it may have become corrupted during downloading or something - that buggered up the memory (?); it was just a bunch of clothing and I have not even used any of those yet - and since then have sent numerous sims to community lots again without any crashing, so it is still worth checking all your cc.

It won't be necessary to delete the thumbnail folder every time. You can just check inside the folder - at times the CASTthumnails and the CANHobjects can be ridiculously high, so if you keep an eye, you can delete those when necessary.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#12 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 11:07 PM
Most times compatibility mode doesn't seem to be needed and yes the 4gbt patch does come off easily. I know from experience when I was troubleshooting. Even now I still check it every now and then.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#13 Old 16th Jul 2018 at 11:22 PM
@joandsarah77 - I didn't know the 4GB patch was unstable in that way. :/ Good to know.

I've re-patched my .exe again and so far so good. Let's hope it stays that way.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#14 Old 17th Jul 2018 at 12:27 AM
*Crosses fingers*

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Link Ninja
#15 Old 17th Jul 2018 at 1:17 AM
OP you are not alone. I've started having this issue starting this weekend.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Mad Poster
#16 Old 17th Jul 2018 at 9:57 AM
The 4GB patch seems stable enough on my system.

The only time I have to add it again is after a repair in Origin (UC) - and that seems logical too.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 17th Jul 2018 at 6:52 PM Last edited by gazania : 17th Jul 2018 at 7:11 PM.
From what I'm reading, this mainly seems to be affecting Win 10 users, but some Win 7s are also affected. Is this correct?

If both Win 10 and 7 users are affected, this might point to one possible problem, If it's just Win 10 (with the flashing in my case being unrelated to the OP's problem), that could point to another possibility. It also seems to be affecting a lot of Nvidia users? Or is it both Nvidia and AMD? If it's mostly Nvidias, another possibility. (Driver issues? Drivers need updating?)

I read somewhere that Nvidia's GE Force Experience was causing problems for many gamers (not just Sims). In my case, it was installed once some time ago, but somehow got uninstalled. I have no idea how, or who did it (a bunch of people here use or have looked at this machine). However, I still constantly saw it in my Processes list, even though it was technically not installed. How strange! I installed, then uninstalled it, and it disappeared from my list for good. From what I read, if you don't use the features, you don't need it. You can update drivers outside of it. And even if you can't use all the tips in the Jessa video, paying attention to her suggestion to look at just what is running in the background seems like a sound idea.

I would update my drivers, by the way (haven't done it for a while), but from what I'm reading, that does not seem to be solving the problem with Nvidia users, and with some, seemed to have worsened the flashing. Eek. It's not exactly making me eager to do this!

it just seems so strange that for many of us, the problem was either non-existent or extremely controllable until a couple of months ago; both with new forum members and older ones. Whether you updated drivers or not. Older cards and newer cards. (Mine is a GTX 950). And perhaps, Win 10 or Win 7? Is there some sort of common thread through all this? Or is it all a bunch of coincidences (not ruling that out yet)?

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Link Ninja
#18 Old 17th Jul 2018 at 7:15 PM
Mine is Nvidia 1060 (I'm 80% sure that's the version) and I am using Windows 10. I had Geforce experience installed for awhile without issue though, I use it to record videos on sims sometimes. I did notice there was an update, and I updated it to stop pink flashing which just started within the last two weeks, which worked a bit but I still get it on objects I randomly pull out of the catalog, but now I do get a lot of the crashing after 30-40 minutes with an access violation error in the exception logs.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Scholar
#19 Old 18th Jul 2018 at 12:03 PM
I do not use GF Experience (pointless resource hog) and I have rather ancient machine, but this may be useful for someone:

i3-2310M, 8GB RAM Win7 64bit SP1 NVidia GT520M (VRAM 1024), laptop has an upgraded CPU from Intel 850 2core mobile series (was working fine, just less efficient)
working drivers: 344 series,355.60,387.92,391.01, the game is UC version with 4GB patch applied, tied to one core, one thread (resolved sudden stuttering and unexpected lags), executable is restored from original installation (pre forced Origin loading on start)

there's something wrong with intel HD3000 (maybe 4000 too) drivers on dual-card systems, there was no possibility to work with any application using NVidia in fullscreen without VSync enabled, sometimes the only option left was just "borderless window" and crashes were imminent - that stopped to happen when I just reversed to native Win7 drivers;*

