When

[MeaganHardy]

I tried to start playing my Sims family today and when I click on the Household to play I get this message "The game failed to load. Error code : 104:5ee05594:12f1df4c. It is recommended that you relaunch the game." It then takes me back to the screen where you can select what 'world' to play, and then a message pops up in the corner telling me that one of my babies was taken away due to neglect. 

Technically, it still lets me play the game even after giving me the error message but I'm pissed that one of my kids was taken away before I even got to start playing my family. I've repaired the game, made sure all of my mods are updated, the game itself is updated and I've relaunched it about 5 times and the same thing happens each time.

Does anybody else have any idea what I can do to fix this?? My child getting taken away while I wasn't even playing the game is so unfair! 

[puzzlezaddict]

@MeaganHardy  When the social worker scenario is triggered, even in error, it's usually impossible to stop it before the kid is taken, at least without completely corrupting the save.  So it might be best to load a backup save instead.  You'll lose a bit of progress, but you won't have to start over.

Even if you've never made a backup yourself, the game keeps the file from the second to last time you saved.  Open Saves inside your TS3 game folder and find the folder labeled with your save name and a .backup extension.  (So if your main save is called SunsetValley, that save's folder will be SunsetValley.sims3, and the backup will be SunsetValley.sims3.backup.)  Rename the backup and delete the .backup extension (so maybe SunsetValley1.sims3), and it will be available to load from the Main Menu.

Before you start, be sure to delete the five cache files in your game folder.  They tend to fill up with stale data, and given the errors and the (apparent) appearance of the social worker, it's best to clean all that data out.  For reference, those files are:

• CASPartCache.package
• compositorCache.package
• scriptCache.package
• simCompositorCache.package
• socialCache.package

And when loading a new save, even to troubleshoot, be sure to quit to desktop first.  Switching saves at the Main Menu can transfer data from the first save to the second, resulting in all kinds of corruption.