Error codes 12 and 13 along with crashing.

[ladycoelura]

Something I have noticed with these errors as I have suffered from them too as well as the crashes the can come with them. Mostly on my main and most valued family. Is that the Difficulty of the family seems to have a bearing in whether this is happening. Because I can go from a house that is getting errors within 15 to 30 minutes of game play and crashing shortly after that and the thing with going out into the town and making changes hasn't helped me at all so far when I tried it. And I even tried dealing with EA as useless as that was. In the end I got a 1000 store credit for my trouble and that instruction on how to do the work around with the town edit. But if I go to some of my lower difficulty families and play there is no trouble whatsoever. I find this interesting and it kind of goes with what I have been reading about lower file save sizes cause I am sure they would be. Just thought I would mention this.

For those interested I am running windows vista ultimate 23-bit, memory 4gigs, AMD Phenom 9600B Quad-core Processor 2.30 ghz and without doing some digging I can't remember what I have for my graphics card but I remember it was more then capable.

[coconnor]

I am running windows vista ultimate 23-bit, memory 4gigs, AMD Phenom 9600B Quad-core Processor 2.30 ghz and without doing some digging I can't remember what I have for my graphics card but I remember it was more then capable.

AFAICT, there is only 32-bit or 64-bit.

[Steele]

This is what I did to my game which helped. It may not be 100% effective since there are many factors causing the error 12s.
 
The commands can be done in random order. Try which ones works for you.

Use after starting a new loaded game.

Using Awesomemod:
1. Resetallwants
2. Cleanhouseholds all
3. Refreshtraits all
4. Purgegenetichair
5. Fixall
6. Fixagingstates
7. Purgereactions
8. Fixromances
9. Towderelicts on (sometimes this command does not work on some cars and you have to individually nuke stuck cars)
10. Resetworld
11. Destroyallnpcs (Some grim reaper hacks and outfits + 1.3 game update causes bugged reapers)
12. Destroyalltownies (optional) but sometimes the townies are bugged
13. ResetDnP all
14. Destroycorruptsims (so far this command always yield me 'zero' corrupt sims but better be safe)

Using NRaas Supercomputer
1. Recover Lost Sims
2. Recover Wandering Toddlers
3. Turn off stereos

Save

Quit and restart game.

Observe if performance and saving game improve. Try saving every 15 minutes (use Awesomemod autosave feature)

Another option, if this does not work, try re-installing the game. Redo the above commands and re-observe.

So far these seemed to fix 80% of my Error 12 problems. Again, the above does not solve all the error problems but it corrects some of it. When I first tried these commands it really surprised me how much bugs and errors I have collected over 3 months of playing. (hmm, probably there's a hidden EAxis skill, the 3rd type "Bug Collecting" classification.)

[tizerist]

For what its worth, I only tried resetworld after actually getting the error 12. Perhaps I should do it upon boot up.
Thanks for the extra info, all may not be lost after all.

[ladycoelura]

I am running windows vista ultimate 23-bit, memory 4gigs, AMD Phenom 9600B Quad-core Processor 2.30 ghz and without doing some digging I can't remember what I have for my graphics card but I remember it was more then capable.

AFAICT, there is only 32-bit or 64-bit.

Sorry meant 32-bit. Dyslexia hard at work again i guess.

[Steele]

I forgot to mention in my previous post, The first time I did this type of maintenance, I used all these commands just to make sure all possible bugs are fixed.

Resetallwants and ResetDnP is best used for Error 13s

[Anonym]

The problem, it seems, with "resetworld" is that it does "resetsim" on all sims (or it seems that way?), with all visitors going home, all motives being set to neutral, etc..

It doesn't really keep your progress when used on a save.

The other thing is, though, often it's the only way to save a game at all after an Error 12.

Has anyone else found another way to do that, I hope?

[Steele]

The problem, it seems, with "resetworld" is that it does "resetsim" on all sims (or it seems that way?), with all visitors going home, all motives being set to neutral, etc..

It doesn't really keep your progress when used on a save.

