error code 12 (solved)

[Darklady5]

I know all about this stupid error, been googling for it, read all the solutions and possible proiblems, have tried everything.. nothing worked! I deketed the .bad files, tried to save as, I checked my PC ram and had plenty of memory available yet I spend a whole afternoon trying to save my game and lost all the progress.. it keeps crashing when it's not giving me the error code 12... after all these years and this error still happens.. shameful
if anyone have something useful to help I appreciate it.
note: this happened to me before and lost that savegame;

[cruinne]

The thing is, it doesn't matter how much RAM your computer has - Sims 3 can only use a small amount because it's a 32-bit program. At most it can use about 3.7 GB. If it runs out of that, it will crash or throw an Error 12. But it can be caused by some other things, too.

Some things to consider/try:

• Always use "Save as..." and never use "Save" or "Save & Quit". "Save as..." makes a new file each time - where "Save" and "Save & Quit" will add on to the existing file. Eventually the file becomes too large.
  
  
• Save frequently - don't let the game go too long without committing your progress to a save file. The NRaas Saver mod can help remind you. http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Saver
  
  
• Be sure you're not running other programs while running Sims if you're having this issue - this includes browsers and streaming apps.
  
  
• If your Sims have a ton of stuff in inventory (or family inventory), try reducing it.
  
  
• Disabling memories may help. Under Settings > General, try setting Memories to "Disable memories".
  
  
• Be sure the problem isn't that you're out of space on your C drive (where the saves are stored).
  
  
• If you're using custom content and mods, try removing them (at least temporarily) and see if it helps.

[ZaggRukk]

I've run into this recently as well. The solution I found that enabled me to be able to save, is going into Edit Town mode. This will suspend all animations and current interactions taking place in the world. This will also suspend all weather effects that cause memory leaks. If that doesn't work, then try waiting until night, when the busy sims are not so busy, then go into Edit Town mode and "save as".

Another thing that can eat up the memory and system RAM is all of the random encounters in the game, such as wild/stray animals. To mimimize this, you can turn them off in the Options menu, in the last tab, labeled Demographics. There will be checkboxes that coincide with your EP's. Uncheck all of them. They will be things like pets, horses, faries, vampires. This won't disable current entities that fall under this group, like sims that are already vampires or werewolves. But, it will prevent them from "turning" other sims into suprenatural sims. As for the animals, it will disable all random/wild/stray animals from randomly showing up in your town.

You might also go into your saves file and remove old saves that you will no longer go back to. Even if you are using the "save as" function, the file sizes are huge! I had about 10-15 saves and the folder for all of them was over 20 gig! It would be even bigger if I used "save" or "save and quit".

Other things that eat up memory are thumbnails and redundant files that you don't need. Be sure to delete the five cache files in your main sims3 folder before each game, and delete everything in the thumbnails and featured items folders. Whatever is in those files is uneeded and will be remade as teh game needs them.

I know how frustrating this issue is, so like cruinne stated, save often! I have found out and it has been cited before that if you run the game for longer than 6-8 at a time, the memory leaks become worse and the chances for crashes and errors are significantly increased.

[Darklady5]

@cruinne thanks I am aware of that, did the clean up on my household inventory, checked the CC but it's not it, and my drive C has plenty of room; the issue might be one - I have been doing this: save & quit, probably this is what is causing the error on this specific savegame.

[Darklady5]

Originally posted by ZaggRukk:

I've run into this recently as well. The solution I found that enabled me to be able to save, is going into Edit Town mode. This will suspend all animations and current interactions taking place in the world. This will also suspend all weather effects that cause memory leaks. If that doesn't work, then try waiting until night, when the busy sims are not so busy, then go into Edit Town mode and "save as".

Another thing that can eat up the memory and system RAM is all of the random encounters in the game, such as wild/stray animals. To mimimize this, you can turn them off in the Options menu, in the last tab, labeled Demographics. There will be checkboxes that coincide with your EP's. Uncheck all of them. They will be things like pets, horses, faries, vampires. This won't disable current entities that fall under this group, like sims that are already vampires or werewolves. But, it will prevent them from "turning" other sims into suprenatural sims. As for the animals, it will disable all random/wild/stray animals from randomly showing up in your town.

You might also go into your saves file and remove old saves that you will no longer go back to. Even if you are using the "save as" function, the file sizes are huge! I had about 10-15 saves and the folder for all of them was over 20 gig! It would be even bigger if I used "save" or "save and quit".

Other things that eat up memory are thumbnails and redundant files that you don't need. Be sure to delete the five cache files in your main sims3 folder before each game, and delete everything in the thumbnails and featured items folders. Whatever is in those files is uneeded and will be remade as teh game needs them.

I know how frustrating this issue is, so like cruinne stated, save often! I have found out and it has been cited before that if you run the game for longer than 6-8 at a time, the memory leaks become worse and the chances for crashes and errors are significantly increased.

Tried the tip of Edit town as well but didn't work, the problem is this is happening only with this savegame, not with the others I have :( anyways tahnk you for the help, let's see if next time I go on Sims I an manage to fix this problem otherwise I will try to move the household to another town although I hate doing this because I will lose all my sims friends, genetic relations etc.

