Questions on Error 12

SimKeats · February 2017

So, I spent quite some time, setting up a save of Sunset Valley. I didnt add or remove any actual lots, but I changed what was on a lot of them. I had no problem saving at any point during all this. So, wanting to avoid any issues, I closed the game, and loaded it up fresh, moved in an active sim and started playing.
About an hour later I click save as, and go out for a few minutes, expecting to continue when I return only to be met with the dreaded error 12.

Are there specific things you can do to a town that cause error 12 more frequently? Not really sure if I should invest more time in trying to play that save at this point.

igazor · February 2017

We always refer to Error 12 as an out of memory (RAM) condition, but it really means out of usable resources. Sometimes that includes video memory or what the game calls virtual memory and it's not easy or even possible to tell what really caused it.

I would clear caches and attempt to play that world again, except retreating to Task Manager frequently to watch RAM usage since that's the only one that's easy to keep an eye on. If it's not spiking up over well over 3 GB on you through routine play and you can save successfully and frequently, it could have been a one time thing.

And of course I have to include the usual commercial for NRaas ErrorTrap, Overwatch, Register, Traffic, and an occasional MasterControl Reset Everything run from City Hall. It's in my contract to do so (or something like that).

SimKeats · February 2017

I know what Error 12 is, and I do indeed have errortrap, overwatch, etc. I have 16gb of system ram and 4gb of video ram. I even make sure my primary HD has plenty of space for page file. How the game can manage to have any kind of memory issue is beyond me. I usually don't think about checking when I get an error 12, but I rarely see my game go over 2.5gb of ram used, usually less.
I guess next time I have it happen I need more checking resource usage and less:

Table flipping (my image link doesnt seem to work?)

igazor · February 2017

I do realize you know what Error 12 is, sorry I was expanding on the usual definition more for the benefit of others reading this. Obviously you have given the game the best environment you can in which to run, but sometimes it's going to "think" it's out of usable resources and that can leave us scratching our heads wondering what could have gone wrong. Could be the routing system trying to catch up with all of your prior Edit Town changes while other things were trying to take place at the same time, behind the scenes, for example. Or a lot with too many overhead lights on it, strange and again difficult to pinpoint things like that.

Karritz · February 2017

For what it's worth I keep an eye on my memory used by watching the Commit (KB) column in the Resource Monitor. When Sims 3 gets over 3200 in that column I know I have about a 99% chance of an Error 12 when saving.

I find it depends on the game - some games I can have all graphics on maximum settings and in other games I have to have them all minimised. I do whatever it takes to keep my game running and rarely do get an actual error 12 unless I decide to chance it and let the game continue running when it is getting close to the 3200 KB mark and then trying to save. That rarely ends well for me.

If I do see an Error 12 I try a few tricks that sometimes work but not always.

1. Go into Edit town to save.
2. Go in close to a patch of nondescript grass or ground.
3. Send my active sim to a lot that has almost nothing on it.
4. Temporarily change the active household to any random household that I know has only 1 or 2 Sims in it and minimal furnishings

IF all of that fails then I have to just close the game, use save cleaner and relaunch Sims 3 from scratch. It can help to reboot the computer too.

ts1depot · February 2017

SimKeats wrote: »

About an hour later I click save as, and go out for a few minutes, expecting to continue when I return only to be met with the dreaded error 12.

I remember reading that one of the biggest causes of error 12 is playing a town for long stretches at a time without saving. That's especially true if you're a heavy rotational player like me or like to do lots of editing in town. The rule of thumb is to save every sim night or so, but never, ever after an hour or two. 40 minutes is pushing it, IMO, and an hour without saving is playing Russian Roulette.

KatNip · February 2017

ts1depot wrote: »

SimKeats wrote: »

About an hour later I click save as, and go out for a few minutes, expecting to continue when I return only to be met with the dreaded error 12.

I remember reading that one of the biggest causes of error 12 is playing a town for long stretches at a time without saving. That's especially true if you're a heavy rotational player like me or like to do lots of editing in town. The rule of thumb is to save every sim night or so, but never, ever after an hour or two. 40 minutes is pushing it, IMO, and an hour without saving is playing Russian Roulette.

When my previous computer was still brand spankin' new I played a whole day straight once. No crashing whatsoever. And that was a bad computer...

TreyNutz · February 2017

I've heard long stretches in CAS can be problematic for some people. I've run into the odd error code 12 after trying to age up and stylize 5 or 6 sims in one play session.

