Re: Sims 3 launcher running in tray while playing.

Vista Home 64bit - Original DVD installations plus store content - no mods - no third party content

C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

version 1.67.2.024001

Warning - The uploading process is running.  Do you want to cancel this process and exit the application?  (ok or cancel)

The X in upper right to close the launcher window brings up that dialogue.

The TS3W.exe *32 uses 1 max 2 percent of CPU but the Sims3LauncherW.exe *32 uses 13 to 15 (and up) percent of CPU - not sure that is good either.

Using the desktop icon and even start menu icon trick to bypass the launcher does NOT bypass the launcher for me.  It opens it anyway.

I close the launcher either by grabbing it from the task tray (right click when on the icon and select close) before all the long loading screens start - OR - by selecting OK in that warning box when you try to close the launcher with the X for "close" - OR - by zapping it in task manager when the  other options don't bring it to a close within a few minutes.

It's running the computer at max speed in longs hits the whole time it is running and it no longer closes itself once the game is in progress.  The problem is in the launcher itself.  It seems to want to upload something to somewhere; but I have no idea what or where to since I don't have Origin nor Steam installed.  The maxing up the revs on my machine is also causing other hardware warnings but those are quick and lead to  BSOD and even one back to a blank black screen to nowhere.

It's like either it's maxing up virtual memory or making screen capture run and record constantly (though I have no capture program other than the in-game one I don't use) or a virus has latched on.  I've run extensive and various malware checks and found nothing.  Could be a new unidentified malware.  Probably not malware though.  Maybe issue with updated Java?  Please ignore all of my rambling guesses in this paragraph.

Whatever it is, that launcher is a computer killer at the moment and running the game just is a no-go UNLESS you can close it BEFORE it all starts up ... which is what I WAS and have been doing ... but, the other hardware issues still accrue even if you close it before playing.  It's doing something in the background that is clogging up the machine.  I don't know.  I'm going in mental circles.

@TrexterZiam  What happens if you double-click directly on TS3w.exe?  (If this works, you could create a shortcut using this exe instead of the one for the launcher.)  But even on a disc install, you may not be able to bypass the launcher if your install is tied to Origin, either because you updated the original EA download manager, or because your base game disc was manufactured after September 2012 and required Origin to install.  Still, you could login to Origin and then take your computer completely offline before launching TS3.  Does this help at all?

P.S.  When the launcher is still running in the tray on my computer, it shows similar numbers in the Task Manager: ~13% of CPU and around 150 MB RAM.  It's not a virus that you acquired, it's a bug that has surfaced, or resurfaced, for a lot of people in the last couple of days.

I don't have Origin or Steam.  My CD s (or DVD s rather) were pre-ordered so not later printings.

That worked this time though!  It worked to double click from the computer folder under programs.

Earlier, I had tried a desktop and start menu shortcut to that file and it didn't work.  THIS time, after making it work directly from the directory executable itself, it worked so I re-made those desktop and start menu shortcuts a second time and now they BOTH work as well.

It runs great!  The computer isn't over-heating.  It now uses only 60% of memory instead of the nearly 100% it used with the launcher too.

I will run the game for a few days now and hopefully, the background issues with that broken launcher will be bypassed.

Thank you!  I'm not sure what changed, but, something DID change as I play the game a lot, daily, ever since it came out.  I love the game!

Thank you and hopefully, you won't be getting anymore replies from me.  That helped!