Hello,
I have been playing the sims 3 for years at this point and have never had this issue. I redownloaded the game last summer so my 3,000 plus hours are no longer there to prove it. However, I tried the Fullscreen set 0 in Options.ini and that still was unhelpful. I removed mods from the game, and am more confused than anything on what exactly seems to be the problem. If anyone here knows how to fix it that would be much appreciated.
I'm having the same problem after an EA app update. I made the wrong decision in uninstalling the game and reinstalling it. now i can't even log into the launcher. have you had any luck with it coming back?
jonsamava kkoltcz For the black screen, try forcing the game to launch in windowed mode. Open Options.ini, in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, search for fullscreen , and set it to 0 (zero).
If that doesn't help, please provide a dxdiag. Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop. From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.
kkoltcz What happens when you try to login to the launcher? You can also just skip that step; it's not necessary when playing and wouldn't account for the black screen.
So the fullscreen patch also did not work. For a brief time it would say that there was an issue with core mods. That is no longer happening either. I've seen on some reddit threads that it could be the newest windows update.
jonsamava Your C drive is somewhat low on free space. While 16 GB free isn't so low that it would prevent Sims 3 from working (at least not by itself), it's still low enough to possibly present some system issues now or later. So please try to free up at least another 10 GB.
If you've installed any mods at all, please move the Mods folder to the desktop. A mismatched core mod will typically cause the game to minimize or throw an error at the Main Menu, not a black screen, although it's certainly possible for any mod to do this. You mentioned that you removed mods, but does that mean you removed all of them, or just some? If you haven't already, please remove the entire Mods folder.
If that doesn't help, please remove or rename the entire Sims 3 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts so the game generates a new one. This will remove, but not delete, your saves and other user content.
So my game is on the D drive so lack on C drive should not be the problem. Removing the mods did not help. I full deleted and redownloaded the game and the same weird windows screen is still happening.
No I have not yet, I also reinstalled the game but had no issues logging back in, or at least YET anyway. I've also read this could be an issue with the newsest windows update.
jonsamava Do you have Smart App Control enabled in Windows? That did block Sims 4 for a while, although the problem seems to have abated for the most part. Still, it could certainly hit Sims 3 with a Windows update. I'm not suggesting you necessarily disable it if you have another use; this would be more about gathering information.
I haven't seen enough to say that Windows in general doesn't run Sims 3 anymore, so the problem is not going to the overall OS, just some feature. If you use Windows Defender, please check it, including Controlled Folder Access if it's enabled, for any recent actions involving Sims 3 as well.
If neither of these is the issue, please create a new admin Windows account and try playing there. Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address (so there's no OneDrive tie-in from the beginning—no account or email means nothing to link to). You'll be able to at least try to launch the game without reinstalling anything.
