I need more data to help me with the wiki page Game Help:Intermittent Freezes^wiki.
Wiki has been updated to include information on bad routing in Bridgeport and its possible fix.

Make sure to try the workarounds there first before answering this questionnaire; the objective is to find out why the lags are worse for some players and tolerable for others, even with the suggested fixes and hacks.

If possible, provide info from a cc-free game, other than these mods (all links can be found in above wiki):

1. Pescado's Awesomemod or
2. Twallan's StoryProgression, MasterController, Overwatch or
3. HP's Stupid Bridgeport Routing Fix

Let's start with these questions:

1. Saves
   • Is this on a brand new Bridgeport town or a pre-LN save?
   • If new Bridgeport, how long in SimTime has this save been running for? What's the total folder size?
   • If not in Bridgeport, same questions and also include the Town name; ie we need to know default or custom world?
   • Tested a CC-free game of Bridgetown, yet?
2. Sims/Household/Population
   • Is this a custom or default Household on a custom or default Lot?
   • If custom - downloaded or self-built / self-create ?
   • What is the Lot size?
   • How do you generally play? Stick to one Household or Switch families?
   • How many Sims in the Household you normally play?
   • The freeze/lag symptoms only for this Household or all Households when you switch?
   • If you visit a comm Lot, how many Sims usually turn up?
   • If you know how to do this using a mod, how many Sims are in this town's save? ie total population of the world, how many generations, etc..
3. Careers
   • What careers are these Sims in?
   • What level are they in now?
   • What time do they go to work?
   • Does the freeze coincide with this timing(s)?
   • If they take the carpool, does it arrive on time?
4. Timings
   • If you have school-going kids in the Household, does freeze coincide with the bus arrival timings (8am, after 2pm, after 3pm)
   • Or does it coincide with the arrival/departure of the ServiceNPCs - MailDelivery, Newspaperdelivery, Maid, Butler, etc
   • If not, is there a pattern on when the freeze would occur?
5. Routing
   • You have checked the town for stuck Sims, repeatedly doing the same action over and over? Due to
     1. broken script mods
     2. stuck into the ground,
     3. stuck in-between floors,
     4. stuck from Lot threshold routing issues ie some borked RabbitHole/Comm Lot placements
     5. faulty routing of some custom worlds
   • Have you tried the "fixAll" / "reset world" / "Reset everything" etc via Awesomemod or MasterController?
6. Describe what happens, what action(s) prompted it or what you were doing whenever this freeze gets triggered.
7. Does the freeze recover eventually and you can resume playing or do you have to end the game process and do Ctrl+Alt+Del each time it occurs?
8. If the game can recover, how longs does it normally take in SimTime to resume? ie how many seconds/minutes/hours of gameplay was in suspended animation mode?
9. What have you tried that hasn't work? Work for a while...?
10. List all the packs that you have: BG + ... {WA} {AMB} {LN} {HELS} {FLS}. And if you're not on patch 1.17 series, list what patch version(s) you're on.
11. State which mods from the above suggested list you've used.

In order to establish some context for comparison, please copy and paste only the following info from the top of your DeviceConfig.log located in the Documents/Electronics/The Sims 3/ folder into your post:
The log file itself can be attached in your post if you go to Advanced, if you want.

If Anybody can think of anything else relevant to the issue, please feel free to contribute...or if you need clarifications, just ask.

I have had this problem very, very badly, but only showing up when visiting China. The first hour or so Real Time was fine, with no problems. The freezing and glitching would occur every 2-8 seconds, regardless of game speed. The game animations (Trees, Plum-Bob) remained active, but the clock would not advance. Conversational soundclips contimue to play. I must say it is a very elegant stutter.

I had downloaded absolutely no cc at this time. I have not tested it at any other location than the default Sims 3 town. My system specs are much higher than is necessary to run this game, and I had cleared any programs running in the background.

