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.
Hotfries12345 Try forcing the game to launch in windowed mode. Open Options.ini, in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3, search for fullscreen , and set it to 0 (zero).
If that doesn't help, please let me know what game version you currently see in the lower-left corner of the Sims 3 launcher. Please also provide a dxdiag. Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop. From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.
It didn’t help, here are the attachments.
Hotfries12345 I need the entire dxdiag, saved as a text file, as I mentioned. This is barely any information and doesn't include the important details.
sorry for the late reply.
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.
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 The dxdiag is fine, but the last dxdiag was fine too. Did you try the suggestions I made in my last reply to you?
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 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?
