Sims 3 game won't start

[theshreddoctor]

So, I've owned the game for years now, and have played it many times before without issue.  In fact, it was working just fine yesterday, and then suddenly, it won't any more.  Whenever I click to play on the launcher, nothing happens.  The launcher closes, and after a few seconds, Origins opens up (if I don't already have it open), and that's it.   The game doesn't start, and there's no error pop-up.

The only thing I can think of to cause that is that yesterday I downloaded and ran an adware/malware removal program called SpyHunter 5 by Enigma Software.  I've since uninstalled SpyHunter, and uninstalled the game before re-installing.  I've restarted my computer (many times)

I've looked through the forum here for people who've experienced similar problems, but either their solution wasn't in their thread, or their solution hasn't worked for me.  I'm on a PC, and my game is a digital version that I downloaded through Origins.  Below is my DxDiag info, since on one of the threads I looked through, someone recommended posting that.

Help is extremely appreciated.

[theshreddoctor · Accepted solution]

Wow, I figured it out; and it was thanks to one of your comments that I don't think was intended to help troubleshoot anything.

It was the dual screen.  Every time I was playing the game, I didn't have my second monitor plugged in.  Then I plugged it in to do some editing commissions, and THAT was when the game stopped working.  I didn't even think about it until your comment on the dual screens.  I unplugged the second monitor and it now works.

I guess since the game runs at a different resolution than what my screen's normally set to, it can't reconcile that on two monitors?  I dunno, but if anyone else down the line runs into that issue, that's what's up.

Huge thanks to the folks who've offered help!

[puzzlezaddict]

@theshreddoctor  Thanks for the dxdiag; it helps confirm that there's nothing wrong with your hardware (as far as I can tell).  I hope that you have two monitors, though, otherwise it would be strange for your graphics card to be listed twice.

When uninstalling TS3, it's necessary to clean your computer's registry, either manually or with a tool like Piriform's CCleaner, before reinstalling.  Skipping this step doesn't always cause problems, but if the easy solutions don't work, you might need to wipe the game again and start over.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/the-sims/the-sims-3/manually-uninstalling-the-sims-3/

The easiest thing to try is to drag your entire TS3 game folder out of Documents and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game again (if it launches), a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Once you confirm that the game loads properly, you can transfer your saves and other content into the new folder from the old one.

You also might want to check any other antivirus/firewall programs you have to make sure that the settings didn't change.

It should also be noted that on patch 1.69, you'll need to sign into Origin and keep it running while you play TS3.

[theshreddoctor]

Yes, I do in fact have dual monitors.  That's pretty cool that you can figure that out just from that.

I uninstalled the game, ran CCleaner, and dragged out the entire TS3 game folder out of Documents and onto my desktop, and it's still doing the same as before.  My firewall settings, as far as I can tell, haven't changed, and Origins is logged into, and running.  Are there any other potential troubleshoots?

[roberta591]

@theshreddoctor  The first thing that comes to mind is SpyHunter 5 may have had a false positive and removed something that is needed. I am not familiar with SpyHunter so I don't know how it works. Did it have a way to restore files it feels as a threat? It looks thye the file atiumdva.dll may be missing or corrupt. This is part of the video driver. The video driver seems old for ATI (AMD). check to see if there is a newer driver.

[puzzlezaddict]

@theshreddoctor  I'd still try temporarily disabling your firewalls, just to make sure none of them are acting up.  If the game loads, you'll know you need to fiddle with your settings, or maybe add or re-add exceptions for Origin and TS3.  If the game still crashes even with no firewalls active, then this might be over my head, and you should post back and tag roberta591—he's the real expert here.

Edit:  Never mind, I see he's already all over it.

[theshreddoctor · Accepted solution]

Wow, I figured it out; and it was thanks to one of your comments that I don't think was intended to help troubleshoot anything.

It was the dual screen.  Every time I was playing the game, I didn't have my second monitor plugged in.  Then I plugged it in to do some editing commissions, and THAT was when the game stopped working.  I didn't even think about it until your comment on the dual screens.  I unplugged the second monitor and it now works.

I guess since the game runs at a different resolution than what my screen's normally set to, it can't reconcile that on two monitors?  I dunno, but if anyone else down the line runs into that issue, that's what's up.

Huge thanks to the folks who've offered help!

[roberta591]

@theshreddoctor  I saw the dual monitors but as it was already mentioned I didn't want to rehash it. These games seem to do some video processing after the computer and doesn't seem to tolerate dual monitors very well. The first thing to do when troubleshooting is to disconnect all unnecessary hardware and then see if you still have the problem.  Glad you figured it out - happy gaming!