Re: Bought Sims 3 but the game won't launch (0xc00007b) !

I followed everything you told me to do, to a t. It still gives me the same error.

I've uploaded my DxDiag.txt, it is in the attachment.

@Avareee  Do you have any Adobe software running on your computer?  If so, try killing it through the Task Manager before trying to play.  Your dxdiag lists crashes from a service supposedly associated with Adobe, and while there's no way to tell from the dxdiag whether this is happening while you try to play, it's easy enough to test.

If that doesn't help, please run a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
• The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
• After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
• Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
• Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
• Post the message you receive here

Restart your computer, then try playing again.  If that doesn't help either, try playing in a clean boot:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

When you reboot, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down anything that doesn't absolutely need to be running—some services don't get disabled even in a clean boot.  Disable your antivirus as well, at least long enough to test.

So, first...

I couldn't find any program called Adobe on my computer and/or in the Task-Manager, though I found "Adobe Flash Player"(not in task-manager but installed programs), deleted it and restarted my PC, tried starting The Sims 3. -- problem persisted.

Then I did the Command Prompt things you told me to do, these were the results: (attachments)

The problem persisted.

I tried the clean boot, via msconfig (your link), I've just had to disable, my Antivirus(no other programs other than the Nvidia driver-panel which I have disabled aswell) and in the task-manager all were already disabled, as I have done something similar to this before. 

So I (clean) booted the PC, but my Antivirus(Kaspersky) was still being launched even tho I had disabled that in msconfig, I checked the task-manager as you told me, I tried to end the task it didn't work, so I have ended Kaspersky, just in the taskbar below(where all the background programs usually are). But didn't find any other programs(in the task-manager) which I would find conflicting with the launch of Sims3.

So I've gone ahead and started Origin(as admin), and tried to launch Sims3, but the problem persisted. Still.

@Avareee  Please uninstall your VC++ runtimes again, then download the "All in One Runtimes" and DX9 from here:

https://www.sereby.org/site/All%20in%20One%20Runtimes&lang=en

(Click the Download header to see the actual download page; you don't need to donate anything to download.)  Restart afterwards.

If that doesn't help either, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

For a moment I thought it is going to work... but no :/

Still the same error code.

DxDiag.txt is in the attachment.

EDIT: Would you consider this program to be safe? 

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/tweaking_com_windows_repair.html

(source)

If so, I'm planning on trying to fix the issue by doing this 'routine':

use CC Cleaner
Restart PC
Run Windows Repair Free/Pro 
Restart PC
Delete all Runtimes C++ and 'deactivate' .NET Framework.
Restart PC
use CC Cleaner
Restart PC
Run the Runtimes C++ AIO, reactivate/install .NET Framework and DirectX 2010
Restart PC

And try to run The Sims 3.

@Avareee  Sorry for the late reply; I wanted to get a second opinion before posting more suggestions.  And no, I wouldn't use a tool like the one you linked.  I don't know for a fact that it's unsafe, but it may well be, and there are much more reliable ways to repair your system.

To start with, download Malwarebytes (the free version is fine):

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

Open it, click Scan > Custom Scan > Configure Scan, check all the boxes both for scans and for your C drive (and any other if you happen to have an external plugged in), and let it do its job.  This will probably take at least an hour, so you may want to set it to run while you're doing something else.  Let me know what it finds.

If you want to make sure Windows itself is intact, a repair install is the best approach.  It only requires as much time as it takes to download a Windows 10 ISO and to reinstall Windows.  To be clear, I'm not saying you need to do this now, just that it's not too complicated if you want to.  Here's a good tutorial:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

You'll be able to keep your existing user data and programs, but it's still a good idea to back up anything critical first.  If you do not see the option to keep personal files as shown in step 13, back out and try again.

If you don't want to run a repair install, at least check for Windows updates: hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the box to check for updates.  If anything installs, restart when it's done.

Either way, please uninstall Sims 3 and Origin as described before (using Revo).  However, when clearing Origin's cache, open the LocalContent folder and delete the Sims 3 folder inside, despite the article's instructions saying to leave that folder alone.  After uninstalling, feel free to do a pass with CCleaner, but you should only need to do the one; it can be counterproductive to keep letting it search for more files to delete.

