@power9ranger Your computer's old graphics driver is from 2016, and it could well be the issue here considering its age and the errors in your dxdiag. Force-installing a newer driver is a bit of work though, and it sounds like Asus software is blocking you from installing the easy way. So since your dxdiag also lists a couple of Origin errors, let's try a clean uninstall and reinstall of Origin first:
Next, download the full Origin installer and run it. Here's the direct download link:
http://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe
Be sure to run both the installer and Origin itself as an admin: right-click on each and select "Run as Administrator." When you try to open Sims 3, run it as an admin too, which you can do by right-clicking on the desktop shortcut or TS3.exe within the game's program files.
If that doesn't work, I want to double-check the new errors you get when trying to open the game. Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, which will open the Reliability Monitor. You'll see a list of errors and updates, with a column for each day. (Today is all the way on the right.)
For any errors that mention Origin or Sims 3 from after you reinstall Origin, or any that happen at the same time as you try to open the game, click "View technical details," then copy the information and paste it into a reply here. Sometimes the Reliability Monitor doesn't update right away, so if you don't see any related errors, be sure to check back an hour or two. The timestamp on the initial chart can also be off by up to an hour, so that's not an entirely reliable metric, but the one within the technical details should be accurate.
Hi. I did all that you suggested but Sims 3 is still not working ☹️
Here is the message I received from the Reliability Monitor about Sims 3 after I tried to open it a few times.
Problem: APPCRASH
Description
Stopped working
Faulting Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Sims3Launcher.exe
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Sims3Launcher.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 568d485b
Fault Module Name: KERNELBASE.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.2.19041.1202
Fault Module Timestamp: 448a4f5d
Exception Code: e0434f4d
Exception Offset: 0012b5b2
OS Version: 10.0.19043.2.0.0.768.100
Locale ID: 7177
Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: c60c0f577e0151df94991e391a181193 (1484250782795043219)
Is the true problem identifiable from this report?
Thank you in advance 🙂
@power9ranger No, unfortunately the problem is not apparent from this error, although it's the same error as is in your dxdiag means the problem hasn't been addressed. If you're curious, the difficulty is that the faulting module, KERNELBASE.dll, is a component of Windows that is unlikely to itself be corrupt; it's likely calling something else that isn't working properly, but the error report doesn't reveal what that might be.
Please try playing in a clean boot:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10
When you reboot, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down anything that doesn't absolutely need to be running. Don't open any other applications aside from Origin and Sims 3, not even a browser window. Shut down your antivirus too, if you use one. As long as you're not doing anything else, your computer should be safe.
If you still can't open the launcher, please instead try bypassing it. Make sure Origin is completely closed (check the Task Manager for background services), then open this file path:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
Rename these executables, in order:
Sims3Launcher.exe -> Sims3Launcher_old.exe
TS3.exe -> Sims3Launcher.exe
TS3W.exe -> TS3.exe
Open Origin and try to play. If it worked, instead of seeing the launcher, the game should load as it would if you pressed Play in the launcher. This isn't a perfect solution—you still wouldn't be able to use the launcher—but it'll be helpful to know whether the game itself works.
The clean boot didn't help me launch the game, but the renaming of those files did! Thank you so much.
So there must be an issue with the launcher. Is there any way I can fix it? Launcher is quite helpful to install custom content and to also select expansion packs.
I have been playing sims 3 now and the only issue is that my expansion packs aren't showing up (they are installed via origin but obviously without the launcher I cannot select them). The first time I opened the game after the fix, they were recognized but after I exited, pasted my mods folder into my new sims folder and opened again, the expansion packs no longer appeared.
Is there any way I can get my expansions to be recognized?
Thank you so much for the help!
@power9ranger Do the packs show up if you play in another clean Sims 3 folder? I realize that doesn't help with the launcher, but it would be helpful to know.
The pack selections are stored in Internet Explorer's cache somewhere, I don't know exactly where (or what the data looks like for that matter), so in theory you could select and deselect packs without the launcher. That's far from ideal though, and it also doesn't help with installing Sims3Packs.
For the launcher issue, please try opening it again, then look for a crash dump. Click Windows key-R and copy and paste this:
%LocalAppData%\CrashDumps
When you enter, you'll see a list of .dmp files. If one of them is from the launcher, please upload it to a third-party filehosting site (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it here.
If there is no launcher .dmp file, you can enable them:
Please use a clean Sims 3 folder while generating the crash dump.
