Hi, I need help. I have Sims 3 on Steam. Im closed steam, restarted my computer (I haven been able to play in a long time). Im on Windows 11 version 24H2. Ive been looking around and this is what Ive triedRe: Sims 3 won't open: Alder Lake (Intel 12th-gen) CPU | EA Forums - 8265566Verify integrity of the game filesgoing to the game bin and opening TS3Wtask manager to try and open using only CPU 1uninstalled and reinstalled A TONI dont know why it wont open and Im far from a computer genius. I cant remember if I played the sims on this new laptop I got a while ago, but it definitely worked on the last laptop. If someone is willing to dumb this down please, Ive been trying for hours.

enei7eb5nb9w Please 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.

I have the dxdiag but what exactly are we looking for?

enei7eb5nb9w I would like to read it to look for various reasons the game might not open. The most interesting part is the Windows Error Reports section at the end, but most of the other info could be relevant in the right circumstances. So please attach the dxdiag and I'll take a look.

enei7eb5nb9w You definitely need(ed) the Alder Lake patch or another intervention, but your dxdiag doesn't list any Sims 3-related errors. That means the game is likely being blocked from opening rather than crashing. So as a test of a number of possible causes at once, please 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 open Steam and try to launch Sims 3 without reinstalling anything. If this works, quit the game, restart your computer, and try again, to make sure the game still opens. Let me know the results regardless, and we can go from there. The game working in the new account (more than the one time) means the issue is limited to your main account, and either way, we know where to look next. If you still can't open Sims 3, please look for new errors 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 open the game. 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.

Sims 3 Wont Open After Hitting Play

13 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
24 days ago
enei7eb5nb9w The folder in your screenshot contains the game's program files, and it doesn't contain any user data, as in, the files and folders that would normally be in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3. So you're looking at the wrong folder. Before we move on though, what is the full file path to this folder? It would be useful to know where the game is installed.

For the user data, search in File Explorer for DeviceConfig, and you'll see at least one copy (if it hasn't somehow been deleted). Please list the full file path to each copy of DeviceConfig you find. When searching, click This PC in the left panel first, then enter deviceconfig in the search field in the upper-right corner. The search can take a while to finish, depending on how much data is on your computer and how fast your hardware is.
enei7eb5nb9w
New Novice
11 days ago
The last screenshot is where I right click the game and locate the files. I did go though the documents and I found the DeviceConfig, Ive got like 23 of them. Well I tried to start the game again and it just created the 24th devicevConfig since it couldnt locate the other one or merge it, I tried to take a screenshot of it but the notification got deleted. OneDrive\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3. Are those my saved worlds? Also, I appreciate you still helping me out!
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
10 days ago
enei7eb5nb9w This is the correct folder, but OneDrive's syncing your files is duplicating at least some of them. Its interference would also explain why the game stops working and why you can't delete your saves. So I'd suggest getting rid of it entirely, or at least stopping it from syncing your Sims 3 data. Please see this post for more information:

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

Feel free to ask more questions about the process. And if you decide you don't want to change your OneDrive settings at all, the other option is to create a new, local admin Windows account, "local" meaning not tied to your Microsoft account or any email address. (You can keep declining to link one.) No email address means no MS account, which means OneDrive can't sync your data with cloud storage. You could simply switch accounts when you wanted to play.

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Sims 3 Wont Open After Hitting Play

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