I couldn't find a fix anywhere. Patches, reinstalls, nothing worked. Finally, using Overwatch (could have been Master Controller), I found a "reset all" option in a "Town" menu when I Shift-RightClick the Base Camp. This process takes a good 20 seconds and lags badly for a moment, then issues a dialog saying that some 9000+ objects have been reset, and the game performs like a charm. Not sure yet how long it will last, but it's been a bit now.

Seems like something is getting stuck somewhere and spawned again, but I can't figure out what. Clearing the cars+homeless did nothing, so I don't know what it was. Birds? Bikes? Stones? WTF?

The above fix worked for about an hour realtime, then the skips began again, very sudden and strong. Reset everything again, and we're all good. Now the game is freezing upon my return from vacation, at the end of the loading progress bar. How frustrating.

There seems also to be a problem with Sims gathering at certain community lots that also causes lag. When you reset them, they just come back. For some it seems to help to delete the lot and build it again but for others even that doesn't for others.

Another problem seem to be the clock stopping at a certain time. Everything goes on normally except that you have no idea what time it is (ingame clocks seem to show the right time). I don't know if there is a connection. But it might be.

Here is a link to the second problem: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/po...t/0/287475.page

Are you also looking for info on the issue about certain sims freezing a lot ? I think the is connected to the Missing GUI issue though. The escalation seem to be Sims getting stuck in bed - Sims turning invisible - Missing GUI.

@Spurgius,
reporting a known issue without any data to support it for context is not really helpful for us to help you or for the modder to develop a fix.
Could you also answer the questions, please?

@crinrict,
thanks for the reminder - I'd forgotten.
I have linked the wiki page we already have on that Missing Sims/UI as a possible solution, too. If Simmers had been following the threads on the suggested mods, the solution is all covered in cases (1)-(5) in the Freeze wiki there anyway.

re: the freezing at specific time - that is what I'm interested to know with the questions on Careers and Timings.
I'd been drafting this questionnaire after reading most Sims forums on the 1.17 patch series/LN bugs (yes, since Oct 27th), including your massive one @BBS. It is basically aimed at gathering information in one place, but no one is biting yet.

Even a non-freezing game is helpful so we can establish some baselines, by comparing the answers to those that do have freezes/lags.

I'll link this thread in mine. Maybe more will bite then

I have an Intermittent Freezes problem only at vacation destinations (I tried China and Egypt). The game just freezing for about 5 seconds and unfreezing for the next 5 seconds, then again freezing and unfreezing, and so on... I can hear the sounds, can see the fishes moving in the pond, but all the visible sims just stand unmovable (till my game unfreezes again). No freezing BEFORE and AFTER travelling at all.

1. First time I played one self-created CAS-sim in new Barnacle Bay, moved him to empty lot, built a small simple house and travelled to China for 3 days, explored 2 tombs, no freezes. Then I travelled to Egypt and played there normal about 6 sim-days. After that the game starts freezing, I saved (while in Egypt) and returned home. No freezes after returning home. (Game content: no hacks/mods, no CC)
2. I started another game - this time it was 2 self-created CAS-sims in new Twinbrooke. Moved them in pre-built house. One of them is in Science (level 10) and another one is unemployed. Travelled to China. The game starts freezing right after arriving. After 3 days of vacation (and the freezes nightmare for me) they returned home and again - no freezes after returning. (Game content: no hacks/mods, CC - Store only)

I have Adventures + Ambitions + High-End + Fast Lane + patches 1.17/2.12/3.8/4.5/5.2

PC specs: Windows XP Professional
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 3324MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Display Memory: 896.0 MB
Driver Version: 195.62 (6.14.0011.9562)

I started seeing this in China during my second visit there -- was doing an adventure in the Market Caverns tomb area. My Sim started freezing up for a second or two here and there, eventually it was happening every 15-20 seconds. Checked the map and found 3 Sims "stuck" at the bottom of the stairs in the pool area of the "Hot Springs". I reset those Sims, and then did an all-over reset once I got out of the dungeon and was at the home camp. So far, after playing one more complete Sim day +, it's not lagging ...

