I always make backups of all of my files.  I had to uninstall all of my games and start over to install everything because it was not patching properly.  So I had made copies of all of my folders that had CC in them. Mods, DCCache, SavedSims, Saves, installed worlds etc.

So after I was all installed, patched and ready to add CC back I just copied the files back over.  Everything works.  And I have a back up so I know I will never lose them!  That way you do not have to re-download anything.

I haven't tested Riverview yet, but it shows up in the menu.

I was having the same problem and I did a few things and it now works.  I started off with a total clean install.  I noticed my games were not all properly patched.  So I decided to start from scratch.  Loaded the game chose a household, loaded it, unpaused and CTD.

So I then did the DEP fix and added all of my Sims 3 exes to the list.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700810.aspx  The area that is important is "Enabling the DEP Exception List"

That for me fixed it.  I was able to play.  I readded my CC and hacks slowly.  Items that have altered scripts crashed my game so I removed them.  Example was Treeag's treasure box.

I then added back my saved sims, saves and Library.  All of a sudden crashing to desktop.  Finally I found it was my Library that was crashing me.  I did have a lot of houses, sims, and sims with houses in there.

I just totally deleted and can play just fine now.

I am not sure if that will help you, but maybe this will help someone.  I spent a lot of hours trying to figure it out.

I didn't see this posted here but I found a bug that causes my game to crash.  It appears that the game will clone non active households and make them Paparazzi.  So I have a regular Sim named Eric whom my active Sim is in love with, and in her building lives Eric the Paparazzi! 

I have had both men at the elevator to her apartment when she calls reg Eric over.  If she goes to interact with the Paparazzi my game CTD.  I will delete him, but the problem could happen again.

This goes off a bit on a tangent, but I wanted to share in case some of you are unaware.  There is a way to choose the outfit before they pop.

What I do to make sure my pregnant sims wear nice pregnancy outfits is I create a 2nd clothing option in CAS of each category in clothes I know have a pregnancy mesh.  I make my sim wear the outfits before he/she pops.  You have to dress him/her in each category in the 2nd selection.  When they do pop they stay in the clothes I planned for them (as long as they have pregnancy meshes).  So they have everything looking nice from their shoes to their earrings, from everyday to swimsuit.

No more random ugly outfits with crazy shoes.  I have gotten some nice female clothing from Poppysims.

Has anyone else played with the genetics in Create A Sim using two parents and hitting random baby icon???  What the hell happened!  My babies are all mutants.  They seem to totally get random features and look nothing at all like their base parents.  I used this all the time before and you could always see the parents nose, or eyes in their children.  Now they look like old TS2 Townie rejects!

I start off with 2 Sims, then I click on the "Add Sims" icon, click the baby symbol.  That first child looks similar to the parents, but when you then click the Pacifier Icon, it seems to totally randomize their face using the games preset features.

I used this a lot making sims, and children before.  So I know it used to work.  I just got Ambitions today and this was the first thing I noticed.  I had not seen anyone else talking about this.  Does anyone know if the babies that are born look like their parents still?

In the attached photo you have, Dad, Mom and aged up child.  The eyes and nose of the child, you can tell are preset CAS features.  It never did that before.  I don't like it.

Edited to add: Yes I use sliders, yes I have Awesome Mod, and I do have randomized townie faces checked off. I did some more experimenting and it looks like it is the work of No Vanilla Pudding setting in Awesome Mod.  Will report it there.

Just out of curiosity what level of autonomy do you have it set at?  I have the opposite problem because I play on high autonomy...my Sims cry over the death of their mother and then 1 second later they are flirting with the neighbor, then they run off dancing, cook burgers, and read a book!

If you just installed Ambitions or the patch, your settings may have been reset and it might be set on low or no autonomy.

Other than that I can not help you!  Someone with more computer guts knowledge will have to chime in.

This should be a lesson as well.  ALWAYS back your saved game files before adding ANY NEW content.  That goes for patches, hair, clothing etc.  I always copy my saved games before I update anything.  I also have a copy of my custom content.

If you have updated and are playing along and everything seems fine, DO NOT overwrite your saved games.  Make NEW ones.  You never know if something hidden is going on, so why risk your neighborhood or sims you took so long to make.

Well I have Vista, and I was randomly crashing left and right a while ago and I found this thread: http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=375907

I followed it and have not crashed since.  I'm not sure if it would help you, or if you have already applied this.  But maybe it will help you!

I am going to get slapped for helping but so much information is buried all over several different sites. 