With Sims 3 and Origin uninstalled, deactivate .NET Framework 3.5: hit Windows key-R, enter appwiz.cpl, click "Turn Windows features on or off," uncheck the box next to .NET 3.5, and restart once it's uninstalled.  Then repeat the process to reinstall .NET 3.5.  Even if you've done this before, please do it again after all of the above.

Reinstall Origin using the full installer linked before, and run it as an admin from now on.  Install Sims 3 on your internal drive and run it as an admin as well, which you can do from its shortcut or from TS3.exe within the game's program files.

Yeah, no problem about the late reply.

I did a 'full scan' with the program you've suggested(Malwarebytes)

And it really did find some threats. (The report is in the attachments)

And I did everything you told me to do again, in the same way.(except windows repair)

Windows Update

Restart

Uninstall Sims 3 + Origin via Revo.

Ran CCleaner once

Restart

Deactivated .NET Framework 3.5

Restart

Activated .NET Framework 3.5

Restart

Installed & Launched Origin + Sims 3(TS3.exe) Via Admin.

And it still gave me the same error. (0xc000007b) ☹️

EDIT: 

By the way I did a registry scan via CCleaner, didn't clean it though.

It showed me this(and other rather non important things, which I purposely didn't cap on the screenshot):

https://i.imgur.com/pQkyZxH.png

which I thought may is the cause of the error, or are those files of older versions, which aren't needed anymore?

What do you think?

@Avareee  The .NET version listed in your screenshots is 1.0, which Sims 3 doesn't use, so I don't think it's relevant.  Besides, if .NET were the issue, uninstalling and reinstalling it should have restored any missing or corrupt files.

I asked for a second opinion (again) about the Malwarebytes report, and this person, who knows a lot more about Windows than I do, thinks that the best way to clean up the system is to do a fresh install of Windows, as in, wipe the hard drive completely.  I understand why you might not want to, but given the various malware elements listed, it's at least worth considering.  In particular, Searchscopes is difficult to get rid of, and given the list of other PUPs, there may be more lurking on your PC.

One thing worth noting:  You may have installed Restoro yourself, but this is what Malwarebytes has to say about it:

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detections/pup-optional-restoro/

Programs like this that claim to clean or restore Windows are totally unnecessary—a repair install is more efficient and far mor trustworthy—and usually do more harm than good.

Again, if you don't want to do a fresh Windows install, I understand, but I'm otherwise out of ideas here.  This error hasn't responded to any of the usual interventions, unfortunately.  Just to be clear though, I can't say for sure that even a clean Windows install would make Sims 3 work, since I don't know why it currently doesn't.

Hello again, hmm yeah that's probably going to be it. A Clean install of Windows.

Though I had a weird thing today, I deinstalled Origin and Sims3 with Revo Uninstaller.

And installed the game through my old TheSims3 disc which I have found laying around at home. And guess what, it worked... and stopped giving me the error-code.

But I was forced to download Origin to have access to all the addon packs/dlcs.

So, I have installed Origin. Even if the game was installed under ProgramFiles(x86)/Electronic Arts, Origin was able to find the TheSims3 folder, which was suprising to me.

But as soon as I launched Origin, it wanted to update the game.

And after the update it stopped working again, giving me the same old error-code. Seems like it downloads something and breaks the game for me.

Wanted to update you on that, maybe you'd know better, and would be able to help me.

Other than that, I wanted to thank you that you tried to help me fix my game.

EDIT:

And about the 'Restoro' program, I may have downloaded that one, but never used it. I don't even remember why I have installed it, if it was me (or a virus?) downloading it.

@Avareee  That is quite the interesting development.  I don't know whether the cause of the issue is something involved in Origin's opening of Sims 3, or whether the fully patched game uses some resource that an original disc install does not, but either way, it would narrow things down.

Unfortunately, I don't currently have a disc install myself to compare against and Origin one; like you, most of my packs were purchased digitally.  I can make some suggestions for the Origin side of things though.  First, disable the Origin in-game overlay: hover over your username, select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header, and disable the option at the top.  Disable all notifications (under the Notifications header) as well.  It shouldn't be necessary, but you can also disable Origin in-game at the Sims 3 level by right-clicking on the game tile and selecting Game Properties.

