Error codes 12 and 13 along with crashing.

[little_lark]

I had a file that threw Error 12s and 13s at me at perhaps 15 consecutive saving attempts. I finally gave up and started over from the backup file, which had been saved a few hours before. I was able to play just fine for a while longer (keeping track of the save file sizes, I had since passed the size at which I got the error before), but the next day started to get the exact same error again, when the save file size was perhaps twice what it had been when it had the problem originally. I've tried the Edit Town trick, as well as deleting the .BAD save files, neither of which has worked for me even once.

I suppose what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is that just because the problem seems to have vanished doesn't mean that it won't pop up again, at least from my experience.

[cactus]

Yesterday I got this problem as well. I lost a lot of progression.
I'll post my solution to the ERROR 12.
First, go to your Saves Folder & delete the one that has ".BAD" for example, my save file is "Phantomhive.sims3" so you have to delete this one "Phantomhive.bad.sims3"
Then I used CCleaner to fix my registry & it found problems with some TS3 files, they got fixed.

I don't know if this helped but I upgraded my video card driver too.

Anyway after that I have no longer the ERROR 12 at least for now.

I do this every time, but have no luck. The error keeps shoving every time I save.

[Heilena]

With regards to the error code 12, I found this solution posted towards the bottom by qtvinsta about two weeks ago and wanted to try it before I posted.  I haven't had any problems with that code since.

A few pages back I posted that pausing the game before saving pretty much eliminated the error 13.  What I neglected to state is that I only got that error if my game wasn't at a complete stop, and the saves pause didn't seem to accomplish this.  But I haven't seen error 13 at all after this.

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t34706.html

edit to state that to my knowledge, this works for Vista users.

[hidethe_cutlery]

I pause before I save every time and am still getting error 13's, even though the .bad was deleted.
Just then I was saving (not quitting and saving, just saving) when the game simply crashed. No warning, no error messages. I never had this problem before I reinstalled TS3, I'm thinking perhaps it's an issue with the registry.

[psycheee]

With regards to the error code 12, I found this solution posted towards the bottom by qtvinsta about two weeks ago and wanted to try it before I posted.  I haven't had any problems with that code since.

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t34706.html

edit to state that to my knowledge, this works for Vista users.

I dont understand the instruction of your link....  How/Where do you set the "bcdedit /set CONFIGACCESSPOLICY DISALLOWMMCONFIG" command?

Thanx

[Heilena]

Sorry psycheee, just saw your question.

Click the windows button at the left bottom corner of your screen.  Where it says "start search" copy and paste the command there and enter. 

[mrocd]

So there have been no fixes to this yet? Come on dammit. It's been so long, and gameplay is still hampered by these stupid crashes.

[psycheee]

Click the windows button at the left bottom corner of your screen.  Where it says "start search" copy and paste the command there and enter. 

thank you I havent got the 12 error anymore but my game shut down... but it have save nevertheless...

Doesn't work  I still get the 12 code error.

[Uleria]

Like everyone else in this thread, I have been plagued by error 12. Not 13--haven't been blessed with that one yet.

One thing I can throw in, just in case this is AM-related:

On all games (AM installed but not ISM) that were error-12ed, some of my sims, after using the lifetimehappiness cheats, displayed ridiculously high numbers, like over 1 million lifetimehappiness points. Moreover, the points will increase while you watch by the thousands of points, in some kind of uncontrolled runaway effect. I finally concluded that once this happened in a game, I might as well start over from a prior save, because that neighborhood is hopelessly corrupted, and no kludge will save it.

I don't use the lifetimehappiness cheat anymore, and since then have not seen either the high numbers bug or the error 12. Not yet anyway. I'll update if this changes, and I hope this helps find a solution, or at least a workaround.

I have taken to keeping "pristine" start copies of my altered neighborhoods so I can start over again if need be, and I back up religiously, after every play session. If you're playing with regular EAxis stuff you need to do this, I think--more so if you're testing mods. And wonderful as AM is already, it is still only in beta, and we are the testers. So prudence always pays when you're walking the bleeding edge.

[tizerist]

Got my first error 13 today 
I knew it was coming: error 12 has popped up about three times last night in Sunset Valley (which is about 70 mb) but the 13 happened on a relatively empty Riverview (population: 3, 26 mb) which hadn't been touched for days.

There seems to be no pattern...

[TrapperJohn]

I've had the #13 error message a few times, but I've never actually seen a #12 message. What usually happens when I try to save is the same thing described by several people here; crash during saving and a corrupted file that can not be opened anymore. Instead of a picture of the family and their house there is a blue question mark in the thumbnail. I did find a couple of .bad files in my saves-folder, but these are files I can actually open and play. One of the .bad files is a continuation of the other one with a new family added. Both of these families mostly functioned as townies, so I went back to the latest save of my main family that didn't have these two households added, and I managed to get one uncorrupted saved file after playing that one for a while. Not to jinx it, because I had finally gotten the special seeds planted, I tried saving my progress under another name, and it crashed again. Fun.

