I got my laptop in May of this year and I was really excited to play the sims 3. Whenever I try to play the game the only thing that pops up is a black screen with a white line across it. I’ve tried everything and I’ve given up, please help.
puzzlezaddict Thank you so much!! I don't know if the one drive thing or removing the mods folder (though it was empty) the game finally launched and I can now enjoy playing this game again. Apologies for the late reply, but thank you for your patience. Have a great day!
Casper15PR That's the right Sims 3 folder, and it does have Options.ini in it. Windows isn't displaying file extensions (which you can fix if you want), but Options is the same file.
OneDrive is also syncing the contents of this folder, as shown by the cloud and arrow icons. Plus, you still have a Mods folder inside, which could easily be the reason the game isn't working.
Since you wanted to stop OneDrive backups but haven't, please see this guide to getting rid of OneDrive entirely, the proper way:
[Read First] Running Sims 3 in Windows | EA Forums - 8323446
Once you've done that, try again to play, without your Mods folder, and see what happens.
Sorry for the later reply, it's essentially what the OP here has where I launch the game from the launcher and my screen goes black and then the error notif pops up and I get the white line. I used to have the screen thing happen on my laptop but it would still run afterwards.
As for the reliability monitor, funnily enough did not register the service initialization error, but did record the successful app reconfig of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable from each time I tried to launch it, I will launch it and wait to see if it'll pick the error up.
In regards to the Electronic Arts folder, I found it via the search bar, because when i entered the actual folder, I couldn't find it, I dont' see an options ini, but something i noticed is that all the files seem to be older except one which has yesterday's date.
Also would like to mention and I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I had to stop the One Drive backup a while back because it was moving and making apps unusable, since according to some apps, they should never be run from one drive or something like that and I'm not savvy enough right now to know if there's someway to exclude certain programs to not mess them up.
Lastly I'll attach an image of the sims 3 folder from the Electronic Arts folder to see if I'm missing something and have a great day!
Casper15PR Sims 3 would be installed into Program Files\EA Games. That's not the folder where you'd find Options.ini. If the game is launching but crashing, you will definitely have a second Sims 3 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts, almost certainly with Options.ini inside because it's one of the first files generated. So please look there.
Please also describe what happens when you try to play. There are several varieties of "won't launch" that can be conflated but that have widely different causes.
Finally, please look for relevant errors in the Reliability Monitor. Click Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day. Today is on the right.
Look for an error that happened at exactly the time of your most recent attempt to open Sims 3. If you find one, double-click it to see more details, then copy that info and paste it into a reply here. If you don't see a new error, check back in an hour or so—the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away.
Good day, I'm here because I'm having the same exact issue since i redownloaded sims 3 yesterday along with a couple of new expansion packs on a new pc (used to have a laptop) . I have tried every method except the windowed because for some reason on my Sims 3 download I don't have the Options.ini or just can't find it and the file has been sent to EA Games folder instead of Electronic Arts, which I don't know if it has anything to do with it. I'll leave my dxdiag attached, but I don't see an issue. Hoping for a fast response and hope you have a great day and hopefully we can fix my issue.
Hotfries12345 At the Main Menu, change the in-game resolution to match your screen (1920x1080), then choose fullscreen mode and click the box. It should be fine. The reason I said try windowed mode was because fullscreen is sometimes not fine when the game's resolution doesn't match the monitor, and it's easier to force windowed mode as a test than to force the correct resolution.
Occasionally fullscreen mode doesn't work even when the resolution is correct, and let me know if that happens to you—there are other decent options for getting the fullscreen effect. But hopefully you won't need any of them.
As for why it wasn't working before, did the clean uninstall and reinstall fix it, or did it resolve without your doing anything in particular?
Yes just tried it and it’s finally working!! Is there a reason why it was t working before? Also do you know how I can get it in full screen? Thank you so much I haven’t played The Sims 3 in YEARS!!
Hotfries12345 The dxdiag is fine, but the last dxdiag was fine too. Did you try the suggestions I made in my last reply to you?
Hello, So sorry it's been awhile. When I save it, it shows that it's saved as a text file? Sorry I'm not very tech savvy so I might be doing it wrong.
Hotfries12345 There's nothing concerning in your dxdiag, which is of course good, but it also means there's no obvious reason why the game isn't working. So as a test, please create a new admin Windows account and try playing there. Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address. (You can keep declining until you're asked some security questions.) You won't need to reinstall anything, at least not now.
Before trying to play, clear the EA App's cache and repair the game (Sims 4 > Manage > Repair). If you use a third-party antivirus, disable it, temporarily of course, before you repair, and leave it disabled until you've tested. As long as you don't do anything else at the same time, your computer should be safe.
If this doesn't help, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of Sims 3 and the EA App, as described here:
[Read First] Running Sims 3 in Windows | EA Forums - 8323446
I would suggest disabling a third-party antivirus while reinstalling too, just to be thorough.
