Re: Error code 16 after new windows 11 update.

So, I tried moving the entire documents directory using the windows tool and then setting security options to exclude that, still no luck, so whatever is causing this is not an issue exclusive to how windows handles the users or program files directory, so, there's that I guess... I get the feeling more and more now that windows may have messed with whatever instruction the game uses to save. What we honestly need is someone who can do a deep technical dive into this, not sure how many active Sims 3 modders there are, but if someone can get a hold of one to look into this, that may yield the best results, I know we can't post links to mods here or anything, just saying, I'm really running out of ideas.

Yes I use mods! Since you asked I did try taking out the mods folder entirely and run the game without it, (caches cleared also) but I was still having the same error!

Also I did look into the security settings to see if anything had recently been blocked, as said above and that setting for me is off completely.

I don't know if this might be helpful, so feel free to ignore it if it isn't, but when I did try to run the game on a new admin profile, It seemed to run and save fine before I updated the game to recognize my graphics card. I only tested for about 20 mins though so I can't be sure.

This whole think is super confusing, why does pausing onedrive and changing security work for some but not all? stupid 22h2

Hmm, I'm beginning to have another suspicion about this issue, please post your mod list @Sabillad 

@Sabillad  It really does look like there are multiple distinct causes of this error, which is part of why troubleshooting it has been so frustrating.  But both OneDrive and a security setting can block access to the Sims 3 user folder, so this does make sense.  And perhaps the new build of Windows handles these conflicts differently than before, like maybe it tilts in favor of whatever's doing the blocking instead of favoring the program trying to write to Documents.  But that's just speculation, and the real answer could be any number of things.

The whole thing??? xD Let me figure out how to do this.

2hrs later
Well that took a while... sorry about the wait!

Well, that's... A LOT of mods, do not even know where to begin troubleshooting with that, though, we do both have NRAAS mods which I think are pretty common, though now I kinda wonder a couple things, hmm, this needs more research, might be slow on my end until next week, anyone else wanting to take a gander, feel free I guess, EA, if you're reading this, people are reporting the issue including myself even after removing mods, so please don't dismiss this as a modded issue.

Edit: I think @puzzlezaddict is onto something and seeing the root cause of why NVIDIA drivers got so messed up after 22H2 has me curious too, I really need to try getting to the bottom of what actually changed in 22H2 in terms of how files are being addressed as I feel that's key to what is going on here. Anyone else having the issue please do post here, having a larger sample size may help us get to the bottom of this faster.

Edit 2: Tried disabling mods, disconnecting from the internet to ensure it is not trying to sync documents files anywhere and adjusting permissions, and still not getting anywhere, doesn't seem to be a modding issue or some weird background upload thing, still investigating

Edit 3: Last post for the night, going to create a new saves folder manually for the Sims 3 and clear out all non-essential caches, I may even just have the game regen those folders, going to see if this works, wish me luck with this all tomorrow.

@tommy61157 and @Sabillad  I doubt the issue is any specific mod or mods, at least not the traditional kind.  The presence of any mods at all might matter, but beyond that, the content of those mods shouldn't make a difference.  Lighting mods or other utilities, for example the Smooth Patch, that go into the game's program files might be problematic though; if you have any of these, please test without them.

Microsoft has been emphasizing increased security for Windows 11 for a while now, so that's still where I'd look.  It's not just the security settings themselves but other utilities like virtualization-based security.  I'm wondering about that too, whether having it enabled contributes to the issue, and if anyone wants to check their settings, here's how:

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/disable-vbs-windows-11

To be clear, I'm not recommending that anyone disable this feature; you need to decide for yourself whether you feel safe doing so.  But if someone reports it's already disabled, then that's clearly not the problem.  Or at least it's not the only problem.

@puzzlezaddict I have VBS disabled (first thing I checked when I upgraded to Windows 11 since that tanks performance) and this update did not enable it, just double checked. I do not have any mods that do not simply go into the mods folder. But I'll keep approaching it from this angle.

Edit: Puzzlez may have been entirely right on this one, testing an interesting fix that I just found on Steam to see if it works, if it does, the fix is... kinda easy.