yet ...
--------------

I have WA, Amb., HELS & LN all fully patched

No major mods/hacks -- tons of CC

PC - Windows 7 (no idea of the other stuff)

am also experiencing the "miserable" Sims bug

Working with CAW I have notice something has changed. In the past pre patch objects created thier own sime non routing zone around them. In CAW this exclussion zone is outlined by a red square. In the past routing spots never enter these exclussion zones. Since the patch routing lines now appear on the edge of the exclussion zones and inside them as well. If EA's routing logic works as I think it does this will cause conflicts where SIMS will ge stuck. The program memory maps seem to be a bit out of phase.

SOMEONE HELP! I don't know if I am in the right place, but I am having the choppy game play that started with Late Night. The last EA update fixed it for a long time, but now it is happening again! What can I do? I am so frustrated and kind of old (58) to understand a lot of technical stuff.

I was having some problems with the intermittent freezes/lags and posted my information here the other day. Since then I have installed the Overwatch mod and the freezes have pretty much completely disappeared. It still lags sometimes in busy areas, but the issues corrected with the Overwatch mod seem to have fixed the problems with freezing.

I'm having this LN Clock-Freezing Bug too.
My game was working great, and had never freezed before.

The game slot I was playing was on a Bridgeport lot. It was a custom sim in an original-game lot. The house was self-built. I usually stick to one household. That hasn't happened to my other saved games, but in Birdgeport, this happens. The clock stops at 8p.m. or 7:59p.m. - it's really frustrating, because I'd made up a party which should start at 9p.m. I also called in a mordome, and he does come, but the clock refuses to unfreeze. So my sim never knows when to go to work.

Also, I've barely got any mods in my game, though I have a fair amout of other custom content (hair, clothing, makeup and such).
I've taken out ALL the mods, and it didn't change a thing. The clock ALWAYS freezes at 8p.m.

I made my own neighborhood and it was running smoothly. I had the Overwatch mod in as well. However, after adding to my custom neighborhood, in which I added a whole bunch of roads, I started getting terrible system freeze lag. I've double checked all my road connections to make sure they were valid. I am thinking that this is a bug on the EA game to do with roadways.

EDIT: I think I found my problem... it might help with others having lag problems. I accidentally added one of my new lots in an area that I had previously marked as non-accessible in CAW. I know from reading here at MTS that Bridgeport has similar "holes" where someone didn't paint the "non routing" areas properly. Bridgeport can only be fixed by EA, by just having someone go in and taking less than an hour to close up those holes.

It's obviously China might have the same problem Bridgeport has, somewhere

I'm experiencing it too. If you want me to fill the form just say so, but I'm already saying this: it's only happening in China.

=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 3 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 2672 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3163 RAM: 8182 Adjusted RAM: 7670 Cores: 4

In China it's some routing issue at the Hot Springs lot. Sims get stuck in the pool area and can't get out on their own anymore. This was introduced with LN, however, anyway.
Edit: Just found out, it's not only the Hot Springs lot but also the Dragon Springs lot and the whole area between these two.

Good tips on the routing issues! Thanks, guys.
Have always wondered if anyone has done that Bridgeport fix thing for WA destinations.

Hey ellacharm, sorry for not posting here before, I think i put all info now

1. Saves
Twinbrook, original, running for about 40 ish sim days(not sure)?
Mostly Twallan's mod with a few exceptions.

2. Sims/Household/Population
Custom house, self built, only one sim in the household, never switched.
30x30 apartment.save? ie total population of the world, how many generations, etc..
About 5 or 4 sims depending which lot to visit.
Don't know the demographics, noted to check.

3. Careers
Fire-fighter, level 8.

4. Timings
Everything time related seems to be ok, going to check the time of the freezes, it seems random though.

5. Routing
Didn't seem any stuck sim yet, SP got a tag for everysim in town and with a quick survey all seems ok as well.
Reset everything with MC works a bit, its more like general play though.

