Game Keeps Freezing right before 5:30 AM

[WillowSpirit444]

Ive had nothing but issues since I downloaded the Ambitions expansion. Ive mostly been able to work around it although its been time consuming and annoying. Until today. Now today all day I have been able to play my game much at all as it freezes more and more and more. Finally now it keeps freezing just before 5:30am no matter what I do. When I went through steam to verify the files it gave me this message saying "1 file failed to validate and will be reacquired" but nothing happens after that. Every time I try to verify the files it gives me the same message and no change. When I tried to contact steam they told me to contact EA so here I am. lol

Heres another random issue Ive been having since day 1 which may or may not be related since I only just a few days ago installed Ambitions, which is when my game started freezing... but every time I exit the Sims game it still shows that its running in steam. If I exit the game then try to reopen it the game tells me its running some where. I have to sign out of my account on the computer completely then resign in if I want to play again. Its really annoying.

Also I have no done any moding at all. The only thing Ive uploaded from EA is the free stuff that came with each of my games. I use the "testingcheatsenabled true" code sometimes but literally the only thing Ive ever done with that code is make all my sims happy and on rare occasion teleport them some where. No idea if that could affect anything.

I have the following expansion packs installed: pets, generations, seasons, and ambitions

[puzzlezaddict]

@WillowSpirit444  When you say you've tried to validate the files in Steam, do you mean running the repair?  If it's not working, then I think the only other approach would be to uninstall Ambitions, repair again, and reinstall the pack.  As long as you reinstall Ambitions before trying to play again, it should be fine.  Still, you can skip this step for now if you'd rather try other things first.

The game still running is probably the launcher running in the Tray issue that's been around for almost two years now.  It can be addressed by denying Read permission on a file called Sims3Logs that's in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3.  When the issue first surfaced, denying Read permission to Admin; you may need to also deny Read to System.  Or you could delete the file every time you quit.

Or you could bypass the launcher when you want to play.  You don't need to launch Sims 3 through Steam—just double-click the TS3W.exe, and the game will start without your having Steam open.  The launcher running in the Tray issue doesn't happen if the launcher never opens.  Unless you changed the default install location in Steam, the full path to the .exe will be:

Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

For the game freezing at 5:30, there's probably something happening right around then that is causing trouble.  Without mods, it's a bit difficult to narrow down, but you can try a few different approaches.  The first is to use the cheat reset sim * (with the asterisk) to reset all sims in town right before it freezes.  Beyond that, it's kind of a guessing game.  Do you know of a sim in town that's about to give birth?  Is there a plant on your home lot that's supposed to evolve or become harvestable that hasn't yet done so when the game freezes?  Is there anything else supposed to happen right around that time?

If you're not opposed to mods, let me know, and I'll recommend a couple that could help.  Otherwise, let me know whether you're aware of anything that might be causing the freeze.

[WillowSpirit444]

@puzzlezaddict I would definitely prefer not to uninstall Ambitions but I will if it comes to that. I am going to try the reset sims thing. I do have a garden and the garden changes right around 5:30am so that's something. Maybe I should delete the garden?

I tried to open the TS3w.exe but it claims that my base game is not updated for some reason. I checked through steam to see if the game needed an update and it doesn't.

[puzzlezaddict]

@WillowSpirit444  I'm not suggesting you uninstall Ambitions permanently, just that uninstalling and reinstalling it might help.  The pack itself should be fine.  And there are no updates necessary; the Steam version of Sims 3 downloads and installs already fully updated.

Did you try validating the game files in Steam a second time?  I tried it just now, and I got the message the five files failed to validate and would be reacquired.  I didn't see anything happen, but there was a new entry in Downloads that reflected the update.  I ran another validation, and this time three files were flagged; the new download was 2 GB.  And it somehow kept flagging three files over and over, despite claiming to have fixed them.  Despite this, I haven't seen any evidence that my install is corrupt, so it might not mean anything.  The validation did undo my. sgr edits though, not that it's difficult to redo them.

Anyway, run the validation again, click Downloads at the bottom of the main Steam window, and see whether Steam is in fact downloading a bit of data.  As long as it can, I think you can probably ignore this part of the issue for now.

For the plants, it would be a good test to delete all of them and see whether the game still freezes, that is if the resetsim cheat doesn't help.  You don't have to get rid of the garden entirely; it's possible that a single plant is corrupted.  But like I said, this might take a bit of experimenting to narrow down.