Error codes 12 and 13 along with crashing.

[kuronue]

Boo hoo? They presumably know how to connect if they can get online, tell them to do the opposite. It's not that hard. You can use a metaphore of hanging up a phone if you like. It's not like I'm asking them to install Awesomemod or reformat their computer or something at least moderately difficult.

[aspinL]

Hey, I was just giving a reason why some people turn of their computers. I turn mine off cause it would get overheated.

[kuronue]

No, you were spouting on about how computers aren't meant to stay on all the time as though that had anything to do with sims 3. If it is related to how long the game's been running, it's probably not collecting its garbage, letting things pile up until it crashes the game. Bad coding, not some intrinsic property of computers.

I don't care what you and your family do with your computer, but it's patently untrue that computers need to be shut down every night. If you want to spread misinformation, do it on the BBS XD

[Process Denied]

No, you were spouting on about how computers aren't meant to stay on all the time as though that had anything to do with sims 3. If it is related to how long the game's been running, it's probably not collecting its garbage, letting things pile up until it crashes the game. Bad coding, not some intrinsic property of computers.

I don't care what you and your family do with your computer, but it's patently untrue that computers need to be shut down every night. If you want to spread misinformation, do it on the BBS XD

I think that is exactly it.  I could leave my computer on all day and nothing will happen.  It's when the game is left on whether you are playing or not.  I do think some kind of garbage is building up.  I use the launcher and the internet is connected, do you thinkk that it is EA calling home that is causeing the problem??  Anyone getting this and aren't connected?

[Nin_the_Destroyer]

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.
~snip~

I don't think that we have the answer just yet. Because there were times, of testing that I did, when I'd do nothing but sit there for five minutes letting the Sims do there own thing, then I'd save and I got a crash. I did this process many times with my old gamesave which was 35mb and it would still crash or just get a bunch of error codes left and right.

So, yeah, it's not a matter of playing too long and not saving, at least for me it's not.

No, you were spouting on about how computers aren't meant to stay on all the time as though that had anything to do with sims 3. If it is related to how long the game's been running, it's probably not collecting its garbage, letting things pile up until it crashes the game. Bad coding, not some intrinsic property of computers.

~snip~

I agree. I don't think it's "taking the garbage out" either and thus causing the game to get error codes and crash.

[aspinL]

If you want to spread misinformation, do it on the BBS XD

You know what, that's what I do. I love to just spew misinformation all over the place. The walls, the park, the space shuttle... everywhere.

I could leave my computer on all day and nothing will happen.  It's when the game is left on whether you are playing or not.  I do think some kind of garbage is building up.

My misinformed self agrees with this.



Edited for too much niceness.

[Motoki]

No, you were spouting on about how computers aren't meant to stay on all the time as though that had anything to do with sims 3. If it is related to how long the game's been running, it's probably not collecting its garbage, letting things pile up until it crashes the game. Bad coding, not some intrinsic property of computers.

I don't care what you and your family do with your computer, but it's patently untrue that computers need to be shut down every night. If you want to spread misinformation, do it on the BBS XD

You know, my parents for years and to this day still insist that electronics "need a rest". I have tried many times to explain to them this is not they case but they simply will not hear of it!   

[Slymenstra]

I got error 13 code today when I was saving.  What I was doing before the error was decorating a house while looking at HGTV Dream House web site's 360 view of a room.  My game did not crash after the error so I checked on the files and saw that a back up had been made just a few minutes earlier and the current game file was marked as bad.

So just out of curiosity I closed my browser and waited a second to let it all unload then I did save as "different name" and it worked.  I played a minute more and saved and it continued to work.  The new save is 42 MB in size, and the back up (which is just 10 mins earlier) is 48 MB in size.  I barely did anything in between the back up and the new save and it is smaller?

I had been playing for about 4 hours and I have Awesome mod, Pescado's FPS limit file, the new hairs, patterns and various other crap.  I am always paused when I save and I did a save not a save/exit.  I recently reinstalled the game, all patches installed and I have a decent computer (everything can run comfortably on high).  As far as I know my drivers are all up to date.  My house is hot, I live in the damn desert, but I never noticed it over heat.

I hope the file is still okay..I worked a long time on this dang house to make it look like the Dream House

[Steele]

I've been having Error codes 12 and 13 almost every single night for the past month.

In my experiences, one thing I did notice is that Error Code 12 involves mostly sims and Error Code 13 are lots.

