My games won't load

[Gingerkid]

Hi all.

Me again, I tried to find the technical board to post this but I couldn't see it, sorry if it's in the wrong place.

None of my games are loading. They start to load as normal and the loading bar moves then it gets to a certain place and just stays there. It sat there for over an hour before I turned it off and tried again, then I tried another game, but still the same. I played yesterday and all was fine.

I have no mods. I checked in the save file and there aren't any bad files.

Any suggestions please. I must play sims every day because I'm addicted to it, and if I can't play I'll go mad lol.
Many thanks in advance.

[Lisa46]

Use options and uncheck interactive loading screens. I find that they are a resource drain and can get stuck.

[Gingerkid]

Isn't options only when you've got the game loaded? I can't load a game to get to that bit. And it's been ok & was fine yesterday so it's strange that it would suddenly stop working & loading. It's so frustrating.

[Lisa46]

Can you get to the "choose which game you want to play" screen? I'd so they do have options there. If not, I really don't know.

[Shewolf13]

Have you cleared your Caches and tried restarting your computer?

[Gingerkid]

Can you get to the "choose which game you want to play" screen? I'd so they do have options there. If not, I really don't know.

Yes I can get to chose which game, is there an options there? I'll have to have another look. I couldn't find it.

Shewolf Yes I clear them all daily.

[Shewolf13]

That's really odd.  Hm... Yeah, I think you're best bet is to try the options menu from the choose game screen, make sure you have the box with the interactive loading screens unchecked and then see what happens.

[Trip]

I'm moving this to Technical Help.

[MrsFlynn]

Hi Gingerkid,

The first thing that comes to mind is have you tried playing a new game-save as a test? If not, give that a try. It might be that your save-game file (s) are getting too large. Specially if you've played with these save-games for quite a long while.

And yes like the others have said. Turn off the interactive loading screens, as they don't help save-game loading times.

How to do that:  From the Main Menu - Where you can choose the save you want to play or create a new game. Click on the 3 dots (...) in the lower left hand corner of the Main Menu.

A pop up menu will appear. Click Options and in the 2nd tab (General Settings) look for a setting called Enable Interactive Loading Screens. Make sure this is unchecked.

I hope this helps,

MrsFlynn

[Gingerkid]

Thanks everyone for your help. Especially MrsFlynn with your step by step to finding it, because I'm quite a technophobe so I hate it when things get technical.

Anyway I've followed your advice but it's not loading. It seems to be the newest game, which I have only played a couple of times. Very strange. I'm going to try loading the other games one by one to see if they load. I've tried a couple and they're ok.

Any other advice greatly appreciated

[MrsFlynn]

I'm happy I could help.  Did you say that yes, playing a newly created game works? If not, try that. Load up the game, and click new game from the main menu. Doesn't matter what town. This is just to see if you're able to play, save and then get back into that new game.

If you're able to play the new game. Save it. Then quit out of the game. Clear the cache and then go back into the game and see if you can load that newly created game.

MrsFlynn

[Gingerkid]

Hi MrsFlynn I haven't tried every game yet, because Ive got a few as I like to try different towns & different types of sims & scenarios anyway it seems to be the newest game that won't load. I tried and played one I started a couple of days before the newest game (let's call it 'The Ranch', to save some of the confusion) Anyway it's this one game, so far, that won't load. I'm very confused. I've cleared all caches, I clear them all daily after play to help keep it all running smoothly as I do struggle with speed in games, and freezing so I try to stay on top of the house work like clearing caches etc. Thank you again   

[MrsFlynn]

Hi Gingerkid,

I was searching on the Saves not loading problem last night and came to find a few tips that might help solve the problem.

Tip #1 -- Do you have a lot of saved games in your Saves folder?  As I've read that to many saved games in your Saves folder could cause the not loading problem. To fix that, back them up to a temporary folder, memory card/key, cd or something like that.

Then put only a few, say 3-4 saved games back into the folder and try loading them one at a time.

