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HarleyRose8193's avatar
HarleyRose8193
6 years ago
Solved

Screen goes black and unresponsive on Sims

So I've been having this issue all week and I'm out of ideas. I will open Origin and hit play on the Sims 3 game. The launch menu opens up with no issues, but after I hit play the screen goes black a...
pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    6 years ago

    @HarleyRose8193  You can try moving your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, to see whether this helps.  When you open the launcher, a clean folder will be created with no content.  Don't add anything to it yet, just test to see whether you can start a new save and play for a bit.

    If that's not the issue, the problem might be Windows Defender.  Since it's part of Windows, it might help to run a couple of checks on your Windows system files.  Here's how:

    • 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

    Be sure to restart your computer before testing.

    If that doesn't help either, do you have a third-party antivirus/firewall?  If so, disable it, restart and test.  If you don't have one, disable Windows Defender just long enough to test.  (Be sure not to open anything besides Sims 3 and Origin, and turn it back on right away.)  If necessary, you can set exceptions for Origin.exe and TS3.exe.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    6 years ago

    @HarleyRose8193  You can try moving your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, to see whether this helps.  When you open the launcher, a clean folder will be created with no content.  Don't add anything to it yet, just test to see whether you can start a new save and play for a bit.

    If that's not the issue, the problem might be Windows Defender.  Since it's part of Windows, it might help to run a couple of checks on your Windows system files.  Here's how:

    • 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

    Be sure to restart your computer before testing.

    If that doesn't help either, do you have a third-party antivirus/firewall?  If so, disable it, restart and test.  If you don't have one, disable Windows Defender just long enough to test.  (Be sure not to open anything besides Sims 3 and Origin, and turn it back on right away.)  If necessary, you can set exceptions for Origin.exe and TS3.exe.

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