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ladygreeneyes649's avatar
ladygreeneyes649
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
Solved

Sims 3 Launcher Won't Open - Error During Startup

I see this posted many times, but the threads are all old, and none of the solutions works for me.  I will start by detailing the issue. I play on Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit system.  I do NOT pl...
pc
technical issues
  • ladygreeneyes649's avatar
    ladygreeneyes649
    6 years ago
    @puzzlezaddict Lots of details, and much appreciated! I will try those, and see what happens. Only mentioned Origin because a lot of people who do use it apparently have issues with that, and wanted to be clear that couldn't be my issue.

    As for the extensions, yeah, corrected that, and all are .exe except the "Sims3" one, which is a .ico. None labeled as ".ex_", though, as some solutions mentioned in other threads.

    Interesting thing....I hadn't even considered IE as a possible problem, since I literally never use it, but went ahead and cleared everything. Tried again, and got several pop-ups asking if I wanted to open some sort of "update", showing the Firefox logo, and when I clicked the "what's the risk" option to get more details, had IE open with a notice about the Edge browser. Closed the multiple pop up windows (I think there were three of them, and for a very brief moment, the launcher remained opened, then closed as it's been doing. Why it would be trying to install another browser, I cannot imagine. The IE is up to date, version 11, so that shouldn't be a problem. Weirdly, looking at the compatibility settings, I might have found a solution. I clicked on the "shortcut" option, in properties, and then "advanced", just looking around, and noticed an option there to run as admin as well. Checked that, just to test, and the blasted thing opened!!

    Will definitely hold onto your ideas, though, because this being EA, it's likely to break again, and they could be handy. Likely to help others, too! Any more issues, will respond again, and thanks.
ladygreeneyes649's avatar
ladygreeneyes649
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago

Only other issue I have is unrelated - when selecting certain items in buy mode, the game will completely freeze, and has to be shut down via the task manager and restarted.  Not custom stuff, either, for the most part, but EA content.  One or two wall televisions, and a shovel that I believe came with Ambitions, and one bulletin board - select one of those, and the whole game freezes.  Hot keys won't work, nothing.  Not sure if there is a way to fix that without uninstalling or not.  Can't remove the items in-game, though, since clicking at all freezes everything.  Annoying, if I forget which television is an issue. 

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 years ago

@ladygreeneyes649  Does this always happen to the same items, even if you start a new save?  What about a new save in a clean user data folder?  (You could obviously put your old folder back when done testing.)  If the items themselves are broken, I'd expect them to cause problems even in a clean folder, and the only good way to address that, short of uninstalling and reinstalling, would be to run the Super Patch, which verifies the game's program files and should fix any corruption.

You can get the Super Patch here, under "Cumulative Base Game Super Patcher":

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/175477/official-ea-download-link-for-the-sims-3-cumulative-manual-update

That's probably not the likeliest scenario though.  More common is that an item is broken in just one save, and it's possible that some EA content gets broken by badly made custom content.  For the latter, test your cc in batches, etc., although you'd want to use a new save to test rather than dealing with items that might have been broken permanently in an existing save.  Or you could just avoid those items.

To remove something from an existing save, you can use NRaas MasterController, if you have it, to do a radius purge.  Click on the ground or floor near the object and select NRaas > MasterController: > Radius Purge.  (You want the MC option with the colon after it, not the bullseye, which opens the entire menu.  You could go that route too, there are just more steps involved.)  Select a radius, and you'll get a list of items in that area to potentially purge, from which you can select whatever is broken.

  • ladygreeneyes649's avatar
    ladygreeneyes649
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago

    It's the same items, every time, and they don't get placed then break; they can't be placed at all.  If I select them in the catalog, the whole game freezes, and I have to shut it down via the task manager.  "The Digs" shovel, that came with Ambitions, The Ubervision Panoramic from Landgraab Industries television, and at least one bulletin board - can't recall which one.  Pretty sure the game is patched, so would running it again correct errors?  It's patched to 1.67.2.024001.  Not to 1,69, since I don't use Origin, but where the patch is, it is already.  Can always run it again if it won't hurt anything.  Otherwise, I suspect an uninstall and reinstall would be necessary, and I really want to avoid that! 

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      6 years ago

      @ladygreeneyes649  Running the Super Patch on an already patched disc install won't hurt, although it will revert any changes you've made to the game's program files (e.g. getting your graphics card recognized).  So if there are any edits you don't want to redo, save the affected files beforehand and put them back after running the patch.  And it's a lot simpler than doing a clean uninstall and reinstall.

      Also simpler is testing in a clean user data folder.  I know you're not interested in getting rid of all your content, but at least you'd find out whether it's that extra content causing the issues, or something else entirely.  If the content is the problem, you'll know not to waste your time uninstalling and reinstalling the game itself.

      • ladygreeneyes649's avatar
        ladygreeneyes649
        Seasoned Ace
        6 years ago

        No changes of that sort; the graphics card is Nvidia, and their programming manages those settings well, so no issue, thankfully!  Will try that and see what happens.  A clean data folder could be tricky, though.  Removing the mods folder is easy enough, but most of the custom stuff I have shows up as "store content" in game, since it's installed via Sims2pack files.  I've found that the game lags less loading with fewer package files installed.  Can you refresh my memory on how to do the clean user data folder?  Many thanks for all the help!

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