Sims 3 Freezing Issue – Request for Assistance

raphlt04  Does this happen if you take your computer offline before launching either game?  You can sign into the EA App and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable before pressing Play.

When you made the new Windows account, was it a local account, as in, not tied to your Microsot account or any email address?  If not, OneDrive could still be in play and would explain the issues.

In both accounts, please list the location of the Documents directory as Windows sees it.  Search in Windows for Command Prompt, open it, and enter this command:

reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "Personal"

then post the results.  You can write [username] instead of your actual username if you want, but please leave the rest intact.

Hi!

I have tried turning off the Wi-Fi, and the same issue happens.

When I made a new window account, I had to link my secondary email, so I think it's tied to a Microsoft account.

And I'm not sure if this is the correct information, but here is the opening file location: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

raphlt04  That's the location I wanted, and it's fine, no need to reinstall elsewhere.

As a test, login to the second Windows account and move the location of Documents, if it's in the OneDrive folder.  Here's how:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-windows-ffb95139-6dbb-821d-27ec-62c9aaccd720

Change only the Personal value to the default listed there.  Then restart your computer and try playing in that secondary account.

If this doesn't help, please let me know what antivirus you use.  Please also 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.

Sorry in advance, I am not tech savvy at all.

On my second account, I changed the location of C:\Users\raphlt\Documents\Electronic Arts to  C:\Test EA\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3  and nothing changed. FYI, I haven't backed up any documents on my Drive for years. I’m not sure I was supposed to do that... Sorry. Do I need to fix it and put it back?

After I went on the registry editor and followed the steps, however, it seems the value in Documents\Personal was already the default one. I then restarted Window Explorer through Task Master, and restarted my computer. 

Here's what I have in my laptop: Antimalware Core Service and Antimalware Service Executable.

raphlt04  OneDrive is a problem, not a solution, so please stay away from it.  And the Antimalware services belong to Windows, I believe, so you're only using Windows Defender?  That's fine, in fact better in most cases than using a third-party program; I just want to make sure.

In the new account, please move Documents again, this time to a folder called Documents.  Moving it to a different folder can break things.  You can use C:\Users\your username\Documents if you want (no Electronic Arts on the end), or D:\Documents if you have a second internal drive, or really anything that ends in Documents and is stored internally.

I can't read your dxdiag, unfortunately.  It's an occasional site issue, nothing you did wrong.  So please try attaching it again, and make sure you can download it from your new post while in a private browser window.  If you can, I'll be able to as well.

Hello, sorry for the late reply. 

I moved back the file.

Here is the dxdiag, I'm able to open it in incognito.

Hello, were you able to open it in my last comment? 

Since the updates I haven't been able to play SIMS2, 3, or 4 and nothing has helped.  I even paid a computer guru to try to figure it out and he couldn't.  I play on Microsoft Surface 3.  Before the updates everything was working fine.  Now everything freezes when i try to download so I can't even get the games to start.  Very frustrated that I've paid all this money over the years for all the games and can't even play them. The Geek Squad says the programers with EA don't bother trying to keep up with Microsoft updates so a lot of people can't play their games.

My sims 2 works well somehow. (so far) so we’re just f*cked? we probably spent 3000$ or more on the games that’s insane. 

raphlt04  I apologize for the late reply.  I was away from the forums for a while and am only back today.

Anyway, please change the settings listed in this post:

Sims 4 Crashing/Freezing/Lag, Surface Pro 7 | EA Forums - 11836525

The thread is for Sims 4 and a different model Surface, but the issue affects your model too and could affect Sims 3 as well.

Grannysinger  You can try the same as well since you also have a Surface 3.