sims 3 dashboard freezes when downloading

Download your purchased content from TheSims3.com; it rarely crashes.

I had this issue repeatedly, so much to where it would freeze my whole game, crash my computer and erase all my progress.  I learned to just minimize the game, open the web, do my downloads, then resume playing.   It sounds like a pain in the butt, but compared to the former choice, it's much more effective!