Re: Launcher isn’t loading and when I try to play it just goes black then closes

Love people that know their stuff! 

So with downloading a new Microsoft app... which one do I have to get rid off before downloading the new one?

I have all these other Microsoft Visual C++ 2012,13,15 Redistributable apps as well... 

Is that the C++ library you were talking about? 

I will attach another photo of my Microsoft apps and features so have available, if you can tell me what one I have to delete and if I need all these 11 Microsoft visual thingys. Seems a little extreme. Also with TS3 folder in Electronic arts, is it okay to delete files in DC BACKUP folder? I have around 4000 files in there and once again feel like it a little unnecessary 

While I’m waiting for your response I’m looking at the Microsoft download link you sent (thank you) 

and I saw this message on their page... 

do you think my problem has something to do with their problem? Thanks again!

@gypsygeee  The .dll file that's throwing the errors is part of the 2005 Service Pack 1 library, so that's the one you want to uninstall (the first one listed).  The others can stay, and in fact if you deleted them, you'd need to download a whole bunch of other replacements, which besides being unnecessary would be a huge pain to deal with.  I wouldn't worry too much about the warning on Microsoft's site—I doubt you have any apps on your system old enough to be affected.

As far as DCBackup goes, the only critical file inside is ccmerged.package, which makes your premium store content work.  (Regular store items don't need the file.)  The other files are only necessary if you want to upload your creations to the Exchange and would like your cc to be uploaded as well.  Otherwise, all of those other files can be deleted.

Okay perfect! Thank you for talking me through that part. 

I only download content for me personally so I guess I can finally delete all 4000 of them! Woohoo! 

I have just uninstalled the 2005 service pack and on the website It says there are 3 downloads to choose from- do I just pick the smallest one? 

Dont want to get anything wrong so ill double double check for I do anything 🙂 

@gypsygeee  It's always good to check before trying anything, especially when dealing with Windows.  You want the third option, the _x64.exe.  The x86 version is for 32-bit systems, and yours is 64-bit; the IA64 is for server systems.

oh thank god for that. Once its downloaded and installed what do i do next? Restart and open the sims to see if its working or do i try something else? 

Or do you want me to do another dxdiag test? 

@gypsygeee  Yes, after you've installed and restarted, try launching TS3.  Keep your old game folder out of the picture for now; there shouldn't be any TS3 folder in Documents\EA.  If the game runs, start a new save and look around, i.e. use CAS and Edit Town for long enough to make sure everything works.

If the game crashes at any point, then please do run another dxdiag.  But there's no point, and probably no new information, until you've tried to launch the game.

Okay so I did what you said and my game actually started working like normal! Opened, loaded and got to the build and buy part then I realised all my houses (built and downloaded) are missing, same with everything else, is this because I moved TS3 folder out of EA? Since I still have all the actual files for downloaded content and my saved sims/ games, I thought everything would be still there.

Is there a way to fix this? Will I have to re- upload all content again? 

Thank you so so much, was over the moon when it actually started to load properly! 

Also this message came up - do you know what it means? I’ve never seen it before

@gypsygeee  I'm so glad to hear that your game loaded properly.  Fixing that was the hard part; everything else is easily addressed.  The unrecognized video card message just means that yoru graphics card isn't in TS3's database, which hasn't been updated since 2013.  You can "fix" it by editing the game's graphicscards.sgr and graphicsrules.sgr, but it's not strictly necessary as long as the game runs properly.  But if you do want to try, now or later, I can help with that.  (Also, you won't get the message again unless you delete options.ini from your new game folder.)

The files for your builds, saves, downloads, and anything else you've created or added to the game yourself are all located in your TS3 game folder, in this case the one you pulled out of Documents when you started troubleshooting.  It's easy enough to copy everything over into the new folder, although you might want to handle one bundle of files at a time.  Then you can launch your game and test to make sure everything works.

These are the files and folders you'll want to preserve.  It's better to copy them, rather than just move them, so if you need to start with another clean folder for whatever reason, you can just trash the new folder you've been building and copy everything over again.  I'd recommend adding back your content more or less in this order, although it mostly doesn't matter all that much.

