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Thread for new members to post their Sims 3 game issues

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  • MeowGeekMeowGeek Posts: 16 Member
    @puzzlezaddict I went onto my old computer and followed the instructions the website gave to get my serial codes back. None of my expansion pack serial codes were in the registry and origin still says I need to pay for the packs.
  • HeathaHeatha Posts: 23 Member
    Hey guys,
    I've had a few glitches just start on Sims 3 - not sure if they are related or not?

    Parent (elder) has gone the on free vacation when you have a teenager and their action face square was greyed out (as normal). Two days in:

    Teen has started glitching - Will go to bed and seconds later teleport to the other side of the room. Have tried other beds and buying new ones.
    Parent face has disappeared from the action square on the left side of the square (blank green square remains).

    I thought perhaps the parent (elder) died, as she was quite old, but I cant find ashes anywhere... tips or advice?

    Thank you in advance :)
  • HeathaHeatha Posts: 23 Member
    > @Heatha said:
    > Hey guys,
    > I've had a few glitches just start on Sims 3 - not sure if they are related or not?
    >
    > Parent (elder) has gone the on free vacation when you have a teenager and their action face square was greyed out (as normal). Two days in:
    >
    > Teen has started glitching - Will go to bed and seconds later teleport to the other side of the room. Have tried other beds and buying new ones.
    > Parent face has disappeared from the action square on the left side of the square (blank green square remains).
    >
    > I thought perhaps the parent (elder) died, as she was quite old, but I cant find ashes anywhere... tips or advice?
    >
    > Thank you in advance :)

    Update - restarted everything and now the Parent (elder) is no longer alive (I assume dead but no evidence of grave etc) and now teen can not do any task really without glitching a few meters every few seconds. This includes going to school - keeps teleporting out of the building etc.

    I really dont want to have to start again as it was my legacy!!
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited July 2019
    @Heatha - I'm afraid that the Generations adults go on vacation scenario is broken to the point where it's dangerous to use. All kinds of things go wrong with that one and even with mods they can become impossible to fix. We always advise against accepting that scenario pretty much at all costs, but if players wish to try it anyway we at least recommend having a safe save to revert to should things like this happen.

    Hopefully you can revert to a prior save and re-play without accepting the vacation, if you have such a save available?
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • CasualclickCasualclick Posts: 4 New Member
    Howdy - new member here. Thanks for the accommodating thread for new issues while I build up my posts and points.

    My problem is as follows: downloaded Roaring Heights. I'm running base game with Into The Future as the only expansion/pack, and I've had considerable game time working my way through Sunset Valley and Riverview. RH was my first premium World. Everything has run to this point as expected. Enabled testingcheats, I have so far been able to shift-click on any NPC (family or townie) and the "Edit in Create-A-Sim" option is available. I click on Contessa Capp and lo and behold, that option isn't there. I clicked on other established Family NPCs like Ainsley Andrews, or any of the built-in Service Sims, and they all have the option. Contessa is the only one who doesn't. It's truly bizarre. All I can do change Traits.

    Thoughts? Considerations? I searched on this, but a lot of old threads had to do with previous patch revisions that don't seem applicable now that everyone's on baseline 1.6x. Appreciate any info
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @Casualclick - Just a shot in the dark here, but sims who are going through any kind of transition are not always able to be brought into CAS (without mods). I guess you wouldn't have many occult states she might have picked up since ITF is your only expansion. Might she be pregnant...or in the process of aging up or dying?
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • CasualclickCasualclick Posts: 4 New Member
    Thank you. I discovered this independently right after I got home a few minutes ago; it turns out that you're right. So this behavior is expected.
  • YokaideYokaide Posts: 2 New Member
    Okay so, hello - new user with an old problem here

    I have installed Sims 3 today after I haven't played it for at least a half year - but I keep getting the "There was an error during startup. See the Log for more details" Error. I don't get any log files saved through. I don't own any addons and never did. I have completely reinstalled the game about four times today, trying all of the steps from "sims3.crinrict" including:
    reinstalling Origin and Sims
    Launching from the files without Origin (also tried as admin)
    updated graphics driver & .net FW
    deleted all Sims 3 related things in my registry (CCleaner and by hand)
    Manually patched the game
    I also tried installing the game on C and on D, no difference. Am I missing THE ONE solution or did i just f*** something up completely?

