a serious error occurred while loading (name). we strongly recommend restarting the application.

[YOLANDAKER]

so every time i try to get into sims in the last few days this mesage keeps coming up. it gets as far as the town background and the box with my sims and the game tips and after about 5 minutes of waiting it comes up with a black screen and the above message. i've tried reinstalling the last EP and even put on a new one, but it keeps happening. i'm on PC.

[Gardia · Accepted solution]

It only does that with that household right? If you choose another household or create a new one, it should load without any issues. Since you want to play with the current household and not another one, I suggest you go to your saves folder on your Documents / Electronic Arts / The Sims 3 , see if you have a file in your saves folder that has the exact same name as the game you're currently playing but ending in .backup  If you do, then copy the files in that folder and replace them with the ones on the folder that has the name of the game that you're playing but ending in .sims3  After you do this, the game should load normally. 

[Gardia · Accepted solution]

It only does that with that household right? If you choose another household or create a new one, it should load without any issues. Since you want to play with the current household and not another one, I suggest you go to your saves folder on your Documents / Electronic Arts / The Sims 3 , see if you have a file in your saves folder that has the exact same name as the game you're currently playing but ending in .backup  If you do, then copy the files in that folder and replace them with the ones on the folder that has the name of the game that you're playing but ending in .sims3  After you do this, the game should load normally. 

[YOLANDAKER]

YES, THIS SOLVED IT. THANKYOU SO MUCH!!!!!

[Gardia]

I'm glad it helped. Happy simming

[kate_willms204]

I have tried deleting the backup folder's files and pasting the regular .sims3 files, into the backup one, but that didn't work. is that what you meant? or the other way around? (pasting the backup files into the regular .sims3 folder)

[puzzlezaddict]

@kate_willms204  Neither of these is the solution the responder was describing.  The idea is to move your save out of your game folder and rename the backup so that it gets recognized byt the game.  So if your save is named, say, "SunsetValley.sims3," your backup would be "SunsetValley.sims3.backup."  If you delete the .backup extension and rename the folder, so maybe "SunsetValley1.sims3," the game can recognize it and offer it as an option at the Main Menu.  (None of the files within each save folder is supposed to be moved or modified in any way.)  This is how you can sometimes recover a save game that has been corrupted—the hope is that the backup is still intact and playable.

The other common cause for the serious error message is having your game folder open in File Explorer when you try to launch the game.  Please make sure that this is not what's happening.

[laikpoppy]

Mine is doing this whenever i create a new save what do i do then, i have been looking for 3 hours now please help. I also dont have any saves so if that gives you anything to work with 

[puzzlezaddict]

@laikpoppy  This is a pretty old thread.  Would you mind making a new one?  It would be helpful to know when the error pops up, as well as the specs of your system.  Best of all would be a dxdiag, so we can cover all the bases in one go.  You can attach it to a post using the "browse" button.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

[jaygrl1020]

This only made my problem worse. I still can't access my family. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@jaygrl1020  Please describe your issue in more detail.  If you mean that moving your Sims 3 folder to your desktop means you can't access your save, then yes, that's what it's supposed to do, move your existing user data out of the way so you can test with a clean folder.  It's a diagnostic measure and a first step to a potential fix, not a solution in itself.