HappySimmer3 · February 2017

Sometimes you can get away with not saving for long stretches, especially if you are playing a new game. But large, ongoing saves are usually prone to problems unless you save often.

@SimKeats you are aware that TS3 is a 32 bit program? It can't utilize all that memory you have in your PC (my specs are similar) so it still has to be babied a bit. My guess is that it was due to all the changes you made in edit town. I see that you did save often during your changes though, so maybe just a fluke? This game is not exactly predicable!

TadOlson · February 2017

I've never done tons of town edits without saving as frequently after each lot was edited or even saving several times during a larger build project.I did get them a few times in old saves when I played Modless and tried to use EA's bugfest for "story progression" and it would overpopulate the town and make way too many changes too quickly.It was so bad that it did cause errors a few times though it would ruin that save even without causeing errors most of the time.Error code 12's were there often enough when letting the bugfest run to make me start using NRaas Mods.I've had even worse happen in saves when the social workers took children away and those saves were all corrupted.

SimKeats · February 2017

The strangest thing is, I completely relaunched the game before I started actually playing a sim in that save, didn't do any CAS or building of any kind. Honestly I can usually go long periods without any issues. I left my game open on a save from Sunset Island 2, in build mode, went to sleep, and finished building when I got up. I was then able to play all day, saving about every hour until it crashed about 45 minutes ago.

I might try my edited Sunset Valley save again later tonight, I tend to rotate what game setup I play when I have a crash or whatever, give myself a chance to forget the little things that disappear to lost game time lol.

marissauro · February 2017

I have issues saving the game as well... I found something that usually causes those troubles. I oppen the save file and it has like "Sunset.save" and "Sunset.bad" (this is an exemple). So I delete this bad file and then I'm able to save. But I don't know why this file keeps showing up

igazor · February 2017

MariFontoura wrote: »

I have issues saving the game as well... I found something that usually causes those troubles. I oppen the save file and it has like "Sunset.save" and "Sunset.bad" (this is an exemple). So I delete this bad file and then I'm able to save. But I don't know why this file keeps showing up

The "bad" file is the result of a save beginning to process but being unable to complete all the way. By all meants delete them because they are useless files, but in other words it's a symptom of a failed save and not the cause.

phoebebebe13 · February 2017

MariFontoura wrote: »

I have issues saving the game as well... I found something that usually causes those troubles. I oppen the save file and it has like "Sunset.save" and "Sunset.bad" (this is an exemple). So I delete this bad file and then I'm able to save. But I don't know why this file keeps showing up

Tips for avoiding error code 12 and not getting bad saves

How much ram do you have ? What version of windows do you have? Windows 8 and 10 need more ram to run. Is your commuter's cpu/gpu integrated or do you have a dedicated video card? Also origin needs ram. These all factor in on whether one may crash and get error code 12 for not having enough memory to run the game. Also how often do you save? It's wise to save often so the save wont be to large and run out of memory. If in build mode you need to save even more frequently.

Other tips. I delete my cashe package files every time I start my game to keep the game rid of as much bugs as possible. Turn memories off. It will bloat the game down with unnecessary files. Stop the store from loading in CAS. Make sure your sims personal and family inventories are low. If your able to play the game on a higher end machine keep lot details low no matter what computer your on. A patch caused stutter in the game and lowering lot details to no higher than 3 will keep stutter down. Always use save as instead of save. Using save as allows you to create a new clean save by renaming the file. If you use save it overwrites the old file. Using save as there is less chance of save corruption. You will also have prior saves to go back to should you get a messed up save. You can't do that with save option. If you use save and it becomes corrupt you may loose that entire save and everything in it.

phoebebebe13 · February 2017

SimKeats wrote: »

The strangest thing is, I completely relaunched the game before I started actually playing a sim in that save, didn't do any CAS or building of any kind. Honestly I can usually go long periods without any issues. I left my game open on a save from Sunset Island 2, in build mode, went to sleep, and finished building when I got up. I was then able to play all day, saving about every hour until it crashed about 45 minutes ago.

I might try my edited Sunset Valley save again later tonight, I tend to rotate what game setup I play when I have a crash or whatever, give myself a chance to forget the little things that disappear to lost game time lol.

I also have 16 gb ram. I Never have gotten an error code 12 yet. My tips above this post.

Is it snowing heavy when your crashing? My computer is above recommended requirements. I can run the whole game on ultra. The only time my game will crash is if I get a heavy snow. Sometime the game will just stop working and I have to end task in task manager. Other times I will get a temporary freeze when it is snowing and the game will snap out of the freeze.