Edit 2: Well, tried messing with controlled folder access settings even though they weren't enabled by default to see if that would help. After a bunch of troubleshooting of that and ensuring I deleted my cache also, still no luck, eh....

Here's an interesting read, wonder if something mentioned here is causing the issue: https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/27/microsoft_windows_11_security_features/

I can definitely do a deep dive into this, but this may take me some time, in the meantime, if you are having this issue, please post here so we can have a larger sample size and gather more information, every bit is going to help here. I may even reach out to someone who can take a deeper technical look into this than I can to see if they can help. I'm working a fair amount lately, but don't think for a second that I'm leaving this issue by the wayside, I want to play my Sims 3 too...

Also investigating this: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3674951/what-are-the-new-windows-11-22h2-security-features.html

Edit: I checked, smart app control is off on my end and I don't think I have extra kernel level security on and different processor vendors are having the issue so I doubt it's a proprietary kernel module stinking it up, going to have to dive deeper...

Edit 2: I should mention, I have windows 11 enterprise, so whatever is happening is not microsoft gimping a functionality in the home or pro versions either... That being said, want me to test disabling some feature that no normal windows 11 user has access to? I'm your guy...

So I was looking on twitter to see if there were any fixes for this issue, and I think I finally found one that is working for my game!
I've only played for about 30mins but saving multiple times worked!
I swear this was something i tried too but now it's working so i'll take it!

All I needed to do was change the sims 3 compatibility settings!
So find where your sims 3 application is, right click, then click properties.
Then you can click the compatibility tab and change it so it runs in a different windows verison!
I tried windows 8 first but my game kept crashing, so now i'm trying windows 7.

Fingers crossed!

EDIT:
I was able to play for a few hours, but then Error 16 reared it's ugly head again ;-;

@Sabillad Hmm, I had the compatibility settings on Windows 7 Ithought, I'll double check and try with them tuned to other OSes as well as off entirely, may I ask which .exe file (name of the file) you were modifying the compatibility settings for and if it's still working for you?

Edit: Just saw your edit, hmm, the fact that it originally had an impact though, worth investigating, I will try a couple things on my end.

After doing a bit of...ehem....completely legitimate code searching my friend did through the latest patch to Windows, turns out certain games that use pretty old instruction sets were given support in the latest 22H2 patch with microsoft apparently telling no one, make sure EVERY .exe file is set NOT to run as admin and to NOT run compatibility mode and it SHOULD work.

If that doesn't work, play around with the compatibility modes with the .exe until you manage to get it to work.

In theory (Again, IN THEORY), Alder Lake and later CPUs should also no longer need the patch if they have Windows updated to 22H2 also, but that warrants testing to confirm and frankly, I'm burnt out on this as is (and don't have an applicable CPU to test this on) and am just glad that I got the game to work and seeing it surprisingly work better too.

Edit: Played the game for several hours with no error 12 and 16 errors.

Edit 2: Also make sure you have all the latest cumulative windows patches, this seems to help also.

Edit 3: Sorry for so many edits, just as a reminder, may need to also have OneDrive uninstalled or disabled in addition to this too, there also seems to be a link there still as well.

I had changed the TS3W application since I play the sims on steam

Is the admin setting thing on the compatibility tab? Cause none of them are set to admin... Hmmm I'mma mess around like you suggested xD

Btw that you for putting so much effort into this, I'm not super computer technically minded so even just knowing that there were people looking deeper into the issue with some more know-how then I was comforting.

Hopefully this means we're fixed! But i might come back crying if i can't get it to work xD

I have been following your posts for the past week and want to say thanks for all the work you've done on this.

I had a few questions if you don't mind. Do you use Lazy Duchess Smooth Patch? I'm just wondering if this will still be useable given the fixes you are suggesting (as you have to run it as administrator to make it work).

With regards to turning all compatability modes off, is this in the compatability tab? And is it the same for run as administrator? I know you've done so much already but is there a way you could show us step by step what to do? Just worried that I'll do it entirely wrong and think it's still broken when there is in fact a way to fix it.

Massive thanks in advance!

