Computer Freezes and Sound Loops (SimCity)

[eliw00d]

Sometimes, while playing SimCity, my computer freezes and begins looping the last sound. At that point, all I can do is perform a hard reset. It happens at seemingly random points in the game. I have asked EA tech support, but was hoping someone here might know the answer to the following question: is this a hardware issue? If so, what could it be?

I have never had any freezing or sound looping for the lifetime of this computer until SimCity. I have also updated all of my drivers. I play much more graphically intense games for hours at a time without any issue, so I'm quite puzzled as to how SimCity is having these kinds of issues. To make things even more confusing, I built the exact same PC for my brother and he is not having these freezing/looping issues with SimCity.

Any ideas?

[FriendlyFire]

Could be a RAM issue. RAM is always my first guess when things go oddly wrong, but in ways that can't easily be tracked down. Grab a copy of memtest86 and make a full scan. It's never a bad idea anyway.

[eliw00d]

I finally had a chance to try Memtest+ and ran it overnight. It passed all tests with no errors.

What else could it be? Overheating of the CPU or GPU?

I've been running some CPU and GPU burn tests and they come back saying stable. It only happens with SimCity, which just further adds to the complexity of troubleshooting this. :/

[FriendlyFire]

If it really is just SimCity, then it could very well be a bug with the game. I'd suggest looking at the SimCity support forums, in case others have been experiencing the same issue.

[eliw00d]

Yeah, I've been doing that, as well. EA Tech Support isn't of much help, though.

[Pook]

Sounds like software or a disk error if it's not memory.
Check all your windows .dll's by opening up comand prompt and issuing the command sfc /scannow. Keep in mind this command will only check WINDOWS dll's, it will not error-check EA, Maxis, driver, or anyone else's .dlls.
There's also a plethora of HDD diagnostic utilities out there (likely for free) you just have to find 'em. I'm lazy and just use a Hirens Disc.

After reading this thread on the EA forums, Occam's razor suggests it's a Maxis problem. While you and your brother's computers may be identical the registry etc may not be and it could be causing this bug.

You should turn on your BSOD and write down an error code for us when it does happens. There is also a core dump file somewhere in Windows (it's been awhile since I've done IT work) wherein lives a happy little list of crash error codes. Use the core dump if you can't write down the error code.

[eliw00d]

Strangely enough, it seems to have stopped happening. Hopefully, I didn't just jinx it, but I did nothing different from when it was happening to when it stopped.

I appreciate the advice, though. If it does start happening again, I will definitely give those a try.