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gamedevftw's avatar
gamedevftw
2 years ago

Sims 3 Not Opening after Play on Game Launcher

The Sims 3 Game Launcher will open, appears normal, but when the play button is clicked there is no discernable launch of the game and if launched via the EA app it returns to the game page with the Play button for the launcher. I assume it's immediately failing.

Things I've tried:
- Uninstalling/reinstalling on Steam and then the EA app (including removing registry keys)
- Installing DirectX9 (I can't figure out how to verify if this worked)
- Making sure .NET Framework 3.5 is installed and enabled
- Trying the Alder Lake Patch (it's not appearing to launch either, I'm guessing it's erroring out immediately? I've tried running "as an administrator")
- Trying the simsLaunch.ps1 powershell script (this is DEFINITELY erroring out but I can't catch it before it closes)
- Launching the game in Windows 8 compatibility mode
- Forcing the game to use my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti in graphics preference settings
- Forcing the game to use the Intel(R) UHD Graphics 770 in graphics preference settings

No changes from any of the above. I can't guarantee I did all of the above correctly, but I did each at least twice.
Thanks for any help or ideas you can provide!

pc
technical issues

1 Reply

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    2 years ago

    @gamedevftw  I would strongly suggest uninstalling the EA App version of Sims 3 and reinstalling through Steam.  It's a better version of the game overall: you don't need to run Steam or the EA App to launch the game, after the first time; you don't need to deal with the finicky pack selector; you won't have the issue of the App occasionally breaking all your Store content; and you'll be able to use CAW's Edit In-Game if you're ever interested, with a registry tweak.

    Rather than editing the registry by hand, you can use Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) to remove all traces of the install, and the EA App as well if you have no other use for it.  Then reinstall through Steam, and you'll need to launch the game through Steam one time for DRM purposes.

    Regardless of all that, the issue is clear: you're seeing the Alder Lake issue.  If the Lazy Duchess patch isn't running, try downloading it again, using a different browser and with any third-party antivirus temporarily disabled.  As long as you don't do anything else at the same time, your computer should be safe.

    If the patch continues not to work, use the Task Manager method described here, applied to TS3W.exe (with the W) for a Steam install or TS3.exe for an EA App install:

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-won-t-open-Alder-Lake-Intel-12th-gen-CPU/m-p/11720109#M251930

    Be sure to remove the limit after the game starts loading; a few seconds should be enough.

    I would guess the PowerShell script is erroring out because your version of PowerShell hasn't been updated.  If you want to install the newest version (and try the script again), here's how:

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/whats-new/migrating-from-windows-powershell-51-to-powershell-7?view=powershell-7.4

    Finally, Sims 3 doesn't need to be run in compatibility mode, so you can skip that step, and in fact it would be best not to apply a compatibility mode at all.

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