Sims 3 launcher won't open

by Kiarah001
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Original Post

Re: Sims 3 not loading from EA Desktop

★★ Novice

this may be where we hit an impenetrable wall. This is my 'work' laptop, so I unfortunately don't have the ability to disable our Webroot security services without asking IT. I tried creating a local user with admin capabilities and that wasn't able to do it either.

 

Again, I do appreciate your help with all of this, but it looks like I'm stuck behind my antivirus. I have noticed that I'm unable to force the Sims 3 folder to fully disable its 'Read-Only' status.

Message 10 of 431 (6,593 Views)

Re: Sims 3 not loading from EA Desktop

@TheGodlyGenius  I apologize for the delay in responding.  I wanted to test something before suggesting it to you, but I don't normally play through Origin or the EA Desktop App and didn't have time to uninstall and reinstall.

 

What I wanted to test was bypassing the launcher, in case the launcher itself is the problem but the game would run fine once opened.  I managed to do so by renaming a few of the game's program files, by default located here:

 

Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

 

Yours will probably be elsewhere, but the files themselves are the same:  These are the changes I made:

 

Sims3Launcher.exe -> Sims3Launcher-old.exe

TS3.exe -> Sims3Launcher.exe

TS3W.exe -> TS3.exe

 

The first .exe runs the launcher, and the second runs the game itself.  Both Origin and the desktop app are programmed to force-open the launcher even if you try to open the game from TS3.exe, but with the above changes, I pressed Play in the desktop app and the game loaded without the launcher opening at all.  (Origin was a bit more finicky—I had to double-click the .exe instead of pressing Play, which shouldn't be surprising to me.)  I'd recommend making the changes with the desktop app closed, or the app may decide the game isn't installed at all.

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I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 11 of 431 (5,871 Views)

Sims 3 won’t launch!

★★ Novice

Hi there. I’m pretty new to this website as I’ve never had any problems with the game before, but I’ve come across one now. There are discussions already on this topic that seemed to have difficulty with solutions but I can only find ones from 2019 so I’m not sure if there is a solution now or not! 
I have a new laptop and was downloading the sims & origin on it. The Sims 4 works fine and plays perfectly, but the Sims 3 won’t even launch. I click ‘play’ on origin, origin minimizes for a few seconds, then pops back up again (tried to attach a video but it won’t let me). I’m not techy at all so I’m not sure how easy of a fix this will be, but I’ve looked in the folder and the sims 3 isn’t even in the Electronic Arts folder like TS4 is, so I’m guessing it hasn’t been recognized as a game yet, if that makes it any clearer. (Again, not techy at all!)

Here are some links to the other thread I found that may explain it more clearly: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Origin-won-t-launch-Sims-3/td-p/8230554

Thank you in advance!

Message 12 of 431 (30,761 Views)

Re: Sims 3 won’t launch!

[ Edited ]

@gre3nleaf  Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

 

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

 

Please also let me know whether you've ever had two EA/Origin accounts merged.

 

Edit:  You're one of three people reporting today that Sims 3 won't open, so it's also entirely possible this is a Windows issue.  Please list any Windows updates you've had in the last three days.  You can see them in the Reliability Monitor: hit Windows key-R, enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each week.  Today is all the way on the right.

 

You can ignore the errors for now; your dxdiag will list those on its own.  Instead, please copy the name of each Windows-related update and paste it here.  I'd like to compare your list with those from the others.

 

Please also let me know what antivirus, if any, you use.

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I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 13 of 431 (30,734 Views)

Sims 3 - Game won't load - Windows 10

★★★★★ Novice

Hi there! I am having the same problem I keep seeing here. My game won't start. I just bought a new laptop and I have tried launching the game with no success. The Origins launcher just closes and reopens a second later. I have tried opening the application directly from the desktop and the Bin with no success. These are the methods I have tried so far with no success:

  • Run as Administrator on all applications of The Sims and Origins
  • Uninstalling and Re-installing the Sims 3 and Origins
  • Clearing the cache of Origins
  • Updating all drivers
  • Clean booting the computer
  • Adding the graphics driver to the Sims 3 files
  • Repairing the game
  • Troubleshooting and running the game on Windows XP
  • I have contacted EA support who ran out of ideas as well, so all they could do was escalate it and I am waiting to hear back

I feel like there's more, I just can't even remember at this point. 

 

I've attached my DxDiag. Please help. Fingers crossed

 

 

Message 14 of 431 (30,803 Views)

Re: Sims 3 - Game won't load - Windows 10

[ Edited ]

@itstoriduh  First, undo any compatibility setting you currently have.  Sims 3 runs just fine in Windows 10.

 

Please uninstall (if already installed) and reinstall .NET Framework 3.5.  Hit Windows key-R, enter "appwiz.cpl" without quotes, and in the window that appears, click "Turn Windows features on or off."  .NET 3.5 will be right at the top.  If the box next to it is filled in, it's already installed; click it to uninstall, wait for it to finish, and restart your computer.  Then repeat the above, except click the box to install the framework, then restart.  If .NET 3.5 is not currently installed, just install it and restart.

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I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 15 of 431 (30,784 Views)

sims 3 not launching

[ Edited ]
★★★★★ Newbie

I recently reinstalled the sims 3 on my new windows 10 laptop that has no disc drive. i reinstalled it through origin and i haven't been able to open the launcher at all. It wont open and I've tried opening it through the exe file, reinstalling origin, and reinstalling the sims 3 multiple times and nothing has worked. sims 4 works through origin perfectly fine so im not sure what the problem could be Frown on my old laptop i had no problems with the sims 3 but that also could be because of the fact that I had a disc drive on that one.

 

this is very frustrating, so if anyone could leave anything that could help me it would be very appreciated Standard smile! (i'm also not a super techy person so I don't know much about stuff like this)

 

edit: dxdiag is below 

Message 16 of 431 (30,791 Views)

Re: Sims 3 - Game won't load - Windows 10

★★★★★ Novice
@puzzlezaddict Hi, thank you for your reply. I tried that and unfortunately it did not work. I saw one of your suggestions from a couple years ago on a similar post about completely clearing out all Origin files using Revo Uninstaller and reinstalling it, I just tried that as well. No luck with that either.
Message 17 of 431 (30,767 Views)

Re: Sims 3 - Game won't load - Windows 10

@itstoriduh  Have you ever had two EA/Origin accounts merged?  When that's the issue, the error usually shows up differently, but it's worth asking anyway.

 

You're one of three people reporting today that Sims 3 won't open, so it's also entirely possible this is a Windows issue.  Please list any Windows updates you've had in the last three days.  You can see them in the Reliability Monitor: hit Windows key-R, enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each week.  Today is all the way on the right.

 

You can ignore the errors for now; your dxdiag lists those already.  Instead, please copy the name of each Windows-related update and paste it here.  I'd like to compare your list with those from the others.

 

Please also let me know what antivirus, if any, you use.

——————————————————————————————————————————

I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 18 of 431 (30,751 Views)

Re: sims 3 not launching

@pixiedust222  You're the third person to report today that Sims 3 won't open, so it's also entirely possible this is a Windows issue.  Please list any Windows updates you've had in the last three days.  You can see them in the Reliability Monitor: hit Windows key-R, enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each week.  Today is all the way on the right.

 

You can ignore the errors for now; your dxdiag lists those already.  Instead, please copy the name of each Windows-related update and paste it here.  I'd like to compare your list with those from the others.

 

Please also let me know what antivirus, if any, you use.

——————————————————————————————————————————

I don't work for EA. I'm just trying to help fellow players with their games.
Message 19 of 431 (30,760 Views)