sims 3 64 bit keeps freezing

[puzzlezaddict]

@leahmay74  The open water issue affects anyone playing the 64-bit version, and there's no fix for it at this point.  I still have hope that EA will address the issue in a future patch, but we've had no news on that front.

As far as the crashing is concerned, the game is just as unstable as it always was, meaning that even without a hard RAM limit, it can crash for plenty of other reasons.  If you're playing in IP, even a partially fixed one, you could have a stuck sim or another routing issue that suddenly takes up all the game engine's resources, or really any of a number of problems.  If you're willing to use mods, NRaas ErrorTrap and Overwatch, as well as a few others, can be very helpful.

I doubt that the crashes are directly related to anything else on your computer, that is unless Origin is also crashing or iCloud decides to sync suddenly after leaving you alone for a couple hours.  You could always try playing while offline though; it's not going to hurt anything.  Just sign into Origin and put it in offline mode, then disconnect the internet before pressing Play.

Bypassing Origin by using TS3W.exe isn't possible in the 64-bit version, at least as far as I can see.  I'm pretty sure EA blocked it, just as it did in the last update to the Windows version of the game, now five years ago.  DEP settings did interfere with Sims 3 for a while in Windows installs, but DEP is not a feature of macOS.

If you want to upgrade your RAM and your Mac supports it—only a few models do—there's no reason not to.  But before assuming it will help with Sims 3, you may want to check how much memory the game is using after you've been playing for an hour or two, as well as how much is left over after the system and any other apps you're running take their share.  You can run the Activity Monitor (in Applications > Utilities) while you play; it doesn't take much in the way of resources, and it's easy to cmd-tab to it, or just leave it showing in a corner if you play in windowed mode.

[leahmay74]

@puzzlezaddict Okay thanks so much!

[leahmay74]

hello @puzzlezaddict 

After many days of trying to fix IP and not having much luck with the game crashing, I decided to move out of IP to a different town. 

Now it's playing fine. But can't boat in other towns I guess either? no open water options. In IP you could click on a boat and go boating that way but

when I try that in the new town it does nothing. I'm wondering if it's worth keeping IP expansion or not? It's unplayable and a waste of money

at this point. Does Origin give refunds? 

[puzzlezaddict]

@leahmay74  Origin doesn't grant refunds for DLC, which covers Sims 3 packs.  If you buy your sims a boat in their new world, does it have the same options?  Some worlds don't have deep enough water for all the IP-related activities, although the ones with a proper ocean or bay should.

You could also download the fixed version of IP and experiement with that.  Even if it doesn't work as well as you want, there's no harm in trying.

[leahmay74]

@puzzlezaddict 

I moved to Sunset Valley. It has an ocean and bays. When I click on the boat it has options to go boating.

But when I click to go boating it switches to map view and nothing happens. Tried a few times.

I also tried the IP fix before but was still too buggy for me anyway. I guess It's just a waiting game to see

if they patch it up one day.

[divagurl111]

yea ive noticed some options just dont work for me... when I call for any service (besides mixologist) they never show up even though the chat icon confirms the call. 

[lizaaaaaaaaa9]

I've been playing the 64 bit & metal version of Sims 3 for about a month now on and off. It's been fine, other than a little laggy and a fair bit of the spinning rainbow wheel, but not unplayable. The only incredibly frustrating thing was the complete lack of water interactions and completing any diving aspirations being impossible because of it. Then one day out of nowhere, with nothing different, no new packs or downloaded store content, and I don't use any mods, it started crashing, and every time I play it crashes earlier than before. It's frustrating because as far as I can tell nothing is different it's just decided to start crashing.

The other thing is that some expansion packs don't seem to have survived the transfer over to 64 bit as I had to re-enter the serial codes and even now they won't download they just say "unlocked" with no option to install them at all. Hopefully EA gets onto fixing all these issues soon because sims 3 is so much more fun to play than sims 4, and I've been waiting so long to play it again once mac stopped allowing 32 bit apps.

[puzzlezaddict]

@lizaaaaaaaaa9  The lack of interactions on open water is a known issue:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/CURRENT-ISSUE-64-bit-All-open-water-options-missing/m...

For the missing packs, you'll need to contact EA customer support and request that the "entitlements," as they're called, for the 64-bit versions be added to your account.  This is a simple task for support to do.

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/

For the crashing, does it happen in a new save in Sunset Valley?  Did you update your OS or anything else on your computer?  Do you use iCloud, and if so, does it sync the contents of Documents with cloud storage?

[kennaroe]

@lizaaaaaaaaa9 This is exactly what's happening to me. It went from crashing once every hour or so to now crashing after about 5 minutes, or less. I uninstalled and reinstalled everything, checked my storage and memory, turned down all of the graphics, but it's just nuts. And I just installed and started playing everything today. I had it installed on my MacBook (the old version, not the 64 bit version) and it ran totally fine (with the normal amount of rare crashes of course), but it took up all of the space on it so I had to just wait until the 64 bit came out to play on my iMac. EA needs to fix this ASAP, it's completely ridiculous. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@kennaroe  Did you update your operating system in the interim?  It would be helpful to know what version you're running, as well as the rest of your Mac's specs: everything under About This Mac except for the serial number.

Please also let me know whether you have the Pets expansion installed.