Sims 3 64-bit Keeps Crashing and Lagging 2021

[Lola18790]

Hello,

So I've been playing the Sims 3 for about 7-8 years now but when the Sims 4 came out, I switched over to the Sims 4 and have been playing it ever since. Just yesterday, I decided to download and install the Sims 3 again and play it. I have the base game and pets installed. I made a family with 2 young adults, 1 child, 1 toddler, 1 dog, and 1 horse. Every time I tried to move them into a house, the game crashed. I did some research and found that the pets in the household were causing the problem so I made a new family with just 2 young adults, and the problem stopped. However, even without the pets when I play the game in any form except the menu, loading screens, and CAS, every about 5 minutes, my game lags and I get the spinning wheel of death for about 10 seconds and this happens every 10 seconds after. Then it'll stop for 5 minutes, but it comes back. I have also found that when I take my sims to attend a rabbit hole event (ex. the spa, horseback riding, etc.), it crashes again. Even without attending ANYTHING, the game crashes about 30-45 minutes after playing. This is super annoying because I can barely play the game properly or do pretty much anything with my sims without the game crashing. I am playing on a MacBook Pro--this model was released in mid-2020 and I got it in July so it's very new. It has about 45 GB of space on it as well. When the game crashes, I get a message saying that the Sims 3 quit unexpectedly with some random file attached to it. Here is my Mac's information and my deviceconfig.log file. I have replaced my name in the file to "REMOVED" for privacy.

Please provide all the help you can possibly give. I really want to play the game.

=== Application info ===

Name:            Sims3

Version:         

Build:           Release

=== Rating info ===

GPU: 3 GPU Memory: 5 CPU: 1 RAM: 5 CPU Speed: 1400 Threading: 3

Adjusted CPU: 2380 RAM: 8192 Adjusted RAM: 7680 Cores: 4

Card Found in DB: 0

=== Machine info ===

OS version:      Mac OS X Version 10.15.5 (Build 19F101)

OS prod type:    0

OS major ver:    10

OS minor ver:    15

OS SP major ver: 0

OS SP minor ver: 0

OS is 64Bit: 1

CPU:             MacBookPro16,3

    Brand:       Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8257U CPU @ 1.40GHz

    Family:      8

    Model:       7

    Cores:       4

    HT:          1

    x64:         1

Memory:          8192MB

Free memory:     3891MB

User:            REMOVED

Computer:        REMOVED-MacBook-Pro

=== Graphics device info ===

Number:          0

Name (driver):   Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645

Name (database): Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645 [Found: 0, Matched: 1]

