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Re: Game won't launch via Sims 3 Launcher - Activation?

Hi again,

I'll have to look into the corrupted saves thing later. I do have ErrorTrap already, not sure if I have Overwatch honestly.

Still no pattern I can make sense of as for when it works and when it doesn't. I've done restarts and shut downs and even let the computer sleep before trying to launch in case it's something like that which can affect it but no discernable pattern so far. I do know that if my game's running seemingly smooth and then I go to launch, select a save and then it crashes during loading screen then a PC restart will bring the activation error back again. I assume that has something to do with the crash during loading somehow but that's just a silly hunch I've got.

I do have the file for you. I've also created another forum post on EA Forums (because maybe there are more eyes over there) and saw you're there too - doesn't hurt to try and get maybe EA staff to look at it too, if they frequent that site more right?

Thanks for helping me so far. Just so dang sick of this error, haha.

5 Replies

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    2 months ago

    @sammy4eva  Your dxdiag lists a number of serious crashes of the graphics driver (LiveKernelEvent 141 is a video driver timeout), so the next step here is to do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver.  Here's how:

    https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

    The driver is the same for your iGPU and dedicated card, and it's the newest-available version from AMD.  You can get a fresh copy here:

    https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/graphics/radeon-rx/radeon-rx-7000-series/amd-radeon-rx-7700s.html

    An intermittent issue with the activation error is definitely strange, and I'm not sure what to make of it.  But perhaps the problem is your antivirus, especially if you use a third-party program.  Try disabling it and going only with Windows Defender instead, at least for a couple days.  Defender is fine as long as you don't do anything risky.

    If that doesn't help, or you want to try something else first, try blocking Sims 3 (TS3.exe) in your firewall.  The game should still work fine except for its connection to EA servers, which it uses to download Store thumbnails and maybe some other stuff you don't actually need.  The idea here is that maybe a crash paired with this kind of connection is causing the temporary issue.

    If this causes more problems, you can block the Store thumbnails from downloading by setting the FeaturedItems folder (in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3) to read-only, or creating a text file called FeaturedItems with the .txt extension stripped off.  Either one would prevent the game from placing the content in this folder without any need to change your firewall settings.

  • sammy4eva's avatar
    sammy4eva
    Rising Rookie
    2 months ago

    So I installed the 24.12.1 driver update which when installing appearing in Adrenaline as a Install(Repair).

    I checked Windows Defender and advanced firewall settings and it is set to allow everything from EA.

    So I closed out of AMD adrenaline and windows defender to start EA and TS3.

    Sims starts up fine now...randomly. But now the game is crashing in the exact same spot as yesterday. Any further suggestions I can try?

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    2 months ago

    @sammy4eva  It's important to do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver, not just a regular install.  So please do that.

  • sammy4eva's avatar
    sammy4eva
    Rising Rookie
    2 months ago

    I googled how to do so, and uninstalled both drivers from Device Manager, went to the site and reinstalled with a computer restart.

    Unfortunately I'm still seeing the activation error.

    By the way, happy new year : )

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    2 months ago

    @sammy4eva  Again, please use Display Driver Uninstaller as described in the link I posted earlier.  I'm not being difficult here; it's actually important that you use DDU and not any other method.

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