Forum Discussion

2 years ago

Solved

Sims3: Game cannot open any world

Hi,

I cannot play Sims 3 anymore. I have purchased the game from Steam and have played over a 1000 hours. But all of a sudden I couldn't open any neighbourhoods anymore.

The game starts alright, but when I try to open one of the neighbourhoods, I get an error message ("Ein schwerwiegender Fehler ist aufgetreten").

I have tried to repair the installation, I have de-installed and re-installed 3 times. The last time into a new folder.

It seems that no neighbourhoods get installed?

technical issues

puzzlezaddict
2 years ago
@2517542 The Sims 3 crashes in your dxdiag are pretty generic, which is not a surprise given the issue you're seeing. The crashes don't point to a cause, but I think the problem is likely the syncing service. So please disable it and try again; create another new Sims 3 folder afterwards if necessary.

If this helps, you'll need to find a way to exclude the Sims 3 folder from syncing. I'm not familiar with the app you use, but it looks like you can deselect specific folders. I'd recommend excluding the Electronic Arts folder for simplicity and because Sims 4 will also have issues with syncing its files. If you want your saves and other user data backed up, you can create a different folder for that and copy the files over manually every once in a while.

4 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@2517542 As a test, please try playing in a clean user folder. Move the entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content. (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you moved but temporarily not read by the game.) Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just let me know whether you can get far enough to start a new save and play in live mode for a bit.

If that doesn't help, please let me know whether OneDrive is running on this computer, even if you never use it. Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
2517542
2 years ago
Hi and thank you so much for your help.
I could indeed start the game, play for a bit and save the game.
However, the next time when I start the game, I get the same error message again. Whether I start the a new game or select the saved game ... same effect.
I have indeed also suspected Onedrive as cause of the error. I have disconnected the computer from Onedrive and I have even de-installed it now. But the error persists.
I have another cloud SW running though (IONOS HiDrive).
I have run DxDiag and have attached it.
Thanks again!
DxDiag_Sims.txt108 KB
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@2517542 The Sims 3 crashes in your dxdiag are pretty generic, which is not a surprise given the issue you're seeing. The crashes don't point to a cause, but I think the problem is likely the syncing service. So please disable it and try again; create another new Sims 3 folder afterwards if necessary.

If this helps, you'll need to find a way to exclude the Sims 3 folder from syncing. I'm not familiar with the app you use, but it looks like you can deselect specific folders. I'd recommend excluding the Electronic Arts folder for simplicity and because Sims 4 will also have issues with syncing its files. If you want your saves and other user data backed up, you can create a different folder for that and copy the files over manually every once in a while.
2517542
2 years ago
The culprit has been Google Drive for Desktop! I have excluded the EA folder from syncing now, and so far it seems to have worked.
Thank you so much!!