I use old NVidia Statistics Server (6.1) to control FPS (for Sims3 sake mostly)

the only downside for the game is (and always was) unability to fix the shadow error (the "blocky one"), no fix was working, but it's a minor annoyance, lowering shadow quality was a proper "fix"; I have experienced pink flashy objects only if particular texture was missing in CC package;

BTW: it's importand to keep dx9c drivers healthy, some system updates for no particular reason made sneaky damage (or maybe it's just that particular machine) and any dx9 application obviously crashed

[ for curiosity: there're a few tailored versions of dx9c libraries made mostly for weaker machines or for ENB filters, some versions (like these "Oblivion performance") uses older interfaces and are much more efficient for old dx9 programs, I've never tested them for Sims, there was no need, but maybe it's worth a try ]

*and suddenly out of nowhere dx8 level programs like Splinter Cell are working too (which should not happend at all, tell me about the magic)






-


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
Mad Poster
#20 Old 18th Jul 2018 at 12:21 PM
I have a Nvidia card, Windows 10, UC and GeForce - and everything works fine on my pc. Updates from anyone of them don't have a negative effect on my game. (I did see the pink flashing a couple of times, but it was a long time ago).

@Charmful - see my post 11 regarding the access violation thing.
(I have added just that one folder of cc - 3 long time community lots crashed. After removing the cc, no more crashing).
Trainee Moderator
staff: trainee moderator
#21 Old 18th Jul 2018 at 3:12 PM
Maybe this helps?

http://marasims.tumblr.com/post/173...flash-crash-fix

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#22 Old 18th Jul 2018 at 9:58 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Charmful
OP you are not alone. I've started having this issue starting this weekend.


Yeah, it's a very common issue lately. It comes and goes... So far, my game hasn't acted up or anything lately.

Quote: Originally posted by Jawusa
Maybe this helps?

http://marasims.tumblr.com/post/173...flash-crash-fix


I found this a while ago. I tried everything they said, alas, it wasn't fruitful for me. :/ Thank for sharing, though! It might help someone.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#23 Old 18th Jul 2018 at 11:28 PM
I am on a new computer with Win 7 and now a Nvidia 1050TI. The only and ever pink flashing I have had was on that Radeon card I first bought for this computer after putting on that awful Adrenalin driver update. I still think a win update somehow came into the mix of whatever it did to my computer as the game worked okay for about a week until those two updates and then it was broken until I got my new card.

So still going strong M.M.A.A.? So maybe it was just the 4gb patch coming off.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#24 Old 19th Jul 2018 at 4:51 PM
@joandsarah77 - Yep, so far so good! But I've only been playing residential lots lately, haven't visited community lots in the main neighborhood yet. College community lots seem to work fine though. I usually get the pink flashing when visiting community lots in the main neighborhood (sometimes college community lots too). Perhaps it was the 4GB patch. Even though, whenever I checked the config-log.txt several times before, it usually said 4096 MB, until the last time I did. No idea what happened. Maybe the compatibility reset helped fixed it as well. Idk...

Eitherway, thank you, everyone! :lovestruc Will keep you all posted on any changes once I visit a community lot again.
Test Subject
#25 Old 19th Jul 2018 at 9:45 PM
Glad to hear that you got it sorted out, kinda! I should update and try the newest windows 10 build too. I keep postponing it since I'm afraid that it will mess things up again x)
Page 1 of 3
Back to top