SimKeats · February 2017

If my game has been open for more than like 8 hours, I generally don't bother trying to figure out why I crashed. I don't think it was snowing, but when it snows I do get more slow down, probably because of all the extra snow men, igloos and routing issues created by all that. Or at least thats what I figure.
I like to fantasize, that if we had a patch to add 64x support, the game would more or less be issue free for me. I seem to recall, that when 64x OS was a newish thing, a lot of games adding support in free patches. Even games that kind of flopped like Hellgate London, had x64 support and advanced directx options.

igazor · February 2017

@SimKeats - There's always going to be a limit, though. A 64-bit system can only utilize about 16 EBs (Exabytes)* of RAM, which is merely around a billion GBs and then boom, Error 12. Or something.

*Of course, there aren't any operating systems or hardware configs that can use quite this much in existence yet.

phoebebebe13 · February 2017

I only get the crashing when it heavy snows and it continues for a few sims days. I have winters where my kids are off from school almost every day

TadOlson · February 2017

I've had constant blizzards in Storybrook County in the winter with my games and it never crashed except once because Windows froze on me which meant I had to restart my computer.I never got lag from the snow-heavy winters in Evermore Falls either and it's a very large world needing a high end gaming computer.

Kimbelle10 · February 2017

If you've got Seasons, and maybe any mods that also work on inactive Sims (say NRASS) that's a lot for the computer to keep track of. Just chalk this down to a one-time error and maybe next time try 'save as' after 45 minutes to an hour of play instead of hours of play. Just to be on the safe side. If it keeps happening you may need to fiddle with your system as suggested by other Simmers! The game, as advanced as it seems, is a little behind in terms of programming etc. so you just got to handle it a bit differently than say a game from 2017 on a modern/updated and spankin' new system.

KevinL5275 · February 2017

igazor wrote: »

@SimKeats - There's always going to be a limit, though. A 64-bit system can only utilize about 16 EBs (Exabytes)* of RAM, which is merely around a billion GBs and then boom, Error 12. Or something.

*Of course, there aren't any operating systems or hardware configs that can use quite this much in existence yet.

Remember 10-15 years ago when having 4+ GB of RAM was astronomical ?

ENolan · February 2017

I know it's late but I've gotten error 12 before after longer playthoughs and usually managed to get a save after receiving the error by selling or eliminating a lot of items in my active family's inventory. Odd resolution but it worked, enabling me to keep my progress and clean up the cache afterwards. Not sure if it helps but I'd figure I'd try.

igazor · February 2017

KevinL5275 wrote: »

Remember 10-15 years ago when having 4+ GB of RAM was astronomical ?

Yes, and I also remember staring in wonder at my new 2 GB hard drive not long before that, wondering how I would ever manage to fill it all up with stuff. Now one instance of my TS3 saved game is more than that (connected Traveler mod worlds). I also remember not having a hard drive at all.

It's the nature of tech. Every couple of decades, we look back on what we once had and what was once considered astronomical and just kind of smile.

igazor · February 2017

ENolan wrote: »

I know it's late but I've gotten error 12 before after longer playthoughs and usually managed to get a save after receiving the error by selling or eliminating a lot of items in my active family's inventory. Odd resolution but it worked, enabling me to keep my progress and clean up the cache afterwards. Not sure if it helps but I'd figure I'd try.

Tricks like that to recover from an already triggered Error12 within a game session do work for a small percentage of players. Usually this means they were just teetering on the edge of instability when they tried to save. For me, they worked around 1-2% of the time and even then often generated a save that then couldn't be loaded up. Though I rarely see the error these days, when it does show up I don't even try to get through it anymore.

ENolan · February 2017

igazor wrote: »

ENolan wrote: »

I know it's late but I've gotten error 12 before after longer playthoughs and usually managed to get a save after receiving the error by selling or eliminating a lot of items in my active family's inventory. Odd resolution but it worked, enabling me to keep my progress and clean up the cache afterwards. Not sure if it helps but I'd figure I'd try.

Tricks like that to recover from an already triggered Error12 within a game session do work for a small percentage of players. Usually this means they were just teetering on the edge of instability when they tried to save. For me, they worked around 1-2% of the time and even then often generated a save that then couldn't be loaded up. Though I rarely see the error these days, when it does show up I don't even try to get through it anymore.

I had figured I had just barely crossed the boundary back then, but my laptop wasn't the greatest so it happened more times than I liked. Sorry to see it wasn't a viable option for you, mate.

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Questions on Error 12

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