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Re: sims 3 files not downloading

@everlygreen The 64-bit version of Sims 3 is free for everyone who owns the 32-bit game, and it was supposed to be automatically added to everyone's accounts. If you had it, you'd see a second game tile in your Origin library, one that says 64-bit on it:

Since you don't have that, you'll need to contact EA customer support to get it added manually. The key word here is "entitlements," as in, you want the entitlements for the 64-bit vesrions of the base game and any packs you own to be added to your account. You can contact the standard customer support:

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/

Or you can contact EA Help on Twitter or Facebook. Even if you'd rather deal with the 32-bit version right now, I'd still suggest doing this at some point so you have the option of playing the 64-bit version later on.

Which version is better for your computer is kind of a tossup. The 32-bit version has a hard RAM limit of 2 GB due to the way the game was ported to macOS, which may be a serious issue for you depending on your playstyle. However, 64-bit Sims 3 doesn't run particularly well on your graphics chip, while 32-bit is fine on that front. If you do play the 64-bit version, you may not be able to play with Pets, you probably won't be able to play with Pets while you're playing in Bridgeport, and you may need to turn down lighting and tree detail to the lowest settings. On the other hand, you won't get crashes due to the save bumping up against the RAM limit.

Point is, choose the one you want and let me know what you're going to do.

Whether or not you want to play the 32-bit version, the first step is to do a clean uninstall so there aren't any leftover files:

https://bluebellflora.com/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac/

If you want to play the 32-bit version, the next step is to download the base game, and only the base game, and then run the Super Patch (digital download version):

https://bluebellflora.com/sims-3-manual-super-patch-for-mac-1-67/

Try to launch the game after that and before installing any packs. Let me know whether it works, and we can go from there.

If you install the 64-bit version, you don't need to patch it or take any special steps to get it running.

And yes, the reason your packs are listed twice is because of how the 64-bit version was added to Origin. But it's not relevant: only the correct version for your type of install will download at all.

2 Replies

everlygreen
2 years ago
@puzzlezaddict Hi, thanks for that. I messaged customer support about the 64bit but I have been trying to use the 32bit for now. I uninstalled/reinstalled Sims 3 and installed the patch however it still says unknown error when I try to launch the game. I was wondering would this have anything to do with the fact that inside documents -electronic arts - sims 3 there are no files? I know for the sims 4 there are a bunch of files in there but I could be wrong. But anyway it did not work.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@everlygreen There is no Sims 3 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts because you haven't been able to launch the game yet. It's not the cause of the unknown error but a result.

One of the causes of the unknown error is that the graphics card or chip's device ID isn't in the game's database, but it's easy enough to add yourself. Open Applications > The Sims 3, right-click on the Sims 3 icon itself, select Show Package Contents, and open this file path:

Contents > Resources > transgaming > c_drive > Program Files > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Game > Bin

Inside the Bin folder, open graphicscards.sgr and cmd-F to search for Havendale , which will take you here:

vendor "Intel" 0x8086
card 0x0042 "Havendale"
card 0x0046 "Havendale"

Change the bolded 0042 to 87C0 , which is your graphics chip's device ID, but don't change anything else. If you accidentally delete something, quit without saving—I've seen something as subtle as an incorrect type of quote mark bork the edits. The lines should now look like this, other than the indents that this site isn't saving:

vendor "Intel" 0x8086
card 0x87C0 "Havendale"
card 0x0046 "Havendale"

This tells the game that your GPU is actually something else, but that's fine, it doesn't really matter how Sims 3 identifies the chip, only that it does so. After making this edit, try again to play with no packs installed.

If this doesn't work, and there were times when it did not for some players back when all we had was 32-bit, then I'd say it would probably be better to fix the 64-bit issue and install that version. And on that note, I would highly suggest contacting EA through live chat, or Twitter or Facebook, rather than sending an email. The email responses tend to be slow and utterly inadequate, at least from what players have reported here.