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The Sims 3 Freezes every 5 seconds for a few seconds

I'm surprised that I'm experiencing this issue.
The Sims 3 Freezes every 5 seconds for a few seconds and to me, I find playing it difficult now.
More worse than a buffing internet video.
I've had Windows 10 Pro for a couple of years,, The Sims 3 installed via. Steam for many years and recently passed over and installed
via. Origin for a number of weeks and had no problem. It ran smoothly and all EPs worked like clock-work.
Then suddenly, a day comes when I get this. Freezing every 5 seconds, which lasts for 7 to 10 seconds long.
This sort of problem, if not resolved, could result in me losing interest in The Sims 3 and dis-regarding it, altogether.
Clearing the game CACHE hasn't resolved the issue NOR has the "reset Sim first last name" cheat.
I now need a third and working solution.
As I do not want to kiss this TS3 goodbye.
But who want a game that freezes all the time ?
Any help, I would be very grateful.
Thanks.

Comments

  • ChelleJoChelleJo Posts: 7,087 Member
    Does the freezing occur with every game save, even a new game started fresh? If you haven't tried a new save, I'd start a new game and see if the freezing continues.

    If it's only this save, while in your save/game that is giving you issues, try typing in the cheat: resetsim *

    Or if you have Nraas MasterController (which would be better) try to reset everything with it. I literally just woke up, so I hope I give the right path, but it's (clicking on a computer or city hall) Nraas-> Mastercontroller -> Town -> Reset Everything. This offers a better reset and I highly recommend this mod (as well as Overwatch and Errortrap to help with this kind of issues).

    If that doesn't work, you might try pulling your Sims 3 folder in documents to your desktop and starting the game. Start a new game (you won't have your saves, sims, or store or CC, but it's safely back on your desktop in your folder) and see if the freezing continues.

    If that doesn't work, you might need to post a dxdiag here and some of our more tech knowledgeable simmers can help with that. Here's a link to help you get a dxdiag ( https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/ ) and just post it here. It'll take several posts to get it all, but they will need it all, so they can see if drivers or anything else needs updating.
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  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    I agree that we should see a dxdiag here and also with the suggestion of seeing how a new game plays for a bit, but I also have to ask which world(s) are you playing in?
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  • ginger170ginger170 Posts: 148 Member
    I was going to send my Sim to University as soon as his skills were high enough, and then I encounter the freezing problem. I just wonder if I move The Sims 3 back to Steam, where it started from, before I moved it to Origin. There I had no problems. Anyway, I hope that I resolve this problem. You have been great helping me out with that information. Although, I would hate to have to dis-regard TS3.
    Besides The Sims 2, it's got the best Expansion Packs and Stuff Packs.

    Now, TS3 has been working lovely for years on my Windows 10 computer,, what confuses me is why
    suddenly am I experiencing the Freezes ???
    Problems that make no sense to me, can result in dis-regarding, if not solved.
    I really hope that one of your solutions work and thanks ever so much.
    @igazor and @ChelleJo
  • SchweighsrSchweighsr Posts: 3,342 Member
    Do you have any peripherals plugged in to your computer when you play? I'm talking about a tablet, thumb-drive, MP3 player, iPod, etc. Windows will check with those devices periodically (it is every minute for me, but I'm on Win 7) which will cause the game to freeze. The solution is to unplug everything when you play.

    Hope this helps.
  • Bily_jednorozecBily_jednorozec Posts: 1,574 Member
    edited November 2016
    Hi, @ginger170 :) Also I haven't Win 10, but as I've understood, you have problems when connected on I-net. Have you disabled distribution of Yours bandwith for another PC's?
    http://www.globaltruth.net/sadly-windows-10-is-stealing-your-bandwidth-by-default-disable-it-immediately/
    http://www.networkworld.com/article/2956795/windows/microsoft-windows-10-updates-stealing-bandwidth.html
    and on Google search you might find bunch of another search results for keywords "windows 10 steals bandwidth 2016"
    On my Win7 PC is my internet connection slowing down The Sims 3, but I haven't to share it with stranger PC's.
    "My Studio" on thesims3.com "My Blog" on thesims3.com
    Sorry for editing my comments frequently, in most cases I'm doing this due language issues (english isn't my native language, but I'm using english, because most used by people, with who I want to communicate).
  • ginger170ginger170 Posts: 148 Member
    Schweighsr wrote: »
    Do you have any peripherals plugged in to your computer when you play? I'm talking about a tablet, thumb-drive, MP3 player, iPod, etc. Windows will check with those devices periodically (it is every minute for me, but I'm on Win 7) which will cause the game to freeze. The solution is to unplug everything when you play.

