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AvivaYalla's avatar
AvivaYalla
New Novice
1 year ago
Solved

The Sims 3 Launcher Won't Launch

Since the Jan 13, 2025 update to 1.69.47.024017, I have not been able to get the launcher to open. My Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 folder is completely empty now, so no mods or old data should be getting in the way. The "Launching Game..." pop up for a second, then the whole EA app window blinks like it's minimizing itself, then reopens. I've tried various things in no particular order and multiple times:

  • Repairing The Sims 3
  • Uninstalling and reinstalling The Sims 3 (have done this with the Revo following instructions here)
  • Repairing the EA app
  • Restarting the EA app
  • Uninstalling and reinstalling the EA app
  • Restarting my computer
  • Emptying out my Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 folder, uninstalling and reinstalling the game again (it's still empty)
  • Resetting my password on the EA app in case of an account issue
    • I am able to start other games from the EA app, just not The Sims 3
  • Downloaded and tried to install an older version of DirectX even though I really didn't think it would work (it didn't)

My PC:

  • OS: Windows 10
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Eight-Core Processor 3.00 GHz
  • RAM: 32GB
  • System: 64-bit
  • GPU: NVIDEA GeForce GTX 1080
  • AvivaYalla  Please uninstall and reinstall .NET Framework 3.5.  Click Windows key-R, enter appwiz.cpl , click "Turn Windows features on or off," and you'll see .NET 3.5 near the top of the list.  Click the filled-in box to uninstall, and restart your computer.  Repeat the process, clicking the now-empty box to reinstall, and restart again.

23 Replies

  • Timmya1985​  There aren't any errors at all in your dxdiag, which would be unusual even after a fresh install of Windows.  Do you use some kind of cleaner app that removes temp files?  If so, please disable it for now—we might need the error reports and associated info to figure this out.

    Your C drive is also somewhat low on free space.  It's not low enough to stop Sims 3 from working, but this is probably going to be an issue soon, so now is a good time to move some data to D, which has plenty of space available.

    For now, please list the full path to the Sims 3 folder, or rather where it was before you moved it.  You can right-click the Sims 4 folder (if it's in the same location) and select Properties > General, then list the Location.  Feel free to write [username] instead of your actual username, but leave the rest intact.

    Please also look for relevant errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Try again to play to generate a new error report (hopefully).  Click 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 Sims 3.  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.  If you still don't see anything, check your antivirus for any recent actions involving Sims 3.

  • Timmya1985's avatar
    Timmya1985
    Seasoned Newcomer
    1 day ago

    puzzlezaddict​ 

    Sims 3 Location- D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common

    I uninstalled Sims 3 then reinstalled it to D: drive. Still not launching the game from the Sims 3 launcher.

    Sims 4 Location- D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common

    Still waiting on response from the Reliability Monitor. Also checked my Antivirus and no issues there.

  • Timmya1985​  So you moved the folder that contains the game's program files?  That's not the folder that people recommend moving—the user folder is in Documents > Electronic Arts no matter what kind of install you have.  The point there is that user files can prevent the game from launching, not that the program files need to be refreshed.  So you can delete the folder on your desktop, that is if it was in fact the game install and therefore contains program files (subfolders like Data, Delta, Game) rather than user files (subfolders like Saves, Library, DCCache).

    To be clear, when you click Play in Steam, does the Sims 3 launcher open?  If so, you would definitely have a Sims 3 folder in Documents > Electronic Arts, at least temporarily.  (It's possible OneDrive is eating the folder, which is why I wanted the full path to this folder.)  Did the game ever work on this computer?  And are you getting an error when you try to play, either opening the launcher or pressing its Play button?