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qtmoosie's avatar
qtmoosie
Rising Rookie
3 years ago
Solved

Sims 3 Launch Error

When I uninstall all my dlcs (through steam, right click on sims 3, properties, uncheck all dlc), game will not open and says to check the log for error details. Which i did; here's what it said 202...
pc
technical issues
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    3 years ago

    @qtmoosie  It's easy to preserve all your user data during an uninstall, and yes, that would have been part of the instructions.  Saves, saved households and builds, mods and custom content, etc. are all stored in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, so you'd just need to make a backup copy of that folder to protect your data.  As a side note, it's a good idea to have a recent backup copy anyway—you never know when you'll need it.

    However, since the registry entries are being restored, that explains the issue, and I don't think it's worth uninstalling and reinstalling unless this can't be addressed.  Do you use a third-party antivirus?  If so, it may be detecting the changes you're making to the registry and undoing them.  It's also possible Steam is restoring them itself.

    The first question here is whether the entries are restored without your opening Sims 3.  You could delete a couple and leave your computer running while you do other things, then check back in a few hours.  (It shouldn't take that long, but it helps to be thorough.)  If the issue is Steam itself, you could instead launch the game from TS3W.exe without opening Steam at all.  The default location for the .exe is this:

    Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

    It isn't necessary to run Sims 3 through Steam after the initial launch.  Aside from the Steam overlay, you wouldn't be missing anything at all.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago

@qtmoosie  The problem is that when you uninstall Sims 3 or any of its packs from Steam, the associated registry entries don't get removed.  When these entries are present but the associated packs are not, the game won't open.  So you'll need to manually delete the entries.  They're here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\Sims(Steam)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sims(Steam)

In case you don't already know how to work with the registry:  Hit Windows key-R and enter "regedit" without quotes.  Click File > Export, and export a copy of the entire registry just in case you delete the wrong entry.  Then expand each of the above sections in turn, right-click on the entries for the packs you don't have installed, and select Delete.

There's an alternate way to choose which packs load, one that I've been using for years without any issues.  All my packs are installed, and I've saved a copy of each Sims(Steam) section of my computer's registry.  (They're in Documents where I can find them easily.)  When I don't want certain packs to load in-game, I delete their registry entries, as above, without uninstalling the packs themselves.  When I want the packs to load again, I restore those two sections of the registry (double-clicking the files does that) without needing to reinstall anything.

I don't save the entire registry because other programs I install are constantly modifying it as well, and restoring an old copy would undo those changes.  But the Sims(Steam) sections don't change unless you install a new pack.

This is faster and more efficient than uninstalling, cleaning the registry, and reinstalling, but if you're not comfortable modifying your computer's registry, it might be more trouble than it's worth.

qtmoosie's avatar
qtmoosie
Rising Rookie
3 years ago

okay so i accidentally clicked "accepted solution" so that's my bad. but i did exactly as you told me and im still getting the same error message. when im able to reinstall my packs, im going to try and do it the way without actually uninstalling them. but as of now, im still stuck with the same errror message.

  • qtmoosie's avatar
    qtmoosie
    Rising Rookie
    3 years ago

    okay so i tried doing it with the packs installed as well, but when i delete it, and launch my game, it just comes right back?? i dont understand what im doing wrong.

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      3 years ago

      @qtmoosie  I unmarked the solution for you.  If you run into this in the future, you can click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the reply and select Not the Solution.

      Just to be clear, if you launch Sims 3 with all packs installed and with no edits to the registry (or you've restored those sections of the registry), does the game work now?  When you edit the registry, are you deleting the relevant packs' entries in both locations, and only those entries?

      It's also possible that this was just a hiccup, that Steam restored the registry entries because this was the first time you launched the game after reinstalling the packs.  I do know that when I bought the last few packs, Steam created their registry entries the next time I launched the game, not during the install process, and the same may be true when you reinstall a pack after uninstalling it.

      • qtmoosie's avatar
        qtmoosie
        Rising Rookie
        3 years ago

        yeah, so i went through the and deleted the ercg file for each dlc (which the ercg is not showing up under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sims(Steam)) so im still really confused? and yeah, with all the packs installed it runs completely fine. it's only whenever i uninstall the packs. 

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