@celiboy77 Yes, your saves should be intact, or at least the backups should be, if you uninstall and reinstall. Once the game is working again, you can put your saves back in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Saves, and the game should read them just fine.
However, you may not need to reinstall anything, depending on what the problem is and what kind of install you have. The shortcut on your computer normally points to an .exe, and if that .exe is missing, for example if your antivirus quarantines it, the shortcut breaks. But you can restore the .exe and recreate the shortcut by right-clicking and selecting Send to > Desktop.
For an Origin install, repair the game: open your Origin game library, right-click on the Sims 3 icon, and select Repair. Steam has a "verify file integrity" option within the game settings. For a disc install that does not use Origin, you can run the Super Patch:
