Used to Work Better than TS4, now broken

Paralee

There was a time when my TS3 game ran better on my laptop than TS4.
But i took a break from playing while i built a world in Create a World. I never finished it or installed it, but when i went back to play TS3 again the whole thing was broken.
Like it would run just fine with thunderstorms and wild horses running around. Now it completely freezes up around 2 am eeeevery single time.
Ive tried resetting all sims. Still broken.
Cleared caches, still broken.
Ive tried resetting my sims file. Still broken.
Ive uninstalled and reinstalled the game three times. Tried Origin AND Steam versions. Still broken.
Uninstalled all mods except overwatch and error trap. Still broken.
I even reset my computer back to factory settings and wiped the hard drive. Still broken.
The only thing i can think of is that my laptop probably doesnt have enough processing power but if thats the case why did it work so smoothly before, and now its all plummed up?
So. Frustrated.

igazor

I could link you to articles like why using a computer is like driving a car (wear and tear, parts degrade with age and being pushed to far, they don't stay static or perform better over time, etc.). But we're totally flying blind here without knowing the specs of the laptop you are playing on. And there could be something that needs adjusting that we could help with.

On the 2am breakage, does this happen in every world you try to play or only one ongoing save? What happens at 2am if you start a new game in a usually gentle to play world like Sunset Valley, Riverview, or Twinbrook? Usually when the game freezes at precisely the same time in-game, something is scheduled to happen right around that time such as spawners producing their product or sims somewhere in town trying to give birth that's getting stuck. Or sims going to work all across town and spinning into flawed career outfits, but that wouldn't tend to happen in the middle of the night like the other things might.

I will add (a bit too late) that reinstalling the game doesn't tend to solve problems like this. The program files do not change with usage, only the TS3 user game folder in Documents and its contents do.

If you could, perhaps you could tell us the processor, RAM, graphics card, drive space of the laptop you are working with or, even better so we can see the big picture, provide a full dxdiag report? You would have to paste the report into multiple responses by section as it would far too long to fit into one or else use pastebin.com and provide a link to it (the free service is fine for this, no need to create an account).
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information

Paralee

igazor wrote: »

I could link you to articles like why using a computer is like driving a car (wear and tear, parts degrade with age and being pushed to far, they don't stay static or perform better over time, etc.). But we're totally flying blind here without knowing the specs of the laptop you are playing on. And there could be something that needs adjusting that we could help with.

On the 2am breakage, does this happen in every world you try to play or only one ongoing save? What happens at 2am if you start a new game in a usually gentle to play world like Sunset Valley, Riverview, or Twinbrook? Usually when the game freezes at precisely the same time in-game, something is scheduled to happen right around that time such as spawners producing their product or sims somewhere in town trying to give birth that's getting stuck. Or sims going to work all across town and spinning into flawed career outfits, but that wouldn't tend to happen in the middle of the night like the other things might.

I will add (a bit too late) that reinstalling the game doesn't tend to solve problems like this. The program files do not change with usage, only the TS3 user game folder in Documents and its contents do.

If you could, perhaps you could tell us the processor, RAM, graphics card, drive space of the laptop you are working with or, even better so we can see the big picture, provide a full dxdiag report? You would have to paste the report into multiple responses by section as it would far too long to fit into one or else use pastebin.com and provide a link to it (the free service is fine for this, no need to create an account).
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information

K ill go look up how to post my specs. Or at least my graphics ability. I know i have 6 GB of usable ram on a windows 10 operating system (completely updated) with a 2.2 gHz processor. My system window says "Intel Pentium CPU B960 @2.20 GHz" for processing.

As for your other question it happens on every save. Every single one. Even a brand new fresh town and family. They'll go through their first sim day, go to sleep, and then it freezes around 2. Sometimes its 1:59. Sometimes right on 2 am. Sometimes its 2:02 am. Either way it never makes it past whatever happens at 2 lmao

I thought it might have been my story progression mod but even taking that out didnt help

igazor

We're really in the range of budget laptops meant for light office tasks and web browsing here just going by that processor, and probably no dedicated graphics card. But I'll try to hold off on further comments until we see a full dxdiag, the instructions are illustrated in the link provided above.

One question though, did this laptop run Win 10 in the past when the game worked better and was this an upgrade from Win 7/8? Some computers just cannot really handle Win 10 well. Others can but it must be done as a full install from scratch or have been shipped that way originally, not through an update.

Paralee

igazor wrote: »

We're really in the range of budget laptops meant for light office tasks and web browsing here just going by that processor, and probably no dedicated graphics card. But I'll try to hold off on further comments until we see a full dxdiag, the instructions are illustrated in the link provided above.