6. Describe what happens, what action(s) prompted it or what you were doing whenever this freeze gets triggered.
Completely random, sometimes he is just walking around.

7. Does the freeze recover eventually and you can resume playing or do you have to end the game process and do Ctrl+Alt+Del each time it occurs?
Never had to, it always go back.

8. If the game can recover, how longs does it normally take in SimTime to resume? ie how many seconds/minutes/hours of gameplay was in suspended animation mode?
The sim time freezes, it takes about 20 real seconds on avarage, some times more.

9. What have you tried that hasn't work? Work for a while...?
Reset everything, re-start the whole game, delete TravelDB.package from the save game.

10. List all the packs that you have: BG + ... {WA} {AMB} {LN} {HELS} {FLS}. And if you're not on patch 1.17 series, list what patch version(s) you're on.
BG+WA+AMB+LN+GEN
1.24 and all latest for the expansions.

11. State which mods from the above suggested list you've used.
Overwatch, Errortraper, Story Progression, Master Controler.

Freezing in the game started after the latest 1.24 patch.


1. Saves

- Riverview, two Sim generations (I've been changing the aging in between), folder size 121 Mb (game started after Generations), custom lot (downloaded), custom (selfmade) household, lot size 20x30, switched families in this game, has 4 Sims atm, careers painter&cook, one child, one toddler, about 135 Sims in the town

- Twinbrook, four Sim generations, folder size 113 Mb, legacy game, haven't switched households, 7 Sims, painter&investigator careers, rest are children&teens, 64x64 lot, custom lot (self-build), about 90 Sims in the town, started before Late Night

The above are almost unplayable from the freezing, the one below has stuttering, Sims walk like they're breakdancing, has some freezing but not as much as the older saves, my fps is between 50-100 usually in all of these games.

- Sunset Valley (a test game), 7 Sim days, folder size 22,3 Mb, two Sims, military career & a toddler, default household&lot size 20x30, about 70 Sims in the town

2. Sims/Household/Population

How do you generally play? Stick to one Household or Switch families?
- usually with one household only, I don't like to switch the families

How many Sims in the Household you normally play?
- usually with more than one, often with full (8) Sims in the household

The freeze/lag symptoms only for this Household or all Households when you switch?
- everything takes ages to do, the Sims try to do something and just stand there, their movements are jerky, the game freezes constantly

If you visit a comm Lot, how many Sims usually turn up?
- between 2-10, depends on the time of the sim day

4. Timings

If you have school-going kids in the Household, does freeze coincide with the bus arrival timings (8am, after 2pm, after 3pm)
- no

Or does it coincide with the arrival/departure of the ServiceNPCs - MailDelivery, Newspaperdelivery, Maid, Butler, etc
- yes, sometimes the maid makes the game freeze, and once I noticed that the freezing began after the maid had arrived.

If not, is there a pattern on when the freeze would occur?
- no other notable pattern

5. Routing

Have you tried the "fixAll" / "reset world" / "Reset everything" etc via Awesomemod or MasterController?
- I use the MC regularly to reset the town

6. Describe what happens, what action(s) prompted it or what you were doing whenever this freeze gets triggered.

- changing clothes do freeze the game but that I deem to be 'normal behaviour', otherwise it happens all the time in the older saves

7. Does the freeze recover eventually and you can resume playing or do you have to end the game process and do Ctrl+Alt+Del each time it occurs?

- I can continue playing the game, but usually I just save and quit since everything takes such a long time and I get fed up with it

8. If the game can recover, how longs does it normally take in SimTime to resume? ie how many seconds/minutes/hours of gameplay was in suspended animation mode?

