sims3

@Orac9  I believe the Origin version of Sims 3 comes with a DirectX installer; the Steam version certainly does.  So it would be strange if this were an issue of a missing or corrupted DirectX file.

What would be a problem, however, is not fully uninstalling the Steam version of TS3 before installing from Origin.  The two versions will conflict with each other and shouldn't be present on the same system.  If you haven't already, uninstall both versions and clean your computer's registry of the leftover TS3 entries.  You can do this manually or with a tool like Piriform's CCleaner.

Once you've uninstalled and cleaned the registry, try to install the base game only from Origin.  If you still get the error, please run a dxdiag and attach the results to a post here.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

With steam it gave me the exact same error, but had the option of skipping the install, with origin, it just says it can't install and stops.  The Installed for DirectX that comes from origin is trying to install an old DirectX that windows 10 doesn't support, Windows 10 comes with version 12 onwards, there is no way to put 9c on that Origin is trying to install and because they refuse to put a skip option like Steam does, I don't know a way past it.  I've tried on a fresh install of windows with no steam or anything else installed, it just wont install on windows 10, when I installed windows 7 on a drive for testing, it was fine, but that doesn't help me on my main machine

@Orac9  I understand that you should have DirectX installed already; I was saying that I believed the Origin and Steam versions came with the same (old) installer, so it would be weird if you had a problem with the Origin install but not the Steam one.  I didn't realize you'd skipped the DirectX portion of the Steam install.  And yes, I know that Windows 10 comes with v. 12, but it's supposed to be backwards compatible with older versions.

To that end, I've only installed TS3 in Windows 10 via Origin once, and had no issues, but that was on a computer that was a couple of years old (though the OS was up to date).  I did install via Steam on a fresh of Windows 10 build 17134 a year ago, with no errors.  So unless something has changed since then, it does seem very strange that Origin would throw this error.

At any rate, you can try installing DirectX 9 directly from Microsoft:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=35

If that doesn't work, let me know, and I'll try to figure out something else.

Been to that link and I can install DirectX from anywhere, but there is still no way to skip the Origin part of the install, the moment I click on run game it instantly goes to it's own DirectX installer regardless of what is installed already on the machine, there are countles videos and threads about it all over the web and I've done what everyone says, tried way to many variations, it has me totally stumped..

@Orac9  Okay, try restarting your computer and running Origin as an administrator.  (Right-click on the .exe or shortcut to see the option; having an admin account isn't enough.)

If that doesn't fix it, deleting some files may help.  Go into TS3's DirectX installer files, which you should find here:

Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\__Installer\directx\redist

and delete any files you find with the extension .cab.  Then run the DXSETUP.exe (in the same place) as an admin, restart your computer, and try to install again.

If that doesn't work either, let me know and I'll ask for more help.  (Thanks @holger1405 for the consult, again.)

I've done the deleting of files, tried running them directly, tried running as admin, at this point on this version of windows 10, it just refuses to run.. I'm running windows 10 Ultimate and it just point blank refuses to get the older directx install, doesn't matter if I download it from microsoft on the link you gave me or where it comes from, I just can't get an older version to install, but either way the current version runs ts3 perfectly from everywhere, I just need to find a way to stop the Origin installer from forcing it to try and install directx again, like stream and the cd's do..  If I could run the expansion packs on my steam version there wouldn't be a need for any of this...   I did a fresh install on a new drive today, and with nothing else install, just origin and then ts3, it still failed, same error, and was in admin mode, so I'm totally out of ideas now.

@Orac9   Please post your dxdiag as directed above. There is no version of Windows 10 Ultimate that I know of. Windows 10 is not compatible with DirectX 11 and below - you need to have DirectX 12 that comes with Windows 10. Steam installs TS3 differently then the EA version. Are you trying to install TS3 with stock options? Are you trying to install to an alternate drive (storage device?)?

Turns out I got my windows 7 and windows 10 confused, 7 is Ultimate and 10 is Pro.. here is a screen shoot of the DxDiag for you all...   as for the install, I started with just TS3, but now I've added all the codes for all expansions, I have almost every expansion, origin has downloaded all of them from what I can see..  also thank you everyone for helping with this..  really hope we figure this out

@Orac9 Use the save information option in dxdiag. This will create a text file on your desktop. This file is rather large. You can attach the txt file to your post by using the paper clip in the lower right bottom of the reply window. Have you verified all the packs are in Origin? When you want some one to reply use the at symbol (shift 2) with the user name (this is tagging) to alert that person you posted. Windows 10 and windows 7 are very different. To start this game requires .net framework. By default this is turned off in a Windows 10 install. This needs to be turned on in Windows programs and features.

@roberta591I've attached the file for you.  All packs were bought from ea at the same time as ts3, I'm not setting up another win7 machine just to play this one game, but I had some old drive laying around, so I set up one just to make sure it was only the forcing me to install the old directx that was the problem.  Windows 10 as covered runs ts3 perfectly when installed via any other means at all, but I can't get my add on packs with steam, etc..  The only issue I have is that Origin does not give me the option to skip the directx installer they send with the download, I've don't all the deleting and reinstalling and different everything, windows 10 just wont use their installer and there seems to be no way to bypass it.