Crash, crash and crash, again

[aspinL]

My game keeps crashing pretty much everytime I play it. Just at random times, I believe. The only mod I have is to extend my queue to 15 spaces. I don't have Awesome mod either. I do have a bunch of TS2 peggy converted hairs however. I don't know their names but probably their making my game crash? And I should take them out??? (they are pretty suckish anyway)
Or if I downloaded Awesome mod it fix it so it wouldn't crash? Please help; because even with my compulsive saving, it's becoming quite the annoyance :/.

[CheritaChen]

Yes, it sounds like one (or more) of the hairs is the culprit. I recommend removing them all, starting up, seeing if you can play for an extended amount of time, then add a few back, try playing for a while again, and if it seems stable, add a few more, lather, rinse, repeat, until you get the current behavior again. Then you'll know which group of hairs has the culprit and can eliminate it/them. When you experience a crash, try to see if the same Sim is always in view, or different Sims with the same hair; maybe that will be a clue, too.

[aspinL]

Alright guess I'll try that and just wait for some bonified beta tested hairs to be realeased from where ever. I guess that's what I get for being impatient and sims 2 cc homesick

[aspinL]

Screw the last message!
I also forgot to mention that before I started this topic my game had crashed in the middle of saving. I didn't really fret about it too much because I know there was a save backup in the folder.
Then I just restarted my game after taking away a few hairs. I get to the menu and notice that my game I have been playing in was not at the beggining of the list of saved games so I scrolled to the end. There it was except; for no thumbnail with my family all standing together, just the empty blue one replacing it. So I clicked on it and clicked the big "play" button. It scrolls back to the beginning of the list and does nothing. I try clicking, double clicking it many more times yet the same outcome. So I think that since it crashed in the middle of saving the file must be corrupted and I exit and delete the save file so now the only other file with the same name in there is the backup save that goes along whenever you save. I restart the game, once again the saved game is at the end with no picture. AND once againnnn, I click on it and nothing happens.
Now... I know that there must be a way to use the backup save in the "Saves" folder or else why the heck would they make one? So. Any ideas to how the heck I can get my save to start up again. (I also have the save that was in the process of saving when sims 3 crashed, it's in my recycle bin of course.)

Really, really! need some help now because I could deal with the crashing but this save was my legacy family. My legacy family that is also the very first family I made when the sims 3 came out.

[minidoxigirli]

take the ".backup" out of the file name.  Restart game.  IT's ALIIIIVE!!!

[aspinL]

AH! If I could bake you some "You saved the world cookies" and deliver them to you I would.
So thanks, I'm restarting right now.

[Motoki]

May I suggest the hairs by Hairs at Modthesims? http://www.modthesims.info/browse.php?f=372&showType=1&gs=2

They aren't anime or froofy doofy hoochie cutesy like the Peggy's stuff, but I have them all in my game and they all work well. Their creators have done a good job with them and were mindful that they were created the correct way so as to not cause problems, unlike, ahem, certain other creators.  

[aspinL]

Thanks Motoki for the suggestion, I will check there. I've been their before but I didn't think to look at their hairs

And on BAD side of news. I took the ".backup" out of the name, it asked me if I was sure- the file might become unstable... and I said yes. Restarted game, but still the save was at the end with no picture and and won't load. 

[minidoxigirli]

Ooh, that's not good.  That's where the end of my knowledge is.

[aspinL]

Ugh! That is not good. 
I'm at a loss. I don't what to do with it now. Does this mean I have to declare it gone?

Say it ain't so.

[Motoki]

Maybe you could salvage some piece of them, their looks at least, with the neighborhood workshop but I'm not really sure it would help. Maybe try resaving with it?

*Thinking*

Want to post the save file to megaupload or mediafire or something so that maybe some of us could play around with it and see if we can get it to run?

[aspinL]

Well I must say thank you, thank you, for all trying and helping up to this. 

And here is the backup file or the one that wasn't in the middle of saving when the game crashed...
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yrtwfydjjwd

[minidoxigirli]

Do you have an old version?  I save a separate version when the next generation is born in my Legacy game.

[aspinL]

Do you have an old version?  I save a separate version when the next generation is born in my Legacy game.

You know what? I have a complete backup of all my sims 3 files that I refresh every once in a while and it would have my saved game from a few days ago... I'm just afraid that if I replace this current one and go to load the game it'll do the same thing and not load, so in other words I'm not completely confident the old one would work either... but then again why shouldn't it?
I'll have to try that later and see. Right now I'm away from my "simming" computer.

[minidoxigirli]

Rename the save file.  Keep the same ending, but just change the name.  For instance, take your Sunset Valley.sims3 and rename it Sunset Valley2.sims3.  It will yell at you, but it's fine.  Move the one that works into the folder, and start the game.  It should show up separately.

[Motoki]

Death Owner I ran your game through the neighborhood workshop and resaved it (no idea if that helped or not), then I loaded it in my game and it loaded so I resaved. I'll upload the save file I resaved, only thing is if you had any custom content it might be reverted back to defaults if it's something I don't have, but everything looked normal to me and there's not a lot of custom content out right now anyway.

Will post the file once it uploads.

Edit: Okay here it is: http://www.mediafire.com/?mzzcymxramz

[vittra]

I just wanted to jump in here with a possible solution to the crashing randomly issue. 

I have an alternate exe file for my game to avoid dealing with needing to use the dvd to play *ahem* and I found that it would crash randomly but most often during build or buy mode.  I found that if I completely disconnect from the net, unplug the LAN cable from the back of the computer, then it doesn't crash.  Hypothesis is that the crash is caused by EA trying to call home and the executable not letting it.

I'm curious if this works for anybody else, let me know.

[aspinL]

Well thank you so so much Motoki, because it works now. I don't know whatever was wrong with the file I suppose is okay now cause I loaded it into my game and hoorah! it loaded.
Thanks again! You are wonderful

[Motoki]

Ah good. I'm glad it worked for you. I figured if I could load it and get it to work then resave it might salvage it for you too or at least it was worth a shot and it worked. 

[Mootilda]

So you didn't actually fix or change anything?  Just resaved in the neighborhood workshop and again in the game?

[Motoki]

Yep that's all I did so either something the neighborhood workshop does when it saves or else something particular to my configuration vs hers fixed it. *shrug* To be honest I have no clue how it worked I just had a hunch it might.

This game is screwy sometimes.

[Mootilda]

Good hunch.  Never would have occurred to me.

[aspinL]

Yes, agreed. It twas a very good hunch indeed. And agreed on the screwy game part, ha that's for sure.