You may have had bad CC.  Read this to see if it resembles what you saw: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17241.0.html

This tool helps you locate and fix bad CC files:
http://linna.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006

If your problem was caused by this then the saved game is broken and you can not do anything with it or the people in it.

I don't know how many times I have had to restart my neighborhood due to the millions of bugs associated with this game and then throw in bugged CC.

You had said your launcher didn't work, not sure how to help you without it.  If you can use the launcher this is what I did to get it to work.

They way I had to get my Riverview to work was to DL a fresh copy from Sims 3.  I cleared my 4 cache files in Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3.  I also made sure there was nothing inside DCCache folder. (If you have things installed here just move them to a safe place for a moment.)  I then installed Riverview.  The installer creates a file called dcdb0.ebc.  This file contains the items needed for Riverview (rabbitholes etc.)  I have to keep that file in DCCache in order to get Riverview to work properly.

I do not compress or decrapify anything to do with Riverview.  I created a back up of this dcdb0.ebc file and move it out whenever I need to use the launcher.

My Riverview works and everything is labeled properly.  I am patched with WA and HELS.

Backup any of his saved games just in case.

ETA: My resource.cfg files looks like this

Priority 500
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.dbc
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.dbc
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*.dbc
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*.dbc
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*/*.dbc
PackedFile ../../../Users/YOURNAMEHERE/DOCUME~1/ELECTR~1/THESIM~1/DCCache/*.dbc
PackedFile ../../../Users/YOURNAMEHERE/DOCUME~1/ELECTR~1/THESIM~1/DCCache/*.ebc

I have no idea if any of that is unneeded but my stuff works.

Glad it worked for you.  Just yesterday I noticed I wasn't fully patched either.

Are you missing a patch?  I thought the base was 1.10.  Maybe you can DL it and manually install?

Try Awesome Mod too if you never find a fix for this.  It comes with a CD crack and he extensively looks into transportation bugs and fixes them.

Lots of people are playing with Arred copies and are managing to patch and use CC/Mods.  So look into it.

Is this happening in a fresh neighborhood, or is it an old one?

This doesn't work for me any better than the other way, just wonderfully easier to batch them all together.  I still get told I need to update, or it says Installed but it is not.  Would it be helpful for someone to look at the file that my decrap makes and compare it to the original?

The file gets smaller and the time stamp does change.

I turned off UAC and run this program as Admin.  I am running for sure this time 1.10, 2.5, 3.1.  I will post the 2 files if anyone is interested.

It must be a Vista problem then.  I found I was NOT fully patched so I fixed that issue at least.  But I still can not get the broken/uninstallable sims3packs to install after using decrap or s3rc.

Oh well this is way too much fiddling for such a bug ridden game anyway!  My sims usually corrupt themselves in just a few generations just from going on vacation.  I have what I need working.  Until someone can tell me how to work this with retarded Vista I will go back to my Sims for now.

I feel like a fool but I can not drag anything into the command prompt window.  Do I need to DL a DOS program for this?  I haven't used DOS for...I have no idea, YEARS!  

I did however manually type out the -fD and it says:
BacktoNature.sims3pack
Done!

When I stick it in the launcher it says: Installation failed: Please make sure your game has the latest Software update.

I have these files and s3rc/decrap inside C: User - Name.

ETA: If I just decrap they pretend to install but don't.    Also I have SUCCESSFULLY decrapified my merged packages and what not.  So I know it does work.  Just not sims3packs.  At least I think it has.  I am trying really hard to learn all of this and not be a tard!

I'm going to reinstall, maybe I am not as patched as the game is leading me to believe.

I have 25 files that do not install through the launcher at all, mostly patterns and a few TSR old files that I have been trying to fix/decrapify/compress and if I just decrap and try to install they say Success! But no install icon, and the dbc is 1 kb.  If I s3rc and try to install them I get install failed and that I need to update my game.  It doesn't work for any sims3packs, but these files need the fix so I thought I would keep trying with these.

I am running Vista 64 bit.  My launcher is the HELS launcher it says version 3.1.  My game version.txt says 1.10.

I have managed to work around this and I have my game running really well now that I found out what was causing my crashes.  However I like to have things as good as I can get them, so it really bothers me that I can't do what you guys are managing.  I thought I was just being a tard, but I am following the exact same steps as listed above.

I don't know what else to do.

Edited to Add: That Valentine's file also installed just fine.  Going to experiment some more.

I thought I was the only one unable to decrap.  My launcher always says it could not install decrapified sims3packs.  But I can install them just fine before (except for the old TSR ones).  I poured over other threads to make sure I was doing it right.  Not sure where I am going wrong.

