I've searched the forums and can't find this anywhere.
I've been rebuilding a lot I downloaded and I tried to delete a staircase that was attached to the outside of the house leading up to a balcony. The stairs disappeared fine when I used the sledgehammer tool but the railings won't delete if I sledgehammer them. It makes the noise and highlights them but they won't delete.
If I delete the stairs first and then try to click the railings they don't even get highlighted.

Has anyone else had this problem? How do you fix it?

Thanks in advance

Last edited by VixenKitty : 4th Apr 2012 at 05:01 PM. Reason: Fixed!

I've had a problem where i couldnt delete stairs but not railings, sorry.
Try reinstalling the game, also do you have any custom content??

Don't reinstall the game if you don't need to! Go through the Game Problem faq.

I really need to stop spamming these forums. Just can't find answers and keep getting odd things happen one after the other >.<

I am thinking it COULD be coincidence but basically my sim caught fire the other day and she died before anyone could extinguish her (another sim was blocking the way!).
I have Pets and my cat saved her from death but because she technically died, this made her Boyfriend her Ex boyfriend. I got them back together again but before she died I had the option to propose. I just didn't select it because I wasn't ready for them to get engaged then.

My problem now is that the 'Propose marriage' option will not appear at all anymore :/
I've spammed all the romantic interactions. They can woohoo, try for a baby, everything. But that option just won't appear! There's no option to ask him to move in with me either.
I'm getting really annoyed with it now. Does a sim dying and being brought back affect marriage or is there anything else that could be affecting it?

Please don't say 'maybe one of them has commitment issues' because neither of them do and the option was there to get engaged before. he only change was her dying and making him an ex boyfriend because of it.

Any help will be appreciated!

Can other couples in the town still get engaged?

I'm pretty sure they can. I just moved in my sim's sister with her finace and the sim I'm having problems with doesn't even have the option to move in with anyone. I'll test another family and let you know

Last edited by VixenKitty : 12th Apr 2012 at 09:59 PM.

Other couples can get engaged etc. Its just these two that can't. Someone suggested making their traits 'Hopeless Romantic' and I did this even though I felt it wouldn't really work, which it hasn't. I'm guessing no one has had and solved this prblem before? I don't want to use MasterControler to make it happen

So I have Pets and have bought a biscuit ball for my horses in a couple of different househlds. The problem is I can't use them.
If I direct a horse to use it they just get the 'unroutable' thought bubble pop up and just don't go over it it at all. Does anyone know why this is at all?

How big is your lot? The horse does need a big lot,, to play with the ball. And it have to be very plan.

EDIT!
Updating that my machine's CPU rating is 4 so I shouldn't be having this porblem.
Does the number of clubs in a town affect how many people show up?
Also I'm not even seeing the Hot Spot icon appear above ANY venues anymore. Does anyone know why this is?
=== Application info ===
Name: Sims3
Version:
Build: Release
=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3292 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3990 RAM: 4078 Adjusted RAM: 3566 Cores: 2


I've been reading through a few articles on here about people having similar problems to me but haven't really found any answers so I thought I'd try my luck.

Basically I have Ambitions, Late Night, Pets and Showtime (only just installed) and this has been bugging me since I installed Pets.
Whenever I go to a venue, pretty much no one turns up. I do get the odd people turn up at my custom made Hangout but they just play the arcade machines and don't order drinks, which is annoying for the sim I'm trying to get to be a good Master Mixologist.
All other clubs, even if they're considered Hot Spots, just seem to get ignored, however, every time I go to map view and browse around town there are at least 4 sims hanging around outside the Horse Ranch, playing instruments and chatting and dancing. There isn't even anything for them to use! I don't understand why they hang out here?
Its really irritating me as I'd like to go to a club/bar and actually have people for my sims to hang out with and meet!
The only visitors that usually appear are the Paparazzi and maybe 1 other celeb.

I have a reasonably good machine and I am playing a custom town. There do seem to be a fair amount of Townies about, they just don't come to the places I want them to visit.
Is there a mod to increase the number of people who will visit certain places or does anyone know why sims could be choosing to hang around the front of the Horse Ranch instead of visiting a club?

Please someone help me out if you can. Its making my game incredibly boring!

Last edited by VixenKitty : 2nd May 2012 at 05:49 PM. Reason: Additional info added

If I have posted this thread in the wrong place please let me know. I'd really like some help on this as I know I'm not the only person on here who has experienced this problem before. Even just pointing me in the right direction would be very much appreciated

Ok so on top of my other problem (see Ghost community lots?) I can't seem to resolve (I uninstalled and reinstalled Showtime, have yet to see if this has any affect), I also have an error with Showtime not closing when I exit the game.
I get a black screen and pinwheel-of-doom and nothin happens apart from the cursor pinwheel spinning round constantly.
I go to task manager and it says Showtime is 'Not responding' so my only way to close it is to hit 'End Task'.
Anyone else having this problem at all? Its happened the entire time I've had Showtime installed and I've uninstalled/reinstalled once.

