I'm still confused about how the process monitor works.. I ran it and saw all of the files that it loads and everything but like in my previous post.. I dont know which ones to delete. How many times should a package load? I have some that load 3 times and some that load 10 times.. I want to make sure I'm deleting packages that need to be deleted and ONLY the ones that need to be deleted. Missa also has this question so if someone could please answer us that would be great

thanks!!

I had a huge slow down w/WA, but I noticed that this file: d3dx9_31.dll did not get copied into the WA/game/bin folder by the helper monkey. I copied it over from the standard sims folder, and deleted the cache files--worked normally after that.

I still have crashes when I try to edit swimming pools or basements on lots that have any pre-existing content below flat ground level though, but it might fix some of ya'lls troubles.

If i understood it correctly in mine the Process Moniter kept trying to load and reload an item i had moved into the Mods/Packages folder and that item was UNDIES in my case , it never stopped loading the item and my Process Moniter was filled with hundreds of it, so i located the item name it said on the list in my Mods/Packages file and got rid of it, then my game ran smooth again. I'm probably not the best to explain with these things but meh i had a go. If you're really unsure which to delete then you can take a screenshot and show us Also if it only loads three times is that it? or does it repeat the three later on again and again?

I'm actually not sure.. I think I saw some of them repeating.. I dont really remember because I ended up taking all of my packages files by category and lumping them into one file..

I'm going to try again with the process manager and ill fer sure write back thanks

How did you lump them all into one file? Or did you mean one folder?

I think its merging/importing them to create .dbc files, i went by the assumption that we simply couldn't have as many .package files or custom content in TS3 than we could in TS2, so i tried that but it didn't work for me and i was still loading really slow, it was actually just an incorrect thing i'd downloaded causing the slowdown but others have said it worked for them, if you really do have hundreds and thousands of custom content it might help if you can change them so they merge into smaller files; MATY did a guide about it, seems to be one thing or the other tbh causing the problem and either one of the two works it seems (that is the ProcMon or MATY's .dbc files).

I've been trying to fix my wife's game. I went through the helps and it still wasn't working. At first the green bar wouldn't load at all. After a lot of trial & error I found the file that was stopping it, but then the green bar would load & stop at the end and just hang. After a lot more trial & error again I got the game to load, but it goes sooooo slow that the CAS screen was just horrendous.

Has anyone found a solution to the

"A required security module cannot be activated.
This program cannot be executed (5025)."

error some of us are experiencing when attempting to start TS3 WA while the Process Monitor is running? I'd like to fix my slowdown using this method, but I'm unable to launch the game to find the errant packages. I've read through the thread and saw where others mentioned this, but saw no solution. Help!

Edit: I'm on Vista, and yes, I'm running both WA and Process Monitor as an administrator. And yes, my game is legal. I downloaded it from the EA Store.

Perhaps if you're running any emulation software (demon tools, alcohol 120, or any virtual drives) then try disabling them, that fixed the problem before for a friend maybe its the same, something about the data not being able to load because of the copyright stuff i think.

Start Process Monitor *after* you start the game, or try the game in Windowed mode.

With Sims 3 WA installed and fully patched I did a little experimenting with about 2500files each of .package and .sims3pack files.

With the package files installing is a drag drop and game loading time is about 5 mins.

The .package files were then deleted and the sims3pack files tried.

With sims3pack installing using the launcher took over 10 mins (I ended up going to make a coffee!) but it only takes 40 seconds to launch the game.

Three questions for the experts

Are sims3pack files processed once by the launcher so they are then immediatly available to the game when it is loading?

Are package files (re)processed by WA each time it each time it loads?
Did the base game only process the package files once?

If the answers are yes it would account for the massive increace in loading time when package files are used in WA.

Thanks Delphy. Worked like a charm!

Roaringruby, As has been stated multiple times in the thread, any massive increases of loading times for WA are becuase you, basically, have "bad" custom content in your Mods\Packages folder.

There are 2 primary possibilities here:
1) You have Sims 2 content in your Mods\Packages folder (use the DDO to find it)
2) You have "corrupt" package files (use the batch bluelot fixer to fix these)

Most package files should be read once (showing up as 3 or 4 lins in process monitor due to the file io overhead). Sims3Packs are all dumped into a single package file (called a DBC - database cache), so the file io overhead is minimal but the actual contents are the same.

You have to remember though that Sims3Packs generally contain totally different types of content than the mods\packages. The only true comparisons can be made from a set of Sims3Packs and packages that are of the exact same content.

The base game (pre patch 1.7) wasn't as "strict" in reading bad package files (Sims 2 / corrupt) and simply ignored them or skipped them a lot quicker. With post patch or WA, it's a lot more strict and so gets hung up on Sims 2 content, etc.

To be honest, if you scoured your Mods\Packages folder I bet you'll find at least 1 Sims 2 file, and 1 bad package there. Removing these will drop your load times considerably.

Whenever I try to run DDO most of the CC comes up as "Object not found". I tried clicking ok through that and when it got done with that it froze when it got to the main page.

MTS Staff Note:

The root cause behind this issue has been identified, and methods for easily fixing it worked out. Thanks to everyone who has contributed information that has helped diagnose and resolve this issue!

For information on fixing this issue, please see: Game Help:Package File Lag

Because this thread has gotten so long, MTS staff has decided to lock this thread. If you follow the instructions in the above FAQ and still have questions or issues, please make your own new thread in the Sims 3 Help forum.