My main suspects in my case for Error Code 12:
1. Sims that I'm currently playing gets bugged somehow that their stats could not be saved. I tried moving the suspected sim out of the house and into a new lot and the game saved normally after he got settled into the new lot.
2. Sims in my graveyard are very bugged. Anytime I managed the graveyard after 3 sim days playing it's 85% sure that error 12 will pop out. Tried stuffing them all back into the mauseleum I still get error 12 after 5 or more sim days. What led me to suspect the graveyard where when I try to go to edit town and move the lot and replace them back the game crashes to desktop. (my graveyard has more than 150 sims and still adding)
Edit: Confirmed last night that the bulk of my error 12 experience are ghosts in the cemetary. When I typed "fixall" with the Awesomemod I keep getting the message "# of Phantom Butts Kicked" (# being the number of ghosts). UNless I'm mistaken I'm assuming the phantom are ghosts since, bugged sims has their names written.
3. Lots with bugged sims. When moving the graveyard does not crash the game. Moving some other lots will, sometimes it's the theater sometimes it's the park.

For my experience with Error Code 13:
1. Everytime I get this error I just go to edit town mode and move and replace the lot the error code gets resolved. However, in most cases, after reseting the lot I get error code 12 afterwards.
2. In most cases, the bugged lot in my experience is the one I play the most.

There are some more causes for these error code. I'm thinking that it could also be a custom content that failed to be save. mostly mods. I did get bugged sims when I removed a not-anymore used mod. These sims really bugged my game even after death until I deleted them off.

I also tried running the indie stone mod compatibility checker and found that many hair mods are incompatible, the list was so long, that I'm still deciding what to keep, the mods or the error codes.

The most tiresome part is trying to find the buggy sim or lot. Reloading the game is much faster. I wish there was some command that resets all the sims and lots into their neutral state just like the "resetsim" command.

It just came to mind that premade tombstones in the graveyard are tagged in use (day or night, ghost or no ghost present in the lot) whenever you try to edit the lot. I don't know if there is a relation if you move them around the lot would cause the errors.

Edit #2 : While searching for a possible cause I came across one of my uploaded sims in the sims 3 website and the file size is 26.3 Mb just for one sim! (For reference : http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=903285)

One possible cause could be that custom content and mods also gets attached when sharing lots or sims. So it's possible that one could be downloading conflicting mods unknowingly through these shared content. Virus and spyware may also be attached to unwitting victims.

Will probably clean up my downloads and mods and see what happens from there.

Edit #3 : For the first time, I tried using the Awesome Story Driver last night, to my surprise I did not encounter a single error 12 or 13 until I started messing around with the EAxian Debugging Codes and got my first error 12. Though I get more "Phantom Butts Kicked" every time I use the fixall code every hour, got from 9 to 28. Just updating and maybe the information might help.

[Nin_the_Destroyer]

Here's an update from me as well though it's not an answer to our solution: My gamesave didn't go very high in size because I can't save much anymore. I've just about reached the limit of when I can save. Someone said something about "gamesave bloating". I know next to nothing about this stupid issues but could gamesave bloating be the problem?

And if so if there something that could fix it?

I canceled my pre-order of TS3: World Adventures because I'm not interested in playing a game when the progress can't even be saved...

[J. M. Pescado]

The most tiresome part is trying to find the buggy sim or lot. Reloading the game is much faster. I wish there was some command that resets all the sims and lots into their neutral state just like the "resetsim" command.

Exists, but I choose not to publicize it because it would be counterproductive to debugging, as people will start abusing it as a panacea.

[tizerist]

I'm getting crashes almost hourly now.
If its not a save-crash, its  a CTD. If I get past that, its an error 12.
The all round stability has become awful.

[Steele]

The most tiresome part is trying to find the buggy sim or lot. Reloading the game is much faster. I wish there was some command that resets all the sims and lots into their neutral state just like the "resetsim" command.

Exists, but I choose not to publicize it because it would be counterproductive to debugging, as people will start abusing it as a panacea.

I see, glad it exists. maybe one day it would be helpful for last resorts.

-----

Just for update, I have been studying the cause for the error 12 and 13 through gameplay and so far in my case it's caused by bugged sims.

These are some of the things I found:

1. Some playable ghost sims does not have a tomb on their inventory and they have been living for generations as an elder. One was around 510 days old with the "Long" lifespan setting. Triggering him to age up with cake or the debug code does not result to anything. So before I get a message from the Indie Stone driver that the so-so sim is getting old, that sim has around 3 days left before going to the afterlife. Which is probably why I get error 12 every 3 days.

