[FAQ] Save Errors (Error 12, 13, 15, 16)

Well, it just happened yesterday, and I just wanted to know what it was.
This is some info I just dug up, even though it might be obvious
My Sims 3 base game is a year old, I don't know about my EPs and SP
My computer is a 2007 Acer computer with Windows Vista and all the latest updates.
Additonal info is, even though it won't affect my game in any way... and I feel like adding it
The monitor is a million-year-old Sceptre box monitor, my speakers are a thousand year old Labtec set.

I'm not suprised it's 32 bit *facepalm* 
...and we recently had to restore the computer due to full disc space and 6257 (my antivirus program even told me!) trojan viruses.

That was long.

I know it has been a long time since someone has posted on here but has anyone actualy got the base game and expantion packs all working or is it just me that been trying for a week to get this stupid game working and still no look. I get errors 12 and 16 and what it actually does is replaces my previous save games with a bad carupted file. My memery is fine and the computor plays the sims fine and checked everything and done everything people have said but still no look. I dont have to play the sims for a very long time for one of these errors to pop up or the sims to compleatly crach. Again I have even taken this to people who repair computors and still cant play on it so it is a curupted file EA games has released within the game no my computor before anyone starts. again it replaces my normaly good saved games with a currpted bad save game. Please fix this as tryed patches and everything.

The suggestions, guides with what to do or not to do in order to avoid error 12 are all good and nice and I personally want to thank to all the guys who took the time to write such guides, I know from experience it's not easy to troubleshoot, to identify the problems, to find solutions and to put them all together in a guide for others to learn as well... so kudos for those guys

my frustration goes to EA and in particular the Sims 3 series developers

error 12 it's a fault in the game itself, they know it and I assume there is little they can do about it, but they encourage the rumors is because of the lack or resources, to point the fault to our computers, to our hardware in other words to state something like "it's not us or our game, is your computer, you better get a new one"

yet, players - like myself - with very powerful gaming computers have the same issue with error 12

I've installed first Sims 3 on a relatively decent desktop computer, a Dell with Intel quad core processor, with 4 G RAM, with Vista Ultimate on it, updated to the latest service pack, with plenty (over 350 GB) of available room on my hard driver, with a nVidia GForce 1 MB dedicated video card, still I had error 12

I said, hmm, maybe it's my computer, even tho' I was playing GTA IV and V with no problems on it

I've installed them on a last model laptop, with Windows 10,  Intel duo core processor, 4 GB RAM, plenty (over 400 GB) of available room on my hard drive, AMD 1 MB video card, I still have the same error 12... hmm...

lately, I've got me an Alienware Area 51, I won't post the specs here because I don't want to look like I am bragging, but one thing is for sure, I still have error 12 when saving Sims 3 and the game is crashing...  hehe... so three decent, acceptable computers, same error 12 on all of them...

I mean, come on EA..??.. really..??.. and they - EA guys - expect us to keep spending real money on expansion packs and on premium content for in-game items and such things... all that while error 12 and multiple crashes are a common occurrence and no one in EA development team can fix it or seems to care... really EA..??..

in the what not to do guide, someone said we should save often, not play long games, for long time, and so many other good otherwise advice... 

but it boils down to on fact not playing the game at all so we won't get error 12... well, I got the game to play it, for hours if I choose to, and I don't want to save it every 10-15 minutes, I don't want or need this frustration...

I also play GTA series... I never had a problem with them and those games are resources intensive, and CPU and graphics and RAM intensive...  yet Sims 3, is giving us error 12, is crashing on us often and EA is doing nothing about it, other than letting us in the dark, or to help each other as much as we can, considering we can't find professional help - aka from EA - about this issue...

I personally lost respect for EA ever since error 12 appeared and since they closed down the NFSW - Need for Speed World - after players, like me too, pumped real money in that game platform (NFSW) and then they shut it down with just a big "sorry guys, but we'll close it"

I for one, I won't buy anymore any EA product, at least not until they fix error 12 on Sims 3...

they want us to move to Sims 4... hehe...  really....

in my humble opinion, Sims 2 was and will always be the best - if they (EA guys) would have focused their funds and development resources to improve and develop Sims 2 since back then when they initially launched, would be maybe a bigger phenomenon than GTA or Second Life...

but, no, they "upgraded" to Sims 3 that has a lot of issues - see error 12, frequent crashes and more - and now Sim 4 and they want us to keep spending real money to get that, more errors just with different game concept and more expensive version of Sims... 

I never played Sims 4, not even the free trial version and I won't, as I've read in the forums what others are saying about Sims 4...

but, I'll stop ranting...

@ EA

please take responsibility for error 12 in Sims 3 and please do something about it... many of us we are not teens anymore, we are quite capable adults (at least some of us are)...

and by the way EA, please come out with a Mature rated version of Sims, as again many of us we are not kids anymore

thank you for reading...