The other thing is, though, often it's the only way to save a game at all after an Error 12.

Has anyone else found another way to do that, I hope?

As far as I know, bad sim descriptions are the cause of Error 12. In my experience resetsim/resetworld works. Though corrupt objects could also theoretically cause Error 12 any the only solution is either to remove all the CCs and replace it one by one until you find the culprit or if you don;t have any CCs then try re-installing the game. In some reports the game cache does not install properly.

If you are brave enough to experiment, you can try the using all the commands I placed above.

Another thought is that there may be a possibility that the error 12 is caused by a dead sim. That I have not yet figured how to correct as of this moment.
    Resetsim and resetworld does not seem to work on these dead buggers.
    Resurrecting them then fixing then killing them again does not work either.
    Deleting urns and tombstones does not help. It just makes solving the problem harder. (so I'm waiting for someone to develop a deleted urn/tombstone re-spawing mod for this)
   

[tizerist]

Hmmm, okay, now that we've put the champagne away regarding the error 12 and 13's, is there any way of lessening the amount of save-crashes and sudden CTD's? It seems that the game 'spikes' at certain points, and simply closes down when there is alot of information being passed around. No application should crash while saving though, that is an absolute disgrace. 

I've tried using  a frame-limiter to cap it at 30fps, but the improvements regarding crashing  are minimal if indeed there are any at all.
Gamebooster claims to give you roughly an extra 1% horsepower during play, and Task Manager lets you run the game on one core, or both, but this also seemed to make no difference.

How feasible is it that EA will fix the save system do you think?
And if error 12 is caused by corrupt cache data, am I right in thinking that save data should be completely seperate from cache data, and should not be part of that process whatsoever?
And then you have the thumbnails also being saved into the save data as well, which seems completely illogical.

Any suggestions?

[Anonym]

The problem, it seems, with "resetworld" is that it does "resetsim" on all sims (or it seems that way?), with all visitors going home, all motives being set to neutral, etc..

It doesn't really keep your progress when used on a save.

The other thing is, though, often it's the only way to save a game at all after an Error 12.

Has anyone else found another way to do that, I hope?

As far as I know, bad sim descriptions are the cause of Error 12. In my experience resetsim/resetworld works. Though corrupt objects could also theoretically cause Error 12 any the only solution is either to remove all the CCs and replace it one by one until you find the culprit or if you don;t have any CCs then try re-installing the game. In some reports the game cache does not install properly.

If you are brave enough to experiment, you can try the using all the commands I placed above.

Another thought is that there may be a possibility that the error 12 is caused by a dead sim. That I have not yet figured how to correct as of this moment.
    Resetsim and resetworld does not seem to work on these dead buggers.
    Resurrecting them then fixing then killing them again does not work either.
    Deleting urns and tombstones does not help. It just makes solving the problem harder. (so I'm waiting for someone to develop a deleted urn/tombstone re-spawing mod for this)
   

I now routinely use your list of commands (minus resetworld) from time to time, often before saves.  Doing so seems to lessen the amount of save errors I get, although it doesn't eliminate them.  They seem quite effective at allowing a save after Error 13.  Having no active household by going into Edit Town and hitting the button to choose a new household but not actually choosing one before saving is very good for saving after Error 13 as well.

Saving after Error 12, and avoiding Error 12 in the first place, is another matter.  It seems that "resetworld" is pretty much the only thing that gives you a chance at saving after an Error 12, and avoiding it seems to be a matter of not jumping a lot from household to household much (I like to jump between households, so that's a bad thing), plus avoiding other "risky" things. 

Whether to use "resetworld" to try to save around an Error 12 is a matter of whether one is willing to give up on the continuity of the game to save progress that you've made previously.  And once I got an Error 12, decided to use "resetworld" to save after it, and crashed on that save...but it still is pretty much the only option that works more than once in a big while.

