I'm still a little unsure what to post in this forum and if it would be a good idea to make threads for the more common issues with this game. After all it is all about answers here.
One of the more common issues are Lags & Freezes. They occur on the best computers. So while sometimes the computer is the issue, lots of time, it's not.
I've started collecting some causes of the issue and thought I list them here. If you have anything to add or have any questions, feel free to post.
Causes
Make sure your computer fulfills the requirements. I think the minimum requirement for this game are way to low so if you are even lower than that, that is probably where your problem lies.
Stuck or frozen Sims
Stuck cars and bikes
Tons of cars in the streets and the inventories of inactive Sim. These are temporary items that don't get cleaned up properly.
Crowd gatherings that never dissolve.
Tons of downloads (especially package files) and faulty ones.
Bad Routing in Bridgeport and other towns
Large Savegames. Games that have been played very long tend to bloat. Especially all the relationship information take up a lot of space.
Spiral Staircases that don't work correctly anymore after Patch 1.26
Make sure you have no areas where Sim can get stuck
Trees in driveways make the game lag.
Some of the bigger mods are very heavy on the resources. If you have an older/slower computer, don't use them.
The game likes to spawn a lot of wild animals and strays. Similar to the car issue this makes the game lag
Server Connections Issue (SimPort, social features)
Reset all your Sims in town by entering the cheat resetsim *
Delete stuck cars by using the cheat testingcheatsenabled true and then shift-click on the car and choose Object-Delete
Try to reduce the number of cars in your hood. Remove them from inventories of inactive Sims and streets. To prevent them spawning everywhere again, delete the parking spaces as well.
Reduce the amount of Custom Content you're using and make sure the ones you are using are actually Sims 3 files and not corrupt.
Copy all your Sims to the library and move them to a new town. You will loose all your relationships but everything else will be maintained.
Make sure to fix all spiral staircases in your town by turning them until they work correctly.
Log out from game while playing.
Turn off the interactive loading screen.
Special Case: Island Paradise/Islo Paradiso
Islo Paradiso does have a lot of problems. Routing issues and the large world with an entire routable ocean are just an example.
Things you can try:
Delete the Scott Family
Use the cheat DiscoverAllUnchartedIslands to make all islands visible. I'm aware that this takes away from the fun but it seems to help some.
Make sure you have no stuck sims in your town (use the cheat resetsim * to reset all sims in your town and put them to a safe location)
Use Overwatch and ErrorTrap (those are mods and you'll be using at your own risk. Not supported by EA. Just google to find)
Check for any aboandonned boats in your game and delete them by using testingcheatsenabled true and then shift-click on the boat and choose object-delete.
Hi! I don't know what to write here, but need help, I have character and becomes an adult, does not work! You receive the icon of work from top left and immediately disappears. Help please, what to do?
I just installed the Sims 3 yesterday (base game, late night, ambitions, pets & generations) and I was playing a new game In Apaloosa plains. I have windows 8. It firstly crashed randomly and closed down, with a message saying it had crashed.
Nextly I was playing in Live Mode. I couldn't move the cursor, or pause the game or change the time speed, but the game continued to play as if i was doing nothing. Ctrl + Alt + Delete wouldn't work either, and I had to shut down the computer manually. The same thing happened about 20-30 minutes after playing again, except this time the game was paused, so it didn't continue to play, but it seemed to be the same issue.
Is there anything I can do to fix this? My games are up to date and I don't have any problems with my PC.
It's a new family too, in a smallish house, so it shouldn't be overloading it or anything.
Well just spent like 4 days and way too many hours to be healthy on Sims 3 trying to make an amazing hotel (which I was totally doing), but I got so caught up in making it perfect that I didn't save it and then I clicked on a sunflower vase while having the "create a style" tool in my hand it was all like " Can't customize er whatever" and it had some arrow thing pointing @ some kinda * looking thing that was in the corner of that box that pops up in the top left corner of the screen when you click on something to change the color and stuff. I clicked it and nothing happened and so I was all like "wtf is this" and clicked the that check mark thing @ the bottom of that box on the right with all the color options and stuff and the screen made all those boxes go away and I was like " k good thing that **bleep**s over" and then the screen popped up that loading Sims diamond thing and it said "Processing" and so I was like "%^&*(%!!!!!" and it just kept loading like that 4 like a half hour and nothings happening so like my whole world is like ending right now and I'm calling out to the sim gods er whatever to like help me out like now. PLEASE!!!!!!
