I know nobody's working on fixing issues on this game anymore, but ya think you guys would have at least fixed the bug where trying to save the game freezes in in "saving" and then deletes the save. Makes the game quite unplayable. Should be a felony as far as I'm concerned, as it is a broken and unuseable product. But that's just my opinion.
0
Comments
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
This.^ Saving with "Save As" really helped with my error 12s.
I make sure to have my laptop well ventilated to prevent overheating.
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
Sims 3 runs best on a PC and if you have 6 GB or more RAM, and you should never let the game use more than 3,5 GB RAM. The longer you play in a session the more RAM it will use. It the game uses between 3,5 and 3,7 GB RAM then you'll get Error 12 and the game won't save.
When I have played for a couple of hours I click Control+Alt+Delete to open the Task Manager, and in Processes I see how much RAM is used by the game.
I recommend that you use the NRaas Overwatch and Errortrap mods. They help with some bugs and errors in the game that can affect the RAM usage. For example, it stops the game from spawning tons of cars that accumulate in the inventories of sims in the world you play.
The arguably better approach, for one serious about still making this game work, would be to find out why the saves are unsuccessful and try to fix whatever is causing the issue whether it be hardware, added content, or something wrong with the ongoing game save itself.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
If you're interested in getting help with this particular save, people here can offer it, but some details would help. What world are you playing in, for how long, which packs do you have installed, do you use mods, etc.? If you have a strong graphics card, have you taken steps to limit your in-game frame rates? TS3's fps limiter doesn't work on its own.
Good tips! Always good to go through and clean out corrupted CC and such.
I just found some bad CC amongst my items and surprisingly removing them made my CAS load so much better.
For me "Save as" helps, might not help everyone.I usually "Save as" every 3 or 4 times I save.And usually exit my game after a couple hours, clear my cache and run it through a save cleaner.Tends to keep my game from getting overly bloated.
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
What you can do to revert back to the last good save is to merely move out the save if it doesn't load and delete .backup off the end of the file name in the save folder and see if that will load back to the last successful save point. If it loads, immediately use "save as" and give your save a slightly different name than it had before. Just using "save as" should help clean up your saves a bit and help you play them longer. (Though of course I recommend NRaas Overwatch to really clean up your files and give your games more longevity.)
If the backup retrieval does not work for you, you can always open a copy of the same world you had been playing (not the old save, but a new game start). Then save that new world save and exit the game. Copy over the .nhd file from the old save you had been playing before into the new world save you just created. Now, load the game and choose that new world save. Hopefully, you will find the sims and world as you had preserved them in your last successful save prior to the hang up.
Good luck!
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
I too play a big world and have 16 GB RAM and lots of drive space, but I can still get the Error 12 because Sims 3 is a 32-bit game and when it hits 3,5 - 3,7 GB RAM usage the came can't use more RAM to save correctly.
I recommend shorter game sessions and that you keep an eye on the game's RAM usage. If you have played that world for a long time, the save file itself maybe have become bloated with SNAP files (.png images that are created everytime you have a new sim in the household, everytime you have used CAS to change a sim's appearance, and so on). You can use Kuree's Save Cleaner to delete the SNAP files, so that the size of the save will shrink. Use version 2.2 for earlier Windows, and version 1 if you have Windows 10.
The last time I had Error 12 I checked the size of the save file, and it was over 800 MB! I used Save Cleaner and the save shrank down to ~300 MB, a 0,5 GB difference! The next time I played it took a couple of minutes for the game to generate the new sim-portraits, and I could save it with no problems.
Puzzlezaddict also had some good tips.
Good luck!
With 16 or more GB RAM it's usually no problem to use other RAM-heavy programs, as long as you have 4 GB free for Sims 3 to use. That's why I recommend having at least 6 GB RAM for Sims 3, so there's space for Windows and a browser (plus the smaller programs that are always running in the background).