    Thanx
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @Yokaide - One thing I'm not seeing mentioned here. Have you tried the above, but with no TS3 user game folder in place in Documents? You can move or rename the one you have if it's left over from a prior install or has been generated on one of the failed attempts above. Possibly it has become damaged through the subsequent reinstall and patching attempts, if there is one in place.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • YokaideYokaide Posts: 2 New Member
    I tried doing that too - but there has, from the start, only been an empty folder for Sims somehow.
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @Yokaide - Am afraid the only thing I have left to suggest is that you are out of hard drive space (on both volumes?) where you are trying to install the game. Somehow I seriously doubt this is the case or you would have noticed and mentioned it by now.

    There are some further steps that can be taken utilizing clean bootups to service new and re-installs that are just not behaving as they should or for which some unknown force of the operating system might be interfering. I would suggest posting on the TS3 section of Answers HQ so that the helpers there can guide you through the procedures most likely to help.
    https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/bd-p/the-sims-3
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • esunagaesunaga Posts: 4 New Member
    Hi everyone!

    I've been playing The Sims 3 (not sure if it's relevant, but I bought it on Steam) for a few weeks without issues, however since around a week ago I've been having a lot of crashes. My game is patched up to the most recent version, I use Nraas ErrorTrap + Overwatch + Master Controller, and I followed all the tutorials to make the game properly recognize my GPU/use more memory/etc. I also clean the game cache files regularly. I do use a lot of CC, and I thought this could be the source of my issue; I deleted my most recent CC files and it seemed to have solved the problem - I didn't have any crashes for four days. However, the game just crashed again after working perfectly for these four days and I don't really know what else to try. Here are my specs:

    Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit
    Intel Core i5 @ 3.00GHz
    8 GB RAM
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

    Expansion packs installed: Seasons, Generations, Pets, Supernatural, Late Night, Ambitions, University Life

    My game just crashes to desktop randomly without any error pop-up; today specifically, the crash happened after the game had been running for more than 6 hours, but back before I deleted my recent CC files it'd crash after only a few minutes in the game.

    This is what I found in the error log:

    type: ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0xc1d50194
    address: 0x005c6e07 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3W.exe":0x0001:0x001c5e07

    Anyone knows what it means? I tried googling it but couldn't find anything about this specific address (0xc1d50194). The other crashes (the ones that happened before I deleted the recent CC files) had different addresses in the error log (0xabad0194, 0xb04e0194 and 0x99010074, specifically). Any help would be very much appreciated. I can also post the whole log if it helps. Thanks in advance!
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @esunaga - Hi there. There's a few things we can address here, but I think some of them might just be a matter of needing clarification.

    -- If you are running a Steam install, then you are on Patch 1.67. Steam doesn't give any choices in the matter in kind of the same way that an Origin install performed since a few years ago would put you on Patch 1.69 again with no choices involved. Hopefully you haven't tried to patch over a Steam install? The game won't really react well to that. Tools that perform patching like EA's SuperPatcher are meant for disc installs (and those on the Mac version of the game, which wouldn't be relevant here) only.

    -- More for your edification than anything else, but TS3 is a 32-bit application. There are no effective tricks to get it to use more RAM than it already will by default (as of Patch 1.17 long ago), up to just short of 4 GB if the RAM is available. Any forum posts that still proclaim that a 4 GB external patch is required or that changes should be made to an .ini file in the Program Files are, I'm afraid, just plain not correct. The 4 GB external patch won't do any harm, but it's just not necessary anymore. The .ini file edit that even the Steam player-written guides still talk about do not influence RAM usage, it really governs something very different and it's best to be left alone.

