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LuziferDraws's avatar
LuziferDraws
Seasoned Newcomer
4 days ago

Sims 3 launcher wont open

Hey everyone. I very rarely post anything since I tend to always find an answer but this has me totally broken.

I have played The Sims 3 pretty much all my life, on and off throughout the years. Last time I tried installing the sims (around 1 moth ago) I did the same process I always do. Install EA App and proceed to install The Sims 3, some minor mods and cc (NRAAS and not much more) and the expansions I have (pretty much all of them).

After 1 or 2 times opening the game just fine, the game just stopped working. When clicking the play button it proceeds to try to open the launcher but it just closes, no error log or anything like that. I went through the normal list of troubleshooting including AdlerLake Patch, dx9 reinstall, .NET Framework 3.5 turned on, game repair, installing and uninstalling, checking firewall, opening as an administrator...

The closest solution I found was skipping the launcher by routing the game to open the TS3.exe file directly, but that leaves me with only the base game since I can't enable the expansions through the launcher.

At this point I have no idea how to proceed or what could be the issue. If anyone has any idea, just tell me!

Thanks a lot everyone!

technical issues

4 Replies

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  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 days ago

    LuziferDraws  As a test, please try playing in a clean user folder.  Move the entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you open the launcher, if it opens, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you've moved but temporarily unread by the game.)  Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just start a new save and see how it runs, that is if you can get that far.

    If this doesn't help, please repair the game (EA App > Sims 3 > Manage > Repair) and try again.

    If that doesn't help either, please provide a dxdiag.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

  • LuziferDraws's avatar
    LuziferDraws
    Seasoned Newcomer
    3 days ago

    Hello! I have tried doing the exact steps and both don't work.

     

    Regarding the first step, the game does launch when skipping launcher but just as I explained, Icannot turn on any expansion or install any of my store content. Once repaired it just didnt workat allsince EA app doesn't skipp launcher on default. 

    I've attached the dxdiag below

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    2 days ago

    LuziferDraws  Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling .NET Framework 3.5?  I realize it's enabled now, but that's not the same as forcing Windows to remove and redownload it.  And the more recent Sims 3 errors in your dxdiag look like a .NET problem.  Click the filled-in box to uninstall, restart your computer, click the now-empty box to reinstall, and restart again.

    If you get an error when trying to reinstall .NET 3.5, please post a screenshot.

    Part of the point of repairing was to undo the Alder Lake patch, which is unnecessary with any EA App install now and would also not be necessary on your computer in any case.  I also wanted to know whether you'd made any changes to the program files that might prevent the launcher from working.  It's fine to reapply the workaround to bypass the launcher, but please don't do that for now since the whole point of this is to try to get the launcher to work again.

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