Vendor:          Intel

Chipset:         Vendor: 8086, Device: 3ea6, Board: 00000178, Chipset: 0001

Driver:          macOS Metal driver, Version: 0.0.0.0

Driver version:  0

Monitor:         00000000

Texture memory:  1536MB

Vertex program:  3.0

Pixel program:   3.0

Hardware TnL:    0

=== Options ===

AnimationSmoothing 0

LightingQuality 2

GeneralReflections 1

TextureQuality 2

VisualEffects 2

TerrainQuality 1

EdgeSmoothing 0

ObjectHiding 1

AspectRatio 0

ForceSquarePixels 1

SimQuality 2

TreeQuality 1

DrawDistance 2

MaxActiveLots 1

NumMaxActiveLotOptions 6

AdvancedRendering 1

AudioQuality 1

AudiutputMode 1

VoiceLevel 255

SoundFXLevel 255

MusicLevel 255

AmbientLevel 255

FocusMute 1

VoiceMute 0

SoundFXMute 0

MusicMute 0

AmbientMute 0

EdgeScrolling 0

EdgeScrollingWarning 0

SupressOpportunityDialogs 0

SuppressOpportunityDialogsWarningProducts 513

SimWhileMinimized 0

TwelveHourClock 1

ShowPlacementGrid 0

AutonomyLevel 1

DisableAutonomyForSelectedSim 1

PetAutonomyLevel 1

AgingInterval 2

EnableAging 0

EnableTutorial 1

EnableIntroTutorial 0

EnableTombResets 1

EnableInGameStore 1

EnableTelemetry 1

EnableMemories 1

AgingStageLengthBaby 3

AgingStageLengthToddler 7

AgingStageLengthChild 7

AgingStageLengthTeen 14

AgingStageLengthYoungAdult 21

AgingStageLengthAdult 21

AgingStageLengthElder 17

EnableInteractiveLoading 1

AgingStageLengthPuppy 0

AgingStageLengthDogAdult 0

AgingStageLengthDogElder 0

AgingStageLengthKitten 0

AgingStageLengthCatAdult 0

AgingStageLengthCatElder 0

AgingStageLengthFoal 0

AgingStageLengthHorseAdult 0

AgingStageLengthHorseElder 0

LunarCycleLength 3

LunarPhaseLength 0

EnableLunarCycle 1

EnableLunarPhase 0

EnableStoryProgression 1

EnableVampires 1

EnableWerewolves 1

EnablePets 1

EnableCelebrities 1

EnableFairies 1

EnableWitches 1

EnableHorses 1

EnableOptOutCeleb 0

ReceiveConnectTNS 1

ReceivedDevGift 0

PostFilterFlags 0

RequireLoginBeforeLoad 0

SummerLength 7

FallLength 7

WinterLength 7

SpringLength 7

SummerEnabled 1

FallEnabled 1

WinterEnabled 1

SpringEnabled 1

IsCelcius 0

FogEnabled 1

RainEnabled 1

SnowEnabled 1

HailEnabled 1

InvertHorizontalRotation 0

InvertVerticalRotation 0

VideoCaptureSize 1

VideoCaptureQuality 2

VideoCaptureSound 0

VideoCaptureTime 60

VideoCaptureHideUI 1

=== Default Options ===

AnimationSmoothing 0

LightingQuality 2

GeneralReflections 1

TextureQuality 2

VisualEffects 2

TerrainQuality 1

EdgeSmoothing 0

ObjectHiding 1

AspectRatio 0

ForceSquarePixels 1

SimQuality 2

TreeQuality 1

DrawDistance 2

MaxActiveLots 1

NumMaxActiveLotOptions 6

AdvancedRendering 1

AudioQuality 1

AudiutputMode 1

VoiceLevel 255

SoundFXLevel 255

MusicLevel 255

AmbientLevel 255

FocusMute 1

VoiceMute 0

SoundFXMute 0

MusicMute 0

AmbientMute 0

EdgeScrolling 0

EdgeScrollingWarning 1

SupressOpportunityDialogs 0

SuppressOpportunityDialogsWarningProducts 0

SimWhileMinimized 0

TwelveHourClock 1

ShowPlacementGrid 0

AutonomyLevel 2

DisableAutonomyForSelectedSim 0

PetAutonomyLevel 2

AgingInterval 2

EnableAging 1

EnableTutorial 1

EnableIntroTutorial 1

EnableTombResets 1

EnableInGameStore 1

EnableTelemetry 1

EnableMemories 1

AgingStageLengthBaby 3

AgingStageLengthToddler 7

AgingStageLengthChild 7

AgingStageLengthTeen 14

AgingStageLengthYoungAdult 21

AgingStageLengthAdult 21

AgingStageLengthElder 17

EnableInteractiveLoading 1

AgingStageLengthPuppy 0

AgingStageLengthDogAdult 0

AgingStageLengthDogElder 0

AgingStageLengthKitten 0

AgingStageLengthCatAdult 0

AgingStageLengthCatElder 0

AgingStageLengthFoal 0

AgingStageLengthHorseAdult 0

AgingStageLengthHorseElder 0

LunarCycleLength 3

LunarPhaseLength 0

EnableLunarCycle 1

EnableLunarPhase 0

EnableStoryProgression 1

EnableVampires 1

EnableWerewolves 1

EnablePets 1

EnableCelebrities 1

EnableFairies 1

EnableWitches 1

EnableHorses 1

EnableOptOutCeleb 0

ReceiveConnectTNS 1

ReceivedDevGift 0

PostFilterFlags 0

RequireLoginBeforeLoad 0

SummerLength 7

FallLength 7

WinterLength 7

SpringLength 7

SummerEnabled 1

FallEnabled 1

WinterEnabled 1

SpringEnabled 1

IsCelcius 0

FogEnabled 1

RainEnabled 1

SnowEnabled 1

HailEnabled 1

InvertHorizontalRotation 0

InvertVerticalRotation 0

VideoCaptureSize 1

VideoCaptureQuality 2

VideoCaptureSound 0

VideoCaptureTime 60

VideoCaptureHideUI 1

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Lola18790  Try turning down lighting quality to the lowest setting.  Do so at the Main Menu, then quit to desktop before loading a save.

