Sims 3 crashes on startup

@SummerSloane  Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Please also list the default location of Documents.  Open a File Explorer window, right-click on Documents in the left panel, select Properties > Location, and list the full file path.  You can write [username] instead of your actual username if you want, but let me know if you see the wrong name.

C:\Users\summe\OneDrive\Documents

above is the file path

@SummerSloane  That's probably the issue: your Documents folder is in OneDrive by default.  With OneDrive disabled, the game can't write to Documents and therefore crashes.  Try changing the location of the Documents directory to C:\Users\summe\Documents, with no OneDrive in the file path.  Here's how:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/74952-move-location-documents-folder-windows-10-a.html

Then restart your computer and try to play.

If this doesn't help, I do need to see a dxdiag.

Hi,

I just disabled OneDrive, but my game still crashes. How do i show you my dxdiag?

Sorry for the spam of messages, but here is my dxdiag

@SummerSloane  Please try playing in a new admin Windows account.  Make it a local account, as in, don't sign into Microsoft, and don't sync with any other services you normally use.  You'll be able to sign into your existing Origin account and shouldn't need to redownload anything, but any user content (saves, mods, etc.) won't be available.  That can be addressed later, if necessary, but the first step is just to test.

@SummerSloane  That's great news: it means there's nothing about your laptop itself that should prevent you from playing.  The question is how to get your main user account to cooperate.

I still think OneDrive may be the issue here.  You mentioned you disabled it, but did you also change the location of the Documents directory as described in the article I linked?  (Please check the file location again if you're not sure.)  Each user account's Documents has its own variables, so creating a new account got around any issues with your current one.  There are other reasons a Documents folder might be borked, and also other reasons a user account might have issues that have nothing to do with Documents, but this is still the place to start.

If Documents is in the correct location in your main user account (not the new one you created), please use that guide I linked to move it to a different location entirely, just as a test.  You can always move it back later.  For now though, create a folder somewhere else on your computer, make a Documents folder inside that, and use the guide's instructions to make that the default location of Documents.

By the way, if you get tired of troubleshooting, you can always just use the new Windows account you created.  For any files you want to transfer between accounts, drop them in C:\Users\Shared, which is accessible from either account.