Sims 3 won't launch, Service initialization failed (0x065d0274) error

Marshmallowycat  Did you uninstall or deactivate any packs you'd bought?  That's the usual cause of this error with a Steam install, and yes, the registry entries are usually the cause.  Did you know where to look for them, or did you search?  I ask because they're in two different places and listed as Sims(Steam), so a search for Sims 3 might not turn them up.  They're specifically here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\Sims(Steam)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sims(Steam)

If this isn't the issue, I'd suggest doing a clean uninstall and reinstall of Sims 3 (not the EA App, that's irrelevant here), as described in this post:

[Read First] Running Sims 3 in Windows | EA Forums - 8323446

The clean uninstall, and reinstalling in a different location (and you can create a new Steam library if you want), should address more issues than a simple uninstall.

I did two clean unisntalls and reinstalls of The Sims 3, one with CCleaner and one with Revo plus both times i went into the registry editor and deleted all the files that had sims or sims 3 in their name and also deleted the recycle bin. It didn't work, I still can't launch the game

Marshmallowycat  Try playing in a new admin Windows account.  Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address.  You'll be able to (try to) launch Sims 3 without reinstalling anything.

If that doesn't work, I'd suggest doing one more clean uninstall and reinstall using that account AND with your antivirus disabled.  As long as you don't do anything else at the same time, your computer should be safe, and you can reenable the AV as soon as you've tried to launch the game once.

Tried it, after it didnt even start, even while using the task manager fix. Then I tried the alder lake patch to see if it would help and it went back to giving me the error.

Marshmallowycat  To be clear, the game didn't start but threw no error message when you reinstalled it into the new account; and then it threw the service initialization error once you applied the patch?  Please repair the game in Steam; the option is called "Verify integrity of the game files" and should be somewhere under Properties.

Try again to play, and look for a new error in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit 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 launch Sims 3, specifically after repairing.  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.

Here is the error: 

Source
Sims 3

Summary
Stopped working

Date
‎2/‎7/‎2025 11:52 PM

Status
Report sent

Description
Faulting Application Path:    G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3W.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
Application Name:    TS3W.exe
Application Version:    0.0.0.32
Application Timestamp:    52dec247
Fault Module Name:    TS3W.exe
Fault Module Version:    0.0.0.32
Fault Module Timestamp:    52dec247
Exception Code:    c0000094
Exception Offset:    00213702
OS Version:    10.0.26100.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID:    1033
Additional Information 1:    a89c
Additional Information 2:    a89cbad0343d4637e5843732a061706b
Additional Information 3:    4597
Additional Information 4:    4597a0240f9ba3e833a89f5720255dba

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID:    cc236a4c51da69e4fde333e1694a5eee (2153622090040368878)

Marshmallowycat  This is the Alder Lake issue, but the Task Manager workaround should have helped.  Were you applying it to TS3W.exe, with the W?  Steam installs use this and Sims3LauncherW.exe, also with the W; TS3.exe and Sims3Launcher.exe are for EA App installs only.

Yes i was, i checked that it was 1.67 patch so i did the TS3W.exe

I also tried to open it in the EA app but im still getting the same error no matter what

Marshmallowycat  If you're only getting the service initialization error when you apply the Alder Lake patch, then don't apply it, use the Task Manager workaround instead.  Since you've already applied the patch though, you'll need to remove its effects again.

Is the patch level in the launcher currently 1.67 or 1.69?  I ask because the EA App may have updated the game, in which case you can repair it in the App and also not need the Alder Lake patch at all.  Or if it's still 1.67, run the Super Patch to revert to default.  You can find it here:

http://akamai.cdn.ea.com/eadownloads/u/f/sims/sims3/patches/TS3_1.67.2.0240xx_update.exe

Chrome may flag the download as unsafe because the URL starts with http instead of https, but you can see from the URL that it points directly to EA servers, so it's safe.