Halpidy...

I've been having some graphics issues lately, after updating my graphic drivers to latest, the drivers have been crashing randomly and popping up some notify about graphic drivers crashing and recovering. I knew after this already that i would need to reinstall the drivers completely from zero, but never got to it - being stubborn and all. So today, when I was CAWing, I had just made some cool things on the world I have been working on, and decided it would be a good idea to save the process - in CAW. So I hit save, it went on normally, and then BOOM the drivers crashed so good that it caused a BSOD.

So I reinstalled the graphic drivers completely, had a load of hassle on the process cause the thing that sniffs new devices kept trying to install the first ever drivers for the card, until I blocked it fully to jump straight to the latest. So now my graphics seem to work, but when I load my latest save on CAW, it gives me error pop up:
Error in XML document (0, 0).
(direct translation, the error is same on english CAW too cause my system is finnish)

The world seems fine, it loads after that error, but I'm terrified to work on it cause I don't know if there is an issue that lies deeper than what I can see. And my darned backup refuses to open. It's been long since I've had to recover CAW files from a backup though, so I might be doing it wrong :P

So, any advice on what to do?

This probably means that one of the xmls in the user data is corrupted- the most likely culprit being wbbrush.xml in Documents \Electronic Arts \The Sims 3 Create A World Tool \UserToolData \UserBrushes. If not that one, then perhaps Sims3Logs.xml in the Sims 3 user files. Try deleting those to see if it makes a difference. The wbbrush.xml contains your custom brushes, so you may have to redo those, but nothing too major.

I wouldn't have thought you'd be getting that error if the problem was with the world file, unless you have imported an xml into it.

For the backups, you should be able to just browse to them and load- no further action needed.

I think you should be able to pinpoint which of the xml is at fault
- remove CAW user files
- remove Sims 3 user files
- open the CAW world file in S3PE Apologies if you had done the above already, I didn't see it mentioned...

I've had that graphics drivers crashing and recovering - on my Nvidia card. What brand (+ model) is yours?
There's a workaround, if you have older drivers. I didn't have to do the workaround for the last 2 updates, however, I thought they had finally got that issue cleared up. But if you have AMD, then maybe the issue is spreading, like a virus.

The BSOD pinpointed the graphics drivers then? It is not something else happening, coincidentally?

The crash happened while saving, so does CAW save those brushes and stuff every time it saves a world? I'll give deleting them a go though, can always backup my brushes
I have not imported any xml's to my world file - just img's.
And for the backups, that's what I tried, and it said something about being unable to load the world - so I tried moving the backups to the CAW worlds main folder, got a different error I can't recall now. So my backups don't like me :P

The first few lines - how does that help me pinpoint which file is the issue, sorry, going just a wee bit over my head.
My card is Nvidia geforce GT330 with 2+2GB RAM and now with clean-installed latest drivers.
And yes, BSOD said the issue was the graphic drivers - and they had been giving me issues - I hope that that part is now solved with the clean install, but who knows :P


I'll give both of your suggestions a go. Just a thought - it's nothing to do with water planes, is it? I kinda figured those 0,0 would be some sort of coordinates The world is made in both normal CAW + new super CAW which I made the water planes in.


ETA
Ok, I cut out those xml's simsample suggested - no help, still getting same issue. I also looked into my world file in S3PE and there were no xml's. Good? Bad?
I also tested opening various worlds in both normal CAW, and the super CAW, and the only world giving the issue is my latest, which I can't open earlier backups from. Any other world opens just fine :/

ETA 2
I -can- open an age old backup, but had done so much work for the later files. Do you think it would be safe to bin the lots from the latest, as I -can- open it, it just gives that error the thread is about? Or will doing that just corrupt any save those lots are put in?
The error some of my backups in between are giving, is something like "unable to load packed file (0)..." I read that that means the save is corrupt?

Last edited by armiel : 29th Feb 2012 at 03:04 PM.

The first 2 lines are instructions in the CAW troubleshooting thread - titled "CAW not loading, CAW not something something" - well, to isolate if the issue is in the Sims 3 user files or CAW user files or if cannot even be opened in S3PE means it is that CAW file. Is it only this CAW file (that was being saved when PC BSOD'd) that cause a crash or any other CAW file in the \UserToolData\Worlds also crash now?

I'll go hunt down that workaround I followed at the Nvidia forums for you...

[eta]
Didn't have to go far, suddenly recalled I had answered this question right here in our forums before - http://my.modthesims.info/showpost....491&postcount=8
It basically advise to change the Power Mgmt Mode in Nvidia Control panel to "Max Performance".

Last edited by ellacharm3d : 29th Feb 2012 at 03:50 PM. Reason: added link

The packed file error means that there is at least one resource damaged or missing; so perhaps there's been some problem with the world that's only manifesting itself now. I wouldn't have thought it's the water planes, although you should be aware of this:
http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=468279&page=3
Post #133 onwards. You could easily determine if those are the guilty resources by just deleting them:
UNKN 0x707CA200 (as many as you have water planes)
UNKN 0x90624C1B (only one)
And then trying to save your world.

