MISSING THUMBNAILS IN BfN

Hi everyone,

I'm running into a set of connected issues in Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville on PC and am hoping someone has a working fix.

Issues: (Please check the attached image)

1. Startup Connection Timeout: Every time I launch the game, I get a prompt saying "Connection to EA servers timed out. Please check your network connection and try again later." Clicking OK lets me bypass it and get into the game anyway. While it doesn't break gameplay, it's a minor nuisance every single time I boot up.

2. Missing UI Thumbnails: The thumbnails on the main menu selection, rux store, and the online game modes are missing—showing only solid dark-blue boxes.

3. Glitching EA Overlay: Pressing Shift + 1 (or Shift + F1) to open EA Chats/Overlay causes the interface to flicker or glitch visually before loading.

Observations: I suspect this may have started due to constant installation and uninstallation of the game, which might have left corrupted registry keys or conflicting leftover cache files. This seems to cause a background sync/authentication timeout between the EA App and the game client, preventing the UI from fetching live asset data.

Please note that I have already tried the following:

- Repaired the game via the EA App.

- Repaired the game with EA Anti-Cheat engine.

- Cleared the EA App cache.

- Cleaned up my laptop's disk space.

- Manually removed files from the installation folder before reinstalling the game again.

- Uninstalled the EA App and installed it again.

Has anyone dealt with this specific combo of bugs or fixed an installation-cache issue like this?

Thanks in advance!