If that doesn't help, what world are you playing in?  Sunset Valley and Riverview are quite stable, but some EA-made store worlds have routing issues, and custom worlds can have all kinds of problems, even ones from the Exchange.  If you're not playing in SV, try doing so as a comparison.

However, the issue here may be the presence of the Pets expansion itself.  Even without pets in your active household, strays will spawn elsewhere on the map, and other households may adopt their own pets.  There are ways to address some of this with mods, if you're interested in trying.  But since it's not clear at this point which elements of Pets cause problems, other than the obvious (pets in the active household), it's also not clear whether any of the available interventions might help.

[EA_Illium]

@Lola18790 To confirm are there any mods with the game currently?

[Lola18790]

I do not have any mods currently installed however, I do have some store items.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Lola18790  Try turning down lighting quality to the lowest setting.  Do so at the Main Menu, then quit to desktop before loading a save.

If that doesn't help, what world are you playing in?  Sunset Valley and Riverview are quite stable, but some EA-made store worlds have routing issues, and custom worlds can have all kinds of problems, even ones from the Exchange.  If you're not playing in SV, try doing so as a comparison.

However, the issue here may be the presence of the Pets expansion itself.  Even without pets in your active household, strays will spawn elsewhere on the map, and other households may adopt their own pets.  There are ways to address some of this with mods, if you're interested in trying.  But since it's not clear at this point which elements of Pets cause problems, other than the obvious (pets in the active household), it's also not clear whether any of the available interventions might help.

[Lola18790]

Okay so I moved the lighting slider down to its lowest possibility and it seemed to have fixed the issue! I can even play households with pets now. I’m going to have one of my sims attend a rabbit hole event and see if it crashes and I’ll get back to you.

Thank you so so so much!!

[Lola18790]

So I took my sim to the spa and the game still crashed. I’m unsatisfied with the results, however I am very happy that the game doesn’t lag anymore so thank you so much for that. I’m gonna try to play in Sunset Valley now and do a rabbit hole event and I will let you know if the problem still persists.

In the meantime, do you recommend anything else to keep the game from crashing?

[puzzlezaddict]

@Lola18790  Honestly, if you can play with Pets enabled, you're ahead of most people with your type of graphics chip.  There's a mod that can control or eliminate the stray pet population, which may or may not cut down on the crashes.  You can play with the graphics settings a bit more, maybe turning down something else or playing in windowed mode and/or at a reduced resolution.  But the game is not likely to be perfectly stable as long as you have the pack installed.

If you'd like specific suggestions, let me know whether mods are on the table or not.  It's totally understandable if you don't want to use them; just let me know either way.

[Lola18790]

Hi,

Sorry for such a late response. I'm not interested in using mods, as long as the game runs okay without them, I'm fine with it. Thanks again for your help. 

[CherryCherrys]

My game was crashing, so I regenerated another The Sims 3 folder and I would play for hours even in build/buy mode, but after hours of play my game crashes again, mostly when I'm at build/buy mode, but when the first crash happens, my game start crashing while in gameplay as well. I have package mods and sims3pack content installed (most of my cc´s were in sims3pack). I've tried removing the mods folder and I would still have the crashing issues, as I was tired and really upset about the crashes after I "discovered" that regenerating another folder would give me a few hours of gameplay without having to worry about freaking crash, I kept regenerating and moving my important folders back to the new The Sims 3 folder but I still don't have a clue what causes the game to crash after a few hours, so I noticed that the CurrentGame.sims3 folder was one thing I was assured that was an empty folder when I moved to The Sims 3 new folder, so I went to that folder and noticed it had some files, so I created a backup of the folder and moved all the files to trash, and I could play my game happily till I decided to shut down. This makes sense or I had lucky without crash? 

I noticed that there's some problem with pets, I have two dogs but I had problems even without them, I used to have a cat too but it was invisible so I gave him to adoption. And I'm playing with cc's in package and sims3pack

[puzzlezaddict]

@CherryCherrys  It's certainly possible that leftover files in CurrentGame cause problems for the game, although I don't know for sure.  But since the folder should always be empty unless you have a save loaded, you can delete the files after a crash without worrying about the effects.

The Pets expansion has all kinds of problems on certain computers.  Bad custom content can also make pets invisible.  If you want to troubleshoot the second possibility, let me know.