Hmm I thought you had to have some kind of romantic relationship with the foreigner.  I also thought the fix was fairly recent like a week or two.

Had your Sim gone on vacation before this time you saw the child?  I think the bug has to do with the Foreigner dying and the story mode (EA's) creating a replacement.

I don't know why you don't believe Inge, she is 100% correct.  It is a World Adventure bug.  Foreigners come with STDs. Do not have relations with them or risk unwanted pregnancies/Marriages and truant future childrens.

Awesome Mod is like a condom, using it will prevent this STD.  However if you already had the STD Awesome can not fix it.

You have to play a save before your sim had unprotected sex with a foreigner, or start over.

My Sims are banned from even looking at a foreigner that way! 

A member named Skadi has an awesome help section here: http://sublimesims.net/smf/index.php?board=38.0 Maybe go through and see what you might have missed.

Sounds like you might not have moved all of your framework, or maybe didn't delete your caches?

I did the exact same thing as you.  I went nuts trying to find the CC causing my lagginess.  I did find problems and removing or fixing the CC did help some but nothing ever took it totally away (unless I play with no CC). 

I just tried without the FPS and it does help a bit without it, but my FPS were going over 130 and my computer was whirring like crazy.  Do not want melted computer.

I had my Hopeless Romantic Sim stock her aquarium with 4 Goldfish, and then I proceeded to make her "watch" throughout the days ahead.  For 3 sims days nothing happened.  My Sim usually booed the fish tank and stuck her tongue out.  Then finally one "Watch" she started to get excited and cheered with a baby pacifier thought bubble over her head.

I looked in the tank and there were still only 4 fish.  I didn't notice any different animation or bubbles or anything in the fish tank.  She went to bed and when she woke up I had her go to feed and watch and there were 6 Goldfish now.  They are labeled as had been "born in captivity".  I took one out and put it in a round fish tank, and the next day I had 6 again in the aquarium.

I like the idea that they can mate and fight.  I wish this counted toward the LTW.  I hate having all of those fish bowls everywhere.

I don't know what CC you are adding or if you are using the Launcher to install sims3packs.  So I found a great Tutorial that explains how to install and get CC to work.

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Installing_Sims_3_Package_Files Scroll down and have a look. 

Since you are running the HELS Stuff Pack, follow the World Adventures instructions in the "Summary" section but use the HELS installation directory rather than World Adventures.

I would add my CC back slowly.  Start with just Awesome Mod and see if it runs.  Make sure you are using the LATEST Awesome Mod because if not that can crash the game too. http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,15185.0.html  Sometimes it is updated but no new date is shown.  But it gets updated almost everyday.

And since I have no idea if you install using the Sims Launcher and are finding the sims3packs are no longer showing up you need to read this http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17743.0.html

It's complicated and confusing and information is scattered all over a million forums.  Good luck!

You first need to make sure that your CC and the files that make the CC work is causing your problem.  So you need to move out your Mods folder, and the d3dx9_31.dll file that should be in your WA game/bin folder (at least that was where mine was).  I cut and pasted mine on my desktop.  Delete your cache files (mine are located Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3) there are 4 of them.

Have you replaced any main files like video.ini?  Make sure you place the originals back.  Basically try to get as vanilla as you can and don't even think about CC or mods right now.  You need to get the game to work in its basic form.  If after you removed all CC and mods, and framework and it is still not working, then I don't know how I can help you.  I am not awesome enough for that kind of thing.  I would back up my saves, library, savedsim, mods folder, framework files and dbc files and uninstall EVERYTHING, and delete any leftover folders and try again.

If your game loads and works, then you need to re-add the .dll to your HELS/game/bin folder. Stick your mods folder in your HELS directory (It can be in your WA too, at least mine is and it is all working).  Have your resource.cfg file in the HELS directory.  Make sure your resource.cfg is updated to allow the game to read *.dbc files if you are using them. (That is for store CC)  If you have no idea what I am talking about go back to the main forum and do a search.  Lots of discussion on all of this by smarter people than me.

I use the word Mods but I mean CC/Mods/Hacks/XML tuning etc.

Uninstalling and reinstalling but sticking the framework in the wrong place won't work.

I am not as awesome as a lot of people here, but I have spent a lot of time getting my CC to work.  I hope this is what is the cause and that you can get it fixed.

You only need to move anything if the patch created a new directory and exe like HELS does.  This HELS stuff pack acts like an expansion pack.  I have no idea about just patching because I installed HELS before patching.  So if you are just patching and no new directory is created, then it stays put, I would assume.