Sims 3 is not responding :(

[miinuet]

I like playing the Sims 3. I'm not the best builder, but I managed to build a nice house with 3 good-looking Sims living there. So one day I'm playing in this household and the game freezes, then a screen pops up saying "The Sims 3 is unresponsive", all of that stuff. Naturally, I'm kind of panicking because I didn't save and don't want to lose my progress. I dealt with it and knew I could just make the house again, doesn't matter. I tried to exit the game. Nothing. I load up the Task Manager, click the Sims 3 then End Task. Nothing. I looked everywhere and tried everything. Nothing. Help!

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@miinuet  Try the Task Manager again.  Sometimes it takes a couple of tried to force close TS3.  If that doesn't work though, you may need to go straight to shutdown.  You may be able to tell your computer to force-close all processes as it shuts down.

I don't know for sure, but with a long build session, I'd guess that your game might have gone over the memory limit.  TS3 is a 32-bit app and can only use about 3.7 GB of memory before it becomes in danger of crashing or throwing errors.  Saving will spike RAM use a bit, so it's best to stay below 3.5 GB at all times.  At that point, there's nothing you can do except quit without saving and try again later.

You can monitor RAM use in the Task Manager so that you know when you're close to the limit, you can save, quit to desktop, and reload.  This is especially important when building.  Some players choose to build in new saves or empty towns precisely because the memory use will be lower, and they can work on their creations for longer.  Then they save the lot to the bin, quit, and load their existing save to place the new build.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@miinuet  Try the Task Manager again.  Sometimes it takes a couple of tried to force close TS3.  If that doesn't work though, you may need to go straight to shutdown.  You may be able to tell your computer to force-close all processes as it shuts down.

I don't know for sure, but with a long build session, I'd guess that your game might have gone over the memory limit.  TS3 is a 32-bit app and can only use about 3.7 GB of memory before it becomes in danger of crashing or throwing errors.  Saving will spike RAM use a bit, so it's best to stay below 3.5 GB at all times.  At that point, there's nothing you can do except quit without saving and try again later.

You can monitor RAM use in the Task Manager so that you know when you're close to the limit, you can save, quit to desktop, and reload.  This is especially important when building.  Some players choose to build in new saves or empty towns precisely because the memory use will be lower, and they can work on their creations for longer.  Then they save the lot to the bin, quit, and load their existing save to place the new build.

[miinuet]

I forced shutdown and that seemed to work. Since I usually play in Windowed Mode, it should be easier to monitor my RAM. Thanks!