Blue Plus Signs in Sims 3 Buying

[MountainMamaMSB]

I have been having different problems with Sims 3 ever since I installed it on my new computer with Windows 10. (NO problems in Windows 7 for years.) I finally got the problems straightened and the game loaded perfectly. I went to the lot I had been working on and now when I buy something and place it, a big blue plus sign pops up on it. This is very obnoxious as your room quickly fills up as you're trying to decorate it.  How do I get rid of them and why after all these years have they started showing up? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[puzzlezaddict]

@MountainMamaMSB  Please take a screenshot of the blue plus signs, so I can take a look.  And please start a new save, then work on a random lot, just to see whether the same problem happens there too.

[MountainMamaMSB]

Each house is in a different neighborhood too. House 2 finished some time ago and have been playing it off and on. House 1 is one I started last week. The whole downstairs was completed, and after having problems loading the game and finally getting it working again, I started on the upstairs. That's when these blamed things started showing up. I had not added any new content. Same content that I had for house #2 and this one was in the game. I have the mod for no sparkles, and it does work. Tried to find a mod for these things and strangely, no one seemed to know what I was talking about. Finally, I have seen where others were having the same problem for years. One had a solution listed and I tried it, but it did not work. Another said she had solved the problem on her own but she didn't say how! Darn!! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[puzzlezaddict]

@MountainMamaMSB  I've never seen those before, to be honest.  Try deleting the five cache files in your Sims 3 user data folder in Documents\Electronic Arts.  These files should be deleted regularly anyway, and while troubleshooting, delete them every time you play.  For reference, they are:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simCompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

If that alone doesn't help, please delete the cache files again, then start a new save, and let me know whether the same thing happens.  If it does, please move your entire Mods folder to your desktop, delete the cache files again, and start another new save to test.

If the issue is gone, test your existing saves.  You don't need to save your progress, so don't worry about missing objects or other weirdness resulting from the missing content.  The point is to find out whether removing all your mods fixes the issue; then you can start moving them back in batches and testing each one.  Any batch that reintroduces the issue needs to be split and tested again until you've found the problem file(s).  Be sure to delete the cache files each time you add or remove content from your Sims 3 folder.

[MountainMamaMSB]

I just spent two days doing what you said to do because I was having a problem with my mods. I finally found the problem files and removed them. The only difference in what I did and what you said is...I did not try to buy/place any items in between my testing the mods. I was intent on getting the game to load right. I have always deleted the cache files. Quite frankly, I just am not up to going through the same routine again. I guess since nobody seems to know where these things came from or why, I'll just have to put up with them. I told igazor or the other panel that I remember years ago when Sims 3 was new those things popped up in the game. But it's been so long I cannot remember how to get rid of them. It seems it was a mod that I downloaded. I have seen a few other posts of people having them so I know it's not just me or my computer. There was one helper that gave a remedy and said it worked for him. I did what he said, but it did not work for me. Guess I'm the winner of a bunch of obnoxious blue plus signs!!

[puzzlezaddict]

@MountainMamaMSB  It doesn't have to take forever to test your mods if you use the 50/50 method.  Test with half your mods, and if the problem is gone, set those aside and test half the other half.  If the problem shows up, split that batch in half and test again.  With this approach, even if you have a thousand mods, it would only take ten tests to isolate the one that's causing the problem.

But if you're not interested in troubleshooting, I guess you can work around it by only buying items right before you're going to quit for the night.  I wish I knew what the cause was, but I really haven't seen anything like that before.  Sorry.