OH, my gosh! I have that problem too!!! Sometimes its because you bought a "vacationer" reward from lifetime rewards and ur sim gets stuck on just not showing up, so check if thats y.
The children, infants and toddler in my family have part adult female body parts. They have a chlid head, but the adult body hovers over it with long fingers Can this be fixed? T
You need to check your custom content. That happened to me until I deleted an outfit for women. The piece of clothing is set for all Sims and not the appropriate age/sex.
I have been having a problem with my Sims 3. It started after I bought Seasons and installed it. I had tons of custom content and EPs and SPs. It would run fine for a couple of hours and then freeze. The background would flash negative colors. The more I restarted it the more it would freeze. I uninstalled everything, then reinstalled only my favorite packs plus the base. I still had the same issue. I saw some posts about Pets being the problem. I uninstalled the newer packs and Sims 3 with Pets played fine. Reinstalled the newer packs, and it started freezing again. I unstalled Sims 3 Pets and it works fine. I cannot figure out why Pets will not work with Supernatural and Seasons.
System Information ------------------ Time of this report: 7/13/2013, 15:51:26 Machine name: MISSYSCOMPUTER Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.130307-0422) Language: English (Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: Dell Inc System Model: Dimension E521 BIOS: )Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS v6.00PG Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.0GHz Memory: 2430MB RAM Page File: 812MB used, 15106MB available Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) DX Setup Parameters: Not found DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode
------------ DxDiag Notes ------------ DirectX Files Tab: No problems found. Display Tab 1: No problems found. Sound Tab 1: No problems found. Music Tab: No problems found. Input Tab: No problems found. Network Tab: No problems found.
--------------- Display Devices --------------- Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Manufacturer: NVIDIA Chip type: GeForce 6150 LE DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0241&SUBSYS_01ED1028&REV_A2 Display Memory: 512.0 MB Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz) Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200 Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll Driver Version: 6.14.0010.9148 (English) DDI Version: 9 (or higher) Driver Attributes: Final Retail Driver Date/Size: 8/23/2006 15:12:38, 4496128 bytes WHQL Logo'd: Yes WHQL Date Stamp: n/a VDD: n/a Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys Mini VDD Date: 8/23/2006 15:12:38, 3959712 bytes Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4101-11CF-2450-E72103C2CB35} Vendor ID: 0x10DE Device ID: 0x0241 SubSys ID: 0x01ED1028 Revision ID: 0x00A2 Revision ID: 0x00A2 Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_B ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A Deinterlace Caps: {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch {212DC724-3235-44A4-BD29-E1652BBCC71C}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch Registry: OK DDraw Status: Enabled D3D Status: Enabled AGP Status: Enabled DDraw Test Result: Not run D3D7 Test Result: Not run D3D8 Test Result: Not run D3D9 Test Result: Not run
------------- Sound Devices ------------- Description: SigmaTel Audio Default Sound Playback: Yes Default Voice Playback: Yes Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_8384&DEV_7618&SUBSYS_102801ED&REV_1002 Manufacturer ID: 1 Product ID: 100 Type: WDM Driver Name: sthda.sys Driver Version: 5.10.5143.0000 (English) Driver Attributes: Final Retail WHQL Logo'd: Yes Date and Size: 7/27/2006 15:24:28, 1171464 bytes Other Files: Driver Provider: SigmaTel HW Accel Level: Standard Cap Flags: 0xB5B Min/Max Sample Rate: 44100, 192000 Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0 HW Memory: 0 Voice Management: No EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No Registry: OK Sound Test Result: Not run
Name: Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio Device ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_026C&SUBSYS_01ED1028&REV_A2\3&2411E6FE&0&81 Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\hdaudbus.sys, 5.10.0001.5013 (English), 4/13/2008 23:06:06, 144384 bytes