The only way to know whether your current lots are safe to import to an old backup is to test it; at the moment we don't know where the problem lies, although you've determined it is a problem with one specific world.

Did you test with the CAW caches and local work folders removed? Remember that CAW generates world caches specific to one particular world; and those are very susceptible to corruption if the program crashes.

I've had problems with the 295.xx drivers too- although not with Sims. But I found it was causing the CUDA device to fail when the monitor is in sleep mode, thus causing my BOINC work units to fail!

Just this world that was saving while it BSOD'd, and it's 3 latest backups for some reason (which give the unable to open packaged file error). I can restore from about week older, but there is a lot of data lost if I do that.

Good luck hunting and thanks


ETA
Simsample, I did not see your reply yesterday, I must have been writing mine at the same time, and then your post never came up, until this morning. My browser is a cache hog, so it hides new stuff from me at times. :P
Yep, I've read that thread and it's why I thought the waterplanes might be the blame. But I have not tested that part yet, am in the middle of the hassle of testing without all the user files. (Never cut and paste your work! Eek, nearly lost all my worlds cause the computer didn't realize how to copy them back to original location when removing the user files did not help)
About the lots, at the time you see this, you have prolly already seen the PM I sent you. You can disregard it if you'd like, I can try binning them.
Will try deleting the waterplanes once the worlds have been moved back where they belong. About 40GB of CAW files takes a little while to overwrite. I -never- let it overwrite the backups when saving :P

ETA 2
Deleting the waterplanes (all the resources, waterplane unkn's and the other unkn) made CAW unable to load the world at all.

Last edited by armiel : 1st Mar 2012 at 07:17 AM.

Just to add I tested armiel's world and was able to open it without the xml error if I removed the 'settings' file. So I guess that got corrupted when CAW crashed, as that one is written to as CAW closes (it just specifies the last active layer, and is not important or necessary).

So hopefully armiel will be able to do the same and recover the world!

I couldn't open the backups though, so we will need to find out why that is happening!

Ooooooooooh!

I never knew that file was not important! I always just kinda assumed it was. No more error! Whee *snuggles Simsample*

Yep, I can continue my work now, with nothing lost! Big thank you for all of you for you time on solving my stupid issue. What comes to the backups - I'd just say they got corrupted somehow. But I'm able to open the world now without errors, and saved over a new name too, and can load that without errors. So I'm happy. :D

Hopefully this thread is still useful if someone else gets unlucky with crashing graphics while saving CAW :P


ETA
Ella, did you find the Nvidia work around thingy you were looking for? It might still be useful to have available

I'm glad it worked, armiel!

Until you are sure your backups are working, I would definitely make a manual copy each time you shut down CAW though. I've never seen a world file full of empty resources before, so that's most likely an error in writing the file rather than corruption after it was written.

I edited my post above while you were posting, I suppose. The link is up there. But I provided the workaround itself (tweaking the Power Mgmt Mode setting), so you don't have to read all those posts in Nvidia forums.

But if it does not work on your hardware, you're on your own. In terms of reading all those threads, I mean. It would still be a good idea to read them anyway, since there may be some quirks on your specific model not apparent on my GTX 460 model.

Thanks Ella - I had missed it :P

With your link I was able to find this thread with multiple solutions for the said crash. Testing a few myself now, and will see if CAW starts acting nicer.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...2b-8c7d10e67241


ETA
After fiddling with the stuffs I gave my CAW a stress test by Finn - planted a shitton of different trees around, put in a few lots with detailed housing, painted terrain really colorful, and then just did everything i don't normally do: Spinned around in caw, made fast zooms to items, basically was really hasty, and tried to do as much as possibly could, to see if I could make it crash. I did manage to cause heaps of lag peaks, but no crashing! (I'm fairly sure it would have crashed if it was about to)

So what I did
I had already done the clean install of the latest drivers
I edited the registry with the instructions on the thread I linked to
I also made CAW it's own 3D settings in the nvidia control panel - more performance, mediocre quality (which I saw no effect on really in CAW, everything was pretty still)
And finally, as an experimentalist, I gave CAW a higher priority in the processes.

I suppose time will show if all this really had an effect, but the stress test was successful and gives me hope for safer CAWing.

Last edited by armiel : 5th Mar 2012 at 03:07 PM.

The registry tweak just basically turn off the Timeout Detection and Recovery + error notifications? But what is the purpose of TDR checks in the first place? The msdn page that explains TDR looks familiar, but I need to reread. Hmmm...something to consider. Forcing max performance 100% of the time vs disable a Micro$oft "feature"? System is not overheating, so max performance on problematic Sims & CAW would have to do.

Food for thought plus another method to solve the issue, in any case. Thanks for sharing that link!