[J. M. Pescado]

resetworld is for emergencies ONLY. If I catch people using it as a panacea for things rather than reporting issues, I will take it away, and this is why we can't have nice things. As for sacrificing continuity, well, you give up local microcontinuity, but the macro-continuity of the neighborhood is retained (people keep relations, skills, etc., they just lose their current place in the neighborhood). As far as I can tell, though, error-12 typically indicates that

[Heli]

Pescado,
I have 4 GB RAM, I have error 12 or 13 or crash to desktop.

[Steele]

I have 4 GB RAM, I have error 12 or 13 or crash to desktop.

From what I gathered the game limits the allowable for each neighborhood cache at 1GB. So with more RAM you're still be limited to 1GB to play around with.

I've been thinking of copying the Sunset Valley.ObjectCache file and renaming the copy to Riverview.ObjectCache and probably also try again to bloat the dynamic caches to around 1GB then replace back the objectCache files and overstuff the whole town and see if the passive + dynamic cache stack or not.

Oh I forgot to mention, testing Jordi's resourcecachebudget setting of 90000 have improved lessening error 13s and textures and graphic details loads more faster. Just guessing that the textures and details may have been allocated to another cache.

[Lorea]

Error 12 just drives me crazy! I get this error every day. I hate it!
I  was looking over the net about this problem, tried everything what I could find but nothing worked.
Sometimes I get error 13, but I can solve it with nuekimpostors or Clean up all Vagrants.
But error 12 is insolvable for me.

I found these about error 12 and 13, maybe somebody can find the solution:

Error 12s are game corruptions that unfortunately writes into the cache.

Deleting the world cache files will result to a slow game start up as a new cache is being written. The game will lag and freeze as the cache is being re-written. But deleting it will only temporarily resolve Error 13s not Error 12.

It's not very clear what sort of game corruption results to Error 12. My guesses are bad sim descriptions, bugged interactions, mod incompatibilities and missing sims, bugged aging states and there are some more unidentified ones. One solution is just to continue playing and pray hard that the corruption gets overwritten. Awesomemod has an exprimental debug command that helped a player resolve the error, but personally, I have not yet tried it so I cannot recommend it for now. Quitting the game and reloading a previous save game is the most safest way right now, just save frequently every 15 minutes.

For those experiencing Error 13s it is caused by the cache being over stuffed with textures and game objects loaded. The more sims, textures and objects in your game world the more faster the cache gets overloaded and resulting to Error 13s. Turning off reflections, reducing graphics quality and removing wants on the current household or deleting unneeded lots/objects can help resolve Error 13s.

For Sunset Valley: It is located in the main folder under caches filename: Sunset Valley.objectCache (Do not delete unless you really know what to do, this cache does not regenerate once deleted. You'll have to re-install the whole game if you do)

For Riverview: It is in the save folder, World Cache, Riverview_sim.package & Riverview_object.package (Deleting this will result to game slow downs and lagging while it is being re-written back, Do not freak out when textures are all dark gray, it will eventually return to normal depending on your computer's specs.)

Error 13 is a memory problem. The game limits the cache to 1GB. So far whatever settings you do with the game it will still be at maximum of 1GB. However, if you are using Riverview, there are some reports that it can go a little bit over 1GB but not much maybe a few Mb at the most.

If your neighborhood is overpopulated with sims, very high graphics settings or lots of overstuffed, over decorated houses error 13 will not be far behind.

Every actions of sims are written in the world cache. Every texture, every object as well is written there.

Guessing by the description of Error 13 = Post Save Callback failure, it may probably mean that after saving, the game rechecks stability of the save and fails due to insufficient cache space to load the save or it's a bad save.

If you do multiple save games, you'll notice that if you have error 12 the *.bad save file will be around 40-60% of the good save file size, but if you have error 13 you'll have around 90-95% of the size of a good save file.

[Steele]

Error 12 just drives me crazy! I get this error every day. I hate it!
I  was looking over the net about this problem, tried everything what I could find but nothing worked.
Sometimes I get error 13, but I can solve it with nuekimpostors or Clean up all Vagrants.
But error 12 is insolvable for me.

I found these about error 12 and 13, maybe somebody can find the solution:

Error 12s are game corruptions that unfortunately writes into the cache.