2. Grim Reapers extracted from the NPC pool as playable causes the flagrant error messages and error 12 gets unpredictable. Unpredictable in the sense that some interactions will and sometimes will not cause the error 12. Maybe it's from the v1.2 update, I'm not really sure.

3. My overpopulated graveyard is also a risk for error 12 whenever I "manage the dead" or just move an existing tomb. I'm if it is relevant, but the graveyard has more residents than my town (Excluding the NPCs and I have 0 townies). I'm quite sure that there are also bugged dead sims on that lot.

4. Sims aging up, giving birth or dying may seem to contribute. Everytime I try save before these occurances the error pops up. Either that has any relation or I'm just unlucky.

My current analysis is that there's an interaction that these bugged sims make before the error 12 pops out. Whenever I restart the game (even after an error 12 occurance 1 real-time minute after saving) the game seems to work well and saves okay for a while longer than the last error. It seems to me that something gets reset when you quit the game and restart it

I also think that maybe the EAxis Story Driver may have some interactions that forces the bugged interaction more than the AwesomeStory Driver.

This is so far my experiences. I hope this information could be of help.

Edit: Just last night I got an interesting find. I got an error 13 then after reseting the lot it turned into an error 12. I found that some of the fish in my fishbowls lost their ownership. The fishes now registers Perfect [Fishtype] "Store bought" instead of "Caught by [Sim Name]". Wasn't able to get some photos of it before the game crashed to desktop.

[Process Denied]

Well, I've gone a week without an Error 12. I've left my game on all day and proceeded to play two hours till saving.  You won't believe what ended up helping (after doing all the suggestions).  I never thought of checking my graphic options.  The game installed it on high and I changed it to medium.  I guess it will get to a point when I will have to change it to low.  Hopefully by then I will want to start a new neighborhood.

[aspinL]

I've also gone about a week and a half without an error 12 or 13. I haven't played for more than 3 or so hours. I also went in and took out a bunch of houses, which only helped my save game file size slightly.
My graphics are on all on high, except for no reflections, tree quality is turned down and also the amount of lots around the current lot that are rendered is at 3. I turned them down a while ago, because my game started to drag a little.

[Steele]

It's good to hear that reducing graphic quality helped in your case. I tried this also until everything was low, did help by adding 3 sim days before the errors started poping up.

Already cleared out my cemetery, removed all the custom hairs and stuff. Little improvement at the start but still no lasting results.

[tizerist]

Well after getting  about one error (any type of error - 12's, CTD etc) roughly every hour, I've decided to move my self-sim to a relatively CC-free Riverview whille my Sunset Valley is on hold until I know how much I can eradicate - or lessen - the problem.

In this Riverview, all that remains are my hacks, skins for sims, and store sets. Anything potentially crashy has been removed to desktop for now.
I appeared to have a couple of crash-free hours finally, but its worth noting that my RV is much smaller than my SV (about 40% size wise) so I can't make a direct comparison.

I am hoping that it will be down to hair or clothes more than a certain decorative mesh, as they are much easier to slot back in without all my decorating having gone to hell.
Anyway, it will take a couple of days before I will be able to see any sort of pattern, so I will have to report back then.

[Steele]

I've also gone about a week and a half without an error 12 or 13. I haven't played for more than 3 or so hours. I also went in and took out a bunch of houses, which only helped my save game file size slightly.

Just retested and must admit that error 12 and 13 has some relations also graphics and the number of objects in the game world. I removed around 12 houses and replaced them with building shells (no or very minimal interior decorations) the game seems to perform as if it was a newly created town. I have not encountered a single error 12 or 13 for 9 hours straight.

Also I noticed that my save file has decreased from 139Mb to 126Mb. Saving time is around 10 sec less than before and quitting the game is 1 minute faster.

The houses I demolished are heavily decorated which could probably be one of the reasons for slowdowns within the game. My guess is that there is a EAxis limit inside the game (either by saving time, number of renders, number of objects ... etc.) that triggers the error 12 and 13 codes. I could be wrong, but this is the only logical cause I can think of now.

Just a thought. If there is someone who can analyze the bad save files to see where mostly the break happens during the save process it may likely lead to the real source of the error codes. So far the bad files ranges from 40% to 80% of the good save file in my case.

[tizerist]

Just retested and must admit that error 12 and 13 has some relations also graphics and the number of objects in the game world.

