I did all this cause WA was causing my computer to crash big time total and complete shut down protection mode blah cept the mods thing cause i couldnt find that folder and now I have to redownload all the patches and riverdale and all the stuff i got from the store which in my case is a royal pain in the hiney 10 hours to download the first patch thats right 10 hours cause i have dial up. and now the store isnt working for me I click on my purchased items and natta nothing shows up in my gamelauncher download section any clue as to what that is all about.

Thank you so much for this. I finally got my game to play at around 4am after having it for 2 days. Is it safe to put mods and custom content back in now? Or will that just mess it up?

I am quite impressed Thank you, Uzone27 for this detailed help thread. I was having a few issues with my game after I had installed the digital version of WA from the EA store and I decided that it probably wouldn't hurt to clean up my computer a bit. I followed all of the steps listed in order and though it did take up the majority of a day (oh no, a day without sims?!? haha) my game is up and running and all of the issues I had before are gone. I haven't played around with it that much so who knows if anything strange will pop up in the future, though. One thing I haven't done yet is put my custom content back into the sims 3 folder so maybe that's where my issues were but we will see.

Just wanted to post to let those of you know that this may be the way to get you're game running smoothly

DLTRDH

Hi,

I followed your guide step by step, but in the end, my saved game won't show up.

When I open C:/Documents and Settings/My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves

there are two folders (mygame.sims3 and mygame.sims3.backup) with weird files in it, and a random file named mygame.sims3.legacy.

Heeelp please It was a gen. 5 legacy game.

Hello all, I've been out of the loop for a bit so apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

juliabassetto,
The first step in the uninstall instructions was to backup your save files.
The save files will be in the copy you cut and pasted via the manual uninstall instructions.


dltrdh Sorry you had to go to such extreme lengths to get it running, but glad you found the tips helpful. Got your friend request as well...added you as a new friend Cheers!

purkey There is no harm in trying the entire folder all at once to see if it works. If it doesn't simply cut and paste it back to your safe spot, and try adding content a little bit at a time. Mods one at a time definitely, CC a few pieces at a time until the problem is found. Glad you were able to get the game running!

Skeeter03 Sorry about your difficulties. Could you clarify a bit for me?
Are you saying that the game is working OK now but the store isn't working?
If so I wish I could help, I have problems with the site and the launcher off and on myself pretty regularly so I cant be of much help there....but hopefully the clean install sorted your other problems?

Happy New Year everyone!
UZ

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
I followed your directions to do a clean uninstall and get my game to run faster- and now it does!!! You're a LIFESAVER!!!

Uzone27 wrote:Hello all, I've been out of the loop for a bit so apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

Happy New Year everyone!
UZ

Welcome back, Uzone. I was wondering if, when you get a chance, you could take a peek at the post I made a few days ago on this thread and see if you have any idea.
Thank you!!

liannanator wrote:

Uzone27 wrote:Hello all, I've been out of the loop for a bit so apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

Happy New Year everyone!
UZ

Welcome back, Uzone. I was wondering if, when you get a chance, you could take a peek at the post I made a few days ago on this thread and see if you have any idea.
Thank you!!

Hi llannanantor,

Sorry I overlooked your question.
A couple of people have had a similar questiion so I'll try and cover them all as best I can.

CC isn't as simple as it used to be as it was in TS2 there are 3 different types of "CC", and three or more different ways to get that content into the game.

The fist type of "CC" is stuff you get from the store. For all intents and purposes this shouldn't be called "CC" at all...any more than we would have called content from stuff packs CC for the first two games. This content is the least likely cause of problems.

The second type of CC is Exchange stuff. Some exchange items have been modified using out of game methods, and reintroduced to the exchange. This is most evident in the wall and floor pattern sections where it is apparant that users have found a way upload custom, patterns and textures to the exchange. Problem is while they look spiffy on the exchange, they may not download and/or install properly. However it is not very likely that individual items customized in this way are causing problems. I think in most cases the object(s) just don't show up in game if a 3rd party tool was used for CAS.

My guess is, the tricky part of the exchange is with the Sim exchange, and to a much greater extent the lot exchange. I simply don't have the technical knowlege or understanding of their process to be able to tell you how this works but I suspect that if there is too much "alien" CC coding on a Sim or a lot, that it could cause problems.

What appears to be happening is that the launcher and the installer are letting this content through, but some of this content is causing problems once in the game.