    -- It doesn't matter which specific memory locations those crash logs are referencing. In English, or something closer to it anyway, all that means is that the game crashed. Actually what happens is that the game gets a huge dose of nonsensical data from RAM, doesn't know what to do, and Windows steps in and crashes it for you because it thinks the game has lost its mind. Not that the sequence of events that happen in a microsecond really helps us understand why it happened.

    The one thing I don't see mentioned in your post though concerns frame rates. TS3 has no functional built-in fps limiter and a GTX 1060 is powerful enough to run wild on them, given the chance. The game should never be allowed to run at an fps higher than the refresh rate of your monitor. Most are 60 Hz, so that would be 60 fps. Wildly high fps rates can lead to poor game performances, lag, graphics glitches, screen tears, crashes, and over time can ultimately burn out your graphics card. Is this something you have already checked on in-game and taken steps to cap? If not, that would be the highest priority and we can explain how to do these things if needed.

    I will also point out a page we have at NRaas that lists out many tips to improve the game's performance in case you are not familiar with it.
    http://www.nraas.net/community/TIPS-FOR-BETTER-GAME-PERFORMANCE

    Not mentioned in your post, but it may add stability to your sessions if you always played offline (not logged in at the Launcher or in-game levels), disallowed the in-game TS3 Store shopping experience, and disallowed the hidden object startup game. I would also advise checking on RAM usage by way of Task Manager, that is absolute RAM (in GBs) that the game itself is using, not percentages, at various points such as at startup, once the game clock starts moving forwards smoothly after the mods have fully loaded, and again after an hour of play. By six hours things might have leveled off at hopefully a safe place but if RAM usage is still steadily increasing you could be approaching the upper limit of again just short of 4 GB (actually the danger zone is somewhere above 3.5 GB) that the game can handle. Many players do find that they need to save around every 30 real time minutes at least and then quit entirely and reload the game after a few hours unless it's been paused and not really interacted with all that time.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • esunagaesunaga Posts: 4 New Member
    @igazor Sorry, my post was a bit unclear! I didn't patch over the Steam installation, I just meant to say my game is up to date. I didn't know there was a discrepancy between the Steam and Origin versions, and now I'm thinking I might have installed the wrong versions of some mods. Could this make the game crash? I'll install the correct versions of the mods and see if there's any difference. They seemed to be working fine, though.

    I did follow the player-written Steam guide that you mention in your post for the RAM thing. I still have the original file, so I'll go fix that too.

    About the frame rate - I do have Vsync enabled on the Nvidia panel (the game had a lot of screen tearing and lagging when I first booted it up, and enabling Vsync fixed it). Is this enough, or should I use some other method to cap the frame rate?

    I also always play offline and I *think* I've disabled in-game shopping, but I'll have to check since it's been a while. I'll follow the other tips on the page you posted and reinstall some of the mods I've mentioned before and see if it helps. Thank you for the help!
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited August 2019
    @esunaga - Vertical sync alone doesn't always lock things in completely, user experiences vary, and it only works in full-screen mode. To see the fps rates you are actually getting in-game, ctrl+shift+C to bring up the cheats console and type fps on (enter). As you play and move the game camera around, the displayed frame rate should never wander above the refresh rate of your monitor. Again most are 60 Hz so the goal would be a cap of 60 fps, some can run higher. To make the fps display go away, cheats console again and type fps off (enter).