Deleting the world cache files will result to a slow game start up as a new cache is being written. The game will lag and freeze as the cache is being re-written. But deleting it will only temporarily resolve Error 13s not Error 12.

It's not very clear what sort of game corruption results to Error 12. My guesses are bad sim descriptions, bugged interactions, mod incompatibilities and missing sims, bugged aging states and there are some more unidentified ones. One solution is just to continue playing and pray hard that the corruption gets overwritten. Awesomemod has an exprimental debug command that helped a player resolve the error, but personally, I have not yet tried it so I cannot recommend it for now. Quitting the game and reloading a previous save game is the most safest way right now, just save frequently every 15 minutes.

For those experiencing Error 13s it is caused by the cache being over stuffed with textures and game objects loaded. The more sims, textures and objects in your game world the more faster the cache gets overloaded and resulting to Error 13s. Turning off reflections, reducing graphics quality and removing wants on the current household or deleting unneeded lots/objects can help resolve Error 13s.

For Sunset Valley: It is located in the main folder under caches filename: Sunset Valley.objectCache (Do not delete unless you really know what to do, this cache does not regenerate once deleted. You'll have to re-install the whole game if you do)

For Riverview: It is in the save folder, World Cache, Riverview_sim.package & Riverview_object.package (Deleting this will result to game slow downs and lagging while it is being re-written back, Do not freak out when textures are all dark gray, it will eventually return to normal depending on your computer's specs.)

Error 13 is a memory problem. The game limits the cache to 1GB. So far whatever settings you do with the game it will still be at maximum of 1GB. However, if you are using Riverview, there are some reports that it can go a little bit over 1GB but not much maybe a few Mb at the most.

If your neighborhood is overpopulated with sims, very high graphics settings or lots of overstuffed, over decorated houses error 13 will not be far behind.

Every actions of sims are written in the world cache. Every texture, every object as well is written there.

Guessing by the description of Error 13 = Post Save Callback failure, it may probably mean that after saving, the game rechecks stability of the save and fails due to insufficient cache space to load the save or it's a bad save.

If you do multiple save games, you'll notice that if you have error 12 the *.bad save file will be around 40-60% of the good save file size, but if you have error 13 you'll have around 90-95% of the size of a good save file.

Actually, that's my post over at the Sims 3 site, it's basically a summary of what I posted before. I'm still working on the error 12 and 13 problem.

My updates are a bit slow these days, I get rare error occurances after performing the debug commands I listed above. It would be helpful if you can help observe what weird and not-normal things that happen on your game. Sometimes seemingly unrelated stuff and minor bugs starts all these mess.

What I can identify right now is excessive cheating also causes the game to have this error. Setting all motives to static for a extended period causes some sim problems especially on the dreams, promises and wants department. I also found that it also affects some sim / lot description errors. Forcing the wrong opportunities via the debug interactions will also make bugged sims. Some mods and hacks when removed will also contribute. Moveobjects on unmovable graves caused many problems for me, that whenever a ghost gets spawned, I'll get error 12. (Maybe I'm just unlucky, or there is something else happening to the grave when I moved it, cannot tell right now.)

[Lorea]

O, it was you! But with an other name.. If I knew you wrote it I didn't write it here.

For a week I get error 12 every day. I don't know what causes that. I don't use cheats (just very rarely) and testingcheatsenabled.
And I have no bugs or weird things in my game.. It's strange but true. I have only one problem, the error 12.
And error 13, but I can solve that.

I noticed too that moveobjects on cheat has problems that's why I don't use that either. I don't have problem with ghosts but I see them rarely, I don't play with them.

Only thing what I've done is forcing opportunities.. I wanted to complete Guitar Star challenge. Yesterday finally I could complete (with NRaas OpportunityControl) and after that I couldn't save because of the error 12.

What I noticed relates with AM. I use autosave option. It saves my game in every hour. I set 2 saves to keep. I noticed that the first two savings are unproblematic but I get error 12 during the third save. Maybe that would happened if I don't use AM just save myself for three times, I don't know.