- from 1 game minute to 10 game minutes usually

9. What have you tried that hasn't work? Work for a while...?

- removed the CC I have downloaded last, I use Twallan's mods (almost all of them), I have done everything possible to my gaming computer to boost it's performance (updated the drivers, defragged and it's a self-build gaming computer, has no other background programs running than what W7 needs&Avast, has 4 Gbs of DDR3 memory), I use Delphy's Dashboard and Custard to check each piece of the custom content that I have or download, I have deleted my caches, I have deleted my DCCache folder and re-installed the Sims3Packs that I have (from the Store mostly), I have S3PE and I have 30 package-files in my mods folder atm that I've made from all the CC that I have in package-format, I have moved most of the saves I don't use regularly from the saves folder to a different place, I've changed the game's Sims.ini so that the game should be able to use more RAM than just 2 Gbs, I have deleted the homeles population and letting the Overwatch to deal with them every night, disabled the memories system completely with the MC and also removed any dreams recorded, I have used the ProcessMonitor program but it revealed nothing serious

10. List all the packs that you have:

- I have all the EPs and SPs that have been launched this far (up till Town Life Stuff) and the patch 1.24

11. State which mods from the above suggested list you've used.

- Twallan's MC, SP & Overwatch, and I have the Error Trap also

=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 3 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 2809 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3346 RAM: 4094 Adjusted RAM: 3582 Cores: 6

***
ETA: I noticed that the maid made another game to start to freeze more than it had done before, and then in a new test game there was a newspaper delivery girl stuck and the game was stuttering, when I removed her the stuttering stopped.

Saves
Is this on a brand new Bridgeport town or a pre-LN save? This is in town, new saves and old. I don't remember when it started lagging since I stopped playing for awhile but it was either after Ambitions or Late Night
If not in Bridgeport, same questions and also include the Town name; ie we need to know default or custom world? This is for every world, custom and otherwise, new or old. Riverview, Sunset Valley, and custom. The file size varies as it is every town.
Tested a CC-free game of Bridgetown, yet? Not using Bridgeport but have tried without CC in other towns.
Sims/Household/Population - 2 sims
Is this a custom or default Household on a custom or default Lot? all of the above at some point or another
If custom - downloaded or self-built / self-create ? both
What is the Lot size? all sizes
How do you generally play? Stick to one Household or Switch families? stick to one
How many Sims in the Household you normally play? 2-4
The freeze/lag symptoms only for this Household or all Households when you switch? all
If you visit a comm Lot, how many Sims usually turn up? 10
If you know how to do this using a mod, how many Sims are in this town's save? ie total population of the world, how many generations, etc.. I'm not sure
Careers
What careers are these Sims in? varies, currently inventor and science
What level are they in now? midway
What time do they go to work? 9:00 am
Does the freeze coincide with this timing(s)? no
If they take the carpool, does it arrive on time? yes
Timings
If you have school-going kids in the Household, does freeze coincide with the bus arrival timings (8am, after 2pm, after 3pm) n/a
Or does it coincide with the arrival/departure of the ServiceNPCs - MailDelivery, Newspaperdelivery, Maid, Butler, etc nope
If not, is there a pattern on when the freeze would occur? no
Routing
You have checked the town for stuck Sims, repeatedly doing the same action over and over? yes
Have you tried the "fixAll" / "reset world" / "Reset everything" etc via Awesomemod or MasterController? yes
Describe what happens, what action(s) prompted it or what you were doing whenever this freeze gets triggered. it's a constant lag, every few minutes and/or seconds
Does the freeze recover eventually and you can resume playing or do you have to end the game process and do Ctrl+Alt+Del each time it occurs? It always resumes but continues and usually gets worse the longer I play. When I first start the game there is little lag. Resetting various things never helps once it starts to lag.
If the game can recover, how longs does it normally take in SimTime to resume? ie how many seconds/minutes/hours of gameplay was in suspended animation mode? a couple of seconds with periodic 10-15 second lag as wel
What have you tried that hasn't work? Work for a while...? I have gone through all of my CC, process monitored out the bad ones, and combined them all with the custom launcher
List all the packs that you have: BG + ... {WA} {AMB} {LN} {GEN}.
State which mods from the above suggested list you've used. Awesomemod and Nraas, Overwatch, MC, ErrorTrap, etc.

GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3192 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3856 RAM: 8183 Adjusted RAM: 7671 Cores: 6

My computer stats are:
Windows 7 64bit
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
8 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6800 series
I always closed background processes, etc.
I currently run in on mid/high level graphics but the graphics levels don't really make a difference.

Freezing has occurred since installation of the base game via Steam about 4 weeks ago (2 weeks prior to release of Pets & 1.26 patch).

Saves
Is this on a brand new Bridgeport town or a pre-LN save?
Bridgeport post-LN.
If new Bridgeport, how long in SimTime has this save been running for? What's the total folder size?
About 20 days in-game, size is 198MB.
Tested a CC-free game of Bridgetown, yet?
EDIT: Yes, it still occurs.
Sims/Household/Population
Is this a custom or default Household on a custom or default Lot?
Custom house, default lot.
If custom - downloaded or self-built / self-create ?
Self-made, with some CC items from Buy mode.
What is the Lot size?
43X34
How do you generally play? Stick to one Household or Switch families?
One household.
How many Sims in the Household you normally play?
Two adults.
The freeze/lag symptoms only for this Household or all Households when you switch?
Don't know, but it does happen on vacation.
If you visit a comm Lot, how many Sims usually turn up?
Haven't really been keeping track, but other Sims do wander around normally.
If you know how to do this using a mod, how many Sims are in this town's save? ie total population of the world, how many generations, etc..
Haven't been able to find out, but it's default Bridgeport and not for very long so I don't think there could be much.
Careers
What careers are these Sims in?
Both unemployed.
Or does it coincide with the arrival/departure of the ServiceNPCs - MailDelivery, Newspaperdelivery, Maid, Butler, etc
No.
If not, is there a pattern on when the freeze would occur?
It happens more often if the speed is on Ultra-fast, but will happen even on double speed and normal. There is no freezing or lag if time is paused. If I switch back to normal, it will lag erratically for a few seconds then get back to normal.

Routing
You have checked the town for stuck Sims, repeatedly doing the same action over and over? Due to
broken script mods
stuck into the ground,
stuck in-between floors,
stuck from Lot threshold routing issues ie some borked RabbitHole/Comm Lot placements
faulty routing of some custom worlds
Yes, there don't appear to be any stuck sims.
Have you tried the "fixAll" / "reset world" / "Reset everything" etc via Awesomemod or MasterController?
I don't have these mods.

Describe what happens, what action(s) prompted it or what you were doing whenever this freeze gets triggered.
Almost anything, but it's usually if I'm on ultra-speed. I use ultra-speed to skip through sleeping and long journeys.

Does the freeze recover eventually and you can resume playing or do you have to end the game process and do Ctrl+Alt+Del each time it occurs?[i]
The game does eventually recover.

[i]If the game can recover, how longs does it normally take in SimTime to resume? ie how many seconds/minutes/hours of gameplay was in suspended animation mode?
In sim-time, probably about 30-40 minutes.

What have you tried that hasn't work? Work for a while...?
I've turned my graphics settings well down, and deleted and uninstalled all my custom content.

List all the packs that you have: BG + ... {WA} {AMB} {LN} {HELS} {FLS}. And if you're not on patch 1.17 series, list what patch version(s) you're on.
BG+WA, AMB, LN, Generations, HELS, FLS, OLS, TLS.
Patch 1.26.91 (BG)

State which mods from the above suggested list you've used.
I don't have any of them.

