A game crash is an error that causes the game to stop working and shut down. Crashes generally show an error message, and after closing it the game quits and the player will return to Windows, Mac OS 9/X, or the main menu of an eighth or later generation console.
Causes of crashes
There are many possible ways that the game can crash. Some glitches can cause the game to crash or freeze when used or encountered.
Custom content that is not from EA (IE, ModTheSims, Simmergirl, etc.) can cause issues if they are incompatible, even Maxis[TS][TS2]/EA[TS3] content can have issues. Graphical errors and crashes may result from running mods for the incorrect version of the game. As of The Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff, players are advised to disable custom content when they install an update or a new version of The Sims 3. The Sims 4 automatically turns off mods and custom content when a new update is installed.
Loading content saved in a later version may cause an older game to crash. For example, content made in a The Sims 2: Seasons game can crash a The Sims 2: Pets game. Likewise, lots made in The Sims 3: Generations can crash The Sims 3: Late Night when placed.
If the game data is corrupt, either due to intentional damage using a program such as Erosion or by editing the files directly, or accidental damage from actions such as incorrectly installing mods to the game data folder, the game can crash due to errors caused by the corrupted data.
Due to The Sims 3 not having a frame limiter, the game can and usually will attempt to use 100% of the GPU power at all times. This can cause a game crash or the system to suddenly reboot due to the GPU overheating.
Types of crashes
There are multiple types of crashes. Traditional crashes are ones which show an error message that when closed causes the game to shut down.
Crash to desktop
A "crash to desktop" is a crash that makes the game suddenly close without an error message, named because a crash of this manner makes it seem as if the game suddenly booted the game to the desktop if run in fullscreen.
Game freeze
Game freezes are an alternate version of a crash in which the game permanently stops responding and never shuts down, requiring the user to manually shut it down.
In console versions prior to The Sims 4, the game usually freezes instead of crashing, where it shows the same picture infinitely. Usually when freezing, the sound will repeat infinitely until shut down, but some games go silent on a freeze. For example, in The Urbz: Sims in the City, the game will repeat a sound when it freezes. The game may freeze if the optical disc is removed in PS2 games, and in GBA/DS/3DS games, the game will freeze or show an error message if the Game Pak/Card is removed from the slot. The game may also freeze if the disc is dirty, scratched, cracked, or otherwise physically damaged on optical disc consoles, as the console may read corrupt data or lock up as it fails constantly to read unreadable data. However, when the game is installed on Xbox 360, or on newer home consoles with required installs, the disc being damaged is generally not a factor as it instead reads from the hard disk.
Some glitches can cause game freezes, either always or sometimes. In The Urbz: Sims in the City for DS, performing glitches such as the Gator glitch and traveling in a Time Machine with a Pet will freeze the game. In the DS version of The Sims 2, some users reported of the game randomly freezing.
Below is a table describing what happens when the Game Card is removed on the Nintendo DS games.
| Game | Behavior |
|---|---|
| The Urbz: Sims in the City | Game Freezes with a repeating sound. |
| The Sims 2 | The message "The DS Card has been removed." will appear. |
| The Sims 2 Pets | Game freezes and no sound will play. |
| The Sims 2 Castaway | Game freezes and graphics on the Touch Screen will be messed up. |
| The Sims 2 Apartment Pets | Game freezes and no sound will play. |
| The Sims 3 | Game freezes and no sound will play. |
Consoles
Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S game crashes are almost always CTD crashes (in this case crashing to the dashboard), not freezes, due to how the operating system works, although /the game may appear to freeze for a while before it closes.
When playing games on Xbox 360, crashes usually show a disc unreadable message. This message may actually show during some crashes that are in fact caused by game glitches present in the game code and are not a result of a damaged disc or disc read laser.
Crashes on PlayStation 4 and 5 will almost always show an error message from the OS, and never from the game itself.
Generally, other consoles will freeze instead of crashing with an error message or immediately to its dashboard menu.
The Sims
When The Sims crashes, it will usually display the operating system program error message such as "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." (Windows 95/98), "Sims has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." (Windows 2000/XP) or "Sims has stopped working" (Windows Vista or later)
The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories
Most of the time when The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories crashes, a generic "The application has crashed. The application will now terminate." message will be displayed, and clicking OK will usually close The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories. A log named "Sims2Exception yyyy.mm.dd hh.mm.ss" will be created as well after the crash.
The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval
No message is displayed when The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval crashes. The file "xcpt computer_name yy-mm-d hh-mm-ss.txt" will be created, although a program error message may show up in some cases, such as when a pre-made Sim in the Create-a-Sim menu depends on custom content that isn't present in the game.
In The Sims 3: Late Night at launch (Patch 6.0), the game would crash if the player places a new lot in Bridgeport, edits it and goes back to Edit Town. This was fixed in Patch 6.1 and in The Sims 3: Outdoor Living Stuff.
Placing a lot made in a later version or newer game can cause an older version of The Sims 3 to crash. For example, placing a lot made in Generations will crash Late Night if it does not have the Generations update.
When the Generations update was released, a user could encounter a random crash with a popup of some numbers and an option to debug it with the game transferring to a window, even if the user did not run in Windowed Mode. Clicking either option caused the game to crash and the user would go back to the desktop. This was fixed in the Town Life Stuff patch.
The game can softlock under various circumstances, for instance if the game fails to handle rapid changes to the Live Mode speed, or unexpected video driver resets. Trees will sway and certain scenic sounds will play, but the game becomes fully unresponsive to any clicks or key presses.
The Sims 4
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Similar to The Sims 3, no message is displayed when the game crashes. Instead a file is created showing crash info named "lastCrash_[numbers, find out what they mean].txt".