I can't seem to play The Sims[TM] 3 due to a serious error.

[denny072802]

It's been a while since I played The Sims 3, and I had it uninstall on steam for a bit as I play other games. After an incident where my laptop's motherboard is now partly fried, I tried to reinstall the game. The launcher opens up like usual and the loading screen worked perfect, but when I tried to create a new world in Moonlight Falls a message popped up: "A serious error has occurred while loading 'Moonlight Falls.world'. It is strongly recommended that you restart the application." When the main game closed, with the game off on my toolbar, it said It was still running. I tried to open it again which it failed to, but other steam games could be played. When I verified the files for it, it says that there are 2 files that are not working. I tried restarting the computer and uninstall it and then reinstalling the game but nothing has worked. Does anyone have any tips and suggestions on how to fix this? Also, another thing about this is that I can't delete screenshots nor any previous worlds as well.

[puzzlezaddict]

@denny072802  When you say you can't delete screenshots or your previous saves, what do you mean?  That deleting them does nothing, or that it throws an error when you try?  The latter, along with the serious error message, suggests that the permissions on your Sims 3 game folder (the one in Documents) are preventing the game from writing to that folder.  This folder holds all user data—saves, store and custom content, installed worlds, saved sims and lots, etc.  If the game can't reach it, then no wonder you can't load a save.

The fastest way to restore the proper permissions, provided there's nothing weird about your system setup overall, is to delete the Electronic Arts folder from Documents.  If you have anything in that folder you want to keep, including TS3 saves, move it to your desktop.  Then launch TS3 and load a new save, just to test.  Play a few minutes, save, quit, restart your computer, and launch the game again to make sure you can still load the save.  If it works, you can move your other saves, along with the rest of the content you want to keep, from your old TS3 folder to your new one.  Here's a list of all the files in that folder:

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

If this process goes wrong somewhere, please let me know exactly what you see, including any error messages.

[denny072802]

@puzzlezaddict  When you first asked what I mean about not being able to delete screenshots or my previous saves is that nothing pops up.

After deleting the Electronic Arts folder from my Documents folder, I reinstalled TS3, but now all I get is the "There was an error during startup. Please see the Log for more details" message on my launcher [The launcher also has nothing on it and the version is "0.0.0.0"]. Once I chose "OK" it closes the launcher afterward. How can I fix this new issue? Another thing is that I'm using a Dell laptop (Windows) and I got TS3 through Steam, not Origin so the folders are a bit different.

 Note: I understand that you don't work for EA and that you're just trying to help fellow players with their games, and I completely appreciate the help.

[puzzlezaddict]

@denny072802  I understood that you had the Steam version of the game installed, which requires Windows.  But that only changes the location of the program files; the user game folder will always be in Documents\Electronic Arts.  (In fact, if you tried to move it, TS3 would just create a new one there.)  The reason I suggested that you try removing your game folder is that the most common cause of the "serious error" issue is TS3 being unable to access those user files, not its program files.  Causes include having the game folder open when TS3 launches, as well as altered permissions on the folder.

Now though, the bigger issue is that your launcher is showing version 0 instead of 1.67, as it would on a Steam install.  The best thing to do is uninstall again, but clean your computer's registry of all Sims 3-related entries before reinstalling.  If you're not comfortable doing this manually—deleting the wrong file can cause your computer to stop working completely—you can use a free cleaner app, like Piriform's CCleaner.  Then install only the base game to test; it should still be on patch 1.67.

Another possibility that would explain the serious error, although not the wrong patch level, is that you have another game folder somewhere that TS3 is reading instead of the one you deleted.  OneDrive is a frequent culprit, but you can search your computer for other instances of the folder.  Look for a file called deviceconfig and check the last modified date—this will tell you if TS3 has been using that folder.

[denny072802]

So, When I uninstalled everything, I delete everything that was related to TS3. I used the cleaner like suggested then I redownloaded it. Oddly it did not create an Electronic Arts folder in the documents whatsoever. Either way, I decided to try the game out and luckily it worked perfectly and I ended up getting a game in. I got off the game last night and I deleted the cleaner and antivirus that came with it. When I tried to play the game, it went straight to the exact same problem as I first typed. Any other ideas on how I can fix it as we ended up looping back to the start as a temporary solution.

[puzzlezaddict]

@denny072802  It does sound like something changed about the permissions on your game folder again, maybe due to the antivirus that you installed and wiped.  I don't know which one it was, but a couple of them are known to make things difficult when you try to uninstall them, and others don't react well to EA games or files.  But to cover all bases, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post here.  Maybe something will jump out in the error reporting.

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

[denny072802]

Here's the dxdiag text that you wanted.

[puzzlezaddict]

@denny072802  Okay, I see something very strange in your dxdiag: your storage isn't listed at all.  (It should be in between PS/2 and System Devices.)  That suggests to me that you either have a serious problem with your hard drive(s), or you have some sort program that's blocking access, which would explain the serious error messages.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to address the issue—I've never seen it before.  And I could be wrong about the cause of the missing info, of course.  But I can ask around to see if someone else recognizes the problem and can help.

Otherwise, you might need to get a professional to look at your system, unless you already know what program might be at fault here.

[puzzlezaddict]

@denny072802  Can you try running the dxdiag again?  It was suggested to me that you try that, to see if it produces the missing info.  Otherwise, your hard drive may be starting to fail and corrupt files.

[denny072802]

Yeah, here's the second dxdiag text file, and I would completely understand if the hard drive is corrupting files due to possible water damage.