• Mods will be in Mods, of course, and you can copy over the whole folder at once.  If something's not working, we should address that before moving on to the rest of your content.
• Any custom content you've installed will be in .dbc files in DCCache.
• Store content is bundled into .ebc files in DCCache, although venues and worlds will have entries in Library and InstalledWorlds as well.  Also be sure to transfer over ccmerged.package from DCBackup.
• The households and builds you've saved to the bin, whether you downloaded them or created them yourself, are in Library.
• Installed worlds, not the ones the game comes with but any from the store or third-party creators, will be in InstalledWorlds.
• Any sims you saved as templates in CAS (not completed households but rather sims that you wanted to save to work on later) will be in SavedSims.
• Any recolors you've saved in Create a Style will be in userpresets.package.
• Screenshots will be in Screenshots, but you might want to save this folder elsewhere to sort through later.  It won't affect the game either way.
• Your saves are in Saves, and you can copy the whole folder over as well.  Do this last, after you have everything else in place and have confirmed that it all loads properly.
• And, of course, be sure to delete the five cache files in your game folder (CASPartCache,compositorCahce, scriptCache, simCompositorCache, and socialCache) each time you add more content.

If anything doesn't work, just let me know and we can troubleshoot that specific content.  But like I said, that should be simpler than everything else you've done so far.

Well firstly, I went into Electronic Arts folder, and saw there was a new TS3 folder there even though I moved it to my desktop yesterday.

I noticed there wasn’t a MODS folder once I opened it so I copied the original folder from the desktop to the new TS3 folder that appared.

Once I copied it I tried to play the sims but it went back to not loading once I pressed the play button. So I took out the MODS folder and started it again and it loaded fine. 

I also noticed that most folders in the new TS3 folder in my documents were empty but when I checked the downloads folder it had files in it. 

I have attached a photo for you. I have deleted them and opened the sims again and checked the folder to find them back again. 

Is this a bad thing? Since we have moved everything and content has disappeared from my sims app I thought it was a little weird that new things that I have not downloaded are in the new folder? 

It seems though if I make a MODS folder it makes the game not load? 

So now I have tried copying everything I had in the original DCCache folder on my desktop to the new TS3 folder and when I opened the sims app up I was looking through my installed content and some hinge were there but it then very quickly crashed and closed itself. 

What am I doing wrong? 

I had things copied to ubs before this problem started happened just in case it ever did and I needed to easily copy thins back over but it doesn’t seem to work when I do and I’m not even trying with the files from the USB. 

From the ones we moved yesterday that were the most up to date 

Do I delete all the DDCache files I just moved over? And leave the folder empty. It did have 2 files in there before I did the move but now I can’t tell which were the first 2 already in there. 

Thanks again for your patience 

@gypsygeee  Alright, let's deal with one of these issues at a time.  First, the files in Downloads are supposed to be there—they mostly have to do with the in-game badge challenges.  But you can trash them, or the whole folder, and they'll regenerate.  (Also, you might want to delete the attachments, since one file shows the email address associated with your account.)

When you copy over Mods, you also need to delete your cache files.  To keep things simple, it's probably best to just trash the new game folder you've been building and spawn a new one, then move over Mods, clear your caches, and try to load again.  If the game still doesn't launch, please post a photo of your File Explorer window that shows the contents of Mods\Packages, where all your actual .package files should be.  There are a couple of simple reasons that a mod would crash the game.

By the way, if it's easier, you can take a screenshot directly by hitting Windows key-shift-S and dragging your cursor over the part of the screen you want to capture.  Then you can open Paint or another photo editing app (just type Paint into the search box) and paste the image (crtl-V) into a new file.

Okay no worries and oh yes thank you, I will do that now. 

Is spawning creating or copying? 

Could you talk me through the spawning a new game folder part? 

Do I delete TS3 folder that’s in the electronic arts folder and make a new one? 

Do I then copy over the mods folder from the TS3 desktop folder that we copied yesterday? 

With deleting caches, do you mean the DCCache folder that is in the EA folder? 

@gypsygeee  Yes, spawning is creating, as in, the game will create the new folder itself.  I take it you still have your original game folder somewhere, with all your content?  Then you can trash the newer one that's currently in Documents and let TS3 create a fresh one.  (If you moved over some of your files to this newer game folder instead of copying them, or you're not sure, just rename this folder TS3-new or something like that and move it elsewhere, so you can go back to it later if necessary.)

Once there's no Sims 3 folder in Documents\EA, launch the game as far as the Main Menu, then quit.  Delete the five cache files that sit directly in the new folder (CASPartCache, compositorCache, scriptCache, simCompositorCache, and socialCache); there's nothing in DCCache you need to worry about right now.  Then copy over your whole Mods folder from your old game folder to your new one.  Launch the game again.  If it crashes or otherwise doesn't load, take a screenshot of the contents of Mods\Packages and attach it here.