Sims 3 crashes in teen male CAS

[jelt2707]

My game (Sims 3) crashes everytime I am in teen male CAS, including changing clothes, hair and in stylist. I do have mods but I do not have any cc, let alone any that is specific to teen males. I usually get to changing their shirt when it crashes, and for the first time ever just then, the shirts were making the Sims entire clothing slot (? don't know the name, but "the bounds of where clothes can go") went a solid colour. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@jelt2707  EA's vanilla CAS can cause some issues on its own, even without bad cc, but your crashes could also be due to a corrupt save or other file.  Does this happen only with a particular sim, only in one ongoing save, or in any game, even a new one?  Does it happen if you enter CAS when you first boot up, or only after you spend some time in the game?  Spending a lot of time in CAS and CAH can be much more demanding on RAM than simply playing with a family.

If this problem exists across saves, the best thing to try is to pull your entire TS3 folder out of Documents (not just pieces, the entire thing) and place it somewhere safe, like on your desktop with a new name.  When you launch the game again, it will spawn a fresh, clean folder with no content.  You can try playing around with CAS again to see if the problem recurs.  If not, you can add your existing save(s) to this new folder and load it up to see if you still have the same issue.  If not, you can add the rest of your content back in, a little at a time, and when the problem appears again, you'll know more or less what is causing the crashes.

If a clean folder still produces the same crashing pattern as you've been seeing, it's time to run a dxdiag (Windows) or post your specs (mac) as well as which packs you're running, and maybe your in-game graphics settings for good measure.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/HOW-TO-DxDiag-PC-Only/m-p/1049584/thread-id/47181

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/475...

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@jelt2707  EA's vanilla CAS can cause some issues on its own, even without bad cc, but your crashes could also be due to a corrupt save or other file.  Does this happen only with a particular sim, only in one ongoing save, or in any game, even a new one?  Does it happen if you enter CAS when you first boot up, or only after you spend some time in the game?  Spending a lot of time in CAS and CAH can be much more demanding on RAM than simply playing with a family.

If this problem exists across saves, the best thing to try is to pull your entire TS3 folder out of Documents (not just pieces, the entire thing) and place it somewhere safe, like on your desktop with a new name.  When you launch the game again, it will spawn a fresh, clean folder with no content.  You can try playing around with CAS again to see if the problem recurs.  If not, you can add your existing save(s) to this new folder and load it up to see if you still have the same issue.  If not, you can add the rest of your content back in, a little at a time, and when the problem appears again, you'll know more or less what is causing the crashes.

If a clean folder still produces the same crashing pattern as you've been seeing, it's time to run a dxdiag (Windows) or post your specs (mac) as well as which packs you're running, and maybe your in-game graphics settings for good measure.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/HOW-TO-DxDiag-PC-Only/m-p/1049584/thread-id/47181

https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-3-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/475...

[jelt2707]

Thank you so much! That was way easier than I was expecting! I have moved my saves and my mods into the new folder - I don't think either of them caused it because it seems to be working now - is there anything else I need to transfer to the new folder?

[puzzlezaddict]

@jelt2707  Your options.ini file stores your customized game options, but the file can become corrupt, so it might be easier to just reset your options in-game.  (You probably want to back up the new file and store it somewhere safe, as installing new drivers can reset the options.)  If you have store content, you'll need to move your .ebc files over from DCCache (.dbc files are third-party cc), or you could just redownload the store stuff if you don't have much.  If you do redownload, you should get a new ccmerged.package in your DCBackup folder; otherwise, be sure to transfer the old one over as well.

Installedworlds will have Riverview and any others you've downloaded and installed.  Other than that, it depends on whether you have premade sims (binned while in CAS), premade families (ready to move in) and prebuilt lots, and custom patterns that you want to save.  They live in savedsims, library, and userpresets.package, respectively.

Again, it might be best to move content over a bit at a time and test to see if CAS still functions properly.  If not, it would be best to just trash the corrupt files and redownload or recreate what you're missing.

For a complete explanation of what files live in your TS3 folder, see crinrict's post:

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/faq-user-files.html

Last thing: if you have premium store content, the patch that makes it work no longer downloads from the store to anyone on patch 1.67 via Steam or mac OS; I'm not sure about Origin/1.69 users.  If this is an issue, you can copy over your ContentPatch folder, or redownload the necessary files from the link in this post:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16341942/#Comment_16341942

[jelt2707]

Thank you so much