Serious error has occurred!

I've been getting code 12 since a while ago, and it is really getting on my nerves. I read somewhere that you had to "save as" and rename each time you saved, for example, Sunset 1, Sunset 2 and Sunset 3, and then overwrite. I did that and it worked for a while, now I get code 12 almost everytime! The last time I got, was when I tried to "save as" Green 2, I got the error so I went to the main menu to play from the "Green 1" file. Then the screen went black and I got the message "A serious error has occurred while loading "Green 1". Please restart the application", or something like that. This is maybe the second time this happens to me! Also, Im getting freezes once in a while, specially when I'm planning new outfits and deleting the ones the game creates (The game would create an extra outfit each time I plan a new one, so I have about 7 outfits now!). Anyone knows how to fix any of these problems? Specially code 12? I can play about 5 hours sims until I get the code, and I would really like to move on

This hasn't helped, as I tried the drastic solution of deleting the "saves" folder. I started a new game and kept getting the message without being able to save. I exported and imported all my old families, so I didn't losse everything, and I play in Bridgeport. Is it really the size of neighbourhoods the cause of this? Before Late Night got out, I played in Suset Valley and I don't remember getting the code until about the time Late Night was released.

And how do I switch to another folder? I need to have open the "saves" folder?

I don't quite understand ... Why do I need to switch to another folder? My game is crashing almost every moment now, I don't know if this has to do with error code 12, CC or anything.

Then I get a message says that Sims 3 stopped working, and that Windows is looking for a solution for the problem. Then the message says the program stopped working correctly because of a problem, and that Windows will close it and notify me if a solution exists. This message keeps appearing!

nick_123 wrote:I don't quite understand ... Why do I need to switch to another folder? My game is crashing almost every moment now, I don't know if this has to do with error code 12, CC or anything.

Then I get a message says that Sims 3 stopped working, and that Windows is looking for a solution for the problem. Then the message says the program stopped working correctly because of a problem, and that Windows will close it and notify me if a solution exists. This message keeps appearing!

Hello,

Please clear ALL of your Mods / Custom Content, start the game and see if it makes any difference.

Ok I will try that

Edit: Okay I kind of had a lot problems, that's why I created two different topics but now I came to realise they are mostly the same, sorry. Regarding what you said, I cleared all CC and took out the one mod I had (twallan's woohooer) and entered the game. I don't know if it was thanks to this or to the latest patch or anything but now my game doesn't crash when I am planning an outfit (Because it crashed when I tried to delete the 7 outfits the game created, it crashed), but I haven't "planned" an outfit since a while and I can't say which was the solution.

I've been having another problem, my sim has become unclickable, when any other family member is the active sim, I can't interact with him because interactions just won't appear, altough if I choose him he can interact with the other family members, to a point, because the few interactions I have tried were with his wife and in the middle of the interaction they just popped few feet away. The wife is also popping out of the bed! And when the husband sleeps in the same bed as her, he pops out too, and the other family member who is 4 rooms away also pops out! I don't know what could be going on, I took out CC and the mod, and it is still happening, is there a way to fix this?

Early in Sims (right about World Adventures) codes 12 and 13 were rampant problems. They did fix some of these in later patches and it is possible that they could have emerged again with the latest patch. I haven't had any problems myself though and my town is huge.

Code 12 does have to do with the size of your neighborhood and how much you've made 'unique.' Basically what happens is the size of your save file increases with how much you customize things, how much you add to the neighborhood, how big your family or lot is, you name it. The way EA designed Sims 3 to save (stupidest idea ever) was to bulk the entire file into one chunk which gets temporarily added to your computer's memory and then writes it to the hard drive from there instead of doing it bit by bit. Thus, people who will notice Code 12 are those with not enough memory to support the size of their game file.

Doing the saves 1, 2, 3 simply is a way to keep a running save of your game so you lose less progress if the current save is bad (and people thought that saving over the current had a higher chance of corrupting the save file).

One fix to try and cleanup the size of the game is to run a mod like Overwatch by twallan. The guy's a genius and does a great job at fixing up trouble spots in EA's programming. You'll find all his mods at http://www.the-isz.com/nraas (though you probably already know that since you had his woohooer mod) and if you check out nothing else, take a look at Overwatch and Master Controller. They're lifesavers for glitches including the invisible sim problem.

I had Overwatch, then took it out, but I'm thinking in putting it back again. What I did was increase virtual memory or something like that with this guide : http://crinrict-help.blogspot.com/search/label/Error%2012 , and I believe it helped, along with saving as 1, 2, 3. I will download Overwatch again to reduce lag. Any ideas on how to fix the unclickable sim and popping out of bed issue?

Edit: Okay I just downloaded Master Controller and "reset everything", the game minimized to desktop about 2 times, and my sim became unclickable (I saved the game coincidentally in a moment where 2 seconds after I enter the game, the sim becomes unclickable)

I'd hop back to an older save file (it's what I had to do when I first installed overwatch and master controller). Basically before the problems started happening. Reset everything, let overwatch do it's nightly clean and hopefully the problem will be solved. From what I could tell, it was an invisible neighborhood sim that was causing my own sims to run into blank walls, stop interacting, and turn into invisisims themselves. ><

How do you know what was causing the problem? And how a sim is invisible? Dou you know something about script errors? Because I've been getting a lot of them, with the names of my sims in them. I've heard something about ErrorTrap by twallan, and that it helps fix script errors, or something like that. Do you know if this may be useful?

ErrorTrap does help catch certain errors caused by mod scripts as well as other EA ones that pop up plus it handles other things automatically. Check http://www.the-isz.com/nraas/index.php?/topic/1514-the-errortrap-patch-124-version-43-updated-2011-aug-02/ for more details. I use it, but unfortunately still have a corrupted family inventory. It provides a log to track down problems it doesn't clean automatically so anything that helps is good in my opinion.

I will download it too. Ive noticed in my "Electronic Arts/ Sims 3" Folder there are a lot of "script errors" files, and a lot of files that originally weren't there. Might be of any use to delete them?

Edit: I don't know what really happened, but I installed Overwatch and ErrorTrap, I started an immediate cleanup with overwatch and a script error regarding error trap appeared, then it said it was recorded. Another script error showed up naming a sim I never saw before (its name was Bart Hammer). And then overwatch made another cleanup, saying this "Bart Hammer" was recovered. Maybe this sim was the reason of the problems, because after all this script errors and messages my sim is still clickable, and they didn't pop out of bed.

Edit again: After playing a while, I realise that my sim was unclickable once again. Like the last time, he can perform actions, but if I choose another sim as an active sim, no interactions of any type appear.

Bugger. Not sure what to say. After it recovered one of the neighborhood guys in my game that was the cause of my issue, I didn't have a problem again. It's caught and recovered a few other sims since in its nightly maintenance, but haven't had anyone become unclickable again.

Well if there's no solution I should be getting used to not being able to interact with my sims sometimes. Anyways, I sent them to France to see if it fixed something, but it got worse. They dissappeared. I took out CC (actually disabled it) and mods and sent them again, and they dissappeared again. Ive heard that this happened to many people but never happened to me until now. Is there a fix?

Only fix I know of is the one I already shared. Sorry Nick...only other thing I can offer is to possibly scrap that game and start a new one with overwatch installed to make sure it does nightly cleanups and reduces the chances of this happening ever again. =/

Okay thank you, I just started a new game so when it really messes up, I will begin a new one with Overwatch already installed.