I also suspected this, and still partly do.
My very first error 12 came from changing graphics settings and then trying to save. The game tells you not to do that, so I wasn't surprised by that one. The first month or so was error 12 free, then its just been a gradual drip, then a stream of errors.
There was one occasion, however, when an semi-empty town also threw an error 12.
But on this occasion I merely loaded the empty town from Main Menu after a 12, and did not boot up again from fresh.
Can anyone else confirm this? That going from a troublesome error 12 town, to the main menu, then loading a good town still causes the error in the good town?

And on a side-note, what a friggin liberty  
EA know enough about these problems to actually give them numbers, so why can't they at least tell us not what to do?
Come on EA, out with it: what's the difference between a 12 and a 13 then? Hmmm?
And where are these details in the readme too?
They have DETAILS and they're just sitting on them.....WTF??

Anyhow, I may even try moving all my lots from my SV into a new, ultra clean SV. Perhaps those 3 and a half months of straight  play has just built up too much memory cloggage. It happened in TS2 with the memories, and we all know what deleting sims from the simbin used to do in TS2. Something so casual that probably three quarters of us did it without giving it a second thought. Darn.
Is there an easier way to get around 90 lots into a fresh town without sending them all to lot bin one by one?

[aspinL]

I've also gone about a week and a half without an error 12 or 13. I haven't played for more than 3 or so hours. I also went in and took out a bunch of houses, which only helped my save game file size slightly.
My graphics are on all on high, except for no reflections, tree quality is turned down and also the amount of lots around the current lot that are rendered is at 3. I turned them down a while ago, because my game started to drag a little.

I removed around 12 houses and replaced them with building shells (no or very minimal interior decorations) the game seems to perform as if it was a newly created town. I have not encountered a single error 12 or 13 for 9 hours straight.

Also I noticed that my save file has decreased from 139Mb to 126Mb. Saving time is around 10 sec less than before and quitting the game is 1 minute faster.

My game also performed slightley faster, and my save time decreased a whole lot. Probably about 10 seconds as is yours. Yesterday I played my game without quiting for about 6 or 7 hours and never got a 12 or 13.
My game file size also went from 47mb to 41mb.

Just though I'd add in some more specifics and reports.

[Steele]

Just an update, tried once again today with all the graphics settings maximum possible for my video card. So far no error 12 or 13, only a crash to desktop after a "resetsim" command on a bugged sim who the supreme commander tagged with a red icon in map mode. who I don't have an idea who that sim was. resetsim made the theatre unable to use the "perform concert" interaction then on the next day the stadium also prevented the "perform concert" saying that there is a player sim performing. I removed the bugged rabbithole and replaced a new one, the game crashed to desktop less than 5 minutes later.

Increasing the graphics setting from low to my current setting (all high, only edge smoothing is off, my graphic card's max setting) the save game is 1Mb more than the low setting, so it's now 127Mb.

Overall, the major changes I made that made a significant impact to my error problems was removing the overly designed and wonderfully crafted houses downloaded from various sites. Maybe the houses were bugged or maybe EAxis just wanted players to use more of the houses they packaged in the game.

Will try with a higher graphics setting one of these days just to verify.

[bigpooh]

I've also gone about a week and a half without an error 12 or 13. I haven't played for more than 3 or so hours. I also went in and took out a bunch of houses, which only helped my save game file size slightly.

Just retested and must admit that error 12 and 13 has some relations also graphics and the number of objects in the game world. I removed around 12 houses and replaced them with building shells (no or very minimal interior decorations) the game seems to perform as if it was a newly created town. I have not encountered a single error 12 or 13 for 9 hours straight.

Also I noticed that my save file has decreased from 139Mb to 126Mb. Saving time is around 10 sec less than before and quitting the game is 1 minute faster.

The houses I demolished are heavily decorated which could probably be one of the reasons for slowdowns within the game. My guess is that there is a EAxis limit inside the game (either by saving time, number of renders, number of objects ... etc.) that triggers the error 12 and 13 codes. I could be wrong, but this is the only logical cause I can think of now.

Just a thought. If there is someone who can analyze the bad save files to see where mostly the break happens during the save process it may likely lead to the real source of the error codes. So far the bad files ranges from 40% to 80% of the good save file in my case.

I believe your on the right track. I just experienced my first Error code 13 after downloading and plopping in two  homes (a 40x30 and a 60x60) , the process took all but 15 minutes and when i tried to save before returning to my game i got the error. So for 13, the time played theory can be tossed out which leaves me to believe it definitely has something to do with some undetermined Eaxshit limit involving number of renders/objects in a hood.

