Kidnapped by Aliens? [SOLVED]

Does anyone else have an issue with disappearing Sims? I run into all kinds of little glitches and often find ways to get around them or, at the very least, ignore them - to be fair, my system runs a little on the low side - but this one is SO annoying I wonder if anyone's got a good fix for it.

Sometimes it's NPCs (non-player characters) the square is still there in the friends list and the name and stats are all there but the picture's gone. Sometimes they come back.

Once it was the criminal dad in my family went to jail and disappeared. We carried on and a couple of us moved away and one day he came back. This time its my pregnant mother! She's the only one with any handiness and everything is broken!!! And she's still there in the friends lists! Even her pic is there! (the actual Sim is gone) And her popular, flirty widow(???) can't get it on with any other hot handy chicks! AND WHAT ABOUT THE BABY!? It's a travesty! I got a notification that she died but nobody seemed to notice...

Please help:(

Hello,

Sorry to hear about your, kind of messed-up, game.
Do you have any Mods or Custom Content?

If not, please let me know your graphic card's model and what Operating System you're using (Windows 7, Vista, XP) and whether it's a 32- or 64- bit PC.

Warning: I'm not all that knowledgeable over here...Hopefully this is what you're asking for; My card is a NVidia Geoforce 6100 (?)

Windows XP 64 bit Dual Core processor 4200 (??) 2.2 ghz

I got it here and I haven't customized anything but my homes in game and I added pre-made community space like the dog park and gym to my bridgeport map. I have lunar lakes and megamagic and harajuku...and maybe some other clothes but all downloaded from here...and I'm not updated cuz I don't even know if we're doing that yet...

Hopefully, that's all useful info. Thanks for your time:)

Hello,

To start with, do as following:

1. Download this driver for your GPU: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp64-301.42-whql-driver-uk.html
2. Open the driver installation and choose "Custom" as the installation method.
3. After that, when you have to choose the components, keep everything checked and also check "Clean installation". (Something like that)
4. Let the driver install and restart your PC afterwards.

Your video driver is now fully up-to-date.
Also, on your screenshot, I see the launcher is showing a game update. Could you please take a screenshot of the "Game Updates (!)" tab too?

Wow, that's awesome. Thanks!

Here's the update page:

Hello,

OK, thank you for the screenshot.
One more question; which expansions do you have installed at the moment?

Generations, Town Life, Pets and Late Night.

But she came back! She came back during the move (her eldest married and I moved her out) - so that could be a fix for it. She came back with 3 days off for pregnancy which is when she left. Sometimes they come back - not always tho.

And thanks for the driver update - actions all feel a little smoother now.

Hello,

Glad to hear it works now!
If you like, I can tell you how to patch to v1.34 of the game. That will also fix some bugs with the game.

Admin wrote:Hello,

Glad to hear it works now!
If you like, I can tell you how to patch to v1.34 of the game. That will also fix some bugs with the game.

Thanks! Do tell! I'd love to have it but I'm not sure if it's in the store updates....? I did it once before but I can't remember where I got it (here...but where here?;p).

Thanks again.

Hello,

In order to update to the latest version of the game, please do step 2-5 of this page: https://games4theworld.forumotion.com/t1171-must-read-how-to-install-the-sims-3-correctly
Do not skip any steps and read very carefully.

Good luck and please let me know the result!

Awesome! But here's a question - if I already have the game installed with the old cracks...do I replace those with the original game files first? Or does that matter?

Hello,

No need to do that, the manual patch will do that for you!

That's great! Thanks so much for all you help...and now...back to Bridgeport! ;p

//EDIT

And just a last word to let you know - I didn't play very long or get
very complicated but a couple of days shows that everything's working
smooth like butter, updates and all!

Hello,

Glad to hear it's working as it should now!
I hope you enjoy playing and don't hesitate to contact us if you run into any more problems!