Hello all! I started getting this message followed by my computer crashing after installing and trying to play The Sims 3: "The ati2dvag display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot the system to restore full display functionality. The next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be displayed giving you a chance to upload data about this failure to Microsoft." Does anybody know how I can resolve this issue? I'd really love to play the game, but it's crashed about 5 times and I cant seem to play it for a long duration (I dont know if it's the same or similar to the 20 minute crash that people are experiencing). Do I need a new or better graphics card or will it be resolved by removing the hardware and reinstalling it? My current graphics card is the radeon x600 256MB hypermemory. Please help if you know what I can do!!!

Hi, I have the exact same problem! It crashes after just 5 minutes and I have to restart the computer, and it just happens again! I am so disappointed because I was really looking forward to playing the Sims 3 but it just wont work! Can any one help us?!!?

I'm also having the same problem. Typical crappy Sims stuff. Wouldn't it be nice to just be able to install a Sims game and have it actually work the first time? They need to add a line in the requirements section: In order to use this game, you must be a desktop engineer...have fun! Very frustrated....can anyone help????

keely2939 and IHateMyPC (love the name by the way!), I resolved the issue by myself! I read some suggestions on other websites as to how to fix it, I saw a little add on the side of one website about updating drivers for my card (that's about 3 years old). Anyhow, looks like it worked! Go to this site: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo... Select your operating system (mine is WIndows XP Media center). In the next coloumn to the right, select the category your graphics card falls under (mine is Radeon, your's will probably be too since we have the same message) and in the final coloumn on the very right, select what your graphics card is (mine is the Radeon X600) then press GO. This is the site you end up at: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo... Scroll right down to "Option one - full software suite" and download the "Catalyst Software Suite". Run and install it, it'll update your drivers, I think it requires a restart and then try your game out! I hope this fixes the problem for you guys... let me know and I hope you can get to enjoying the awesome game soon! I <3 The Sims!!!!

Thanks Cel85.... I'm running the game on a Dell, with a Radeon x600, 256MB card. This machine exceeds all the requirements....hopefully this will do the trick. Thanks!

Nope....still a no go. Can't stand this. I've installed the Catalyst Control Center, updated my drivers, decreased hardware acceleration to 'basic'...I don't know what else do to...well...yes I do...bring the game back! HELP!!!!!

I'm sorry that didnt work for you! It sounds like you and I have the same graphics card. My game still crashes every now and again but it doesnt give me that original message about the ati2dvag not working. Is that what you're still getting? I found this post on The Sims 3 forum about "Windowed Mode": There are a number of you reporting that your game is going to a “black screen” and crashing or freezing. We are looking into this issue and trying to find patterns to figure out what might be happening here. We don’t have a good fix for you at this time but there have been some cases where players seem to avoid these “black screen” problems if they switch their game into Windowed mode. If you are experiencing any “black screen” problem, you could try these steps. For PC Users Open your game: 1. Enter the Options… Panel. (The “…” button) 2. Go to the “Graphics” Tab. 3. Uncheck the “Enable Fullscreen Mode” button. 4. Click the check mark to apply your changes. When in Windowed mode you can still adjust your game resolution so you can make the window bigger or smaller as you choose. The resolution can be changed in the same Graphics Tab. PC Users If you can’t start up your game and only see a black screen here are other tips: - Try pressing(Alt+Enter) as soon as the game starts. That should switch your game into windowed mode. - If Alt+Enter doesn't seem to do anything, you can edit the options.ini file. You will find it in My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\. When you find the Options.ini file, open it with notepad or wordpad and change the line "fullscreen = 1" to "fullscreen = 0". Then save the file. This will force your game to start in windowed mode. Mac Users You can press Command-Return to toggle in and out of full-screen. Again – This doesn’t “fix” the black screen problem but there is a chance it might help some of you so it’s worth a shot. - Lyndsay PS. I mistakenly labeled the above steps as PC and Mac. I updated with the appropriate information for Macs. Sorry for any confusion. Maybe you could try that for now?