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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 26th Jul 2017 at 5:01 PM Last edited by gazania : 26th Jul 2017 at 5:13 PM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Seasons, University Life
Default The infamous Error 12
I'm realizing that I'm out of my league here, so it's time to throw up an SOS.

I've had this game since 2015. Been playing it pretty heavily since the end of 2016. I do have Patch 1.69 because my base game is part of the Sims 3 Starter Pack, and you need Origin, unfortunately, so unless I buy and reinstall the base game, Late Night and High End Loft stuff (and I guess by default, reinstall my other EPs and SPs), I'm out of luck.

Until a few days ago, I didn't have any problems with the game. The saves could run a bit long, since since stupid me didn't realize that you don't use the game's memories, but the saves were never much longer than ten to fifteen minutes. However, the game now throws an Error 12 almost every time I return from a trip. It doesn't matter which destination. My couple with the most memories and the one I play the most is the one particularly susceptible to this. Originally, I thought this was limited to Egypt only, but apparently, it's also France and most likely China.

I googled the Web and read here like mad. I did many of the things suggested ... saved more frequently (using save as), went to each and every individual in my town and deleted just about all memories (WOW, there were lots of them!). I deleted SNAP files. One or both of these actions cut down on the file size by at least 20% ... also on the right track, I guess. Doing one or both also cut down saving time dramatically. It's now three to five minutes for a save instead of ten to fifteen. Stopped any new memories from happening. (By the way, can you use Nraas to erase memories of those in travel destinations? If so, I might want to work on those as well.) Got rid of lots of stuff in inventories. Had shorter playing times in general ... I try to give the game a rest after one to two hours. Got the NRaas traffic mod that limited cars. (No more 3000+ cars deleted! Yay!) I did the CFF Explorer thing at the get-go.

I have what I think are the essential NRaas mods ... ErrorTrap, MasterController, Overwatch, StoryProgression. I believe I have DebugEnabler. No Kuree for me, unfortunately, since I have 1.69 and can't get out of that. No Awesomemod. I delete the cache files like mad, and certainly did before playing the last game that Error-12'd.

I have 8 gigs of ram. Video card is GTX 950, which should do the trick ... it certainly did in the past. Win 7.

Did I do stoopid things as a newbie? Probably. Most newbies do. But I didn't do anything so awful that I know of.

Deleting the .bad file and going to backup works often, and generally at least makes sure they can return from the trip, but that can be quite a nuisance, and I often have to try a few times.

Also, I stopped certain programs from running in the background.

I did notice the game went to desktop before the trip, but that could be due to other reasons. I'll have to check further. My mouse is a good one, but if you aren't careful, there is a back button that's in an awkward spot, and you can hit it accidentally. I might have done that.

Researching this annoying error, I'm reading of all different things you can do. It's not easy picking out the ones you should try first. As you notice, I did try many of them.

Oh, and I made sure that the Sims were not doing anything at the time they left, such as exploring in a tomb.

Can this world be saved, or will I have to get rid of it? If it can be saved, out of all the suggestions out there, which should I work on next? Obviously, I haven't done every single one of them (it would be pretty hard to, since there are all sorts of suggestions thrown about.)

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 26th Jul 2017 at 6:40 PM
MasterController is the NRaas mod that can wipe sim scrapbook memories out by sim, household, or the entire town at once. The NRaas mod you are missing from your description that makes the travel transitions less prone to breakage is Traveler.

Error 12 is an out of resources condition, though. If you start a travel transition while your RAM usage is already high, there is a pretty good chance that it will spike into the danger zone during the transition or upon entry into your destination world. So, from where you are now, in addition to adding in Traveler I would suggest:

-- Turn your graphics options down to the bare ugly minimum before traveling home to reduce stress on the game (of course, switch them back later)
-- Only attempt travel after a fresh startup of the game (which becomes no big deal since if you turn down the graphics settings as above, you will have to save and restart the game anyway)
-- If necessary, send all members of your travel party back "early" through their phone as that will send them back to their hoemworld instantly, until there is only one member left to your travel party and have them return home alone

Your specs sound fine, but we have to remember that TS3 is a 32-bit application and cannot possibly use more than 4 GB of RAM for itself (the real limit is ~3.7 GB). If it ever reaches for more, even for a split second, it will lose its mind and crash or Error 12. The way to avoid this generally is keep track of the game's RAM usage through Task Manager to see where and when we get into the danger zones.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 26th Jul 2017 at 6:46 PM
OK. I'll get that mod and try your suggestions. But to also verify ... I can use NRaas to clean out townie memories in the vacation worlds, too, correct?

Going to backup each time I have to return would definitely explain why I seem to have better success returning my Sims that way (though not without effort), and meshes with your second point. I'll have to remember that in future. And now that I think of it, in the past, I generally had one Sim vacation at a time, so that might explain why the game is not happy with me.

Thank you!