    Hope this helps.

    I've not been online, logged in for a number of months and noticed your comment.
    Thanks. That actually makes sense.
    I would have never have thought about it.
    Maybe I'll install "The Sims 3" via, "Steam" or "Origin" and unplug all unnecessary things and
    test run the game.
  • CarmenlpbCarmenlpb Posts: 2 New Member
    this use to happen to my game a lot, it still happens but not as often. I just deleted all of my saved games, uninstalled some expansion packs and stopped using cc and it started getting better. If you have a pretty good computer then you shouldn't have to uninstall expansion packs. Just try deleting some games and hopefully it will work
  • mzabsmzabs Posts: 76 Member
    I'm sorry to butt in but I can't find any way to post since I'm a new member. Can anyone help me with my launcher? It crashes when I look at Installed Content.
    www.youtube.com/m3wlissa
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited July 2017
    Carmenlpb wrote: »
    this use to happen to my game a lot, it still happens but not as often. I just deleted all of my saved games, uninstalled some expansion packs and stopped using cc and it started getting better. If you have a pretty good computer then you shouldn't have to uninstall expansion packs. Just try deleting some games and hopefully it will work
    The presence of saved games not being played is not going to have the impact described here. Only the actively being played game (or attempted one) really gets loaded up once it's selected. As for EPs and added content, we really need to learn more about a player's system before we can advise how heavy a load it can carry or if something needs to be adjusted. Many of us with less than what one would call a spiffy gaming computer by 2017 standards can successfully carry all of the EPs and a healthy dose of CC, but the environment in which it's all running needs to be strong enough to support it all.

    mzabs wrote: »
    I'm sorry to butt in but I can't find any way to post since I'm a new member. Can anyone help me with my launcher? It crashes when I look at Installed Content.
    That suggests that you have one or more "bad" items installed that the Launcher cannot handle displaying. You may have to declare your most recently created or added to dbc file in the DC Cache Folder a loss, and see if things behave better with that one removed. If not, in more extreme cases you may have to dump all of your dbc files (thus no Launcher installed custom content at all) or your entire game folder and set up a new collection of content. Note that ebc files are different, these are installed EA Store content, and far less likely to be causing the problem.
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  • mzabsmzabs Posts: 76 Member
    Thanks @igazor ! I had about 7 files that had been installed today, and deleting the dbc's did the trick! Thank you again! <3
    www.youtube.com/m3wlissa
  • JoshuaSims0JoshuaSims0 Posts: 207 Member
    Restart it or restart any cc.
  • PatchouliNittPatchouliNitt Posts: 78 Member
    Carmenlpb wrote: »
    this use to happen to my game a lot, it still happens but not as often. I just deleted all of my saved games, uninstalled some expansion packs and stopped using cc and it started getting better. If you have a pretty good computer then you shouldn't have to uninstall expansion packs. Just try deleting some games and hopefully it will work
    I don't pay much attention to what item belongs to what expansion pack, so if I uninstall an expansion pack and I happened to have used an object from that expansion pack, will my saved game not load or crash?
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    Check out my simlit here: Chronicles of Patchouli's Sims
  • Strazak666Strazak666 Posts: 5 New Member
    Hi there guys. I have that same problem and I am surprised by that (Mass Effect Andromeda running on Ultra).
    My specs:

    Intel I5-4400
    SSD Crusial MX300
    16GB RAM
    Gforce GTX970
    Win 10

    It dose not matter what world I play after few hours game is unplayable, but only in life mode.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @Strazak666 - Hi there. Your graphics card is powerful enough to generate randomly high frame rates to the point where it could not only cause glitches and freeze-ups, but it could also burn itself out in the process. Unlike more modern games, TS3 does not have a built-in frame rate limiter. Have you taken steps to cap the fps rate for TS3 on your card and verified in-game using the "fps on" cheat code that it is staying under the refresh rate of your monitor? Usually that's 60 Hz (some run higher), so 60 fps would be the goal.
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  • Strazak666Strazak666 Posts: 5 New Member
    @igazor Game is doing 180-380 fps ;P How to put a limit on that?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited July 2017
    Strazak666 wrote: »
    @igazor Game is doing 180-380 fps ;P How to put a limit on that?
    Ah, that's not healthy and could be the problem (or part of it).

