Sims 3 and Windows 8 - An Analysis

crinrict wrote:
Added a few things to the first post.

Some of the reports might not be Windows 8 related but general issues.

If anyone comes up with solutions, please post them.

This post caught my attention and you've asked a list of excellent questions. I thought that I would add my input because I have Windows 8 installed, have experienced issues and resolved them, and have all EP/SP installed and Sims 3 working great. I use quite a bit of content from The Exchange and use Custard Dashboard to help find most bad CC, irregardless of what OS I use.

I have a Thinkpad/Notebook W520 with Windows 8 x64 currently installed. When I could not get The Sims to work this was after I updated Windows 7 to Windows 8 from Microsoft's site. My symptoms were a lack of seeing anything after trying to run Sims 3 and sometimes receiving a Windows 8 generic message which said this program was not compatible. I ran this with elevated privileges, "Run As Administrator" without luck. I also ran the "Troubleshoot Compatibility" wizards several times along with reboots, etc., and again no luck. I also uninstalled/re-installed Sims 3 and had the exact same issues. (On a somewhat related note, I upgraded my sons Thinkpad (T510) to Windows 8 and he experienced intermittent issues trying to run a game called "Pirate101". In this case the compatibility wizard worked some times, which was very frustrating.)

In both cases I was able to resolve these problems by installing a fresh copy of Windows 8 rather than upgrading from Win7 to Win8 (note: Choosing this option I first had to back up my personal files and the "Documents\Electronic Arts" directory). I have had no issues after a fresh installation of Windows 8, installing Windows 8 specific software drivers "only" which were provided by the manufacturer of my computer, and installing Sims 3 and supporting EP/SP (along with all of my CC and minor mods). Pirate101 runs just fine too on Windows 8 on my sons computer.

My suspicion is that most people who are experiencing problems running Sims 3 are due to incompatible drivers that were installed and ran fine in Windows 7 and should have been disabled/uninstalled/noted by Windows 8 prior to the update but were not. If you are still having issues under Windows 8 and have NOT uninstalled Sims 3 I would first try to locate and download new drivers for your system specifically developed for Windows 8. Visit your manufacturer's website (DELL, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP, Sony, etc.) and download/install any new drivers. I would start with your video drivers...

If you purchased a new PC pre-loaded with Windows 8 and have issues with the Sims, there is a chance that the drivers work, but were not specifically written for the Windows 8 OS or there is an update you can install. If still no luck I would check with your manufacturer - many have forums now that provide more specific help or contact the company directly.

Good luck!