• General - Post System Specs
  We need more information before we can help with your issue.
  • Please post a Quick summary of your System Specs
    Instructions on finding them are here: Game Help:System Specs^wiki.
  Please Do NOT post your complete DxDiag report in your thread.
  
  
• Sims 3 - Game Problems
  Please go through this FAQ and follow the instructions, doing each step in order and not skipping anything:
  • Game Help:Sims 3 Game Problem^wiki
  Most issues with the game can be resolved by following those steps.
  
  

Only EA understands their rating system and they haven't shared that info with me.

Since you have various and sundry issues, please post specs and let us know if you had done the Game Problem FAQ. And if so, please let us know the status of carrying out each of those 3 steps in the aforementioned Game Problem FAQ.

I've merged your threads to see if there's a pattern to all these problems you encountered. And I'll be checking your post history to see what other issues you have encountered, since your username appears familiar. Any other threads I find that hasn't been archived would also be merged by this exercise. So, please just compile all problems into just this one thread so helpers don't need to read various separate threads just to help you.

It would also be extremely helpful if you could review all the threads you've started, and let us know which problems still exists and which problems are gone (on a vanilla NEW game, please. YES! test after doing step#3 of the Game Problem FAQ).

[ETA]
OK, whew!
After all that merging, you know what I noticed? Each time someone asked if you had done the FAQ, you never come back to respond to that thread. Why is that?

Last edited by ellacharm3d : 4th May 2012 at 06:08 AM. Reason: added comments after merging

Because I never ever got replies saying that I had someone asking me to do the FAQ. My internet has been playing up lately and sometimes I just don't check back because I've been really busy with work and stressed out about quite a few things.
Its not meant to have wasted anyone's time and I also do not post on forums much at all. Trying to get help lately is pretty much the only times I've posted so I'm not really fully sure of how often is acceptable to post. I do search through for similar threads but I do also find navigation of this site/Sims Wiki to be quite confusing and long winded (not slating it, it could just be me).
So in answer to your question if I don't reply its because either:
1. I fixed the problem and have fogotten to say 'I fixed it!'
2. I don't get a response within a few days and I forget to check back or I don't get notification
3. Life gets in the way

The first issue of the railings is now fixed. I'm not sure what was wrong but it just randomly went away itself.

The issue of my Sims not being able to get married got fixed after folowing instruction on another forum to make a copy of the Sims involved, delete them from the town and place the copies back in, therefore reseting their relationships but keeping their skills etc.

Horse ball is also now solved.

The last 2 issues are not. I will post my specs and I will look through the FAQ/troubleshooting once I get some time to read through it all and carry out the steps properly.

Also are you saying I need to run the test in a new town? (assuming that's what you mean by game) I didn't quite understand the wording of the last part of your post (YES! test after doing step 3) <<< although maybe this will make sense once I read the guide.

Thanks and I'm sorry if I'm doing something wrong by posting regularly. I promise you I'm not just lazy, I do try to solve things myself first before posting here

It's not the posting regularly that gets to me, it's the not responding to the same suggestions, ie each time you posted with an issue, you were asked to do that same FAQ; and yet the next time you post yet another issue, there's no statement that you have at least tried this initial troubleshooting step.
(Yes, I counted and went back over each thread you started, Simsample asked you twice (in the horse gallop glitch and NPC doppelgangers thread), I asked you in the Launcher not opening issue. In this one that originates from separate threads, Mordant17 asked you once (in the railings issue), I again asked you in the not quitting issue)

And the life gets in the way and not having enough time to post goes both ways.
If you never come back to give status when asked to do something and if things always "gets magically resolved by itself" most of us would just play the waiting game and wait you out. Perhaps if enough time has passed, that new issue would disappear again.
If you get frustrated being asked the same thing again and again, imagine our frustration having to ask the same thing again and again and then multiply that by the number of users here asking for help.

Perhaps, if I explained: the FAQ is designed to indicate where the issue lies:
- OK after step#1 : a caching issue
- OK after step#2 : a CC issue
- OK after step#3 : a user data issue
- Not OK after step#3 : a Program Files issue
So, once we know what happens at each step, we can then provide suggestions on how next to proceed.

And just to let you know how reliable EA rating system is, here's mine compared to yours


That's for a PC with a 7.5 WEI score out of a max 7.9
- CPU: 4-core i7-950 @3.07GHz
- RAM: 6GB
- GPU: GeForce GTX 460
and yet, I get the same rating as you do with a dual-core and 4GB RAM.

I didn't actually say anywhere that I get frustrated being asked the same thing again and again anywhere. I said that I have a lot going on right now and whenever I have checked back after quite a while (I even had checked older posts about a week later) there hasn't been anything asking me about the FAQ and to follow those steps so I stopped checking everything so thoroughly because I either just put up with the issue or didn't have time to check/forgot. I don't remember every single little thing I post on the internet and I don't appreciate being spoken to in the way you sound annoyed with me for not checking something I didn't even see.
I thought this was a friendly forum. Not somewhere people sound like they're telling other users off like they're a silly school child for not doing what was asked.
Again I will go through the FAQ properly this time once I get a chance. Thank you for the advice, I do appreciate it and I sincerely hope I've read the tone of your posts wrong and that you aren't actually being as condescending as I've read it

Here we go again...OK, I'll let other staff and members step in and help.

