Stuck in buy/build mode?

[seventhson]

So I have an interesting thing happening in one of my saved games. Every time I enter buy or build mode, even if I don't do anything at all, the game freezes when I try to return to live mode. The little circular 'computer is processing' animation happens with the mouse, but it will sit there happily for hours. Toggling between buy and build mode is fine. Toggling back to live mode is not fine. The game will respond only to a forced shut-down from the task manager. It is possible to build and buy things, but not to go back to live mode.

Tested with no mods or custom content in-game. Another saved game still allows me to exit buy/build with no trouble. No family in the first saved game, not even newly-created Sims plopped on a lot, can exit buy/build. If the save's completely borked, so be it, but if anyone knows why then I'd love to find out what the hell just happened.

The only mention of something like this I saw on my crawl through the boards in search of help involved the question mark walls, but there are no walls on my Sim's lot and I was not attempting to place or wallpaper walls when the freeze occurred, and have mostly not attempted to buy or place anything in testing since.

[snowbawl]

Try Alt-Tab-Alting out of the game and return.  I have had the game freeze in buy mode one time and this worked for me.  I read about it in another thread somewhere that someone also tried this trick and it works.

[seventhson]

Tried that, to no avail. The same 'processing' continues on returning to the game.

[ZiggyDoodle]

How big are the four .cache files in your MyDocuments\Electronic Art\The Sims 3\ folder?   If they're stuffed, you could delete them and see if that helps.  They're called  compositor.cache, simCompositor.cache, Script.cache -  I can't recall the last one (I just deleted mine after I shut down the game). 

[aspinL]

How big are the four .cache files in your MyDocuments\Electronic Art\The Sims 3\ folder?   If they're stuffed, you could delete them and see if that helps.  They're called  compositor.cache, simCompositor.cache, Script.cache -  I can't recall the last one (I just deleted mine after I shut down the game). 

The fourth is CASPartCache.
You say this freeze only happens in one saved game but in others you're able to go back into live mode? Did you try saving the game by clicking "Save as" so that it changes the name and saves it as a new file, then restarting and selecting it? What if you made a completely new game and put a family on a lot does it let you exit buy mode then?

[ameekabramble]

The fourth is CASPartCache.
You say this freeze only happens in one saved game but in others you're able to go back into live mode? Did you try saving the game by clicking "Save as" so that it changes the name and saves it as a new file, then restarting and selecting it? What if you made a completely new game and put a family on a lot does it let you exit buy mode then?

Thank you for your suggestion, death owner. I was having the same problem with my legacy family save. I deleted the cache files but that didn't fix it. Saving the game under a new name worked. I thought I should report that, since someone else may be experiencing the same problem. Thank you again!

My first post on MATY, I have been lurking for 2 years now.

[acidsugar]

How big are the four .cache files in your MyDocuments\Electronic Art\The Sims 3\ folder?   If they're stuffed, you could delete them and see if that helps.  They're called  compositor.cache, simCompositor.cache, Script.cache -  I can't recall the last one (I just deleted mine after I shut down the game). 

How do you know if they are stuffed? What size should the files be?

[Toonie]

I think i'm running into a similar issue.

I've tried a few things out and so far I THINK it might be due to a stocked pond I keep.   All the games that this has happened to me has included a pond stocked with minnow. Is that similar to your situation? Maybe we can compare notes and see if we can figure out where the problem is.

[nordicmel]

Hi,

I wanted to thank death owner for the suggestion of saving the game under a new name.  THANK YOU!!!  I only started having this problem recently and it was driving me nuts wondering what had happened all of a sudden to cause this issue.

Anyway it's working now so at least I'll know what to do next time.  Thanks again.

[ShortyBoo]

I ran into this problem last time I played the game. I'll have to try making a new save and see if it works.

EDIT: Well, I went and made a new save file and it seemed to work. I was able to change a few things, go back to live mode and it seemed ok, so I went back into build mode, changed a lot more things, (I think I spent 30 minutes in build mode) and when I tried to change back this time, it got stuck again. I was mostly just changing wall paper and floors and recoloring windows. I don't know what else to try, now.

[Motoki]

It's likely some custom content that is no longer compatible with the current version of the game you are running if you're getting stuck like that.

The area in build or buy mode where you get stuck should give some idea of what type of content is causing the issue. For example, after installing Ambitions I was getting stuck when going into Miscellaneous Decorations. It turned out it was Srikandi's recolored bathroom clutter (which is in that section) and removing it fixed the issue.

If you are getting stuck when looking at walls, try yanking out all your custom walls and patterns. If you still get the issue, try yanking out all custom content and testing. If your game runs fine in build and buy mode without custom content then you get to figure out which item exactly is causing the issue, which unfortunately is a real pain in the ass and involves a lot of trial and error.

[ShortyBoo]

I don't think that it's caused by cc. I just tried it again, and all I did was change the wallpaper (I don't have any custom walls) and when I tried to go back to live mode, it got stuck again. This same problem also happened with the Racket house a week or so before it happened with the Wolfe house. I didn't like the Racket house as much, so I decided to bulldoze their house and rebuild from scratch so I moved them out temporarily and  bulldozed and rebuilt before moving them back in. After that, I could go back into build & buy all I wanted. I guess I'll just go and bulldoze the Wolfe house too. I don't want to since I actually like that house, but I guess I don't have a choice. I was able to build just fine and go through all the categories (that's usually how I decorate by going through one category at a time) when redecorating the other houses I've done, so I'm guessing some of the houses just randomly get buggy.

[Motoki]

I also had an issue with a bad pattern causing the CAST to just keep loading forever. It could be custom content even if you don't think it is. It's easy enough to just temporarily yank it all out and see what happens. If nothing else it's worth eliminating that as a possible cause for troubleshooting purposes.

[Indiasong]

My game freeze when I choose the empire line washer, and also with a stove. These are game files, should I reinstall? Or copy from the disk?

[Motoki]

My game freeze when I choose the empire line washer, and also with a stove. These are game files, should I reinstall? Or copy from the disk?

If it's clearly EAxis objects causing issues then that would be my first thought, that it may be a corrupt game file or files and to do a reinstall. However you may want to try starting a new game first and seeing if those items still give you problems in order to try and rule out a corrupt save.

If they still give you problems in a new game, definitely try a reinstall, but if you have no problems with those items in a new game it may be that your save file is corrupt.

[Indiasong]

Replaced packages first, then reinstalled, same thing.
Should try to take out my cc. Sigh...

[Motoki]

Replaced packages first, then reinstalled, same thing.
Should try to take out my cc. Sigh...

If you've tried everything else it's worth a shot but I can't think of any custom content that would mess with those specific EA files. 

[Indiasong]

It wasn't a problem with washing machines but with dishwashers, and the culprit was the community lot dishwashers mod.

[Kitty]

I had a similar issue to this, but going into buy/build mode as well as out of it, and it did eventually unfreeze. I discovered that the problem seemed to be the lot I'd downloaded had too many dandelions in the garden - once I deleted them all, it stopped happening.

[friendlyquark]

I had the same issue with a downloaded lot with far too much foliage. Deleting the foliage solved the problem for me as well. Sometimes just loading a lot with too much crap in it slows the game down to a crawl when switching back to live mode.