Code error12 since Showtime.

[loveSims]

It only happen once but I like to prervent it from happening again. Will it help to turn the sreen resolution and some of the graphics down a bit? I have a 2g nivdia 450GTS graphic card and all the default settings is high. I prefer to not use mods. Thanks.

[Saltypaws]

That should be a big enough graphic card.  I guess it would depend on the size of the file and items you have in the household.  File size does have alot to do with error 12.  I have a one gig nvidia and only get error 12 if I am playing on a lot size of 64x64 and has a large house on it.  I hope this doesn't start happening often.  I really like Showtime.

[loveSims]

Thanks for the quick reply Salty! It was in a new game in Starlight shores in a starter home. I don't know if I strain my card with cas perhaps. It happen after I give my sim a makeover. I never get any crashes and it don't lag at all. I did get error16 a few times in the past and save as solved that, but with this error12 it didn't help.

[Saltypaws]

That is strange though.  Have you checked to see if maybe it is a bad file?  I hope things are corrected soon.  I don't think at this point, it is the graphics card, but who knows anymore.  Good luck and hopefully things will improve.

[loveSims]

I haven't played much since it happened. Have a silly flu. I will start the game in a bit and see what happen. 

[grimsoul]

I've had the error 12 twice when saving sense playing in Starlight Shores also.
But luckily I've been able to recover both times by windowing out, going to the saves folder and delete the bad save file. Then go back in the game and use Save As and use a different name for the save. Both times it saved with no problem.

[loveSims]

Did you get the error in other towns? I haven't play other towns.

[grimsoul]

Did you get the error in other towns? I haven't play other towns.

I've been playing Starlight Shores sense installing Showtime so I don't know if it's Showtime or Starlight Shores that caused it.
Before installing Showtime I was in Sunset Vally and didn't have a problem.

[loveSims]

I will start a game tomorrow in sunset valley. At the moment I only have the one save lol. I'm a chronic restarter. But I have saved tonigt 2 times without a poblem. It take longer to save than before showtime. Someting else I've notice my sim get stuck more often.

[Figwit]

I got an error 12 the other night.  My save is not very big, I have hardly any people in my town and it is not an EA world.  I think it is just the flaky game.  I was able to save it eventually though.  I minimised my game, left it like that for a few minutes and then opened it again and it saved that time.

[grimsoul]

Just got it again but this time deleting the bad file and saving again with a different name didn't work.

[loveSims]

I use resetSim * before I saved. I don't know if it helped but I didn't get the error last night.

[grimsoul]

I seem to have found a solution on the official forum, go down to the fourth post, it worked for me any.

I wanted to see if it work and not cause any problems before I suggested it here. So I waited a week after making the change before posting about it here. If it didn't work or caused problems I didn't want to bring others down with me.
During this week I haven't had another error 12 and no other problems have resulted.
The change I made was for Windows 7 32 bit and 4 GB ram so I can't comment for the XP version.

To have it handy I'll add it here also.

1) 32-bit Operating Systems
If you have a 32-bit version of Windows, and additional step is required in order for The Sims 3 to use more than 2 GiB of virtual memory. You must have at least 3 GiB of RAM installed in your system before taking these steps.

For Windows Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008
Open the Command Prompt with administrative rights.
Open Start.
Open Programs.
Open Acessories.
Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
Type the following and hit enter:
If you have 3 GiB of RAM installed: bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 2560
If you have 4 GiB of RAM installed: bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 3072
Close the command prompt and restart your computer.

If you have XP, here are the MTS instructions:
Windows XP, Server 2003
Open System Properties.
Right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
Select the Advanced tab.
In the Startup and Recovery area, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog.
In the System Startup area, click Edit to open the Windows boot.ini in Notepad.
Make sure to disable Word Wrap from the Format menu (you do not want a check to appear next to it).
Find the [Operating Systems] section. Each line below this header represents an operating system installed on your computer.
At the end of each line under [Operating Systems] add the following after /fastdetect (or whatever is at the end of the line):
If you have 3 GiB of RAM installed: /3GB /userva=2560
If you have 4 GiB of RAM installed: /3GB

To undo the changes for Window 7
Right-click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa"
Restart the computer.

[loveSims]

Thanks Grimsoul! It didn't happen again, but if it do again I'll show this to a friend of my daughter that work with computers. I will mess up big time if I try it my self. I'm a computer idiot lol!

[Figwit]

Grimsoul, I believe that is no longer required.  Since patch 1.19 the game does recognise more than 2GB of RAM.

Create-a-World though does need the fix.

Edit: Not so sure about 32 bit system    so ignore me.  If you have a 64 bit system, you don't need to do it.