=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3214 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3886 RAM: 8189 Adjusted RAM: 7677 Cores: 4

System info:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 (quadcore @ 3.20GHz)
RAM: 8GB DDR3
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 6850

Saves
Is this on a brand new Bridgeport town or a pre-LN save?
Bridgeport post-LN.
If new Bridgeport, how long in SimTime has this save been running for? What's the total folder size?
About 50 days in-game, size is 106MB.
Tested a CC-free game of Bridgetown, yet?
Yes.
Sims/Household/Population
Is this a custom or default Household on a custom or default Lot?
Custom house, default lot.
If custom - downloaded or self-built / self-create ?
Self-made, with some CC items from Buy mode.
What is the Lot size?
43X34
How do you generally play? Stick to one Household or Switch families?
One household.
How many Sims in the Household you normally play?
One Adult, one cat, one dog, one horse.
The freeze/lag symptoms only for this Household or all Households when you switch?
All households.
If you visit a comm Lot, how many Sims usually turn up?
I use the AwesomeMod setting to stop the weird crowds, but Sims wander normally.
If you know how to do this using a mod, how many Sims are in this town's save? ie total population of the world, how many generations, etc..
I don't know how many Sims are present.
Careers
What careers are these Sims in?
Unemployed.
Or does it coincide with the arrival/departure of the ServiceNPCs - MailDelivery, Newspaperdelivery, Maid, Butler, etc
No.
If not, is there a pattern on when the freeze would occur?
It seems to happen intermittently, usually if I have a lot of object queued or are opening a lot of menus in quick succession. Events like opening tomb doors seem to set it off too sometimes.

Routing
You have checked the town for stuck Sims, repeatedly doing the same action over and over? Due to
broken script mods
stuck into the ground,
stuck in-between floors,
stuck from Lot threshold routing issues ie some borked RabbitHole/Comm Lot placements
faulty routing of some custom worlds
I'm not sure how to find stuck Sims, but I couldn't find any just by looking.
Have you tried the "fixAll" / "reset world" / "Reset everything" etc via Awesomemod or MasterController?
I'm not sure how to use reset world for AwesomeMod.

Describe what happens, what action(s) prompted it or what you were doing whenever this freeze gets triggered.
Sometimes opening tomb doors, opening chests, triggering traps, or opening and closing action menus in quick succession; but it's pretty intermittent and tends to only be set off by those events sometimes.

Does the freeze recover eventually and you can resume playing or do you have to end the game process and do Ctrl+Alt+Del each time it occurs?[i]
The game does eventually recover.

[i]If the game can recover, how longs does it normally take in SimTime to resume? ie how many seconds/minutes/hours of gameplay was in suspended animation mode?
In sim-time, probably about 30-40 minutes.

What have you tried that hasn't work? Work for a while...?
I've turned my graphics settings well down, and deleted and uninstalled all my custom content.

List all the packs that you have: BG + ... {WA} {AMB} {LN} {HELS} {FLS}. And if you're not on patch 1.17 series, list what patch version(s) you're on.
BG+WA, AMB, LN, Generations, HELS, FLS, OLS, TLS, Pets.
Patch 1.26.91 (BG)

State which mods from the above suggested list you've used.
AwesomeMod.
I also have ellacharm3d's fixed maps for everything except Appaloosa Plains.

=== Rating info ===
GPU: 5 GPU Memory: 4 CPU: 4 RAM: 4 CPU Speed: 3214 Threading: 3
Adjusted CPU: 3886 RAM: 8189 Adjusted RAM: 7677 Cores: 4

System info:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 (quadcore @ 3.20GHz)
RAM: 8GB DDR3
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 6850

A quick update: Can someone with a multicore CPU and someone with a single-core CPU confirm what I have just found?

Out of interest, I decided to see if my lag continued if Sims 3 was not the active window. I decided also to monitor memory usage in the Task Manager. (It's chewing over 900,000k of memory! Lucky I have 8GB. For perspective, iTunes chews about 140,000k, and the antivirus nibbles at 2000k.)
What I saw was that the core affinity was jumping around. I tried resetting the affinity to just cores 0, 1, and 2, and it is still jumping around.
I believe this affinity switching may be the direct cause of the issue, and I'm interested to see this tested.

