Sims 3 - Mac - Unknown error - I feel like I've tried everything?

[katielouise88]

Hello,

I was running Sims 3 perfectly fine on my Mac, I added some more expansion and stuff packs, and I started to get the 'unknown error occurred' message.

I tried uninstalling just the new packs, but still no different.

I then tried uninstalling everything (plus the additional files as explained in various forums), and then reinstalling in the correct order, letting each pack update before installing the next, but still the same issues.

I uninstalled everything again, and then installed the base game, this opens the launcher & lets me play. I then installed world adventures, still working, then high end and still working. Then after ambitions the error started, I uninstalled ambitions, but which ever pack I tried next, the error still came up (I tried 16 of them!).

I have tried various orders/combinations, and the only combination that works is either base game alone, or with world adventures and high end.

I have spent days on this, looking through forums and trying everything I've seen.

If anyone has any suggestions of anything else that I could try, I would greatly appreciate it?

Thank you in advance!!!

[Candyd]

Hello,
Given how TS3 seems to run only with the base game and World Adventures, it may be because it's running out of memory. It's a very common bug on OS X that makes the game very unstable, practically unplayable with a lot of add-ons. This even on high end Macs. However, the bug is most commonly an "exception raised" error message.
Can you please post your specs ? (click on the apple icon in the upper left corner, about this Mac, copy and paste) Are you playing on OS X or on Windows with BootCamp ?

[katielouise88]

I'm playing on OS, through Origin.

My mac is:

macOS Sierra
Version 10.12.2
MacBook (13 inch, mid 2010)
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

[Candyd]

Your Mac isn't powerful enough for playing TS3, I'm afraid. It can barely play the base game, and even then it must be suffering. Laptops tend to dangerously overheat with this game, and even more Apple laptops. If you want to keep your MacBook alive for a while, you should uninstall. I'm sorry

[katielouise88]

Thanks for your quick replying!

What is it about my Mac that makes it not suitable for Sims?

[Candyd]

The processor and RAM are at the lower limit for the base game. The graphics card is much too weak. The Sims 3 isn't recommended for MacBooks because it makes them overheat. And one last thing to take into account, the Sims 3 can only use 2 GB of memory on OS X, which is still OK for the base game but too low with add-ons ; it can use up to twice as much on Windows. So you need a more recent desktop Mac, and install the Sims 3 on a BootCamp partition.