Help! After changing some setting to Administrator, Sims 3 won't run :'(

@pinkdipi  First, a couple of easy points.  Yes, a third-party antivirus will override Windows Defender.  That's by design and a good thing—having two antivirus programs running at the same time can and will cause problems.  So Defender steps aside when another program is present.

The more resident sims your world has, the more RAM the save takes to run.  Homeless sims (not residents) have only a small impact.  To a lesser extent, the more objects are in the world, the more RAM is required as well.  So yes, if you've been adding more households to the save, and existing sims haven't been dying off at the same rate, you've been pushing the save closer to the memory limit and therefore making Error 12 much more likely.

The "Run as administrator" option would be in one of two places: on a desktop shortcut or in the game's program files.  Right-click the desktop shortcuts, if you have them, and select Properties > Compatibility, and you'll see a check box to run as admin.  (The right-click Run as administrator option is only a one-time action.)  The game's program files are wherever you chose to install them, and the .exe files are in the Bin folder.  It would be in one of these locations by default:

C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

Check the executable files there and remove any run-as-admin settings you find.  I would also suggest repairing the game afterwards; you can reapply the Lazy Dutchess patch afterwards.

If this doesn't help, please let me know which Lazy Duchess patch you're using, as there are several.  Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Hi!

Thank you so much for taking your time explaining things to me and trying to help! <3

I've been trying to find that box I checked all evening yesterday and today for hours changing settings in Properties -> Protection(?) allowing as users SYSTEM, Administrator, me or All, giving rigths to all the previously mentioned in all possible files, but nope, User Control(?) won't let it go. I've also went into 360 Total security and added the exe files Windows is asking about before running them to the Trust list. Nope. I unchecked the one and only Run as administrator box I think I've checked already yestarday, but no changes today.

What do you mean by "repairing the game"?

I'm not sure if I found the right place to check, but I think the version of the Smooth Patch is 1.0.0.1

dxdiag attached.

Thank you again! \^_^/

@pinkdipi  I think what you're looking for is under Properties > Security > Advanced.  You'll see a button to Change Permissions.  On my computer, in the regular Security menu, TS3.exe shows check marks for Read & execute and Read; everything else is blank.  Under Advanced, SYSTEM and Administrators have Full control; Users, All Application Packages, and All Restricted Application Packages have Read & execute.  All permissions are listed as inherited from Program Files, which is typical for someone who hasn't edited these permissions.

If you really can't figure this out, uninstalling the game, and maybe deleting the folder it's in (that would be EA Games, inside Program Files, for me), should remove all the set permissions; the folders should get new default permissions when you reinstall.  But I would temporarily disable 360 Total Security when reinstalling just to be thorough.  As long as you don't do anything else at the same time, your computer should be safe, and you can reenable it when you're done.

What I meant by repairing is the Repair option in your EA App game library under Sims 3 > Manage.  But you don't need to do this if you're going to reinstall.  And a repair might not work if permissions are completely broken.

The Smooth Patch is fine and unlikely to cause issues, but if you reinstall, please test the game without it first.  I've seen a few comments about an antivirus blocking it by default, and it would also be helpful to know whether Sims 3 works in its default state.

Hello!

Yeah, changing the security setting doesn't do anything. I even uninstalled 360 Total security, but Windows still asks, if the application is allowed to do changes. I wnent into Windows Security settings and added the whole Game > Bin to be added to non-threat. Now I'm starting to think that there's something else wrong, because the game just won't starting and jumps from Launcher to EA app and back. In Task manager, the game process doesn't even start. I also tried repairing the game trough EA application. It took 1,5 hours, but nothing changed. I'm getting so tired of this bugged game overall ;_;

For now I'm too tired of trying to improve the game and make it more playable and now fixing this - although I caused it myself - I'm going to take a break from playing Sims 3. I installed Sims 4 to give it a try again, but already I find myself not enjoying it at all. I'll try downloading the Vivaland Dream house demo for now to be able to create.