Edit: I played again and now I got error 12 message during the second save. But the first save is always succesful. I know you said the four cache files don't relate to this error, but I delete them before every play and I can save for the first time.
I forgot that I have a bug. Most of my sims who go to sleep after 3AM always wake up at 7AM or 10AM (most of the time is 10AM) no matter if they're still really tired. Once I set alarm clock for a sim to 7 and 10AM but I don't know if it can be the problem because all hosuehold wake up not just that one and I already switched it off but the sims  still wake up tired at 7 or 10 AM.
And one more thing I noticed. If I use NRaas' SimSelector I always get error 12 during the next save.

[Steele]

Lorea, perhap you could try these commands from Awesomemod and see what results you get:
1. Fixall - somehow sims get bugged after playing for more than 2-3 hours especially when the neighborhood has lots of history in it.
2. Towderelicts - Derelict cars clutters and just adds to the objects in your cache.
3. Resetallwants

Also try from the NRaas Supercomputer
1. Recover Lost Sims - Lost sims can cause error 12s
2. Recover Wandering Toddlers - Not sure if this also causes the errors but it's worth trying
3. Turn off stereos - just making sure.

If every result of these are clean (without any fixes made) and still encountering error 12s try
1. Destroyalltownies
2. Destroyallnpcs

Of course make a backup save before trying. If nothing works, perhaps it's a type of bug I haven't encountered yet. I may need a copy of your save game to experiment with.

In the meantime, if you say that you get the errors at the 3rd hour, since AM is set to autosave, maybe it would be best that you quit your game and reload it after the 2nd save. It will prolong your game for another 2 hours since the cache will get refreshed when you quit the game. The waiting time will be less of a problem than re-doing all the lost work.

[Lorea]

I tried those with no luck. Those things help me if I get error 13 but not for error 12..

I edited my previous comment.

[Steele]

Edit: I played again and now I got error 12 message during the second save. But the first save is always succesful. I know you said the four cache files don't relate to this error, but I delete them before every play and I can save for the first time.
I forgot that I have a bug. Most of my sims who go to sleep after 3AM always wake up at 7AM or 10AM (most of the time is 10AM) no matter if they're still really tired. Once I set alarm clock for a sim to 7 and 10AM but I don't know if it can be the problem because all hosuehold wake up not just that one and I already switched it off but the sims  still wake up tired at 7 or 10 AM.
And one more thing I noticed. If I use NRaas' SimSelector I always get error 12 during the next save.

Have you tried removing all the hacks / mods and Custom Contents as well as store items and just play the game vanilla? A patched game would be okay. Sometimes playing it without hacks will reveal what problem is causing the error 12s. Though in my case removing the hacks the game started going weird seemed like a nightmare. But that experience showed me what's really causing my game to bug.

Also, could you recall any mods that you removed before having this error problem? I tried Kolipoki's Plant roasts and links mod when I removed them days after, my sims started getting bugs. Do you have any similar incidents?

If you do have any hacks removed, maybe it is better to reinstall the game and only apply the patch and re-load your old save and play normally.

Another suggestion, if you have the time try going into every lot in the game and see if there are immovable graves inside or any weird stuff that you'll consider a bug. Try deleting those you deem irrelevant and problematic. It will not only reduce possible / potential error 12s but also help in error 13s. I mentioned immovable graves because some sims die inside the lot and the game failed to transfer it to the mausoleum, it will register to the game as default graves like Eric Darling's (crumplebottom) grave or the ones at the cemetery. For my game, the tombs at the Jones and Goth houses are movable but Eric Darling's isn't.

[J. M. Pescado]

Have you tried using s3rc to ensmallen and debloatify your saves? It's possible that there is sufficient retained cruft to overload the save process.

[Steele]

Have you tried using s3rc to ensmallen and debloatify your saves? It's possible that there is sufficient retained cruft to overload the save process.

I never thought of using the s3rc. It's worth trying.