[veezee]

Stop writing in colors or I will have to hurt you.

Firstly, lol.

Secondly, I have started having error #13 recently, when playing for a large period of time without saving. Hitting Main Menu and selecting Save at that point has allowed me to save a couple of times. If this is related to neighbourhood or save sizes, could ASM be creating vast swathes of information the game could be including into said save?

[Nin_the_Destroyer]

There sure are a lot of people that experience these error codes and some crashing.

Well, I have an update. Back when I first posted this thread I was having some serious problems and then it got worse. So, I re-installed the game but used the same gamesave file. Well, the error codes were completely gone but I was getting a crash every third time I would try to save. It didn't matter how short or long ago my last save was it just always crashed on the third time I tried to save.

So, I made a new gamesave and still nothing worked.

Well, I finally got a hunch as to what might of have been causing my problems. I downloaded a mod, (file), that empties Riverview and Sunset Valley. I got the one that keeps all the parks and work places but the houses are gone---it's for builders.

Well, I totally removed that and made a brand-new save, but still used the same family, and I'm happy to save I haven't experienced any crashes or error codes at all. I have a family of eight that are constantly performing tasks in the home, I play for hours and hours, and I've got a ton of mods.

Also, my previous files are actually just about the same size as my gamesave right now. So, I'm waiting for some problems to arise because of that. Hopefully there are none though.

I've heard of bloating being mentioned on other forums and I was sure that was happening to me but for some reason it hasn't hit me on this new file yet. And I've been playing it for two weeks now.

I'll post an update if I start receiving the error codes and crashing again.

[Nin_the_Destroyer]

Well, spoke too soon. My game was working fine for two weeks now and then I posted that update earlier but my game just started acting up again.

I spent a couple of hours playing tonight, (and, yes, I saved often), when the error codes starting popping up again. Then I got a crash. Ugh...

I've noticed that my games crash when they enter the 30mb range. It never got past that.

[aspinL]

Nin_the_Destroyer I saw your post before last about after cleaning out all the housing you were able to save for an extended amount of time.

I also get errors 12 & 13 back and forth, but no crashing. It used to be every once in a while then more more and often, as everyone else reports. I did notice that after downloading more houses and placing them in my neighborhood, not only did my game render less fast, and slightly slow down whilst scrolling ,and zooming, the errors popped up more often. And it wasn't a problem for me at first because I could go and delete the .bad file. However now, that doesn't even work.  
My file is at 46mb and it takes about 5 times of saving and deleting .bad, after .bad file, that I either accomplish saving by clicking "Edit Town", and using the option of "Do you wish to save or continue?" and I click "Save" which sometimes it will take it. My game currently is minimized because the error 12 popped up and I thought I really needed to go back and read this whole thread.
My computer is high above the necessary specs, but as reported before that doesn't seem to matter. I will be taking out numerous houses in my town and then trying and tricking it into saving once more for the sake of my family. I believe we're on to something about the file sizes, and I'm curious to know if there's a way to decrease save game file sizes? Could you use a compressor on them? But if so wouldn't the file just revert back to it's parent size after resaving? Or would simply taking out houses and some families cause the file to take up less room?
I'm also wondering what makes a file so large? Someone mentioned before, does the family tree have anything to do with it? My family that I'm currently playing and having continuous error messages, is starting on they're fourth generation. In fact after she was born; my error messages presented themselves a lot more often, to where now I all but can't save.

The biggest question for me is; Will EA even bother to fix this in their next patch? To the looks of it, the fix will have to come from them?
By the way, might I mention how depressing this matter is to me. As of now it means no legacy families, or continuing generations, which for me that's one of the greatest joys.  

Edit: Sadly enough, I jinxed my game. Earlier I said I had not had crashes. But just now, in an attempt at tricking it into saving I clicked "Main Menu" and it asked me do you want to save, I clicked save. Maybe 90 seconds later into saving it crashed.

[edalbformat]

My game never crashed but yesterday I got back an old problem that I cannot even remember how it was solved the first time - Windows cannot close TS3. It seems that something hangs eternally and I have to switch the computer manually. Yesterday I tried something new and I forced the screen back to desktop by clicking the windows buttom. It worked and I got back the possibility to use Task Manager to try to close TS3. Got only "Program is not responding". Tried again and again and finally got Windows to close TS3. This happens now everytime I play - everything is normal and never crashes but cannot be closed. I don't know what kind of error is that but it is not related to saving. I don't lose anything in the game and next time it starts without any problem.
I thought that it could be caused by the last mods I added but no. I took one by one out and it doesn't change a thing.
Yesterday also I included some skins in the game, also a penis mesh. But they were not there when the first case happened.
It is really a bore when you have to put in and out things that you really want to have and the cause is something related with the game self. The worst is that everybody has different issues because we use different systems. I use XP Professional 32 bits.