    If things aren't staying locked in or if windowed mode is also required, the usual tool to add next is Nvidia Inspector through which the frame rate limit can be explicitly set to a specified value.

    https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/nvidia-profile-inspector-download.html
    (ignore any download links in the upper right corner that might show if you have no ad blocker, the real download links are 2/3 of the way down the page)


    There are no differences in the game files between Patches 1.67 and 1.69. If a mod is made for one, it will work exactly the same on the other (this is also true for 1.66 but we don't see that one so much anymore). The only exceptions are Core Mods, which will do an internal build number check and display a warning if the numbers don't match. But even then, such a mismatch is really harmless. To avoid the core version warning, it is better to use the version associated with the patch level you have. There are only six Core Mods in popular usage for TS3 (NRaas ErrorTrap happens to be one of them), thankfully other types of mods do not know or care about 1.67 vs. 1.69.

    For Script and Tuning Mods and their variants, which is what all the others out there are, the patch level fuss is really about mods created for 1.63 and prior being used on an up to date game (or vice versa). Some of the very popular older mods out there required no changes for 1.67/69, others should be avoided because they just won't work correctly. Usually mods are provided in places where there are discussion boards or forums so one can see if other players are having any trouble using them or not.

    Of course NRaas mods are all fine for both current patch levels. ErrorTrap in particular has three variants of the same release for 1.67/Steam, 1.67/everyone else, and 1.69 again really only to account for the different internal build numbers. UntranslatedKey, our only other Core Mod, only works as expected on 1.67 but it's really for developers and no one has ever asked us for a 1.69 variant as far as I know. The rest of our mods are not Core Mods, so current versions are fine.
    Post edited by igazor on
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  • esunagaesunaga Posts: 4 New Member
    @igazor - Just checked my fps on full screen mode and it seems to be normal, will try to check on windowed mode and see if things change.

    Thank you for the explanation regarding the NRaas mods, I'm a bit new to this game so it's always nice to learn about these things. Unfortunately, I think the reason my game kept crashing randomly is because my save file might be corrupted. :\ I loaded it earlier today and there were some solid gray objects with missing textures (mostly on my current household), and I couldn't place anything inside pools because the bottom of all pools was also solid gray with no texture. I also remember seeing a female teen Sim with an invisible body only a few days ago (I don't have teen pregnancy enabled so I'm not sure what might have caused it). This only happens on the saves for this particular family; I tried creating new saves with other Sims and everything worked fine (all objects had textures, pools were working normally). I tried reinstalling my mods/removing mods completely but the save file still shows solid gray objects that don't work properly. I'm assuming there's no way to fix this besides making sure it doesn't happen again (I used Sims 3 Dashboard to see if there were any corrupted/conflicting mods and it only found one corrupted mod, which I have already disabled).
  • esunagaesunaga Posts: 4 New Member
    Quick update (sorry, can't edit my original post) - so it seems my save isn't as broken as I thought, I just loaded it again and now everything is working fine...? lol I'm not really sure what is happening but disregard what I said before about the save being damaged for good. So far it seems to be doing alright...?
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited August 2019
    @esunaga - A sim's body going invisible in not unusual. It typically means that the current outfit assignment has gone bad. Not the outfit itself, but the assignment from it to the sim. Usually getting the sim to change their outfit, even into the one they were already supposed to be wearing, fixes this. NRaas DebugEnabler also has a command called Fix Invisible Sims that solves this around 80% of the time without the outfit change needed, which can be awkward on sims we do not control unless you have a way to get them all to go swimming or take showers on demand or have MasterController in play, and it's helpful for when this seems to happen to a large percentage of a world at the same time as it will try to detect and fix broken outfit assignments across the entire world in one step. I see it most often on new (to me) worlds or those that have been traveled to for the first time within an ongoing game, but it can really happen at any time.