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 26th Jul 2017 at 6:52 PM
In a WA world, on the map tag of the Base Camp (substituting for City Hall) or an in-game computer,
NRaas > MC > Sim > Intermediate > Remove Memories > "X" to dismiss the filter (and select everyone or everyone you want from there)

Or you could run the same command on individual sims.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 26th Jul 2017 at 7:38 PM
Sounds good.

And my Sims have now returned from France, apparently safe and sound. Thanks again! I also turned off the loading screen thing before they left ... I read that it does use some resources, and to be honest, my Sims can usually rack up enough happiness points. Before all the crashing, I never even bothered to click on all those things ... I was usually going to the bathroom or enjoying some tea. That's one thing different I was also doing before this all happened.

One other thing about the Traveler mod. It only can be a problem if you START a new world from the menu, not decide you want to switch to an established world during the game? Right now, the only hoods I'm playing are Monte Vista and Sunset Valley. I did start up Hidden Springs, but haven't played it. I can use the menu to switch between the worlds I already have, but if I wanted to create a Riverview, I'd have to exit and start upon re-entering, correct? Or am I reading this wrong?

And I think it might be time to continue housecleaning. While I still don't know if the game going to desktop before the trip was a mouse fluke or not, the less the game has to deal with, the better. I have a quick question about the Downloads... when people say you can delete them (or move them elsewhere), does that also mean the .bin files and the countracking files, too? Can I just delete everything, make a new folder and call it Downloads, and call it a day?

Also, I fear I'm doing stuff the wrong way. I deleted the .bad file (no use keeping that), renamed the backup file and worked off that. Was that OK? I suppose I should also save the backup file elsewhere if something goes terribly wrong, though. At least I would have a backup!

Please excuse the questions. This is working rather differently from Sims 2, and prior to all of this, I never got an Error Code 12 or any other code before, so right now, I'm in slightly-flustered mode. I also want to look at other suggestions for Error Code 12 on reputable sites and perhaps do some more preemptive actions. Never hurts to do a little tidying up! I haven't even touched the hefty Traveldb.package yet. I read how you could work with that to reduce it, but I just got Sim PE yesterday to get rid of the SNAP files! To say I'm new to Sim3PE is an understatement! The Traveldb folder looked a little complicated to me, but then again, it was a rough day yesterday, and I had little sleep. It might look easier today.

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Scholar
#6 Old 26th Jul 2017 at 8:31 PM
using ALT+TAB, at last with Win7 may be helpful sometimes, that generation of the Windows system is quite good in reclaiming memory and forcing almost any common program to release not essential resources. It's not a working miracle but may save the day. And the save. It does not solve the actual problem. It just may allow to work with it instead of immediate crash.


favorite quote: "When ElaineNualla is posting..I always read..Nutella. I am sorry" by Rosebine
self-claimed "lower-spec simmer"
Mad Poster
#7 Old 26th Jul 2017 at 9:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by gazania
One other thing about the Traveler mod. It only can be a problem if you START a new world from the menu, not decide you want to switch to an established world during the game? Right now, the only hoods I'm playing are Monte Vista and Sunset Valley. I did start up Hidden Springs, but haven't played it. I can use the menu to switch between the worlds I already have, but if I wanted to create a Riverview, I'd have to exit and start upon re-entering, correct? Or am I reading this wrong?
...
And I think it might be time to continue housecleaning. While I still don't know if the game going to desktop before the trip was a mouse fluke or not, the less the game has to deal with, the better. I have a quick question about the Downloads... when people say you can delete them (or move them elsewhere), does that also mean the .bin files and the countracking files, too? Can I just delete everything, make a new folder and call it Downloads, and call it a day?

We recommend (saving first) quitting to the Desktop, or Origin if on 1.69, when putting away one saved game and loading up or starting another one every time, never doing so from the Main Menu. The problem is that EA never arranged for the contents of RAM that the game uses to be cleared completely in between session starts without quitting the program entirely, so there is otherwise always a risk that the contents and sims of one world/saved game can become superimposed upon another. The Traveler mod, we have found, makes the risk much higher but it really is an EA glitch. Those who never seen it are fortunate.

The small misc files in Downloads you have mentioned that are not content pertain to the Badge system on the original TS3 website. There is no harm in deleting those (unless possibly if you are actively working on earning or actually care about Badges), they will return regardless the next time you are successfully logged in during gameplay. I guess you could delete Downloads folder in its entirety each time, but what I do is select all of the actual sims3pack content files when I want to clear things out and move or cut/paste them to a folder outside of the game folder for storage.
Inventor
#9 Old 1st Aug 2017 at 12:51 AM
I didn't read the entire thread, I did scan every post so my apologies if this has already been mentioned; what helped in my case to greatly reduce error 12 is lowering the amount of high detailed lots. I used to have it on 4, but now it's on 1. I have geforce gtx 970/8gb ram, but I am a CC addict and it needed to be done.
Test Subject
#10 Old 10th Aug 2017 at 10:59 PM
I went thru the same thing and documented my research here:

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...est-on-error-12

It seems I was just using worlds and lots that were too big and detailed, and was hitting the RAM limit for the game too often.

I switched to a smaller world, and have not had any more error 12's since.
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