As you can see, this is the most powerful computer Apple sells. My game was starting to lag thirty minutes into game play and then freeze. After three plays, it wouldn't authorize the disc. I tried a complete uninstall and reinstall at which point I couldn't do anything at all.
Bootcamp will not work. At least according to another SIms 3 forum I've been on. The person was having the exact same problem as us and she paid a lot of money to do Bootcamp- it didn't work and she was frustrated. I hate the fact for the game to be enjoyable, we have to use cheats or else it either won't be fun or it will not work
Bootcamp has worked for a lot of Mac simmers, see these two threads for examples:
It may not resolve all problems for all of us, but it has helped some. I'm going to try it myself, seeing as I have plenty of space to partition my hard drive and don't mind getting a copy of Windows, which I can use for work purposes anyway. Having read about the good experiences other Mac simmers on this forum have had with Bootcamp, I am hopeful that my game will play better than it does on my Mac currently.
I'm having a lot of the same problems - graphics glitches (especially in CAS), crashes, and error 12s.
Here are my specs:
mid 2009 iMac 27"
running 10.8.2
2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 processor
8 gb memory
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
Here are some pics of what I encounter in CAS: http://imgur.com/a/KwpIR
I bought Seasons after Christmas, and I have to say, never again will I buy a Sims EP without checking these forums for problems like this. It's ridiculous!
Having the same problems! Really frustrates me, specially because I just bought a new iMac with the highest specifications available. So the problem can't be 'my computer', like Microsoft-users on other forums tell me.
For me, it started with SN. The game didn't crash that much, but I couldn't do any interaction between my sims AT ALL, so I decided to uninstall it. It did crash when I was in CAS for too long though.
Now with seasons it got worse. It started to crash constantly. In crash, at random moments, while saving, right after saving,... I switched family (no different save, just another active family in the same town) and now things are starting to get a little bit better. But still I have crashes too often. Started to write down when they occured the most:
- changing the speed too much or pause too often
- using tab a lot to zoom/take pictures
- after a (quite a long) time in CAS
- after or while saving
Also, from previous towns I noticed that for some reason things go wrong when you use the in game world editor to make extra empty lots.
The only "solution" I know is to use the "save as" function a lot, like that you don't need to go back too far. And sometimes when it crashes while saving my game is ****** up afterwards, so you still have a few backups with the "save as".
Also, I try not to us tab or fast forward my game. Since I have stopped messing with the speed things are going better, but that also might be because I changed family around the same time.
I hope there is a patch soon. Saving a lot isn't the best solution since the game likes to crash while saving... :roll:
I want Supernaturals back so badly, but I'm scared I'll **** it up even more
Hello! I started experiencing my crashing problems after the patch that came before Seasons. It started in CAS (even now I'm afraid whenever I go into CAS of crashing) and then to regular gameplay.
My game will crash in CAS and switching speeds. I don't remember when else it crashes. Rarely it will quit out when I save (which is FRUSTRATING).
However, my game has gotten better. I found out my game will crash more if there's an update for OS Lion (which is what I run) that I haven't installed yet. I also do not play online anymore. I make sure not to spend a lot of time in CAS (which is a place where I know for sure that my game will crash). I also downloaded the more updated patch (that increased game time by a bit). Saving often also seems to help (isn't that odd?)
It's the third day that I am waiting for a reply from the support. Still no one's contacting me. I mean, how hard can it be to review the email history? EA, you are wasting my money and my time! For god's sake, where is our patch?
I just got an idea!
Today is the day of live broadcast, which means that they will read whatever we write in a minute. Maybe, if most of us will write comments about our issues, they will answer us? It's worth giving a shot.
Every time I open sims 3 seasons on mac, it keeps coming up with this pop-up box saying it has an issue or something and asks me if I would like to debug it, either way I press (yes or no) it still crashes and frustrates the hell out of me.
On a mac with mountain lion and the latest update-thingy.
This happens to me too, each time I go to CAS, it crashes in half a minute, sometimes it freezes and sometimes it just crashes.
The game takes maybe 30 minutes to load, but the most annoying is that I can't go into CAS, because then it crashes
EA should really do something with this, and what can i do in the meantime to actually stay in CAS without crashing?
NB: Sorry for my bad english, i come from Norway, but i try as hard i can.. Just correct me if something is wrong.
my crashing got worse since I installed supernatural, can't even make it past CAS
edit: what I am doing for now is trying to keep it quick and easy in CAS. And afterwards updating the sim little by little over "view in CAS". Luckily I have my game updated, think I'll remove Supernaturals again later this week.
Bootcamp will not work. At least according to another SIms 3 forum I've been on. The person was having the exact same problem as us and she paid a lot of money to do Bootcamp- it didn't work and she was frustrated. I hate the fact for the game to be enjoyable, we have to use cheats or else it either won't be fun or it will not work
Bootcamp has worked for a lot of Mac simmers, see these two threads for examples:
It may not resolve all problems for all of us, but it has helped some. I'm going to try it myself, seeing as I have plenty of space to partition my hard drive and don't mind getting a copy of Windows, which I can use for work purposes anyway. Having read about the good experiences other Mac simmers on this forum have had with Bootcamp, I am hopeful that my game will play better than it does on my Mac currently.
I was getting my hopes up for the second link- but that's from 2009. Searching for solutions on Google, it seems some PC gamers are having the same problem as more expansion packs are made. I don't know, it just might work- I'm going to try it myself as well because after today my Mac will have 24 RAM which more than enough to run Windows and Sims 3. But should you get Bootcamp before I do, notify us will you
Update: I might have an answer to the problem actually. First problem: Crashing under 10-15 minutes. To fix this, I had simply deleted the "Register" Mod from Nrass and it started working again but the Error Code 12 problem persisted. Just recently I had added 16 GB of RAM to my computer, and the results were... surprising. Now before I installed the RAM, I ran Sims 3 to see the difference, and SIms 3 before had a bit of lag here and there. So like 10 minutes had past and I had my RAM installed. I ran Sims 3 and it runs VERY smooth and there is no lag- the only lag there is, is the lag that last for like a millisecond. So adding RAM boosted up the speed significantly. As I am typing this, I have Sims 3 in minimize window, I have been playing the SIms 3 for like 30 minutes so far and I'm glad to say I am able to save. So far, there has been no crashes and no Error Code 12. I'll keep you posted. I have the iMac 27 inch (Mid 2011) - the $1699 kind, as well as 20GB of RAM right now. I checked on a website called Crucial, and it recommended that you should have at least 8 GB of RAM if you wanted to play games on the iMac.
Earlier in my posts, I heard someone mention that Bootcamp have been fixing a lot of problems. For example: it made Sims 3 go so much faster. I think I am experiencing Sims 3 going so much faster than it did with 4GB RAM. The reason why it might be going faster on Bootcamp is because in Windows, only 1 GB of RAM is required to play the Sims 3, and 2 GB of RAM is used to play Sims 3 on iMac. If you look in your DeviceLog file in your Documents/Electronic Arts- that will tell you how much RAM you are using when you play Sims 3. Before the RAM update, I was using 4GB of RAM and 4GB of RAM is all I had... with the computer doing so much swapping information to keep the game running might have lagged it a bit a long with other errors. I also just noticed that Sims 3 says "AT LEAST" 2GB of RAM is requires. That doesn't mean it'll run perfect. Because it is the minimum requirements. In Bootcamp, since it takes less RAM to run Sims 3, you have more RAM available. Also, this is just me connecting the pieces. But if your computer have 4GB of RAM total, then you do not always have 4 GB of RAM available if you check your Acivity Monitor- it's running things that might equal up to 1 GB, so that you are only using probably just 3 GB?
Perhaps you don't need to buy Bootcamp to play Sims 3. I suggest that people with 4GB of RAM upgrade their RAM to at least 8, (16 GB of RAM shouldn't hurt)... And if you have an iMac computer... DO NOT buy RAM from Apple- they are outrageously overpriced. It costs $320 for 8 GB of RAM, and I got 16 GB of RAM for $97... Google Crucial ram and buy it from their websites. I hope this solution works
Update: I notice that not many people are posting on this forum anymore- but just to update like I promised. The problem seemed to be fixed on MY computer. Ever since I installed the 16 GB RAM on my computer, (although only 8 GB of RAM is recommended), I have gotten no crashes and no Error Code 12... not so far anyway. I've been playing for about two hours perhaps. However, I did get a crash when I got into Create-A-Sim mode. The hair and clothes load up a lot quicker, but I still got a crash. Again, with the RAM installed, my game goes A LOT faster and load things better. I suggest anyone doing any type of gaming on the iMac to get 8 GB of RAM- not only for Sims 3, but for other programs you may want to run like multimedia or other games. It cost just $50 to get a 8 GB of RAM for the iMac- check on crucial website.
It's been over a month now and i've still not heard back from EA Support. The last I heard was that they were aware that the cider emulation is the issue and are looking into it.
DO NOT buy RAM from Apple- they are outrageously overpriced. It costs $320 for 8 GB of RAM, and I got 16 GB of RAM for $97... Google Crucial ram and buy it from their websites. I hope this solution works
I second this, don't buy from Apple over priced go with Crucial does the same job, but far much cheaper. I upgraded to 16GB for £55!
Update: I notice that not many people are posting on this forum anymore- but just to update like I promised. The problem seemed to be fixed on MY computer. Ever since I installed the 16 GB RAM on my computer, (although only 8 GB of RAM is recommended), I have gotten no crashes and no Error Code 12... not so far anyway. I've been playing for about two hours perhaps. However, I did get a crash when I got into Create-A-Sim mode. The hair and clothes load up a lot quicker, but I still got a crash. Again, with the RAM installed, my game goes A LOT faster and load things better. I suggest anyone doing any type of gaming on the iMac to get 8 GB of RAM- not only for Sims 3, but for other programs you may want to run like multimedia or other games. It cost just $50 to get a 8 GB of RAM for the iMac- check on crucial website.
Is it still running well? I'm thinking this might be my problem and I'll have to add more RAM to my iMac.
Update: I notice that not many people are posting on this forum anymore- but just to update like I promised. The problem seemed to be fixed on MY computer. Ever since I installed the 16 GB RAM on my computer, (although only 8 GB of RAM is recommended), I have gotten no crashes and no Error Code 12... not so far anyway. I've been playing for about two hours perhaps. However, I did get a crash when I got into Create-A-Sim mode. The hair and clothes load up a lot quicker, but I still got a crash. Again, with the RAM installed, my game goes A LOT faster and load things better. I suggest anyone doing any type of gaming on the iMac to get 8 GB of RAM- not only for Sims 3, but for other programs you may want to run like multimedia or other games. It cost just $50 to get a 8 GB of RAM for the iMac- check on crucial website.
Is it still running well? I'm thinking this might be my problem and I'll have to add more RAM to my iMac.
I upgraded from 4GB to 16GB i noticed that the game runs much better and many sims not populate community lots, but the crashing is still quite persistent
seeing as this has been a problem since NOVEMBER youd think the people at EA would resolve the issue on all platforms. Instead, 3 NEW releases are available in January. anyone else find this rather annoying? they take our money and let us sift through it and try to figure it out. not cool. I only get to play once in a blue moon and it was today. I spent the day reading about the crashing (that i am experiencing) and finding out there is NO fix. im done with this... and i miss Maxis they fixed things rather quick.
Update: I notice that not many people are posting on this forum anymore- but just to update like I promised. The problem seemed to be fixed on MY computer. Ever since I installed the 16 GB RAM on my computer, (although only 8 GB of RAM is recommended), I have gotten no crashes and no Error Code 12... not so far anyway. I've been playing for about two hours perhaps. However, I did get a crash when I got into Create-A-Sim mode. The hair and clothes load up a lot quicker, but I still got a crash. Again, with the RAM installed, my game goes A LOT faster and load things better. I suggest anyone doing any type of gaming on the iMac to get 8 GB of RAM- not only for Sims 3, but for other programs you may want to run like multimedia or other games. It cost just $50 to get a 8 GB of RAM for the iMac- check on crucial website.
Is it still running well? I'm thinking this might be my problem and I'll have to add more RAM to my iMac.
Yes it is still running quite well- the only persistent problem is when I go into Create-A-SIm mode, I would get the Error Code 12. I can play for about two hours. If you have 4 GB of RAM, upgrading your RAM is a must. As far as it crashing in CAS mode, it's a problem within the game.
Update: I notice that not many people are posting on this forum anymore- but just to update like I promised. The problem seemed to be fixed on MY computer. Ever since I installed the 16 GB RAM on my computer, (although only 8 GB of RAM is recommended), I have gotten no crashes and no Error Code 12... not so far anyway. I've been playing for about two hours perhaps. However, I did get a crash when I got into Create-A-Sim mode. The hair and clothes load up a lot quicker, but I still got a crash. Again, with the RAM installed, my game goes A LOT faster and load things better. I suggest anyone doing any type of gaming on the iMac to get 8 GB of RAM- not only for Sims 3, but for other programs you may want to run like multimedia or other games. It cost just $50 to get a 8 GB of RAM for the iMac- check on crucial website.
Is it still running well? I'm thinking this might be my problem and I'll have to add more RAM to my iMac.
I upgraded from 4GB to 16GB i noticed that the game runs much better and many sims not populate community lots, but the crashing is still quite persistent
I haven't crashed unless I went into CAS mode. Or MAYBE when I added a Sims or pet to the household. What Mods do you use? And how frequent are the crashes? For me it's only when I go into Create-A-Sim mode so far. When I took out the Register Mod, I stop crashing under 5-10 minutes.
Seasons basically doesn't work on my computer. It either crashes when saving or closes out of the game completely unexpectedly at random intervals. I also got the "error 12" message awhile back, but that hasn't happened more recently.
I have a late 2009 imac, 8GB of RAM, a ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card, and am running mountain lion. However, when I first started having problems I wasn't running mountain lion and I only had 4GB of RAM. I added more RAM and updated to mountain lion thinking it would help. The game runs better with more RAM, but it doesn't help the crashing and other issues with seasons. I don't have any custom content and am currently playing the game without anything from the store installed.
At this point I've uninstalled Seasons so I can still play the sims at all. I'm having issues with the new update, 1.47, (it won't download for me), but I figure that's probably a good thing since people have been having problems with that as well.
seeing as this has been a problem since NOVEMBER youd think the people at EA would resolve the issue on all platforms. Instead, 3 NEW releases are available in January. anyone else find this rather annoying? they take our money and let us sift through it and try to figure it out. not cool. I only get to play once in a blue moon and it was today. I spent the day reading about the crashing (that i am experiencing) and finding out there is NO fix. im done with this... and i miss Maxis they fixed things rather quick.
Yes, while adding RAM does a lot to help the issue of crashing and lag- the things still happen. The Error Code 12 issue still exists for me, but it happens more random. Sometimes I can play for three straight hours and sometimes I can only play for a less bit for two hours.
Update: The game was running better was more RAM for sure, and I haven't experienced any Error Code 12 or crashes until today. I finally got one of my teens to be an adult in the first generation and I went in to Create-A-Sim. Being that I don't usually go into CAS mode unless my Sims age, this is the first time me experiencing a crash after CAS. This crash only happens when I am playing the game for say, maybe about 30 minutes and then I go into CAS... and then after that, I get the Error Code 12 after I leave the mode or my game freezes to the point of where I have to "hold button shut off" my computer. if I don't get the Error Code 12, then it will crash pretty soon. As long as I don't go into CAS, the game seems to be fine. If I wanted to change what my Sims look like, I would close the game, and reopen the game- change my Sims in CAS and then save and quit the game as soon as I finish changing how they look. It still needs to be fix, because it is a problem. Just 20 minutes ago, my game crashed. This was about 30 minutes after when I moved out my adult Sim and her sister to a new house, asked her friend to join the household and adopted a pet. Other than that, my game saves and there are no crashes- I do have a feeling that it might get worse, but lets hope I am wrong. :roll:
Comments
World Adventures
High-End Loft Stuff
Late Night
Pets
Seasons
My Specs:
Late 2012 iMac (the thin one)
27 inches
Processor: 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB
Harddrive 3TB Fusion Drive 7200 rpm
As you can see, this is the most powerful computer Apple sells. My game was starting to lag thirty minutes into game play and then freeze. After three plays, it wouldn't authorize the disc. I tried a complete uninstall and reinstall at which point I couldn't do anything at all.
Bootcamp has worked for a lot of Mac simmers, see these two threads for examples:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/579888.page
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/15658.page
It may not resolve all problems for all of us, but it has helped some. I'm going to try it myself, seeing as I have plenty of space to partition my hard drive and don't mind getting a copy of Windows, which I can use for work purposes anyway. Having read about the good experiences other Mac simmers on this forum have had with Bootcamp, I am hopeful that my game will play better than it does on my Mac currently.
Here are my specs:
mid 2009 iMac 27"
running 10.8.2
2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 processor
8 gb memory
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
Here are some pics of what I encounter in CAS: http://imgur.com/a/KwpIR
I bought Seasons after Christmas, and I have to say, never again will I buy a Sims EP without checking these forums for problems like this. It's ridiculous!
For me, it started with SN. The game didn't crash that much, but I couldn't do any interaction between my sims AT ALL, so I decided to uninstall it. It did crash when I was in CAS for too long though.
Now with seasons it got worse. It started to crash constantly. In crash, at random moments, while saving, right after saving,... I switched family (no different save, just another active family in the same town) and now things are starting to get a little bit better. But still I have crashes too often. Started to write down when they occured the most:
- changing the speed too much or pause too often
- using tab a lot to zoom/take pictures
- after a (quite a long) time in CAS
- after or while saving
Also, from previous towns I noticed that for some reason things go wrong when you use the in game world editor to make extra empty lots.
The only "solution" I know is to use the "save as" function a lot, like that you don't need to go back too far. And sometimes when it crashes while saving my game is ****** up afterwards, so you still have a few backups with the "save as".
Also, I try not to us tab or fast forward my game. Since I have stopped messing with the speed things are going better, but that also might be because I changed family around the same time.
I hope there is a patch soon. Saving a lot isn't the best solution since the game likes to crash while saving... :roll:
I want Supernaturals back so badly, but I'm scared I'll **** it up even more
My game will crash in CAS and switching speeds. I don't remember when else it crashes. Rarely it will quit out when I save (which is FRUSTRATING).
However, my game has gotten better. I found out my game will crash more if there's an update for OS Lion (which is what I run) that I haven't installed yet. I also do not play online anymore. I make sure not to spend a lot of time in CAS (which is a place where I know for sure that my game will crash). I also downloaded the more updated patch (that increased game time by a bit). Saving often also seems to help (isn't that odd?)
Today is the day of live broadcast, which means that they will read whatever we write in a minute. Maybe, if most of us will write comments about our issues, they will answer us? It's worth giving a shot.
Yenial
Every time I open sims 3 seasons on mac, it keeps coming up with this pop-up box saying it has an issue or something and asks me if I would like to debug it, either way I press (yes or no) it still crashes and frustrates the hell out of me.
On a mac with mountain lion and the latest update-thingy.
SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!!!!
The game takes maybe 30 minutes to load, but the most annoying is that I can't go into CAS, because then it crashes
EA should really do something with this, and what can i do in the meantime to actually stay in CAS without crashing?
NB: Sorry for my bad english, i come from Norway, but i try as hard i can.. Just correct me if something is wrong.
edit: what I am doing for now is trying to keep it quick and easy in CAS. And afterwards updating the sim little by little over "view in CAS". Luckily I have my game updated, think I'll remove Supernaturals again later this week.
I was getting my hopes up for the second link- but that's from 2009. Searching for solutions on Google, it seems some PC gamers are having the same problem as more expansion packs are made. I don't know, it just might work- I'm going to try it myself as well because after today my Mac will have 24 RAM which more than enough to run Windows and Sims 3. But should you get Bootcamp before I do, notify us will you
Earlier in my posts, I heard someone mention that Bootcamp have been fixing a lot of problems. For example: it made Sims 3 go so much faster. I think I am experiencing Sims 3 going so much faster than it did with 4GB RAM. The reason why it might be going faster on Bootcamp is because in Windows, only 1 GB of RAM is required to play the Sims 3, and 2 GB of RAM is used to play Sims 3 on iMac. If you look in your DeviceLog file in your Documents/Electronic Arts- that will tell you how much RAM you are using when you play Sims 3. Before the RAM update, I was using 4GB of RAM and 4GB of RAM is all I had... with the computer doing so much swapping information to keep the game running might have lagged it a bit a long with other errors. I also just noticed that Sims 3 says "AT LEAST" 2GB of RAM is requires. That doesn't mean it'll run perfect. Because it is the minimum requirements. In Bootcamp, since it takes less RAM to run Sims 3, you have more RAM available. Also, this is just me connecting the pieces. But if your computer have 4GB of RAM total, then you do not always have 4 GB of RAM available if you check your Acivity Monitor- it's running things that might equal up to 1 GB, so that you are only using probably just 3 GB?
Perhaps you don't need to buy Bootcamp to play Sims 3. I suggest that people with 4GB of RAM upgrade their RAM to at least 8, (16 GB of RAM shouldn't hurt)... And if you have an iMac computer... DO NOT buy RAM from Apple- they are outrageously overpriced. It costs $320 for 8 GB of RAM, and I got 16 GB of RAM for $97... Google Crucial ram and buy it from their websites. I hope this solution works
I second this, don't buy from Apple over priced go with Crucial does the same job, but far much cheaper. I upgraded to 16GB for £55!
Is it still running well? I'm thinking this might be my problem and I'll have to add more RAM to my iMac.
I upgraded from 4GB to 16GB i noticed that the game runs much better and many sims not populate community lots, but the crashing is still quite persistent
Yes it is still running quite well- the only persistent problem is when I go into Create-A-SIm mode, I would get the Error Code 12. I can play for about two hours. If you have 4 GB of RAM, upgrading your RAM is a must. As far as it crashing in CAS mode, it's a problem within the game.
I haven't crashed unless I went into CAS mode. Or MAYBE when I added a Sims or pet to the household. What Mods do you use? And how frequent are the crashes? For me it's only when I go into Create-A-Sim mode so far. When I took out the Register Mod, I stop crashing under 5-10 minutes.
I have a late 2009 imac, 8GB of RAM, a ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card, and am running mountain lion. However, when I first started having problems I wasn't running mountain lion and I only had 4GB of RAM. I added more RAM and updated to mountain lion thinking it would help. The game runs better with more RAM, but it doesn't help the crashing and other issues with seasons. I don't have any custom content and am currently playing the game without anything from the store installed.
At this point I've uninstalled Seasons so I can still play the sims at all. I'm having issues with the new update, 1.47, (it won't download for me), but I figure that's probably a good thing since people have been having problems with that as well.
Yes, while adding RAM does a lot to help the issue of crashing and lag- the things still happen. The Error Code 12 issue still exists for me, but it happens more random. Sometimes I can play for three straight hours and sometimes I can only play for a less bit for two hours.