Sims 3 Generations freezes no matter what?

[203at]

I'm playing generations and my game is very slow/laggy/choppy and freezes every few seconds or it will freeze and stay frozen and i have to force quit in TM.

I have Overwatch and Mastercontroller and i've cleared the DCbackup,deleted the CC,deleted the compositorCache file, CASPartCache, scriptCache and your simCompositorcache file.I also have tried resetting the sims and resetting the whole town multiple times all to no avail.

are there any other options?

[Schipperke]

Welcome to the forum.  I'm going to move your question to the Technical Support Board where it is more likely to be seen by someone who can help you. 

[MrsFlynn]

Hi 203at,

Would you mind sharing the make and model of your computer, and it's information? This will help us find if your computer will handle Sims 3 and expansions and stuff packs.

Topic: How To: Find System Information - Window 8
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,18902.0.html

How To: Find System Information -- Window 7
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,18710.0.html

Meanwhile, Here's a link and tips for you to look over and try to see if any of the tips help.

Lags & Intermittent Freezes
http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/04/bug-lags-intermittent-freezes.html

Make sure your video card driver is up to date. - Go to video card's manufacturer's website to search for updates.

Check your active household's family and individual inventories, as having to many items (100 or more items) in their inventories may cause lag and freezing. This can happen fast if the sims is a fisher, gardener or alchemist, not to mention collector.

Playing for long periods of time (2+ hours or more)  without saving will cause lag and freezing too. So save often. I try to save at least every hour.

Trying lowering your in-game graphic settings to medium to see if that helps. Having them set on high may cause problems if your computer can't handle it.

Hopefully some of this will help,

MrsFlynn

[203at]

Specs

OS:Windows 8 64-bit

System Manufacturer- Samsng

BIOS:P03ABF

Processor:AMD A4-4300M Apu with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (2 CPUs), -2.5.ghz

Memory:4096MB RAM

Page file:2698MB used, 5712MB Available

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Name:AMD Radeon HD 7420G
Manufacturer:Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Chip Type:AMD Radeon HD 7420G (0x9992)
DAC Type:Internal DAC (400mhz)
Approx. Total Memory:1999MB
Current Display Mode:1366 x 768 (32-bit) (60Hz)

[LivvieLove]

Based on what I'm reading it could potentially be a memory shortage you're suffering from. I'd like to have that verified by Mrs.Flynn and Mr.Flynn, but it looks to me like you're running on 4 gigs on your entire PC. The Sims has a decently high requirement (to run on high graphics), they say it requires 2gbs on the box, but when you add expansions the number grows, not to mention your computer needs a certain amount to run as is, so you may just be looking at a computer problem.
Overwatch and Errortrap are mods designed to help keep games clean, but they don't do much for giving Ram. I would recommend lowering your graphics settings and tweaking them to see if that helps, if they're already pretty low them I'm almost out of ideas.

[Flynn Arrowstarr]

Specs

OS:Windows 8 64-bit

System Manufacturer- Samsng

BIOS:P03ABF

Processor:AMD A4-4300M Apu with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (2 CPUs), -2.5.ghz

Memory:4096MB RAM

Page file:2698MB used, 5712MB Available

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Name:AMD Radeon HD 7420G
Manufacturer:Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Chip Type:AMD Radeon HD 7420G (0x9992)
DAC Type:Internal DAC (400mhz)
Approx. Total Memory:1999MB
Current Display Mode:1366 x 768 (32-bit) (60Hz)

Hi, 203at.

In addition to what LivvieLove wrote, the integrated graphics card on the laptop is really not up to snuff for playing Sims 3 at settings higher than low to medium. There are a couple of issues, one highly technical, and a simpler issue. The simpler issue is the graphics chip has no dedicated memory, so it needs to take memory from the system in order to function. That adds to the amount of memory needed for the game. You have 4 GB on your laptop and Sims 3 takes 2 GB and your graphics card is taking the other 2 GB. So the system has to constantly swap things to a swap file on the hard drive in order to keep running.

The highly technical reason is the architecture of the of the graphics chip. To keep things simple, the chip was not designed for games. It was designed primarily for light tasks such as web browsing and playing video.

In short, more memory may help fix the lagging and freezes by lessening the need to swap data to the hard drive, but you will still need to play on low - medium settings in order to get smoother gameplay. Some tips include turning off Advanced Rendering and turning on Object Hiding in the Options. It makes the game look more cartoonish, but it should help increase the speed of the game somewhat.

Hope this helps and happy Simming!

Flynn

[203at]

It didn't always freeze/play choppy. I stopped playing for like 3 months and now when i try to start playing again it freezes a lot.

[LivvieLove]

Maybe try doing a factory reset (found Here)?

[MrsFlynn]

It may of played fine before, but if you're playing on a big saved game file, it may help to try a factory reset and/or try what I recommended previously.

Factory reset - Copy your Sims 3 folder to the desktop. Rename your current Sims 3 folder to something like Sims 3 Current. Click the Sims 3 icon to create a new Sims 3 folder. Then copy your game saves, files and such over to the new game to see if that helps. (This is different from a total-game reinstall)

If you need to know what to save/backup. Have a look at this thread.

How To: Saving folders/files to use on a different computer or to use as backup
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,16414.msg313134.html#msg313134

Lags & Intermittent Freezes
http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/04/bug-lags-intermittent-freezes.html

Lowering your graphics settings to medium and/or cleaning out your Sim's individual and family inventories as a lot of stuff in their inventories causes lag and freezing.

Sometimes the game does lag and freeze after sometime, due to it becoming a big game-save. Even on the best of computers.

MrsFlynn

[203at]

I did a factory reset. It's definitely more playable now but it's still fairly choppy/freezing.