Forum Discussion
@GreenMoosy You're correct that the Alder Lake issue prevents Sims 3 itself from loading while the launcher opens as normal. But your dxdiag makes the issue clear: you need to manually install DirectX 9. I believe from your description that you extracted the DX9 files but didn't actually run the installer. In case it helps, I wrote out detailed instructions for installing DX9 here:
The short version is, in the folder you placed in Documents, there should be a DXSETUP.exe. This is the actual installer that you need to run.
Thank you so much! I just ran the installer and it worked. I feel a little silly but thank you for your help. The launcher opened but the game wouldn't so I tried the other things like lazy duchess patch and that seems to have fixed everything. You are the literal best! Thanks again!