One of my games suddenly won't load. ("stopped working" crash)

[Noodles]

Any suggestions what to try next?

My current game won't load any more - whenever I try, the game crashes to desktop with "The Sims 3 has stopped working" message.
The strange thing is, the backup won't load either, it crashes with "stopped working" message as well. That backup-save is from yesterday, and then it loaded without problems.
Neither of the save folders are ".bad", they just won't load.
And my other save files load normally. This confuses me - why only this one file? (naturally the most important)

I have re-started my computer a couple of times, cleared some caches, removed mods to check... Nothing helps.
I have some Nraas mods installed. (Errortrap, Overwatch, StoryProgression)
And oh yes, I'm still playing with Pets patch (1.29) so this is not related to any new patches. The game has worked flawlessly for weeks.

Is Factory reset the only option? I did a search for this error message and the only suggestion was a factory reset, and nothing about the cause of this error...

[Leto85]

Ow, that's very sad. Best file you got and than you,loose them. Including the backup? Let's try some things out than.
I indeed advice you to try the factory setting, just in case. There's nothing you can loose trying it, I assume, than Justus lot of time, so perhaps you can try that one last.
I must say you've tried a lot of things already to help yourself but I still have another question for you: in your save folder  do you see there a .backup file, starting with the name of your original file? If that is not the backup file you where talking about you could try to get rat thing work. Remove your original file and remove the .backup in the name of the other file so the game will see that one as the original.
This is no 100% accurate solution, for as far those exists) but they're worth trying nonetheless.
Good luck! And let me know if it helped you.

[Noodles]

Thank you for the suggestion, Leto!

The backup I mentioned indeed is the one that was in the folder. I renamed it but got the same crash and error message.

The only thing keeping me from a factory reset is the trouble of installing all my store content. I'll try and see tomorrow if I'll come up with something, for now I still can't get it to load.

[Figwit]

I honestly doubt if the factory reset will do anything.  The fact that you can get some saves to load makes me think that there is nothing much wrong in your user files.   

Check your script errors to see if there is anything in there that Error Trap may be generating when you try to load. 

[Ricalynn]

I know this is an overly used option but have you tried clearing out your cache items?

[xFezIsAFreakx]

I had this happen with the first go at the Dreamer Legacy, that's what ended it. It scares me that you have ErrorTrap installed -I thought that is what would fix it!

[Noodles]

I had this happen with the first go at the Dreamer Legacy, that's what ended it. It scares me that you have ErrorTrap installed -I thought that is what would fix it!

Well, I only installed it *after* this started (to see if it would make it load) but it didn't change anything. It always crashes at the same point of the loading process... So maybe this wouldn't have happened if I had it from the start? Lets hope it protects you from this error.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Figwit - you're propably right, I don't think I'll bother with factory reset, as it's only this game's 2 save files.
For now, I haven't been able to check the script error files that are generated. (when I try to open them, it uses Internet Explorer to open and just loads a blank page) I'll look into that today. The crash notes generated by the game itself (xcpt-files) open but I can't understand any of that.

Ricalynn - I will try that again.

[Lizzy3272]

Make sure you have TS3 listed as an "allowed program" in Windows Firewall.  My computer "unallowed" it one day without notice (*I think it was from installing a very large Union Cove file into the game*) and I started having the exact same issue you're having...
Type Windows Firewall in your Search or open through Control Panel.  On the left it should say "Allow a Program through...".  Click it. Choose "Change Settings", then "Allow Another Program" should be ungreyed - click there. Then "Browse" to "Program Files/Electronic Arts/Sims 3" and double click the TS3 icon.  (Sorry, I'm not in front of the right computer at the moment so I'm not sure if this is the Exact path - just know that it is NOT any of the files in your "My Documents" folder.)  Then restart you computer to make sure everything registers properly.
Hope this helps!  Good Luck!

[Noodles]

Make sure you have TS3 listed as an "allowed program" in Windows Firewall.  My computer "unallowed" it one day without notice (*I think it was from installing a very large Union Cove file into the game*) and I started having the exact same issue you're having...
Type Windows Firewall in your Search or open through Control Panel.  On the left it should say "Allow a Program through...".  Click it. Choose "Change Settings", then "Allow Another Program" should be ungreyed - click there. Then "Browse" to "Program Files/Electronic Arts/Sims 3" and double click the TS3 icon.  (Sorry, I'm not in front of the right computer at the moment so I'm not sure if this is the Exact path - just know that it is NOT any of the files in your "My Documents" folder.)  Then restart you computer to make sure everything registers properly.
Hope this helps!  Good Luck!

Thanks a lot for this! Sounds like something worth a try. (I'm on it right now)
On my Windows Vista, the path was Program Files (x86)/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 Pets/Game/Bin/TS3EP05.exe
But here comes the big BUT - when I try to add it trough my firewall, it shows as if this folder is completely empty even when it's supposed to show all types of content. Of course, it isn't. If I check it trough My Computer, I can see all the files in there. Aggh, sometimes I just can't figure out this computer... I'll report here if I get this working, and if it fixes this crashing.

Just now I tried to start a new game and "The Sims 3 stopped working" before it even loaded... 

[Leto85]

This actually reminds me of a bug I had with another game I play: Skyrim.
All you need to know about it in comparisment with this game is that the world of Skyrim is seperated into different areas, with a loading screen between two.
Whenever I tried to walk into a certain castle, which trickers such a loading screen, the whole game crashed to the desktop, and there seems nothing I could do about it.

Until the moment I decided to do something rather unique: sending and loading the file to and in another computer. So I walked into that castle, game didnt crashed, I saved and put it back into my other computer.
So if you have another computer this may work for you as well. If you havent: you can send the savefile to me if you like and I see what I can do for you.
Message me for my email adres.

[Lizzy3272]

Thanks a lot for this! Sounds like something worth a try. (I'm on it right now)
On my Windows Vista, the path was Program Files (x86)/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3 Pets/Game/Bin/TS3EP05.exe
But here comes the big BUT - when I try to add it trough my firewall, it shows as if this folder is completely empty even when it's supposed to show all types of content. Of course, it isn't. If I check it trough My Computer, I can see all the files in there. Aggh, sometimes I just can't figure out this computer... I'll report here if I get this working, and if it fixes this crashing.

Just now I tried to start a new game and "The Sims 3 stopped working" before it even loaded... 

Make sure you add the BASE game to the list (not the EP).  They say the EP file extension doesn't matter, but I'm pretty sure I did them all just to be safe...