My Sims 3 Game shuts itself off while booting up. [ Edited ]

[184B19]

Did this ever happen to anyone else here?

Lately over the last few days (From Nov 12 2020 onward) my Sims 3 game shuts itself off while booting up.  There are two screens that show a green graft. The second screen has a picture of your Sims town in the background. The Graft fills up with green color from left to right. But in my case it stops at the right edge and never finishes filling it up, and it stays like that.  The screen stays up on the monitor like that with the opening music playing for about seven minutes.  And at seven minutes the music stops, and then starts up again for a few more seconds, and then stops altogether for a second or too of silence, and then the screen picture vanishes and I am back looking at my desktop. 

Has anybody here gone through this? And how were they able to fix this?

-- player 184B19

[puzzlezaddict]

@184B19  When the game starts crashing on the second loading screen, while you're loading a save, it can mean there's something wrong with that particular save or with other data in the Sims 3 user folder.  Try deleting the five cache files from your Sims 3 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts.  These files should be deleted regularly anyway, and every time you quit the game while troubleshooting.  For reference, the files are:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simcompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

Open the CurrentGame folder as well and delete anything in there.  That folder should always be empty unless you're running the game and have a save loaded.

If that alone doesn't help, try loading a backup copy instead.  Even if you never made one, the game keeps the files from the second-to-last time you saved.  Open Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves, and you'll see a folder with your save name and another folder with the same name plus a .backup extension.  So if your save is SunsetValley, there should be a SunsetValley.sims3 folder and a SunsetValley.sims3.backup folder.  Delete the .backup extension and rename the save (e.g. SunsetValley1.sims3), and you'll be able to load it from the Main Menu.

If you can load the backup save, let the game clock run for a few sim-minutes and then use "save as" to rename the save.  That way, the original backup will still be preserved if you need it later, and you can experiment on the newer copy.

If you can't load the backup save either, let me know, and we can move onto other interventions.

[184B19]

To puzzlezaddict

I appreciate you trying to help me; but I tried doing all those deletions and folder renames, and I get the same exact response. The games shuts itself off just as it supposed to be turning on.  Also I do not understand what you mean by ''If you can load the backup save, let the game clock run for a few sim-minutes and then use "save as" to rename the save''.   That sentence is confusing to me, and I never see any option for me to ''Save'' anything when the game is booting up.  The only way for me to save anything is during the gameplay, and the problem I have is that I cannot get into gameplay. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@184B19  Can you load the backup copy of the save?  I don't mean can you click it to start the loading process, I mean if you select it, will the game actually fully load it?  In that case, you can do what I described.

If the backup copy doesn't load, we can try a couple other options.  And by not loading, I mean it doesn't finish loading.

[Belisha_Beacon]

Hi @184B19 

Just out of curiosity you could check that the computer/lappy is running full power. 

If power fluctuates,  then you will find audio/sound will stutter.  This is not just  related to Sims3 loading  but on all other games. 

Have you found anything untoward with other games?

I would suggest as a quick start, make sure power is not being throttled.

Windows

[[If MAC, sorry idk.  Maybe someother with MAC could point you in the right direction]]

Open:

Control Panel

Power Options

Change Plan settings

Advanced Power settings

Scroll down to:

Processor Power Management

Check:

Minimum Processor Power State is greater than 50%

If 50% up it to 80%, 90% or even 100% 

Check Maximum Processor Power State is  greater than >50%

Max it to 100%

Apply and Save 

Hopefully that will allow you computer/lappy enough power to run Sims3 without glitching.

**After play Sims or any other game , I would suggest that if you are using Laptop  then reset all Processor values back to their original state, mainly in order to save battery while not gaming.**.

Good Luck!

[184B19]

To  ITS_ALL_PULLOX

I started doing as you said but then I stopped, and put it back at the original settings. I am afraid of 1, that I  may forget to go back to Power options, or forget what the original settings were. And 2, If I change my settings to use more energy, could I not cause my computer to burn out ?

[puzzlezaddict]

@184B19  Just to clarify, if you can load a new save, or a different save than the one you've been playing, just not this particular save, this is very unlikely to be a system issue, and almost certainly not a power issue.  If you can't load a new save, it still may not be a system issue, and if it is, it's much more likely to be about software than power use.

Please let me know whether a new save loads all the way, and whether the backup save loads all the way.