Both of these "CC" types are found in the "Downloads" folder in my documents.
and delivered to that folder via the launcher.

The third type of CC is obviously 3rd party CC. As Simulate pointed ou earlier in this thread
The MOD folder is totally seperate and located in the "program" files as opposed to "My Documents".

In your case llanna, if you are seeing place holders for CC that was previouslty there, this is most likely because the save file you are using is remembering something belonged there that doesn't exist any longer. No way that should be happening at the stage you describe...because at that point in the guide all we have done is install the base game without even patching. The TS3 file with your save(s) should be on your desktop at that stage replaced with a brand new one, and your MODS folder should have been either moved or erased entirely. Let me know if I missinterpreted where you were at when you encountered this.

For the benefit of other people asking about CC in this thread..I'll explain the best I can

In the past (TS2) over 70% of third party CC were simple recolors, 25% were remeshes, and less than 5% were mods/hacks that affected the coding of the game.

This time around those numbers are skewed dramatically.
The two MATY story progression mods were extremely popular.
No doubt in my mind this was the leading cause of most glitch related problems.

The majority of the installlation related problems I suspect were related to programs designed to automatically install third party content.

Finally I suspect some of the save related issues (that weren't caused by EA's admitted incompatible coding) may be caused by save files created while mods/and or third party content were in game, and later removed.

I reaiize that's a lot more than you asked for llanna, but since the majority of the questions seemed centrered around this topic I thought I'd use your question as an opportunity to elaborate on the variations of CC...I know that you know most of this stuff already.


UZ

Deleted dp

GiantSquid wrote:THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
I followed your directions to do a clean uninstall and get my game to run faster- and now it does!!! You're a LIFESAVER!!!

YVW GiantSquid,
Glad you found it helpful!

UZ

Uzone27-

Time for me to eat some crow.-

I would like to apologize to you for our previous discourse. There was no good excuse for my behavior.

You have performed a remarkable task, and enhanced our community with your efforts on your two threads.

I hope you don't mind, but I have provided a link to your two threads on my help thread, "The Sandbox".-

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/142349.page

If you object to this, I shall remove it.

You have a proven, extraordinary grasp of this subject.

I would like for us to become friends, if you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Thank You- XOX1

XOX1 wrote:
Uzone27-

Time for me to eat some crow.-

I would like to apologize to you for our previous discourse. There was no good excuse for my behavior.

You have performed a remarkable task, and enhanced our community with your efforts on your two threads.

I hope you don't mind, but I have provided a link to your two threads on my help thread, "The Sandbox".-

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/142349.page

If you object to this, I shall remove it.

You have a proven, extraordinary grasp of this subject.

I would like for us to become friends, if you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Thank You- XOX1

Heyya XOX1,
Thanks for your kind words. No need for apologies.
I'd be honored to be call you friend, and by all means feel free to link this wherever you think it could help.

Hope you had a great Holiday and enjoy the upcoming SP!

UZ

Thank you UZ!-

I really like your explanation of the nature of CC!

It is very clear, concise, and will be of great benefit to those of us who are unfamiliar with it's peculiarities.

XOX1

After doing all this stuff and finding the game still doesn't run without invoking a blue screen error some questions came to mind:

1) Why would a company release an 'expansion pack' to base software that requires anyone to go through such extreme efforts just to be able to even load the game--shouldn't the software be made to self configure properly 'out of the box'?

2) Why would anyone want to risk loading such damaging software if warned in advance--should there be a sticker on the box saying something akin to "Caution--special instructions are required just to load this software and after even a proper loading please be aware that this software may very likely still not run properly"?

3) Because Sims 2 loaded properly as did all of its expansion packs without a major hitch--is it too much to expect that Sims 3 should work similarly?

4) Sims 3 & expansions cost 25% more--shouldn't they run at least 25% or more of the time?

5) If Sims 3 WA will not run when sold 'as is', where the incentive to buy additional expansion packs?

Sorry, it just seems that such questions loom large over the future of Sims 3.

While the instructions provided may work for "Dummies" to load the game, it should be noted that there is still a good chance that the game still will not run using the current release & patches.

Sims 3 + patch 1.46 does run for most people.

Thanks,just wanted to say it's nice to have someone willing to help those of us who know just enough about our computer and CC and the Sims 3 game to get into trouble, but not enough to get out on our own. Thanks again