Here we go again? I haven't actually done anything besides tell you I don't appreciate being spoken down to. I'm 24, not 5 and I've explained that me not following the help before wasn't intentional. I just didn't see it because I'm having problems with my internet and simply made the common human error of forgetting.
I also said I appreciate the help and will follow the steps as soon as I am actually able to now that I have atually seen what has been said. I should have followed the steps originally as it states before you post a thread, I know, but I was sceptical about those steps actually fixing the problems I had. Flame me for that if you want to. I just thought I could be helped i a "friendly" forum by someone who might have had the same problem and I apologise for that because I can see how that appears lazy. I also just wated to be part of the community here and that is also part of the reason I asked for help.
But like I said I just genuinely didn't think following those steps would fix the glitches I was referring to. I thought it was more related to other problems.
But again if you want to throw me on to the pile of internet n00bs that spam this site without following steps correctly intentionally that you seem to think I'm part of then go ahead. Just shows you aren't a very polite or accommodating admin.
I understand you don't like repeating yourself but if you guys state you are a friendly, welcoming site I'd like to see some more evidence of that rather than being flamed for genuinely missing something and stating that I appreciate the help and I will now ollow the correct procedure.

Getting really fed up of being spoken to like this on public sites and just in general

The Game Problem Faq won't fix your problem; that's not its purpose. The purpose is to figure out where the problem is -- CC, user files, program files, etc. From there, you can go about fixing it. Please, do go through that FAQ, and let us know what happens.

Can you also post your specs in the proper format (ellacharm3d has a link to how to do that in her sig)? Doing it that way gives a lot more info, such as driver versions, than what's posted above.

Yes sorry that's what I meant. I will post the specs now. I've just booted the game up again and it's now really lagging. I don't recall changing anything. just thought I'd update you

I'd just like to double check this part: "copy from the Sound Devices Header up to the Date and Size: line (select one that says Output, not Speakers) " - should it literally say 'Output' on the line that 'Speakers' could possibly be? Because I can't see a line in my dxdiag that says output and I just want to make absolutely sure I am choosing the correct bits

*Uploading the file anyway. If it's wrong I'll change it, cannot find what it is that was meant by selecting one that says output, not speakers*

Last edited by VixenKitty : 5th May 2012 at 11:51 PM. Reason: Specs file added

Hi again, just letting people know that I couldn't find the last folder for the CC part of the FAQ. The C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages. Should everyone have one?
I THINK its a CC problem. Playing a new town with no CC was fine although (confusingly for me because I don't know how anything works really) putting CC back and playing this town caused no problems at all. Everything ran smoothly.
I did discover that the lag was only with one household in my CAW game. I switched to one of my other houses I play and at first for some reason it loaded the buggy house I'd just tried to switch from.
I went to Edit Town and selected the household I wanted to switch to again and it worked this time. It was a little bit laggy as it was loading items and some items were just white until the textures appeared but after that everything was running smoothly again (but not as smooth as the new town game I made to test).
I switched back to the household where the problem started and it is now working ok as well. I am going to test the CC again in this town to see what happens, the only problem is that I think this CAW town is one of the files in my Mods/Packages folder but I can't see the name for it anywhere. I'll get back to you again once I've figured it out but if anyone has anymore insight to offer that'd be handy. Thanks again

AppData is often a hidden folder. If you found the AppData folder, and didn't find the store folder, you aren't patched to that level. If you didn't find the App Data, you need to tell the computer to let you see the stuff it's hiding. (And possibly tell your firewall that the Sims 3 game is NOT allowed to surf the internet, no matter how often it asks!)

A custom neighborhood is in Installed worlds. (in the Documents folder) This is true whether you put it in yourself, or whether you installed through the Launcher.

Alright thanks. I'll have a look and get back to you just need to sift through the CC again. Could take a couple more days because I'm at work tomorrow. The super lag issue SEEMS to be fixed for now but that particular world is running slower that the new world I made last night.
Just a thought though, if my CAW world (Parkwood) is in a separate folder, why does it disappear from the game when I delete the mods from the Mods/Packages folder? Like I said there's no file with it's name in there. Sorry I'm not very clued up

Ok I've tested all my CC in my new world and I have no problems at all. The problem appears to be with my CAW world itself. Is there a way to find out exactly what the problem is? It is running better than it was but it is still a bit laggy and people still don't turn up to venues, they just mostly hang out outside the horse ranches. This doesn't happen in my new world. People turn up at venues quite regularly and there are always hotspots. Is there something else in the FAQ I need to do tha could detect this that I may be missing? I really don't know how world files work