    The objects not appearing or having no texture sounds more ominous, but glad to hear that a game reload has fixed that.
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
    Our new site is at http://nraas.net
  • MeowGeekMeowGeek Posts: 16 Member
    > @puzzlezaddict said:
    > @MeowGeek If you never registered your discs, either in Origin or on the Sims 3 Store site, then the packs wouldn't show in Origin now. But you can still add the codes to your account, provided they haven't been used by you or anyone else. If you don't have the CD case inserts with the codes printed on them anymore, you may still be able to find the codes on your old computer. Here's how:
    >
    > Windows: ://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2013/09/how-to-find-your-serial-number.html
    > macOS: ://bluebellflora.com/finding-your-serial-key-using-terminal/
    >
    > You can also try clearing Origin's cache to see if the packs turn up. Sometimes it helps.
    >
    > //help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
    >
    > If the codes read as already used, but you're the original owner, then maybe you added them to a different account. Since Origin and the store share information, registering your packs at the store on an old account would render the codes useless now. If you think that's what happened, try entering any email addresses you might have used into the Origin login window, then clicking "forgot your password?" Any address associated with an Origin account will get an email to reset its password.
    >
    > Once you know your old account credentials, you can contact EA customer support and ask that the accounts be merged. Keep in mind that the account that's being merged, i.e. the one that will disappear, will likely not transfer its store content to the new one.
    >
    > //help.ea.com/en/contact-us/
    >
    > If you can't figure out what happened to your codes, you can ask someone from EA support to check. It would help to have photos of the discs and inserts with the codes showing; you can upload them directly to a live chat.

    I tried to get the serial codes from my old computer, but none of them showed in the registry.
  • puzzlezaddictpuzzlezaddict Posts: 1,877 Member
    @MeowGeek If the codes aren't on your old computer, then maybe the registry was cleaned at some point. I'm sorry, but without those codes, either from the registry or from the CD cases the discs came in, there's not much you can do. It's possible you could get somewhere with EA support, but I wouldn't count on it. Unfortunately, in these cases, most people never find a way to get their content onto their accounts.
  • MeowGeekMeowGeek Posts: 16 Member
    @puzzlezaddict I understand. Thank you for your help.
  • SuzyCue72SuzyCue72 Posts: 526 Member
    @MeowGeek - I have 2 questions for you:

    1. Are the games still installed on your old computer? If they are, then the codes should be in the registry. But if you have uninstalled them, then the codes are gone forever.

    2.Did you look for the codes in the registry manually, or did you try one of the Serial key retrieving programs that Crinrict recommended on her site? How to find your serial number.
  • Dao_TuiDao_Tui Posts: 8 New Member
    I've been soooo busy since I placed my problem here... I had the version0.0.0 on sims 3 problem and sims 4 couldn't launch.
    There where 400+ comments since my last log in (yep, that's how busy life has been) so I'm just going to say here what I did.
    It is fixed.
    First of all I have to make sure I start Origin as Admin. If I don't, I can't play.
    I went to my documents and got to my sims 3 folder and changed it's name to Sims 3 back up.
    Sims 4 went ahead and said I couldn't save my game. So I went to my sims 4 folder in documents and (didn't care about starting over) I cut the saves folder and pasted it on my desktop. So basically, clean slate.
    It worked so far.
    Anyways, thanks to everyone who has done their best to help me out :smile: even if it's been so long ago, THANK YOU!!!
  • Dao_TuiDao_Tui Posts: 8 New Member
    And it was ruined again after closing Origin and shutting down my laptop...
    Got it fixed by adding Origin and Sims 4 to my controlled folder access.
    Instructions I followed came from --> https :// crinrict.com/blog/2019/03/windows-10-defender-controlled-folder-access.html
    Haven't tried with sims 3 yet. After restarting Origin when I turned my pc back on, I got the sims 4 already running error and sims 3 did start up but all my saves where gone and so was all my downloaded stuff from the sims 3 website although my sims 3 startup screen said they where all installed.
    Hopefully the 'fix' also works for sims 3.
    Hope this might help someone.
  • MeowGeekMeowGeek Posts: 16 Member
    @SuzyCue72 I don't remember ever uninstalling them, but maybe someone else did, and yes I looked for them manually. I'll try to download one of those programs and find the codes that way. :)
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