[ Lifetime Happiness Cheat ] [ Building Tips ] [ Lot too Low ]
[ Genies ] [ Mummies ] [ PlantSims ] [ Simbots ] [ Toads ] [ Werewolves ]
Your game has been running smoothly, you have built your lovely world and moved in the various Sims that live there.
One day you go to start it up and black screen. Nada. The game does not load. Task Manager (Windows) shows that the amount of stuff is not increasing to the normal quantity you are used to seeing.
1) Reboot. Always a good idea!
2) Clear caches: CASPartCache.package, compositorCache.package, scriptCache.package, simCompositorCache.package, socialCache.package.
They will regenerate when your game restarts.
3) If there is a folder called CurrentGame.sims3 delete that.
3) Sometimes, removing certain other files will help.
Go to My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saved sims. In this folder, is there a file named downloadedsims.index ? If yes, delete it.
Then in My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/DCCache, are there files with a .tmp ending? If, yes, delete them.
If these don't work, try removing CC and do a "factory reset". See New Clean Game.
Another thing I discovered. One day, my game was failing to load - simply taking HOURS to load, and never getting past the loading screen. It turned out I had a whole folder of SIMS 2 CC. Some creators are not good at labelling their downloads. It can be found with the Sims 3 Dashboard. Removed it and the game loaded fine.
( I tend to check with Dashboard frequently.)
Sims 4 content can also creep in.