    The Nvidia Control Panel way:
    http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/15007970#Comment_15007970

    Make sure to use the right executable as indicated, it's TS3.exe for Patch 1.69 and TS3w.exe (with the"w") for 1.67 and below and check with the cheat code again to see if it's been successful.

    Note that vsync only works in full screen mode, not windowed and this method doesn't lock the fps rate in for everyone. If it doesn't work, or if you require limiting in windowed mode, the next tools to try would be Nvidia Inspector or RivaTuner Stats Server (RTSS), both are free downloads.
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  • Strazak666Strazak666 Posts: 5 New Member
    > @igazor said:
    > Strazak666 wrote: »
    >
    > @igazor Game is doing 180-380 fps ;P How to put a limit on that?
    >
    >
    >
    > Ah, that's not healthy and could be the problem (or part of it).
    >
    > The Nvidia Control Panel way:
    > http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/15007970#Comment_15007970
    >
    > Make sure to use the right executable as indicated, it's TS3.exe for Patch 1.69 and TS3w.exe (with the"w") for 1.67 and below and check with the cheat code again to see if it's been successful.
    >
    > Note that vsync only works in full screen mode, not windowed and this method doesn't lock the fps rate in for everyone. If it doesn't work, or if you require limiting in windowed mode, the next tools to try would be Nvidia Inspector or RivaTuner Stats Server (RTSS), both are free downloads.

    Locking via Nvidia Control Panel was successful, but this did not solve the problem. I'll try to run game trough 3booter and see how it is going after few hours of gameplay.
    I was reading Isla Paradiso is very unstable no matter what and My experience with this location is that same, any recommendation about good world to test stability?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    Oh sheesh yes, any world except Isla Paradiso. Unless you fix the world up or use a copy of it fixed up for you that world quickly becomes unplayable for (almost) anyone on any system. That's why I keep asking which world is being played when this kind of thing is reported (missed it on yours though).
    http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag

    Bridgeport would not be a great world for testing either for a couple of reasons, although not usually as bad as Isla P. Just about any other EA world should be fine, Sunset Valley, Twinbrook, and Riverview are probably the best when it comes to lack of overall routing issues.
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  • Strazak666Strazak666 Posts: 5 New Member
    @igazor do you think maybe re-instal of gam and dlc's in proper order could help?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited July 2017
    Strazak666 wrote: »
    @igazor do you think maybe re-instal of gam and dlc's in proper order could help?
    Actually, no. Strangely enough these issues are almost never resolved by a re-install. The game program files are what they are, they don't change throughout play at least not in any significant way. The section with moving parts that does change is the TS3 user game folder in Documents. If you were going to do any kind of complete reset, pulling that folder out to the Desktop for safekeeping thus forcing the game to create a new one on its next launch would be the way to go about it. Then you would have no added content at all, just the base game and EP/SP stuff, but it would all be safe in the pulled out folder should you want to re-introduce it to the game folder bit by bit.

    The install order of the EP/SPs makes no difference to TS3.

    None of this will make Isla Paradiso (or Bridgeport) work any better if that's the world you had been using or thinking of using for testing.

    Beyond that, and having ruled obvious hardware issues, here is our standard set of things to try to help improve the game's performance.
    http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Tips+For+Better+Game+Performance
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  • NashyGamesNashyGames Posts: 1 New Member
    okay i need help because i been playing sims 3 and had no issues whats so ever and i play the next day and i get lagg the game freezes every 2 seconds and i bought it off of steam and i dont know what to do i tried most of things i was able to some one please help me i dont want to go to waste
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    NashyGames wrote: »
    okay i need help because i been playing sims 3 and had no issues whats so ever and i play the next day and i get lagg the game freezes every 2 seconds and i bought it off of steam and i dont know what to do i tried most of things i was able to some one please help me i dont want to go to waste
    Do the first couple of responses on this thread not give you anything to work with? Which world(s) are you playing in, does a new game behave better than an ongoing save, and by way of a dxdiag, can we learn more about the computer you are playing on?
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  • Strazak666Strazak666 Posts: 5 New Member
    @igazor So 3booter is not working with Origin version of game ;P I'm used Overwatch, Error Trap, Master controller and Saver. Experience is still not smooth but I don't think it can be.
    Most important thing is that I don't have any freezes like for now.
    Thank You for your help and assistant.
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