What does LAA mean?
Also, I've got lagging in TS3 that I didn't have on my old PC - meaning 12 years old running VISTA and so on. Moving to a new Acer Predator and I've got lagging. Not so much when I play live but when I edit, especially CAS, it will literally come to a standstill. If I can wait it out and click live, then go back, I can get a bit more life out of it. I don't know if this is what she's talking about.
@columbia93 LAA stands for large-address aware, meaning a 32-bit app can address (use) up to 4 GB memory, instead of the 2 GB that non-LAA apps can use. Since Sims 3 has been LAA since a patch in 2010, this is unlikely to have anything to do with your issue. The only way your install wouldn't be LAA is you installed only the base game and maybe the first couple expansions from disc and never patched it.
For the lag, what do your in-game framerates look like? Bring up the cheats console (crtl-shift-C) and enter "fps on" without quotes, and a number will appear in the upper right corner of the screen. ("fps off" amkes it go away.) This number should never go above the refresh rate of your monitor, maybe 60 Hz but perhaps 144, which is common in the Predator line. If it's too high or fluctuates wildly, there are ways to manually cap it.
Please also test CAS in a clean user data folder. Move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop. When you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content. Don't add anything to this folder yet; just start a new save adn see how CAS behaves. If it's better, you can start moving your content to the new folder from the old one and testing. Test your custom content first—even one bad cc item can cause exactly the problems you've described.
If CAS lags even in a clean folder, and your in-game framerates aren't the issue, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
Edit: I've merged your other post into this thread. To answer the question posed here, the game itself can't be the source of the update, as it hasn't received any updates in four years. I think the "updates" are really Origin checking for bad product keys and blocking people's access to the game or certain packs if it finds any tied to bad keys.
Normally, I'd say just run the update, I'm sure it's fine as long as you got your content from legitimate sources: Origin itself, sealed disc copies, or authorized third-party vendors. However, a number of people have had their content disappear for no discernible reason. At least some of them did own legit copies of the game, but Origin has blocked access nonetheless. It can often be sorted out by a call to EA customer support, but why deal with that headache when you can avoid it?
If you want to find out whether your codes are okay, you can try installing the game on a different computer, at least temporarily. Launch it and make sure your packs are all working, restart the computer, see if Origin tries to repair or update the game, and test again, just to be thorough. If your content is still intact, then you should be fine running the update on your main computer.
I don't think my questions should be merged. They are two totally unrelated issues, regardless the same game.
The issue with "upgrading" on Sims 3 is something I've only experienced since either an update months ago that made it impossible to just open the launcher without going through Origin, or when I installed on the new PC using only Origin. I honestly don't recall when the issue started but I do know it's been a few months. As I said, clicking on the update portion completely ruins everything so not sure why you're suggesting I do something I've already tried and which causes problems.. So it seems I have to keep clicking to play without upgrading. I know the game hasn't been updated in forever - that is my point. I should not be seeing this. I do not have a bad key code because I've been installing, uninstalling and installing TS3 since the day it came out. The only thing I do on this PC is have the game installed completely through Origin. Before, I had disks until about halfway through when I started just buying them through Origin. Maybe I should uninstall and reinstall with at least one game installed from the disk. I don't know....
As for the other issue, I had no problems with CAS on the old PC and, when I moved to the Win 10 PC, I started having the issues, even though the files were the same. I've done the new folder thing multiple times. I've moved out some, moved in some.... I'll see about doing the fps thing. Ugh.
And yesterday I did a hard uninstall on Origin because the latest update screwed up everything, as usual. I go back on today and I get a message that Update yet again. WTH is going on over there? It's gotten completely out of hand. And this isn't the TS3 thing - this is for Origin. But daily updates? Especially when they don't work and you end up having to mess with your registry? Sorry. Venting. But dang, this is beyond ridiculous.
@columbia93 Patch 1.69, which requires the game to be launched through Origin, was released in November 2015. I figured if you were playing through Origin, you already had that patch. Updating further wouldn't make a difference, and it certainly wouldn't "ruin" everything, unless you somehow managed to avoid patch 1.69 for all this time. If you have, then you don't need me to tell you not to update.
Having a partial disc install wouldn't change anything. As long as at least one pack is downloaded through Origin, you get the same result, including the same fake updates, as a fully digital install.
I didn't say you had bad codes, I said the Sims 3 "update" might be looking for bad codes, and as long as you didn't have any, you were probably okay. And you're not the only one who's been asked ot update Origin recently. I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes; I don't have inside information. I only see the results.
I don't know why your Origin keeps updating. Mine updates around once every two weeks, maybe a bit less.