I restored my old save prior to placing the lots and installed both of them one at a time, saving after i placed each. The smaller lot didnt cause a problem but when i put in the larger lot (the 60x60)  i got the error. I started a new hood to see if it had something to do with the large lot itself (the creator used a few cheats for some design elements) but the game saved fine. My original hood has a lot of highly decorated homes i created and few ive downloaded and since the error only occurs in my packed hood i'm left to believe theres a limit of some sort that is being exceeded when i place the large lot.

Edit: link to the lots incase anyone was wondering
http://www.thesimsresource.com/members/bmertens65/downloads/details/category/sims3-lots-residential/title/Beach%20Bungalow/id/907306/

http://www.thesimsresource.com/members/bmertens65/downloads/details/category/sims3-lots-residential/title/The%20Manchester/id/909998/

[Steele]

I got an error 12 again, I think this time may have probably been a bug. I haven't been able to reproduce it yet to verify.

It began with one of my sim repairing a broken tv and got electrocuted to death, while the grim reaper was reaping that sim. an elder on the same lot expired, another grim reaper came and reaped her. during the second reaping, I directed another sim to repair the TV while a townie from somewhere expired. The new sim repairing the TV also got electrocuted and died. I'm assuming the fourth grim reaper came.

After that the error 12 resurfaced. I did some clean-ups that I normally do which did not resolve the error 12. Until finally, I went into edit town mod and moved and replaced the current lot reseting all the sims and the ghosts in that lot (I rarely do this method since I always CTD while saving). I don't know if that resolved the error 12 since I got an infinite save loop.

Terminated the game and reloaded it, the game was normal again afterwards.

Though this is probably a rare occurrence, but it's just weird and amusing that I had to share, it was a shame I was not able to capture it on video.

9/10 EDIT:
I guess the game is out to prove me wrong. The error 12 and 13 is coming back with a vengeance. Setting the game at the very lowest setting didn't correct the problem (my game now looks like TS1). Every method, I tried in the past does not work either.

One thing that was significant, whenever the game is being saved and one of my sims are performing concerts inside the theater, the theater's perform concert becomes deactivated and keeps saying a player is playing and won't go away for days.

Another thing I noticed is that many of my lots has unmovable tombstones/urns (even in build/buy mode, the same as the default cemetery) both community and residential, I believe these tombs are from sims who died at that lot and the game failed to move them to the mausoleum. Most of them are above 5 generations old. I'm not really sure if that's the cause but around that generation I started getting these error codes.

I'm now contemplating of removing all the existing lots (except the one I'm playing) and replacing them with the default lots (lots only) when the game started. Not yet decided whether I'll retain the existing townies or rapture them and let the game make new ones.

[Nin_the_Destroyer]

I'm fully convinced that these errors and CTD's are caused by the file's size. (Gamesave bloating??)

I've been doing some random tests these past weeks and I've noticed that every single time my game reaches about 35mb it renders my game unplayable. Literally. I can't save anymore.

Like the others here on this thread I removed houses, mods, Sims, etc, and it reduces my file size. But as I start to play more and build up my generations of Sims the gamesave gets bigger and goes back up to 35mb and, well, you know what happens.

I don't know how to fix this. I'm stuck. Sadly, I won't be buying the Sims 3 expansion pack until this problem is fixed. I don't care who fixes it just as long as it's fixed. I've got better things to do with my time instead of wasting it playing a game that won't save.

I mean, really, we have to ruin our towns and get rid of practically everything so we can keep on playing for another week. There's only so much we can erase! Soon the game will be empty and worthless to play. I play Sims because I like making generations. Can't make generations when you gotta keep erasing Sims.

[Slymenstra]

I hear ya Nin.  I have been playing the same neighborhood for a month and my file size is 48 mb and I just started to get Error Code 12 and  CTD all the time.  I've gotten so used to the crashing that I save with Autosave every 15 minutes and if it is a good save I copy the file and move it to another folder.  This way I only lose 15 minutes, but it sucks!  I have been able to keep going and I really like my neighborhood, it is starting to really feel alive with all of the AwesomeStory things running.

Whenever the file does not save the file size is several MBs different (larger) than the last save.  I can't see any rhyme or reason for things that are going on in the neighborhood to make it not save.  I've tried making the houses just have beds, kitchens and bathrooms.  I've killed off anyone I disliked and the npcs regularly.  I run all the clean up codes for the town.  I turn everything off in the background of my computer.  I turned down the graphics...you name it I tried it.  Nothing works.