I downloaded the sims 3 off of Steam and Origin, but I've been running into the same issue that I have been trying to trouble shoot for the past 5 days. All the "solutions" I've found don't work. To bee more specific, the launcher works, and it brings me to the welcome page, but every time I click the blue play button my screen goes black with an inverted white L. None of the generic fixes I've found seem to work for me, so I was looking for someone who is more techsavie than me help walk me through or be vocal enough about this for EA to fix it.

Thanks so much! I haven't been able to play sims 3 on my pc in months. Your solution helped me.

@Theminebos Just because it's easy and helps in this situation some of the time, try forcing the game to launch in windowed mode. Go into Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3, open options.ini, search for fullscreen , and set it to = 0 . If that doesn't help, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post. https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/ And if you've added any mods or custom content, please test without it. The game often crashes due to an incompatible mod at exactly this point.

I’m wondering why it does this? It works fine when I make it windowed mode, but I like fullscreen so after i start the game i change it to full. sometimes i forget to change it back though and next time i open the game i have to force restart my computer as it doesn’t let me do anything when black screen is on.is there a way to fix it or is this just my life?

Thank you for your response I had someone at my school take a look at it. I didn't understand everything that they did, but that sounds somewhat familiar.

@Theminebos Do you still need help? If so, please upload a dxdiag here so I can take a look.

Sims 3 black screen on load- windows 11

16 Replies

haq315up4at5
3 years ago
@puzzlezaddict this dose work must add too to hide task bar then al set on a newer gpu gen like the amd rx 6650 series it dose not support 3d aceration thats why sims 3 gose black when full screened no way to fix it but to force full screen mode these are vulcan made cards with limited open gl support dose not support direct 11 or older only 12 or higher so thats whats going on with me plays flawless in windowed mode and seems to work in fuul screen as long as its not set in game so that means you will get all ur popups and task manager showing and you cant do anything bout it
SimFan335
3 years ago
I am having the same problem, but running the game in Windowed Mode only band-aids the problem. I cannot launch the game in Fullscreen again. I have three bundled Mod packages and some CC installed through the launcher, so I don't see why this doesn't want to work...
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@SimFan335 What resolution is your monitor, and what in-game resolution are you trying to use in fullscreen mode? Are you using a custom DPI scaling? If you're not sure, check under Windows Settings > System > Display.
SimFan335
3 years ago
I am using the recommended resolution, for both my laptop and the game. Letting the application control the DPI settings does not help.
I think I am doomed to just switch back and forth from windowed to fullscreen...
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@SimFan335 I wasn't asking whether the app was controlling DPI, I was asking what DPI setting your computer is using overall. They're not the same, and I'm not even sure Sims 3 can take advantage of the setting to let it control DPI.
SimFan335
3 years ago
Ah. I was only ticking off what previous guides have told me to do. None of it helped. Maybe looking at the system DPI settings might shed some light on things. If not, I will back up saves and mods and reinstall the game.
Sorry if I seem rude. I cannot cotrol my tone through text.

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Sims 3 black screen on load- windows 11

16 Replies

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