More Awesome Than You!

I am getting error code 12 lately when I try to save. It's with a family that I've been playing for a couple sim-weeks, and I'd hate to lose the progress I've made. Most of the little gimmicks I've heard to fix it: "Pause the game before saving, unpause the game before saving, use "Save as" to save, empty your savegame folder before saving, only play for  30 minutes at a time, rub the bones of a Yorkshire Terrier  against your monitor while chanting in Aramaic...." those either don't work at all or work so little of the time it could be considered a fluke. I have 8 GB of Ram and a 64 bit comp, and I realize that EA does not recognize more than 4 GB for whatever stupid reason. (At least, I think so.)  
Even twallan says of Error code 12, basically, "I'm sorry, You're royally fucked." I'm afraid to start over on another family because I don't want the same thing happening again. So Pescado, before I give up TS3 altogether, is there anything, anything at all, that can reliably fix this issue it its source?

You're probably fucked.  It's a 32-bit binary, so it can't address more than 4GB of RAM.  I see Error 12s start to pop up when the game is using anywhere around 2.6GB of RAM or more.  Do your sims travel much?  I've noticed the game guzzles RAM when traveling.  In my game, it's not safe to travel more than once per game session, and it works best to save and quit, then restart and reload your save after each time you travel.

I've had my sim travel before and saw RAM usage skyrocket to 2.9GB or so.  If I manage to save, restart the game, then reload the save, RAM usage will only be around 1GB.  The game is not very good about freeing up RAM it no longer needs.

If you're not traveling, then I'm not sure what you can do except periodically monitoring RAM usage, save when it starts creeping up over 2GB, then restart the game and reload.