Thank you very much for being there for me! <3

Have a wonderful autumn! ^^/

@pinkdipi  If and when you're ready to try again, please uninstall Sims 3 and the EA App with Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine).  This guide was written for Sims 4, but the options are the same:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-DLC-shows-as-installed-won-t-load-in-game/m-p/12942151#uninstall

Reinstall the game into a new folder that you create for just this purpose, on the root level of the drive of your choice, as described.

Hi!

You won't believe what happened. At least I don't.

Yesterday I just got an itch to try the game again for no particular reason. And then Windows asks me to troubleshoot. I thought "Like THAT has EVER helped", but pressed OK. It asked me something along the lines of "Do you want to run the application with Windows 8 compatibility?" I pressed OK - and voila! The game is now running. Just like that, after a whole day not touching the game, nor doing anything. Windows just randomly asked me out of the blue. I know for sure that I didn't touch THOSE setting.

This shall remain a mistery I suppose, but thank you very much again for being so willing to help me out and find a solution! ^_^

By the way I have installed Steam to be able to play Vivaland, but it won't run giving me an PLAYFAB_LOGIN_ERROR. What ever that means. I read that I need to wait, so I waited until next day. Next day same thing. Games hate me, LOL. So I can't report whether the game is a good competitor to Sims 3 - in building aspect at least. Thought maybe you'd be interested.

All the best wishes to you, firendly stranger! ^^/

@pinkdipi  That is a very strange outcome, especially considering that applying a compatibility mode to Sims 3 generally doesn't accomplish anything at all.  But it's almost always better to have a fix without an explanation than the other way around.

Good luck with the Steam issue.  If I knew anything about that error, I'd try to help, but I don't think I've even heard of it before.

Hey!

Sorry to bother you again. Since you're knowledgable about system and stuff, could you kindly give your recommendations for what to look for in a PC to play Sims 3 with as little outside help as possible, meaning patches, mods and stuff? Would just adding RAM be sufficient, or do I need a better everything? You see, I think I enjoy growing and developing my city the most. I want to have a graveyard full of stories and ancestors, a town with lots and lots of houses and inhabitats in several generations and lots to do. I want to see the city being full with Sims going about they day. I was intirgued by a mod some one had made to make sims go out more. It was called something like Go outside? The idea of it was to push sims to go places as much as possible. You can imagine my computer didn't aggree with that ^^;;;

I'd be thankful for recommendations of RAM, video cards, proseccors and if there's anything else. A computer model? Laptops? I'm on a tight budget, so I prbably won't be able to afford much anything, but I'd like to understand more what the game REALLY needs to run smoothly and beautifully. I've seen some videos where they just say "I have that computer", but that doens't help me to understand what is necessary for it to work like butter.

Have a fun weekend! ^^/

@pinkdipi  How tight is your budget?  What you're looking for would only be possible with a whole new computer.  I'm not saying that adding RAM would make no difference, because it would help with everyday use, as would installing a larger SSD, big enough to hold Sims 3's program files and user data.  But there's only so much this laptops processor and graphics card can do, and neither one is upgradable.

The other part of this is that Sims 3 itself has some limitations due to the way it's built: both the game engine's faults and the fact that it's a 32-bit program mean you can't really have the overpopulated, well-developed save you're imagining.  There just isn't a way to handle that much data at once, no matter how powerful your machine.

Ah, that's so sad to hear ☹️ I enjoy that the most about the game. A person has suggested some things to look into when considering a new computer, but I think they don't quite understand how heavy the Sims 3 is. I asked about one computer and they said the graphics card is basically non existant and suggested not settling for anything less than NVIDIA RTX 4070. But I don't understand why: my GTX 950M is on 20-30% anyway. The processor on the other hand is somewhere from 75-100% and the game is lagging - at all times. It seems my game does recognize the GPU: it has found it at least... The GPU obviously doesn't help much? I was wondering, if I do budget for a computer, would having 32 GB RAM make a very big difference in how much I could populate a city, or will the game not be able to even use all that RAM? Or do I need more?? o_0

Also I'm looking out for Paralives now. When it comes out, I'll be definitely looking trough reviews on the game and what kind of machine it requires. It looks so nice with all the details: reminds me of Sims 2  ^_^