Tip #2 -- In your Saves folder, do you have any .backup files of your games? Example: SunsetValley.sims3.backup. If you do. Let's start with testing one of them. Make of copy of one of them. By highlighting - hover mouse pointer over file, and right click, choose copy. Right click anywhere in the Saves folder and choose Paste. The file should then look something like: Sunset Valley.sims3.backup - Copy.

Now we're going to work with the copy of that file. So highlight the copy of the file (SunsetValley.sims3.backup - Copy) and right click, choose rename. Delete the .backup - copy part of the filename. To where it looks like: Sunset Valley.sims3

Load up your game to see if you can load this saved game.  If this works. Give it a try with your other saved games that aren't loading.

Tip #3 -- The other tip I've read, and should of known to suggest. *Blush* is to try a factory reset, It resets the game to factory settings.

Before you try a factory reset, back up your Sims 3 folder.

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

After you've backed up your Sims 3 folder. It's safe to delete it from your Electronic Arts folder. Load the game. This may take a little longer than usual, due to the game needing to create a new Sims 3 folder. Put back in some of your saved games, downloads, options.ini file and userPresets.package. And try loading some of the saved games.

Let us know if any of this helps.

MrsFlynn

[LivvieLove]

Hello there!

MrsFlynn has got the right ideas going, but I thought I'd come in and throw in what I can imagine is going on.
I've got a list of questions, I'm so sorry if this feels repetitive, but I just want to be as clear as possible. The more we know, the better we can help you.

• Is it only this one save that is causing the problems?
• What town is this save in?
• How far in did you get within this game (if you could estimate in-game weeks)?
• Did this game-file slow down or lag or crash never/once/a few times/often/always?
• Do you switch households a lot in the file?
• What expansions/stuff packs do you have?
• You mentioned no mods, is that true for custom content as well (third party hair/clothing)? Do you have EA created store content?
• Have you tried just waiting out the loading screen? It is unlikely, but possible that you simply have a long loading screen (due to limitations of the town, lag, a lot of things to load, etc). I've seen towns that have been around for legacies and dynasties that take a long time to load, I've heard rumors of 30 minute load times on some files.

Anyways, sorry, lots of questions, but the more we know, the more likely we can pinpoint the problem. I'm leaning on corruption of the file, in which case, a backup - as found in MrsFlynns post would likely help you get into the save long enough to get your families and save them to the Family Bin and place them in another town to prevent further corruption. It could also be your town is just very bogged down and glitchy, which takes a long time to load, and if it does eventually load the ultimate goal is to get your Sims out of there and move them to a new town where you can continue to enjoy them without fear of losing them to a corrupt game.
If this were happening in multiple files, I would say it's hardware, but right now I'm inclined to say a factory reset and a nice clean start for any families you can salvage from that file would be the ultimate end-goal for this save.

[Gingerkid]

Hi MrsFlynn, thank you so much for reading up on it and trying to help me. Tips 1 & 2 didn't work. I haven't tried the factory reset yet, bit scared of that one.

Hi LivvieLove, thank you too for trying to help.
1.It does appear to be just one game that is affected.
2. It's in Appaloosa Plains (Is that the correct name or spelling) I do have another game in same town and that one loads fine
3. I hadn't played it much. I'd only played it a couple of days, maybe a couple of sims weeks. I played it 1 day & the next day it wouldn't load
4. No it didn't slow or lag
5. I think I may have switched households once, to one other household to merge it with mine. So I may not have switched households but I may have done that in 'Edit Town' I can't remember now.
6. Most expansions & Stuff packs
7. No MODS, but I do have some cc & Ea store stuff
8. I left it for over an hour and got bored of waiting. It is possible that it's just a slow loader, but I don't think that's it, because it's a new game they usually load quicker than my other games, as they have less content etc. And the day before it loaded fine.

I might just call it quits on this game as the others appear fine & I haven't invested much time in it. What do you both think?

Many thanks again for all your help