[J. M. Pescado]

If you have a neighborhood that does this, I can take a look at it, but the last times I've checked, I've never found anything.

[Krumpet]

I had the error 12 and 13 problem--including .bad saves, crashing, and neighborhood loss--about a month ago and noticed that it only happened after a long gameplay session--I'm talking about 7+ hours.  Neither the frequency of my saves, or the length of time between them seemed to have any effect on my tendency to get error codes.  So on days when I intended to play an indulgent amount I started exiting the game after 6 hours or so and then restarting it.  Since coming up with this strategy I haven't had a 12 or 13 error code since.  Perhaps this could be helpful for the rest of you.

EDIT: I play a vanilla game, no CC except for store items I used my points for.  I have 4 gigs of RAM.  My neighborhoods were in the 55mb range (approx.) when the errors started.

[psycheee]

if it can help finding the  "guilty", I only get the 12 error code with windows vista 64 bits. Erasing the bad file, then changing anything in my game do nothing. Dont seem to have any pattern. So i have to wait not too long to save and restart...

[edalbformat]

I really would like to be able to investigate what is wrong with my borked hood. It is the second time I lose a hood that I worked much on it. I'm not any internet expert and don't really know how to send about 40MB of data to another person. Here we have very easy way to do it, we have mobile units that can host 500GB data and be phisically transported.  Don't have a clue how to use the FTP address gave me by Pescado. It is OK anyway. One day I will learn to make it self cause I'm sure all hoods will be lost anyway at every EP.
Repetition must be EA's best.

[aspinL]

I had the error 12 and 13 problem--including .bad saves, crashing, and neighborhood loss--about a month ago and noticed that it only happened after a long gameplay session--I'm talking about 7+ hours.  Neither the frequency of my saves, or the length of time between them seemed to have any effect on my tendency to get error codes.  So on days when I intended to play an indulgent amount I started exiting the game after 6 hours or so and then restarting it.  Since coming up with this strategy I haven't had a 12 or 13 error code since.  Perhaps this could be helpful for the rest of you.

I think that is very helpful, at least to me. Because the particular time that I was being constantly smacked with error after error, was when I had played my game for about five hours, then left it on screensaver and gone elsewhere for a while. Once I came back I wanted to move my elders into their retirement home, cause my house was full, so I did and added another house for some other members. Then I tried to save, which didn't work, and I came here, then went back to my game where I pressed save and boom it just crashed.
Also when times I am trying out mods and removing and adding custom content, I turn my game on and off, sometimes entering a house and saving. I don't remember getting error messages then.

I will most definitely be trying this method, of playing for about 5 hours at most and then restarting the game. I'll report back here with what happens. I'm hoping this will work!

[Process Denied]

This started happenig to me about two nights ago.  I had turned on my game and had to do something unexpected,and forgot to turn it off.  I returned about five hours later and played for about ten minutes before I saved and it threw an error 12(I haven't had a 13 or a crash).  I was very careful to save frequently and not use-save and quit.  I did it again last night so I'm pretty sure it has more to do with how long the computer was on verses how much was being saved.  My game is about 77MB.  I run Sims 2 with 9 gigs of CCs and the Megahood without crashing or major slowdown.  My computer isn't new, but it was made to run the Sims well.

[aspinL]

So I'm thinking we might have the answer?... You will most probably get errors 12 & 13 if your game runs on for an extended period of time. Not sure what might cause this though.
I remembered something from sims 2 also. When I'd play sims 2 for a very long time or leave it on for a very long time, I had no trouble with saving, but my game would become slower and jerk the screen when I tried to scroll, until I'd get annoyed and quit. But when I restarted it, it was always back and performing fast.
I think this is just the way of a machine. It's why people are urged to turn off their computers when not in use, for fear of viruses, and it's good for it to cool down and rest. (unless you have a mac, which can't get viruses)

[kuronue]

I think this is just the way of a machine. It's why people are urged to turn off their computers when not in use, for fear of viruses, and it's good for it to cool down and rest. (unless you have a mac, which can't get viruses)

...for fear of viruses?! Dude, just disconnect from the internet if you're worried things might download themselves.

Current uptime: 19d 11:45. I had to reboot a while back for some updates to take.

[aspinL]

...for fear of viruses?! Dude, just disconnect from the internet if you're worried things might download themselves.

Oh yes, yes, disconnect blah, blah.
I not ascared of the big bad virus though.

I was talking about the poor folks in my real world family who barely know how to connect to the internet. Heck, they barely know how to turn on their computers. And in that case it's best not to use big words and just tell them to turn the dang computer off.