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chicklet2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 3, 2009
5
0
I purchased and downloaded Sims 3 yesterday and had no problems with installation. Now when I am trying to play game it will just shut down with no warning. It gives no error messages or anything. It seems to happen after 20-30 minutes give or take. Any ideas?????
 

jakeguy99

macrumors regular
Jan 21, 2007
201
1
I purchased and downloaded Sims 3 yesterday and had no problems with installation. Now when I am trying to play game it will just shut down with no warning. It gives no error messages or anything. It seems to happen after 20-30 minutes give or take. Any ideas?????

Post your computer specs please.
 

chicklet2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 3, 2009
5
0
I hope this is what you asked for. If not could you please tell me where to find.

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.29f1
 

Luigi239

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2007
529
0
I had the same problem with my Macbook, but running on Windows Vista.

I switched to the Mac version, and all seems to be ok though. My computer just downloaded a patch for it, so try clicking "check for updates" on the launcher.
 

jakeguy99

macrumors regular
Jan 21, 2007
201
1
K ideally id like to know your video card, but from there it looks as if you should be able to run the game fine.

First thing I would do is go to Applications>Disk Utility. Here you will repair disk permissions/check if repairs are needed. Once this has completed, restart then try your game.

Second thing to do if this fails is to reinstall the game and make sure you install it into your applications folder. Search for the game before you do this on your hard drive to make sure you completely erase all files.

Let me know if you have any questions and the result of this.
 

MacFanJeff

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
220
3
IL, USA
I hope this is what you asked for. If not could you please tell me where to find.

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.29f1

One last thing to check is make sure you have Leopard 10.5.7 installed. The specs in the "readme" say it is a requirement. Otherwise may be video card as some have said. The CPU is fine, but the lowest spec they can use with it on the readme I think it said.
 

chicklet2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 3, 2009
5
0
Disk repair

JakeGuy. Is this my Video card you were asking about. I am trying the disk utility now and if that does nothing I will reinstall. when I go to my finder and go to Applications the Sims folder is there, thats where it is supposed to be right? I was just trying the game again and the same thing happened.
Another question if I can. I have a Bose surround sound speakers, they will not work properly with Sims either. It comes through all garbled and staticky. So I just switch it over to computer sound. What do you think that is? I appreciate your help.

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9583
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.259
Displays:
iMac:
Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected
 

jakeguy99

macrumors regular
Jan 21, 2007
201
1
Yeah, so you should be able to run it. I would make sure you have 10.5.7 for OSX. Try and reinstall if nothing else works. Finally last but not least if nothing else is working I would contact EA support, they should be able to help.
 

chicklet2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 3, 2009
5
0
Update

I do have 10.5.7. I did the disk repair and there was a list of things it repaired, so maybe that was it. I think I will reinstall it anyway to try and start with fresh. hopefully that will work. Thanks again for the advice.
 

charliex5

macrumors regular
Jun 27, 2008
181
0
Seattle, WA
My wife was running it on her MacBook Pro and it kept getting REALLY hot and crashing. She turned down a bunch of the graphics options and while its still running pretty hot it hasn't crashed since yesterday. Just my 2 cents...
 

ELMI0001

macrumors 6502
Jan 5, 2009
375
10
Olympic Hills GC
My wife was running it on her MacBook Pro and it kept getting REALLY hot and crashing. She turned down a bunch of the graphics options and while its still running pretty hot it hasn't crashed since yesterday. Just my 2 cents...

Have you tried smcFan Control while playing the game? Might not get too hot then?

I've used it and it works well - the noise of the fan running is more tolerable than a game crashing or the hot laptop
 

Shrapnel

macrumors newbie
Jul 25, 2002
27
0
Time Machine?

My wife's game has died on our late '07 iMac for the first two nights she played. I looked through all of the logs and it seems that a Time Machine backup was starting at almost the exact same moment, so I'm wondering if it's related. Maybe check your logs to see if something similar is going on. This Mac backs up to a Time Capsule as well. I've disabled the Time Machine backups for now, we'll see if she can play the game without error.

Initial observations anyway...

-Shrapnel
 

MacFanJeff

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
220
3
IL, USA
My wife's game has died on our late '07 iMac for the first two nights she played. I looked through all of the logs and it seems that a Time Machine backup was starting at almost the exact same moment, so I'm wondering if it's related. Maybe check your logs to see if something similar is going on. This Mac backs up to a Time Capsule as well. I've disabled the Time Machine backups for now, we'll see if she can play the game without error.

Initial observations anyway...

