A serious error occurred while loading (world)

[neoromanempire]

I downloaded the Sims 3 onto my new custom built Windows 10 gaming PC, and while it sort of worked upon install from the EA app, i did use a video guide to get it working right on and recognizing my graphics card. This video to be exact if you want it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWVxfAFdK7I&list=PL8SkFvxtq5xiqP0xMS9oIiqCLdyiiKNWK&index=20 . But here's the problem. The game seems to be running beautifully and working but everytime I try to load a world it loads within 2 seconds and gives the message "a serious error occurred while loading (name of world.world), we strongly suggest restarting the application." It then sends me back to the home screen and if i try again, same result. The annoying thing is this started happening immediately when i booted the game up the first time, before doing the fixes in the video linked below. The fixes made it run even better and look much better, but they didn't fix this glitch that is kind of entirely preventing me from being able to play the game. The odd thing is, I tried turning the graphics settings and resolution down to the lowest possible settings and it WORKED. I was able to load a world and start the game but ONLY when my graphics settings are at the lowest settings. Whenever I put them on the highest resolution and quality settings, it fails and yields the same error message. I didnt buy the parts and build this PC to run The Sims 3 in 800x600 with awful graphics settings. I'd rather not play than play like that. Especially when I know the Sims 3 can look amazing in 4k with a recognized modern graphics card. Through researching this bug I did find some "fixes", but the ones I tried didn't work. I tried turning off the firewalls on my anti virus software, and I paused onedrive. These didn't change anything. Im at a loss at what to do. It seems nobody else has this issue. The only way to prevent that error message is turning all graphics down to the lowest settings, including resolution. It wont even work with 4k resolution and terrible graphics otherwise.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@neoromanempire  Then please try a new admin Windows account.  It's possible something is wrong with your main account, or at least wrong enough to affect Sims 3.

[puzzlezaddict]

@neoromanempire  Try getting rid of OneDrive instead.  It might seem unlikely that OneDrive is the culprit here given that playing on low settings helps.  But I've heard from several other people that this was in fact the cause of their recent "serious error" messages.

By get rid of OneDrive, I don't mean uninstall it, I mean move the user Documents directory out of the OneDrive folder.  If you don't want to do this in your main Windows account, create a new one, as a test, and make it local—don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address.  That will prevent it from hooking into OneDrive at all.  If you do want to change the settings in your main account, here's how:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/PC/CURRENT-ISSUE-Sims-4-saves-user-content-disappearing-PC/m-p/12475370#Re...

The new admin Windows account is a useful test even if OneDrive turns out not to be the culprit, so please try it if you change the settings in your main account and it doesn't help.  If the new account doesn't help either, please run a dxdiag and attach it to your reply.

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

[neoromanempire]

Okay i did as the link said and unlinked onedrive from my pc and even verified that the documents folder was no longer in onedrive. It didn't work. I still get the message. any other ideas?

[puzzlezaddict]

@neoromanempire  Do you get the message when trying to start a new save, or only with existing saves?  If new saves are affected too, please rename the Sims 3 folder, or move it, to allow the game to create a new one, and test again.

If you still get the error, please create a new admin Windows account and try playing there.  Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address.  You'll be able to launch Sims 3 without reinstalling anything.

[neoromanempire]

I dont have any saves. I recently built this PC and downloade Sims 3 on it like a week ago. The Sims 3 has never worked correctly on it yet. I get the message when attempting to create a new one regardless of which world I attempt to load, always the same. It loads the entire bar immediately and then says the error message and sends me back to the main screen.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@neoromanempire  Then please try a new admin Windows account.  It's possible something is wrong with your main account, or at least wrong enough to affect Sims 3.

[neoromanempire]

Okay that worked. I am able to play Sims 3 ON THE LOCAL ADMIN ACCOUNT ONLY. I also needed to redo most of the steps in that youtube video to get Sims 3 recognizing my graphics card and reinstalled the mods that improve performance but now that I'm done with all that it runs great. I still wish there was a way to not need two accounts on my PC and to run Sims 3 on my main microsoft account profile, so i hope someday somebody can figure that out, but for now my problem is solved and I can play The Sims 3 on my new custom built gaming PC. Thank you.

[puzzlezaddict]

@neoromanempire  If this PC is new, would it be easier to just transfer your other content to the new account?  It's an honest question; I don't know how much work that would entail.  And I can keep trying to help with the issue in the main account, but it's an odd one in that playing on low settings helps.  I know what to do when the game won't open at all or when the "serious error" message shows up every time, not necessarily when it's dependent on something as seemingly unrelated as graphics settings.  Still, I'd be happy to keep making suggestions.

[neoromanempire]

Any suggestions you have would be nice. And no I can’t because I spent so much time setting up my main account and I don’t want a local account I want it linked to my Microsoft account 

[puzzlezaddict]

@neoromanempire  What is the current location of the Documents directory, and where would you like it to be in the end, or are you flexible about that?  This is how to force-change it:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-wi...

I'm not suggesting you do that right now, but please do look up the Personal value in the registry and let me know what you see.  You can write [username] instead of your actual username if you want.