I've been struggling with this issue too.
This only happens on a PC we have where we upgraded from Origin to EA App. We have a second device which recently had a clean install of Windows, this problem does not occur on that device and the game runs fine.
I decided to go hunting for whatever 'stuck' files must be left on the device causing this issue.
1. Close the EA app.
2. From Task Manager end any EA processes, (for me there was a single background process that needed stopping)
3. Navigate to the C:\ProgramData folder (you may need to grant yourself permission to access this folder)
4. Delete all EA folders and the PvZ folder
5. Restart the EA app and try the game again
I've attached a screen shot of the exact folders I deleted to make this work. This was probably overkill, my suspicion is there is a single file, most likely in the PlantsvsZombies folder that was causing the issue.
Not sure if this will work for others, but thought I'd share just in case.
Omg I have been dealing with this issue since switching over to EA from Origin and I was so sad!! Thank you this worked for me. I also found an empty origin folder chilling out in there after I thought I deleted them all already