-Shrapnel

While it may or may not be the problem you are seeing, it certainly does not hurt to turn off Time Machine during play. You have to remember that gaming on the Mac is just like a PC and games have always stated to disable any major background tasks like backups, virus scanners, etc. during play to avoid issues. Hopefully that will fix your problems too.
 

Shrapnel

macrumors newbie
Jul 25, 2002
27
0
While it may or may not be the problem you are seeing, it certainly does not hurt to turn off Time Machine during play. You have to remember that gaming on the Mac is just like a PC and games have always stated to disable any major background tasks like backups, virus scanners, etc. during play to avoid issues. Hopefully that will fix your problems too.

No offense, but I'm quite well aware of how computers and Mac's work. I've been PC gaming for so long, I remember the good old days of having to customize your config.sys and autoexec.bat just so that you could play a DOS game with your mouse AND sound card at the same time! Ah, I'm not sad those days are past.

I understand incompatibilities (aka bugs), but the last time I actually had to change anything on a system was when running C&C:Generals on XP which didn't like any AV or firewall usually. Again, though that was an EA game that I believe came with more bonus features (aka more bugs). Great game, but the network code was horrendous.

I haven't had to disable Time Machine for UT2k4, C&C3, World of Goo, etc on the Mac. This seems like a bug...
 

SkottDMD

macrumors 6502
Sep 20, 2007
268
3
Canada
I've been having the same issues, I've noticed it crashes without fail immediately after Time Machine finishes an hourly backup (every crash has been at 21 after the hour, one minute after the last time machine backup). I keep forgetting to turn off Time Machine once I start playing but I will make sure to check if it's a coincidence (doubt it) or if it makes a difference. Either way, hopefully something can be be fixed down the line.
 

Silverbird0000

macrumors 6502a
Sep 19, 2006
582
22
Fort Myers, FL
Mine keeps crashing with no warning as well. I'm running it on a MacBook Pro early 2008. It runs perfect until it crashes for now reason, and it never runs for more than an hour. I'm thinking it might be time machine aswell. Mine finished a backup a 24 min after the hour, and at 25 min, Sims 3 crashed. I'm reinstalling now, and turned time machine off. I'll update if I have any success!
 

skington

macrumors newbie
Jun 6, 2009
2
0
Looking at the logs, the last couple of time The Sims 3 has crashed, it quit immediately after Time Machine ejected the remote Time Capsule volume. And it quit immediately, without any spinning pinwheel or crash report. I was running a cracked version of The Sims 3 previously, and didn't have this problem, which suggests that the code that checks for the presence of the Sims 3 DVD is being overzealous and deciding that it needs to quit the game when any volume is ejected.

I will turn Time Machine off and see if this lets me play for any serious period of time.
 

SkottDMD

macrumors 6502
Sep 20, 2007
268
3
Canada
Just played for a decent period of time (about an hour) with no crashes while Time Machine was off. Since we all seem to have the same issue I think it's safe to say Time Machine is the issue with the crashes. Is this something that a simple patch would fix down the line?
 

skington

macrumors newbie
Jun 6, 2009
2
0
Just to confirm that turning off Time Machine seems to avoid intermittent game quits.
 

Silverbird0000

macrumors 6502a
Sep 19, 2006
582
22
Fort Myers, FL
Mine keeps crashing with no warning as well. I'm running it on a MacBook Pro early 2008. It runs perfect until it crashes for now reason, and it never runs for more than an hour. I'm thinking it might be time machine aswell. Mine finished a backup a 24 min after the hour, and at 25 min, Sims 3 crashed. I'm reinstalling now, and turned time machine off. I'll update if I have any success!

UPDATE: Since turning off Time Machine, I have not had a crash. I played for more than two hours without a crash, that's the longest it's gone.
 

iMacSter

macrumors newbie
Apr 8, 2009
3
0
Sims 3 is crashing on my MacBookPro Aluminum too... Firstly crashed after 2 hours of gaming. Uninstalled-reinstalled, deleted all files from computer and now it crashes on sim creation tab!!! Time machine is disabled but anyway is not normal to compromise your pc's functions just to play a game.

EA keeps us in the dark!
I demand a refund!! Noone pays me $50 if my product is crappy!!
 

scan

macrumors 6502
Oct 24, 2005
344
0
I have an 15" Unibody, 2.4ghz, 4gb ram, and this game crashes when I play in bootcamp because of heat, I believe.
 

Familytechfixer

macrumors newbie
Jun 10, 2009
1
0
Was crashing every 30-60 mins. All available updates were downloaded, all settings were at medium - both recommendations I've seen elsewhere. Now I've turned off Time Machine and the game hasn't crashed since after several hours.

20in iMac 2.66GHz 2GB 320GB HD
 
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