If that doesn't help, try disabling the Origin Client and Web Helper Services.  Hit Windows key-R, enter "msconfig" without quotes, click the Startup tab, and uncheck the box next to each one.  For good measure, look for an EA Background Service entry and disable that as well.  I don't know whether that only gets installed with the EA Desktop App or whether it comes with Origin too, but after I installed the app last year, I caught this service running in the background with Origin a couple times, and it doesn't need to be there.

Finally, try running the game while your computer is offline.  You can sign into Origin and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or unplug the ethernet cable before pressing play.

By the way, when you installed via disc, did you let the game patch or run the Super Patch yourself, or did you just play it as-is?  I'm curious whether you ran a fully patched disc install at any point—the game changed a lot between its original release and patch 1.67.

As for Restoro, Malwarebytes wasn't saying it was running, just that its files were present, and you could have installed it but never opened it yourself.  I do see links to it on sites offering single file downloads, e.g. if you're missing this .dll let this tool install it for you.  But it doesn't really matter how you got it, just that it gets removed one way or another.

I have deinstalled origin and the sims 3 via revo again, clean installed both and done your latest suggestions. But it didn't help, sadly.

When it comes to your question of how I did it with the disc;

I have installed the game with the disc, like two times. First it launched without a patch whatsoever, in-game it said I could update the game through the EA Download Manager so that was what I did. I closed the game and updated it.(it got updated to 1.67). And later when I have installed Origin to download all the rest of the addons, it launched once, funnily... it didn't even wanted to update the game o.O. But after closing the game it forced the game to get "repaired", so it could get updated to the newest version, but it got broke and stopped launching with that same error code. So I have deinstalled both again(Origin & Sims3)

Later I have installed it again with the disc, and the game didn't launch, not even react with any error. But it did launch after the patcher. I wanted to try it again with Origin, but it did something similar to before, but instead of launching it once, it wanted to "repair" it right away.

@Avareee  It does sound like the issue is Origin itself, or rather some resource Origin wants to use that isn't working on your computer.  The only things that change between patches 1.67 and 1.69 are the Origin tie-in, the pack selector (the Expansions & Stuff tab) in the launcher, and the .exe that Sims 3 uses.  The pack selector shouldn't have anything to do with this, and TS3.exe itself supposedly works in almost the exact same way as TS3W.exe, which runs the non-1.69 versions of the game.

One thing I thought of that I've never tried is renaming TS3.exe to Sims3Launcher.exe or S3Launcher.exe; I don't remember off the top of my head which one Origin calls to open the launcher.  Point is, inside ...\The Sims 3\Game\Bin, you'll see a bunch of .exe files, one of which Origin uses when launching the game.  (The ones with a W in them are only used in patch 1.67 and earlier.)  So if you rename TS3.exe, which opens the game itself, to the name of the .exe that's supposed to open the launcher, and the process of calling the launcher is the problem here, maybe you can bypass it.

Be sure to rename each launcher .exe (you can put an -old on the end) before renaming TS3.exe, so you don't have two files with the same name in the same folder.  If this doesn't work, repairing will restore the files.

@Avareee  I meant to ask another question but forgot to include it:  Do you own any other Origin games, and if so, do they work on this computer?  Please let me know what they are.

Yes I have Battlefield 3, which works seamless. I own some others aswell, but never tried them on this Computer.

EDIT: By the way doesn't the launcher "call" the TS3.exe anyway, when you press 'play'?

Also, when I just launch TS3.exe without opening Sims3Launcher.exe(in ProgramFiles(x86)\Origin Games) I have the same error. 

So what kind of difference would that make, renaming them?

@Avareee  If the launcher is somehow the problem, whether the launcher itself or the transition to or from it, then bypassing it entirely could help.  I've always read that the launcher can't be bypassed on a 1.69 install.  However, I wasn't sure that this was technically true: if Origin is trying to call the launcher but just blindly opens whatever is labled "Sims3Launcher.exe," then renaming TS3.exe to that might cause Origin to open the game directly instead of forcing you to go through the launcher.  But like I said, I haven't tried it myself.

This is different than trying to open TS3.exe directly: doing so points back to Origin, which points back to the launcher, at least under normal circumstances.  This I know is how things work because many players have tried it and reported the results over the years.