[cruinne]

If you are not already using it, consider installing the NRaas ErrorTrap mod. nraas.wikispaces.com/ErrorTrap

It's possible there's some glitch in that file that's also preventing a clean save, and the mod might help sus it out.

If moving between towns, there are also mods which help preserve relationships and so on.

[Darklady5]

Originally posted by cruinne:

If you are not already using it, consider installing the NRaas ErrorTrap mod. nraas.wikispaces.com/ErrorTrap

It's possible there's some glitch in that file that's also preventing a clean save, and the mod might help sus it out.

If moving between towns, there are also mods which help preserve relationships and so on.

I read your guide and all about this but to be honest dear I tried to install one of these mods but it chrashed my game and I had to uninstall it .. I know most people playing Sims 3 use them and have no issues at all yet trust me it seems that I have a bad karma mate and nothing works but I will give it a try again since I formatted my PC after that, who knows this time it may work for me. thanks

[cruinne]

When you do, the guide has step-by-step instructions. Just follow them carefully and there should be no issue. :-) Good luck!

[Asassinx1]

I go with the install Nraas, errortrp and Overwatch solution.

If you follow the steps as instructed you wont crash.

Before you mod with MRAAS you need to go to modthesims.com and download the stuff you need to make sims 3 moddable.

Google a vid on it. It shows all the steps needed. I did this last week. My sims works perfect.

[ZaggRukk]

Originally posted by Asassinx1:

I go with the install Nraas, errortrp and Overwatch solution.

If you follow the steps as instructed you wont crash.

Before you mod with MRAAS you need to go to modthesims.com and download the stuff you need to make sims 3 moddable.

Google a vid on it. It shows all the steps needed. I did this last week. My sims works perfect.

Well close. It still has a possibility of crashing. I was running both of those mods as well as Masrer Controller (MC has no bearing on this though), and still had multiple error 12's a few weeks ago. Those mods will help reduce the chances. But not eliminate them completely. The error 12 and 13 failures don't necessarily crash the game. Quite the opposite, in fact. You can continue to play. But, the risk of a stack dump, due to too much information in the game will eventually crash it. That's why I suggested going into Edit town mode at night. It stops all unnecessary events and animations from being saved to your game file, and makes for a smaller save.

Another way to help avoid the issue is to run the game in full screen mode so that you can lock the frames at 60 fps. If you let the game run faster than 60, then it will use as much memory as it wants (up to around 3.7 gig) and will go way beyond that frame limit. . .and crash the game. That's usually caused by the game overheating your system though. The RAM issue doesnt sound big, until you realize that you can have all of the RAM in the world, but the game can't see more than 4 Gig of it. It's how the game was programmed. It was bad foresight on the developers part to not think that systems would have more than that at the time.

Another tip, is to turn the game off every once in a while. The longer you play, the more memory it's going to use to run it and to try and save. Reset the game every so often.

[Darklady5]

thank you all for the help! @ZaggRuKK the option on Edit Town doesn't work and I have my frames locked on 60 just to prevent the lag and freeze that Sims love to have. @cruinne & @Assassinx1 I will have a look at those mods again, they might help with some lag. But I have good news, I deleted the savegame file with .bad extension and just in case deleted all the thumbnails and a few more weird files on the doc files on the Sims, tried to play, deleted all items on my household inventory, and tried to save the game... well it worked, I played yesterday and saved every hour and so far it's working again. I am keeping in mind not to "save & quit" as I used to but just "save" then quit, we never know. Many thanks to all of you for the tips and help, it's just crazy that after all these years the Sims still have so many problems

[ZaggRukk]

Make sure you're using "save as". The regular "save" is the same as "save and quit", and will bloats your files to no end! It take a little longer to "save as" and to load those saves. But, the return of limiting a crash or moeory error, more than make up for it. I'm glad you found a way to get it to save without problems again!

P.S. It's a good idea to delete those temp files every once in a while to prevent them from causing the moeory isues. And it's a good idea to at least delete the .cache files before every playthrough. Again, this will make the game load slower, but, if you're not using those files, then they won't be remade and add to the save file size. I keep respawning my thumbnails and other various garbage and it's caused some issues lately. But, as long as I delete all of those files, I can keep on simmin'!

[Darklady5]

Originally posted by ZaggRukk:

Make sure you're using "save as". The regular "save" is the same as "save and quit", and will bloats your files to no end! It take a little longer to "save as" and to load those saves. But, the return of limiting a crash or moeory error, more than make up for it. I'm glad you found a way to get it to save without problems again!

P.S. It's a good idea to delete those temp files every once in a while to prevent them from causing the moeory isues. And it's a good idea to at least delete the .cache files before every playthrough. Again, this will make the game load slower, but, if you're not using those files, then they won't be remade and add to the save file size. I keep respawning my thumbnails and other various garbage and it's caused some issues lately. But, as long as I delete all of those files, I can keep on simmin'!

after 800 and something of simming I am still to learn some tips but hey that's why simmers are so great, we help each other. Thak you and I'll keep in mind your advice