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tmjimenez1026's avatar
tmjimenez1026
6 years ago

SimCity Societies won't open/launch

Windows 10.

I downloaded the game perfectly fine, launched it, and stupidly decided to mess with some of the settings. Upon returning to the main menu to begin a game, the game froze. I had to force quit. When I tried to re-launch the game, my screen went black for a second as if the game was loading and about to launch, but then the window exits. A notification pops up on the corner of my screen:

igfxTray.exe

This is not the optimal screen resolution for the primary display. The optimal screen resolution is 1366 x 768. Select this notification for more infor...

I click it, but the notification disappears.

The default resolution setting in the game was 1024 x 768. I clicked on the dropdown menu for this option, but did not change it. I tweaked some of the other settings, shadows, light, etc. 

I have no clue how to fix this! I uninstalled and re-installed the game, but the same thing happened. I changed my pc's resolution to 1024 x 768 and still, the same thing happened. I deleted the origin cache and logged back in to origin, and again, the same thing happened.

1 Reply

  • BlackjackWidow's avatar
    BlackjackWidow
    Hero (Retired)
    6 years ago

    I am not familiar with SimCity Societies, but I can see that it is a very old game and therefore may have issues installing and playing on newer systems. If you think the problem is related specifically to the changes you made in settings, search for any SimCity Socities *.ini files. They're usually in My Documents folder. Rename anything like Options.ini or move it to your desktop as a backup. Then relaunch the game - it should create a new *.ini file and launch with the default settings. If not, here are some tips:

    During Installation:

    1. Run the installation files & Origin "As Administrator"
    2. Be sure that antivirus and firewalls are allowing the installation files, or temporarily turn off antivirus during install
    3. To install .Net 2.0, Go to Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off > Check the box next to ".NET framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)"

    After Installation:

    1. Set the game executable to run "As Administrator" and Run in Compatibility Mode for Windows 7
    2. Make sure that the programs are added to exception lists for antivirus and firewalls; if you're using Windows Defender, check the Controlled Folder Access settings
    3. If the program file folder has a "TM" in it, remove that. Check \Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts Change \SimCity Societies TM\ to \SimCity Societies\
    4. If you still have problems launching, try running in Windowed mode and changing the resolution settings back to default within the game. 

    If none of these work, try a Clean Boot https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/how-to-clean-boot-your-pc/ and attempt to launch SCS. If it launches, you'll have some detective work to do. Enable one startup program at a time, reboot, try SimCity, until you find the program that is blocking it. Once you find the offending program, disable or uninstall it. You should be able to launch SimCity successfully without doing the clean boot after disabling the offending program.

    There is more information and SCS specifics in this post: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Other-SimCity-Games/Simcity-Societies-Failure-on-Windows-8-8-1-10-v1-0-4-2...

    If you still have the problem, please reply back with a copy of your dxdiag.

    How to DxDiag

    To post your DxDiag:

    1. Select the 'Choose file' button below the post box

    2. Find the DxDiag file and select it - hit Open

    3. Add text to your post and hit Submit

    Hope this helps 🤞

    If you recently purchased SimCity Societies from Origin, you may want to check out the Great Game Guarantee 

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