Signed up just to contribute tot his fucking problem. Tried everything in wiki to fix it leading up to installing mods (which i never have done) and awesomemod and the one that gets rid of memories didnt do it, as well as deleting cache ect.

Is this on a brand new Bridgeport town or a pre-LN save? Nope
If not in Bridgeport, same questions and also include the Town name; ie we need to know default or custom world? All towns affected.
Tested a CC-free game of Bridgetown, yet? I do not run mods or custom content.
Sims/Household/Population
Is this a custom or default Household on a custom or default Lot?Custom household default lot
If custom - downloaded or self-built / self-create ? Self created
What is the Lot size? 20/20?
How do you generally play? Stick to one Household or Switch families? One household
How many Sims in the Household you normally play? One
The freeze/lag symptoms only for this Household or all Households when you switch? All households in save
If you visit a comm Lot, how many Sims usually turn up? 3-7~
If you know how to do this using a mod, how many Sims are in this town's save? ie total population of the world, how many generations, etc.. Never checked, dont know how
Careers
What careers are these Sims in? Self employed painter/writer
Does the freeze coincide with this timing(s)? no
If you have school-going kids in the Household, does freeze coincide with the bus arrival timings (8am, after 2pm, after 3pm) no
Or does it coincide with the arrival/departure of the ServiceNPCs - MailDelivery, Newspaperdelivery, Maid, Butler, etc no
If not, is there a pattern on when the freeze would occur? No, consistent no matter what im doing.
Routing
You have checked the town for stuck Sims, repeatedly doing the same action over and over? Due to
broken script mods
stuck into the ground,
stuck in-between floors,
stuck from Lot threshold routing issues ie some borked RabbitHole/Comm Lot placements No
faulty routing of some custom worlds
Have you tried the "fixAll" / "reset world" / "Reset everything" etc via Awesomemod or MasterController? Yes
Describe what happens, what action(s) prompted it or what you were doing whenever this freeze gets triggered. I can be doing anything from clicking a menu, to right clicking to move screen, to clicking an object or person, anything, and it doesnt need to be "triggered"
Does the freeze recover eventually and you can resume playing or do you have to end the game process and do Ctrl+Alt+Del each time it occurs? recover all the time
If the game can recover, how longs does it normally take in SimTime to resume? ie how many seconds/minutes/hours of gameplay was in suspended animation mode? 2 -4 seconds
What have you tried that hasn't work? Work for a while...? The ONLY thing that works is starting a new save, but eventually it happens to that save at an unknown amount of time.
List all the packs that you have: BG + ... {WA} {AMB} {LN} {HELS} {FLS}. And if you're not on patch 1.17 series, list what patch version(s) you're on. Most recent patch
State which mods from the above suggested list you've used.

Only used awesome mod and the memory remover, but neither worked so i uninstalled them.



e8400 ~ 35c idle 55 100% load
gtx480 ~ 55-60c idle 75-80c load
4gb ddr2
game installed on 2 x raptor 10k 150gb in raid 1
creative xfi fat4ality soundcard.
All on win 7 ultimate 64bit


watched resource manager, nothing out of the ordinary, no maxing of my cores, jumping of load, or massive pagefile usage.


I dont expect a fix from you guys, just sharing my problem to hope to help you guys fix it.

Thanks for the participation and contribution, folks. As this thread has not had any new posts in over 6 months, I'm archiving and moving the questions to the Wiki. Hopefully all the known causes are handled by mods that we know of by now.

The trend is clear -
- not using any mods means the causes of the freezes accumulates over time and the lags would get longer and longer
- some worlds are more problematic due to broken routing and need the world fixes
- if you have the Pets EP, wildlife spawnage can contribute to the total overpopulation issue
- if you're using custom worlds, ask the creators to make sure their routing is checked
- weak machines have freezes and lags manifest faster and more often

So the only solution thus far is :
Use mods! The recommended ones in the wiki, targeting that particular issue. Not using mods means the issue cannot be solved!