Re: Game keeps minimising

by thesims1depot
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Original Post

Game keeps minimising

★ Novice

I am at my wits end with my game right now. I have been trying to play my sims 3 game for about a week now. The launcher loads fine, click play, screen goes black and looks like its about to run the title sequence but then it minimises to my desktop and when I click on the minimised sims 3 icon it goes to the black screen for a few seconds and then minimises again. I have to use task manager to force close it as I cant exit it any other way. 

 

I haven't tried uninstalling and then reinstalling as I really really don't want to lose all the houses and families that I have. I've tried restarting my laptop, checking for updates, running without some expansions, running without custom content, running it offline, running it online, loading the launcher through origin and desktop icon.. I really don't know what to do! Its so frustrating! Please help!

 

I have every expansion pack and no stuff packs. 

Message 1 of 10 (677 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

★★ Guide

You said you ran it without CC but did you without mods? If not, try running without them. Make sure all of them have been removed. I remember trying to help someone months ago and the person insisted that they didn't have any mods but then it turned out he had installed storefix. 

 

If it's not mods causing the issue, did you get a major system update recently? Maybe use System Restore to roll back it back to see if that helps any. Sometimes a Windows update will bork your system; it's why I have it disabled now in Windows 7.

 

Message 2 of 10 (667 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

★ Novice

I tried to run it without mods but the same kept happening still unfortunately.. I’m currently doing a system restore so hopefully it will work! Thank you! 

Message 3 of 10 (658 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

★★ Guide

@vickybggreen wrote:

I tried to run it without mods but the same kept happening still unfortunately.. I’m currently doing a system restore so hopefully it will work! Thank you! 


Good luck!

Message 4 of 10 (649 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

[ Edited ]

@vickybggreen  System restores rarely help with this kind of problem and can often break an install entirely.  But even if you end up having to uninstall and reinstall (be sure to clean the registry after uninstalling, as the uninstaller can miss some files), you can preserve your saves and other content by dragging your TS3 folder out of Documents and onto your desktop.  If you're messing with your system, you might want to save the folder on an external drive, just to be safe.  Here's a list of the folder's important contents:

 

https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/faq-user-files.html

 

Are you on Windows 10?  It sounds like you might be suffering from the effects of the Creator's Update from last summer.  People aren't having the same problems now that they were a year ago, but it still might be worth disabling the more intrusive functions to see if it helps.  Here's a guide:

 

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/15902876/#Comment_15902876

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I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 5 of 10 (629 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

★★ Guide

@puzzlezaddict: System restore does not break installations because all it does is roll back system settings to what they were before a major update. It does not affect program folders or files at all, so this claim that it breaks installations is 100% inaccurate.

 

I suggested that solution because sometimes, if an update is messing with the game and it's impossible to pin down which one it is (graphics driver? system update? antivirus? etc?) that can help to eliminate whatever it is that caused the game to glitch when it didn't before. The player can then take a look out for the next time an update tries to install (as in Windows update or antivirus update) and see which one might be the culprit. 

Message 6 of 10 (615 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

[ Edited ]

@thesims1depot  A system restore has damaged TS3 installs for some players, depending on what restore point is used (and of course it's more likely to cause problems if any game-related files have been added or altered since that point).  Some people tried to use a system restore to revert to patch 1.67 after 1.69 from a few years ago and broke their games completely.  Others who used this process more recently have seen their games work for a short while before crashing for good.  The restore process might be fine, but it also might damage some of the program files, and it's so much easier to download an old driver or temporarily disable antivirus software than reinstall the entire game.

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I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 7 of 10 (607 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

★★ Guide

@vickybggreen: How are you doing? Were you able to get anywhere with this issue?

Message 8 of 10 (587 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

★ Novice

@thesims1depot  Finished the system restore but the problem persisted so I’ve uninstalled the game and I’m currently reinstalling the base game only to see if it’s still happening or not, will let you know how I get on! 

Message 9 of 10 (582 Views)

Re: Game keeps minimising

★★ Guide

@vickybggreen If all else fails, there are two more options:

 

1. See what happens if you play your game with your antivirus disabled. Sometimes for whatever reason, your AV can start interfering with other programs.

2. Try this solution, which involves editing your Options.ini file: https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/The-Sims-3-Keeps-Minimizing/td-p/1107006/page/2.

Message 10 of 10 (566 Views)