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DannyPleasant's avatar
DannyPleasant
New Novice
9 months ago

Can't launch the game "Service initialization failed"

I just got the base game earlier this week and I haven't been able to launch it. When I press the play bouton in the launcher, I get the black windowed screen and the error "Unable to start game. Service initialization failed". 

I know a lot of people have gotten this problem and posted about it, but I think I already tried everything and nothing works.

What I've tried:

  • Run as admin.
  • Repair the game from the EA app.
  • Start in window mode.
  • Move the Sims 3 documents folder so the game creates a new one.
  • Activate .NET 3.5
  • Install DirectX 9.
  • Uninstall, clear registry, and reinstall.
  • Defragment my unit.
  • Delete temporary files
  • Execute launcher with one CPU.
  • Lazy Duchess'   Intel Alder Lake Patch
crashing
pc
technical issues

21 Replies

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  • d0fdef48c2338f24's avatar
    d0fdef48c2338f24
    New Novice
    7 months ago

    Sorry for the late reply. 
    No, I don't have any special characters in my username, it's just my name. OneDrive is disabled. When I re-installed the computer McAfee snuck back in but I unistalled and deleted all the remaining files I could find as I previously did as you suggested before when it was causing problems - and I did it before installing the app and Sims 3 again. 

    I'm in Sweden and not using any VPN. 

    My boyfriends computer is being repaired but when he gets it back I'll try installing the game there. I'll get back to you. 
    I'll just play the Sims 4 for now, since it works fine. 

    Thank you again for all your help! 

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