One question though, did this laptop run Win 10 in the past when the game worked better and was this an upgrade from Win 7/8? Some computers just cannot really handle Win 10 well. Others can but it must be done as a full install from scratch or have been shipped that way originally, not through an update.

You're probably right on the first thing. Processing requirements was the thing floating on the top of my head after i double checked the specs for the game. Maybe my laptop just fooled me in to thinking it was capable for a bit. But it was soooooo smoothe omg.
Ive been checking out laptops and most of the ones with better processing are in a price territory where i may as well build myself a nice desktop i can upgrade when needed. I had to go run errands so ill post specs when im done. But i get the feeling you're right. I was just hoping it might have been something else because my love for 3 is blinding lmao

When i got my laptop it had windows 8 installed, and then microsoft forced me to upgrade but i didnt have sims 3 installed until after the upgrade. So when it was running smooth it did have Windows 10 on it. Although i believe it was updated a few times while i was building my world.

Karritz

Upgrade to Windows 10 is known to be bad for some older laptops. I don't have info on latest upgrades but last year it was breaking laptops and people were going back to Windows 7.

lauravonawesome

@Karritz I remember hearing that about Windows 10, hence why I kept rejecting the free upgrade. My old laptop still has Windows 7, but I run Win10 on my PC (my husband is a PC repair tech and, when he built my current gaming rig, he said that any new games I want to play in future will require at least DirectX 12, which will only work on Win10... or at least that's what I got out of it, lol).

@somethingstellar you're much better off getting a PC than a laptop. If you're technically inclined, look for deals on the parts you need and build your own rig (or, if you're technically inept like me, get a techie friend to build it for you); it's cheaper than buying a pre-built model and, when parts start to show signs of wear and tear, like @igazor mentioned, you can replace the part instead of the whole computer.

If you do end up getting a new PC, don't forget to cap your frame rate at 60 FPS for the Sims (as TS3 is not well-optimized for newer hardware and will push your graphics card to 2500+ FPS, burning it out well before its anticipated lifespan).

Karritz

@lauravonawesome thanks. Yes - I still have Windows 7 on my laptop buy my new PC is Windows 10 Pro and it is running Sims 3 beautifully.

Paralee

lauravonawesome wrote: »

@Karritz I remember hearing that about Windows 10, hence why I kept rejecting the free upgrade. My old laptop still has Windows 7, but I run Win10 on my PC (my husband is a PC repair tech and, when he built my current gaming rig, he said that any new games I want to play in future will require at least DirectX 12, which will only work on Win10... or at least that's what I got out of it, lol).

@somethingstellar you're much better off getting a PC than a laptop. If you're technically inclined, look for deals on the parts you need and build your own rig (or, if you're technically inept like me, get a techie friend to build it for you); it's cheaper than buying a pre-built model and, when parts start to show signs of wear and tear, like @igazor mentioned, you can replace the part instead of the whole computer.

If you do end up getting a new PC, don't forget to cap your frame rate at 60 FPS for the Sims (as TS3 is not well-optimized for newer hardware and will push your graphics card to 2500+ FPS, burning it out well before its anticipated lifespan).

Awesome advice thank you. To everyone.
The desktop thing is my plan. If im going to invest money in something i want it to be something i dont have to chuck out as a whole in a few years. Or god forbid Sims 5 comes out and i find out im underspecced again lmao that would just kill whatever is left of my icy cold soul

There are lots of computer part stores i can get basic stuff like cases and keyboards and mice and chords from super cheap so id just have to really focus on acquiring the more expensive parts. They also offer a computer building workshop i might take a look at. Im technologically useless but im also more of a do-it-yourself type. I could do with a new skill lmao

igazor

There are also sites available online where you pick out the components for a custom build and they put it all together for you. Availability will depend on which country you are in, budget, etc.
@phoebebebe13

Paralee

igazor wrote: »

There are also sites available online where you pick out the components for a custom build and they put it all together for you.
@phoebebebe13

Yeah i saw her mentioning a place she got hers from in another thread somewhere many moons ago but i remember the prices still being a little up there. id rather save on the labor costs i think and instead invest time in learning about it.
Also i feel like ill get a bigger sense of satisfaction and "this is truly mine" if i figure out how to do it myself and am familiar with all the intricacies of its insides. At least that way if i ever do need to upgrade or replace anything i'll know how to do it myself instead of engaging my usual "im Amish and this isnt a barn so im hopeless" mentality lmao
Things like airplanes will freak me out until i die but i will master computers if it kills me.