@xeeqan3ku4og I do not use the Smooth Patch mod, if you run the mod exe (assuming it has a different .exe) as admin, it will likely be okay since it's likely just needing that to overwrite functions, I think the bigger emphasis is on the compatibility mode itself between OS versions.

Turning the compatibility mode off is simply a matter of unchecking the top option in the properties tab where you would also enable the default running of the exe as admin. I don't know how to explain this that well, if you can select an OS for compatibility mode, it is not off, if you can't, it is off.

Edit: If you have the latest version of the Smooth Patch mod (with the LD Launcher) you don't need to run admin, based off my quick analysis running it that way, seems to still work just fine, and wow, do certain things run smoother with it. Just make sure you have the latest updated version so it works properly with the new EA Launcher. If I come across any issues in my longer analysis, I will let you know!

I use the smooth patch for steam.
But I'm still having difficulties getting the game to run without issue. Though it's definitely not the patch's fault, my game just seems super stubborn.

I do wish we had some kind of clear guide but seeing as many of the issues come and go at different times for different people, that might not be possible

Well my partner tried it for me (I'm at work) and he's got it to save a few times, still threw up error 16 but he messed with the compatibility and that seemed to fix it. More testing will be done when I get home.

I'm still using origin so I don't know if that would make a difference? I'm wary of moving to the EA app at the moment given all the nonsense I've read about people trying to get it to work but I know I'm going to have to move over eventually. 

Edit: Tried running smooth patch and apparently it wasn't having it at all. But again using Origin and not the latest version of smooth patch.

I'm still having issues with this, Now i can play for an hour or so and then error 16 comes back.

If you select compatibility mode and then unselected it and hit apply on the launcher.exe file, I've found it saves every time. So now I just have to alt tab out and do that to save my game. Make sure you save as and name it something different. My other half discovered that the save files are saving as Read Only which he thinks is preventing it from saving properly. We tried to turn off Read Only but that didn't seem to fix the issue.

Also this works for the latest Smooth Patch from Lazy Duchess. You still have to select in compatibility mode then unselected and hit apply on the launcher for it and the original launcher but then I've found it saves everytime and the game runs brilliantly.

I also heard around from people if you play for about 2 hours max then exit the game take a break and then play again that it helps as well, i also saw that if you keep up to date with the windows 11 update that it helps too! I havent had time to again set up my graphics card and set up my store content worlds and adjusted stuff for the sims 3 and can only do so this weekend as im working but i will try all these tips myself to see if it helps.

Oh this is great! I will deffo try this and yes i heard about the read only file issue and i tried that and it worked at first for me but then it didnt work after the first few times.

So i tried everything that ppl suggested but its still an issue, this is seriously frustrating as I cant roll back 😞

at least i can open my games, as I was getting "a serious error has occured" plus the error 16.  I'm having to go into my save files to delete bad files whilst in game to save as that is literally the only way not to lose progress, I can save once or twice but then after that even if i save as under a new save name it still gives me that error 16, I'm thinking that this issue is honestly never gonna resolve :/, I've exhausted myself in research and I honesty give up. I may check by taking out my mods folder to see if this helps as if it does then welp i guess ill have to play without my cc and mods lol.

@PandaLover1698 @xeeqan3ku4og @Sabillad I'm so sorry, a tornado knocked out my internet for like 3 days and then I had to work, lots of crazy stuff.

Can't seem to find anything that produces meaningful results beyond disabling OneDrive and messing with compatibility and admin settings, though, something curious, when I was offline, I couldn't play at all, got "a serious error occurred" on every single save, my game does connect to my EA account by default, but Idk how that would affect anything, once I got back online, nbd though, hmm, going to have to investigate that phenomena, could provide more answers as to what is going on here.

@tommy61157  Out of curiosity, do your expansion and stuff packs load properly when you're offline?  The EA App will often not load Sims 4 packs when it's in offline mode, and it's possible the same is true for Sims 3.  You could load a new save and try filtering CAS or Build/Buy by pack; only the packs that have loaded will be options here.

No worries! I've just uninstalled my game tbh, im tired of the headache lol and most likely will go back to my potato laptop to play it cuz im not making any progress at all :/