More Awesome Than You!

Hello all.

So despite the fact that for as long as I can remember I've had issues with these pets EPs, I decided I'd buy the Sims 3 Pets EP at Christmas. I got it, installed it, and then went about populating the neighborhood with a ton of Sims. I had a handful of issues while doing that - blue screens, the game completely locking up the computer, etc. I got around that by not running the game or CAS for too long.

After spending like a month working on my neighborhood to my liking, I finally get around to playing. The first family I played, everything was fine. The game seemed to lag in parts, but that was it. I switched to another family, and the past two times I've tried to play, the game just crashes, randomly. Everything just freezes, and the Windows white arrow appears on screen rather than the Sims arrow. When I hit ctrl+alt+delete to access the task manager, I get the generic Windows 'this application has crashed' message. This seems to be happening pretty randomly, and absolutely out of nowhere. I had the game running just now and played for a total of literally five minutes before it froze.

Is this just another sucky side effect of the Pets EP? Is there a certain reason this is happening? My computer more than meets the specs required to run any of the Sims games; trust me, I checked after the above-mentioned blue screen issues. I have no issue with uninstalling the Pets EP, but if I have to do that, how would I be able to keep my Sims? I worked really hard on them all and would hate to lose them. I can live without the animals and the new neighborhood, but I'd like to keep my Sims if I have to trash the EP. I have yet since the Sims 3 came out had to uninstall anything, so I will freely admit I have no idea what I'm doing there. And no, this has never happened before, just with this EP, which leads me to believe that the Pets issues have struck again. *sigh* So yeah, when/if there's a Sims 4 Pets EP, I won't get sucked in no matter how many new animals they promise.

Anyway, if someone could help, that'd be much appreciated! I'd actually like to enjoy the work I put into all of my Sims, heh. Thanks!

Remove all CC and mods except for AM and try again.

Yeah, it sounds like the patch. Apparently EA has been made aware of the issue but has not addressed it. Knowing EA, it probably won't be fixed with the next expansion. In the meantime, if you find it's not a CC issue and you've tried everything else that is suggested (including adding TS3W.exe to the DEP), you can try a fresh reinstallation and manually patch, avoiding the latest patch. It's only a temporary fix, but in the meantime you can at least play. Good luck.

NOTE: Listening to ItchyNScratchy is contraindicated.

Yes, do NOT listen to ItchyNScratchy.  It doesn't know what it's talking about and constantly tries to blame its own failings on the patch.

Say what you will, but the game is working, which is better than what was going on before. :)

Given "what was going on before" was likely from PEBKAC issues, I don't think your experience is relevant to anyone else here.

o/

Seriously. I have the newest patch and have no problems. ItchyNStupid is just, well, stupid.

Something that might be worth considering is the location of the mods folder.  I had not experienced a CTD for fuck knows how long, until 1.29 and Pets, then I started crashing every 1 to 1 1/2 hours of game play.  As a last ditch resort, I reloaded the old framework and moved my mods folder back into the base game folder.  Following this I have been able to play for several hours continuously without a crash.  Maybe it is just a coincidence and the game will start crashing again, then again EAxis did fuck up alot with the 1.29 patch and Pets.

I am sure if the location of the mods folder has absolutely nothing to do with the crashing the FOJ will be along to point that out.  In the mean time, might worth a shot, if you know how to do it.

The FOJ's stated position on this in the past has been "He Is Old, and Hates Change."