I just re-read the description regarding the bloated saves s3rc can fix, it's possible it could work. If I remember correctly, a handful of my sims have thumbnails that does not belong to them. Probably this could correct it. I just used to let those sims die or execute them, probably they're still haunting in my game somewhere.

You're still the Greatest! Thanks, Pescado.

EDIT

And one more thing I noticed. If I use NRaas' SimSelector I always get error 12 during the next save.

Just read up on the Simselector Mod, I'm not sure if it was built using the Make Sim Selectable option on the EA Debug Interaction. So far, some sims in my game somehow does not respond well with that EA debug interaction.

Are you selecting the same sim all those time you use the Simselector before the error 12 appear?

[notyourbusiness]

Have you tried using s3rc to ensmallen and debloatify your saves?

I wasn't even able to load my save(in game) after using s3rc.

[J. M. Pescado]

That is rather unusual. Are you using the latest version?

[Lorea]

Have you tried removing all the hacks / mods and Custom Contents as well as store items and just play the game vanilla? A patched game would be okay. Sometimes playing it without hacks will reveal what problem is causing the error 12s. Though in my case removing the hacks the game started going weird seemed like a nightmare. But that experience showed me what's really causing my game to bug.

Also, could you recall any mods that you removed before having this error problem? I tried Kolipoki's Plant roasts and links mod when I removed them days after, my sims started getting bugs. Do you have any similar incidents?

If you do have any hacks removed, maybe it is better to reinstall the game and only apply the patch and re-load your old save and play normally.

Another suggestion, if you have the time try going into every lot in the game and see if there are immovable graves inside or any weird stuff that you'll consider a bug. Try deleting those you deem irrelevant and problematic. It will not only reduce possible / potential error 12s but also help in error 13s. I mentioned immovable graves because some sims die inside the lot and the game failed to transfer it to the mausoleum, it will register to the game as default graves like Eric Darling's (crumplebottom) grave or the ones at the cemetery. For my game, the tombs at the Jones and Goth houses are movable but Eric Darling's isn't.

Yes, I tried the game without any CCs and nothing changed, I got error 12 during save too.. This error 12 problem started 1,5 week ago and I can't find the reason why. I put NoFootTappingOnWaitForClearRoute, AskIfSingleIsFriendly, NoStupidIdleFaces and OpportunityControl mods in my game last. And I deleted Makeyourselfathome, Morelifetimehappiness, Woohooer, LessHygienefromWatering, LessHygienefromWeeding, LessHygieneDecayandMorefunWeeding/Harvestin/Watering mods, but I can't remember exactly when.
And in the last days NoStupidIdleFaces and NoAutonomousGuitar mods stopped working for me.
Nowadays I made one more change, I play with FPS limiter, can it cause any trouble?
I didn't know about immovable graves If I find one I have to delete it?
If I can't solve this problem I reinstall the game, but maybe that won't help anything.

Have you tried using s3rc to ensmallen and debloatify your saves? It's possible that there is sufficient retained cruft to overload the save process.

I'll try that!
Edit: I made it and it compressed my save file from 89 MB to 70. What is the "good" size of a save file?

Are you selecting the same sim all those time you use the Simselector before the error 12 appear?

No, I use this mod instead od switch families in Town Editor. So I selected almost all sims, not the same always. But I use to play longer only with four families.

[Steele]

Just an update:

S3RC on save games does not really help in error 12s and 13s but it does correct weird and funky hairs of dead ancestors.

Also bloating up your town with sims and stuff as already known will cause error 13s, but upon correcting the error 13, there is chances of error 12 replacing it. So far not any of the commands I used before works against the error 12 that replaced error 13. Will re-verify this again tomorrow.

Prior to this happening, I noticed that the path finding AI of some sims are disabled. When I direct them to a door, they go straight to that direction and stop in front of a wall that is between the sim and the door. And visiting neighbors, the ring doorbell becomes inaccessible and only functional if you do it outside of the neighbor's lot. Succeeding in ringing the doorbell, the neighbor inside the house just keep doing what it has been doing ignoring the bell. I had similar experience two months before and it also ended up in an error 13 and then error 12.