@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.
Hi. So sorry for the late response, it has been a difficult few weeks.
When I play with a completely new sims folder, all of the packs are selected and work. Once I click save and exit and then reopen that same game, now only base game is recognised. It is very frustrating as I was so close to a fix.
I tried doing all of that stuff to generate a crash dump but nothing came up. Maybe I did it wrong.
It has been very frustrating, but it is good to narrow down the issue to the sims 3 launcher.
Do you know if there have been any fixes made by EA to fix the launcher?
@power9ranger There haven't been any patches to Sims 3 in six years, so no, the launcher hasn't been fixed and likely won't be. But you might be able to get around this. In the Sims 3 user folder, there are a couple of files labeled Sims3LauncherLogFile and Sims3Logs. These can be deleted like the cache files and will regenerate the next time the game opens. Try removing them and see if your packs load in an existing folder.
It's also worth trying to play in a new admin Windows account, if you haven't already. It's easy enough to set one up for testing, and you won't need to reinstall the game.
