I am fully patched:

TS3 1.22.9, WA 2.17.2, HELS 3.5.8, Amb 4.2.32, FLS 5.8.1, LN 6.5.1, OLS 7.3.2, Gen 8.0.152

Wouldn't the caches have been emptied when I got rid of the My Documents folder or are there also cache files that should be deleted in the Game folders?

I did a search for all custom content and it is held within the following folders and their sub-folders.  Could one of these be the problem?:

E:\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3
E:\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\DCBackup
E:\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Thumbnails

Those should all be newly generated since I removed the old My Documents to a different drive.

E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 World Adventures\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 World Adventures\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 World Adventures\Game\Bin
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Outdoor Living Stuff\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Outdoor Living Stuff\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Outdoor Living Stuff\Game\Bin
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Late Night\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Late Night\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Late Night\Game\Bin
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff\Game\Bin
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Generations\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Generations\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Fast Lane Stuff\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Fast Lane Stuff\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Fast Lane Stuff\Game\Bin
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Ambitions\Thumbnails
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Ambitions\GameData\Shared
E:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 Ambitions\Game\Bin

I took out my Mods folders, removed them completely!!!  I got rid of the whole folder in My Documents too and let the game remake it from scratch.  Where else should I be hunting for mods is what I'm asking!  Where could they be?  They must be somewhere or I wouldn't get the error so what could I have put a mod in if getting rid of the Mods folders and Deleting The Sims 3 folder in My Documents didn't do it?  This is so frustrating.  Can anyone tell me what else to get rid of???

I'm truly not trying to clutter the forum and I wouldn't have done all of that without searching.  If you know of a topic where someone has done all of that and is still having trouble please tell me the search terms which yielded it.

I know I am the problem here.  I have to be missing something please help me figure out what.

After installing Generations I received the error:

It looks like you have installed an unofficial game modification that does not match your current version of The Sims 3.  We recommend that you either uninstall these game modifications or get updated versions of them - otherwise you may experience crashes or significant bugs.

Do you want to quit?

If I hit Continue I can play my game and though it seems a touch slow there are no issues.  I've played for over 10 hours this way because I can't figure out what is causing it.

What I have done:

I was using the old method for my CC so I removed all of the Mods folders thinking I needed to update to the new method.  I also removed the config files which sat in the same place.  Then I went into the bin folders and took out d3dx9_31.dll in every expansion as well as The Sims 3.  At that point I tried to run the game and I got the same error, so I got drastic.  I went to my documents and removed the Sims 3 file there to a different hard drive.

None of this worked.  Where should I be looking next?

I know that I am doing something wrong.  I just started using a Mac, so I'm not used to them.  First I installed the framework.  I wasn't sure if it went in Applications > The Sims 3 or Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3.  I've tried both.  Is there a Sims 3 folder I'm missing?  I know under windows it would go in the one under Program Files, but I don't think Macs have Program Files.

Then I added the .package file to Mods and deleted the scriptcache.package from Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3.  No matter what combination described above the mod doesn't actually do anything.  My game remains as usual.  None of the Awesomod features are present.

So, if anyone has a Mac and knows what I'm doing wrong, please let me know.  Thank you!

I tried everything suggested and the more I worked on it the more suspicious I became of the noises my computer was making.  After starting the program several times and opening the disk drive I've concluded that my drive is sticking, and the program can't run the disk properly.  I suppose it's getting just enough information to expect more, than the disk sticks and it waits for it to send more data.  It works best when I remove the disk and start the game by closing the drive with the disk in it.

I suppose this means a new drive, or an iso for my daemon tools.  Thank you all for your attempts at helping me solve this.

-M

  Because when it crashes I need a massage every time!  At least one.

I haven't, but I'll give it a try tonight and get back to you.  In fact, I'll just take the download folder out entirely and see if it makes any difference.  I should have tried that by now.

I left everything disabled with the exception of the InSIMenator.  I have not tried removing the download folder.  Do you think the downloads could cause problems as early as the splash screen?  I've wondered about that.

Aw, my own personal spell checker!  Do you do short stories too?  You're better than my usual...

I have all of the expansions and they were installed in the order of release. 

After buying Seasons and turning off all of my hacks my game ran fine.

I added the InSIMenator v2.6b SIM Edition and noticed that a bunch on new objects appeared in my menu.  It was like every spawnable object was available seperately in buy mode.  I've read that this is not normal.  The game still ran normally.

I added Celebration.  Now the splash screen will come up and stay up for several minutes at a time.  Sometimes it will go away and 30 seconds later the game will start with very long load times (maybe all the extra content?).  Other times it will disappear and nothing further will happen.  When I check task manager it's as if I never began loading the sims at all.  Still other times the screen disappears and I get a massage that the application has crashed.  Do I wish to notify microsoft...

Can anyone give me any words of wisdom?  I have a 1-2 year old computer with greater than preferred hardware.  My hard drive only has 5 gigs space left, could that be a problem?

Thank you,
-M