Game Freeze one minute before carpool and school bus due

[Minty]

I have a household of five sims.  Last time I saved, one was at work, three were at school and one was at home waiting for her carpool.  Her carpool is due at 1pm, same time as one of the kids is due home from school.  This lot had started to freeze at 12.59.

I can force an error using the batbox at any time before 1pm and they all come home but the problem occurs again when any carpool or school bus is due to arrive.  I've checked out my portals and they're all there, same as any bog standard lot.

I've been playing this lot for quite some time now and this has only just started to happen.

Any ideas as to how I can fix this will be greatfully received.

Thanks.

[Magicmoon]

Do you have testingcheats enabled? If not, enable it before time for the bus/carpool to arrive and see if you get an error. If so, post it here, along with your other relevant info such as which EPs you are running, as per the instructions in the FAQ.

[Minty]

I put testingcheatsenabled on and no error message popped up to be able to attach a log for.  However, this time the carpool did actually arrive in that it was on the lot, it just hadn't quite got to the spot where it parks and beeps annoyingly.

I'm using all EPs and all Stuff Packs.  All hacks and downloads that I have in my game have worked fine up until this point and I've not downloaded anything new in months and months. (I've already tried taking out all CC which didn't change everything - the error is being very persistent)

[Magicmoon]

Let's break the problem down a bit. I take it that you are not using a custom career for the Sim that the carpool is picking up because you said that you removed all CC and the problem continued. Does the carpool behave properly on your other lots? You said it freezes if any schoolbus or carpool is due to arrive. Is that correct? If only one of them is due to arrive, does it still freeze? If that is the case and you said your portals were fine, then I would suspect something left in the street (it may be invisible) that is blocking their path. 

Check the nuke menu of the batbox for stuck kicky bags and that sort of thing. The stuck object remover is great for deleting other visible and invisible stuck items, but I can't remember if it works in the street. It can delete a portal, so if that happens, leave the lot without saving. There used to be a problem with stuck invisible spaceships, but I'm pretty sure that problem was fixed awhile back.  If you've had an abduction on that lot you might want to do a search here for the relevant thread.

If the carpool is working correctly on your other lots and you can't find the invisible obstruction on this one, you may just have to move out the family and bulldoze this particular lot.

[Minty]

Looks like I might have a bigger problem than I first thought.  Out of the past four lots that I've tried to play in that neighbourhood, three have had the freezing problem.  The other two just froze at a random point (but again, one minute before the hour) when nothing of significance was supposed to happen.  I moved one family out and now am unable to load them into a new lot.

I did mange to do the force error on the lot I orignally posted about and got errors on so many things it was ridiculous.  Everything from the windows to the sims wedding ring so something called "Emitter - Smell Negative".

Although it would be good to know what on earth has caused this, I'm at the stage now where I figure my hood is pretty much borked.  I did some play testing of a Maxis neighbourhood and it appears to work just fine.

Thank you so much for your help, magicmoon, I've learnt an awful lot just from your responses.

But in case anyone else has a similar problem, I'll include answers to the questions that you asked although they're pretty much moot to me.
- Career was the Entertainer career that came with one of the EPs.  I don't have any custom careers at all.
- The carpool does behave properly on other lots
- The nuke menu did nuke a few things but not enough apparently.

[Magicmoon]

Just to let you know, forcing errors with the batbox does exactly that, forces an error on everything. So just because you saw the error pop-up for each item, that doesn't mean that there was something wrong with the item (the instructions warn that you should turn off testingcheats before using that function because of the huge number of pop-ups you get). Forcing errors on everything is a way to "unstick" something that may be 'stuck in use', for example, and can often fix a problem. If the problem continues after that point, then your problem lies somewhere else.

I'm a little confused about what appears to be conflicting info in your statements:

Out of the past four lots that I've tried to play in that neighbourhood, three have had the freezing problem.  The other two just froze at a random point (but again, one minute before the hour) when nothing of significance was supposed to happen.

AND:

- The carpool does behave properly on other lots

Could you clarify what you mean then about behaving properly on other lots?

If you wait long enough, does your game finally come out of the freeze state? I had a problem where I would get a freeze when certain types of Sims would walk onto the lot as a walk-by. One example would be a werewolf. The game chooses him as a walk-by, but then it has to stop and ask itself, "at the moment, should he look like a werewolf or should he have his regular appearance?" If I left the game alone long enough, it would finally unfreeze and the Sim could be seen as a walk-by. Another example is a Sim who was last seen blue from cold or with a tan or sunburn. If your problem is being caused by a walk-by, that would explain why it happens in your used hood, but not in a hood where you wouldn't yet have any Sims that fit that profile.

Other times, the freeze will occur when a Sim on your own lot changes states, especially if this is the first time a Sim of that skintone has changed to that state. So if you have a Sim who gets a sunburn, and this is the first time any Sim with that skintone got a sunburn, there will be a 'freeze' until the game changes the Sim to their new appearance.  But in all of these examples, the game would eventually unfreeze and continue to play normally, if you just left it alone long enough.

The last question is what exactly happened when you tried to move that family into a lot from the lot bin. Just saying that you are unable to load them into a new lot doesn't tell much about what the problem is.

[Minty]

For clarification:
Lot one: game freezes at 12.59 the carpool and the schoolbus are due at 1pm
Lot two: game freezes at 2.59pm.  Everyone is home and nothing special is due to happen at 3pm
Lot three: game freezes at 5.59pm.  Again, everyone is home and nothing special is due to happen at 6pm

So although I assumed that the freezing issue was related to the carpool and schoolbus, it seems from further testing that it is really just quite random!

I've left the game at the freeze state, waiting for the schoolbus or the carpool, for over half an hour before turning the computer off at the switch so I'm going to assume that it doesn't eventually come out of the freeze state.  I've not left the other lots this long.

I experimented with moving the family from lot two.  I could move them into the bin just fine.  I loaded up a randomly created placeholder sim in a small lot and using the teleporter bush, I teleported the family into that lot.  Using the bush again, I then moved them all in.  I could save the lot just fine and re-load it without issue.  The lot is tiny so it's not really suitable to just use as is.  However, when I tried to move them into a new lot with a Maxis made house, I get the family loading screen, the cursor changes from the arrow to the hourglass as it slowly turns around, so it appears to be loading normally, but it doesn't ever get past the loading screen.  I tried leaving that for a good hour or so but still nothing.

The one thing I haven't tried loading them into an empty lot and building a house for them.  If I have this many lots freezing randomly, doesn't seem like it would be worth it!

[jolrei]

This is beginning to sound like a more general problem than simply one associated with carpools and buses.  Is there a common element of CC or a mesh on all of those lots?  I am beginning to think this may be an issue of 'tight pants'.  Have you tested with all CC removed?  Test in a vanilla configuration.

[Minty]

I've tested with all CC and hacks removed and I still get the same problem.

When I test in another neighbourhood (Belladonna Cove was the one I tested in) with all CC and hacks included, I don't get the same problem.

I've been playing this hood since July 08 with all the same hacks and CC and it's only been since I tried to play the lot that freezes before the carpool and schoolbus that I've had a problem.

The only common element I can think of is that in two of the lots, two sims have the same CC hair.  However, in saying that, they've both had that hair since they were toddlers, one is a teen and one is half way through her adulthood so its not a new thing.

I agree, though, it's definitely sounding a lot more general than I first thought.  Damn it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Didn't you just say you REMOVED the CC? If you REALLY removed the CC, yet the problem persisted, then the CC hair cannot be the problem. It's possible the lots in question are simply wonky, if it occurs only in that lot.