Sims 3 won't open: Alder Lake (Intel 12th-gen) CPU

[BellaBruja15]

I don't think I've ever posted on here in the over a decade I've had Origin- you deserve everything you want out of life. lol I was ready to throw my desktop out of the window. I just updated my CPU and GPU and figured one of the two was the issue. Thank you!

[pamplemousse3012]

Howdy,

I've manually installed DX9, 3.5, performed the clean uninstall via Revo and I'm still having issues. I've tried launching the game through Origin, Steam, and TS3W.exe. This is a fresh install of Windows 10. 

Cheers,
DR

[pamplemousse3012]

And the log from docs.

[puzzlezaddict]

@pamplemousse3012  Your particular issue is that Sims 3 doesn't start correctly on 12th-gen Intel processors, so I've moved your posts to the master thread for this issue.  You can try running the patch LazyDuchess created to solve the problem:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-won-t-open-Alder-Lake-Intel-12th-gen-CPU/m-p/11...

This is a one-time fix: the game should start correctly going forward with no further intervention required.  Or if you'd prefer, you can use a tool like Process Lasso to manually limit the game to one CPU core while it's loading.  You'd need to do this every time, and you'd also want to undo the setting once you'd loaded a save, for performance reasons.

[PermaFrost358]

Hi there, 

I am having a similar issue to the other individuals in this thread. I recently purchased a new computer (attaching DxDiag to this message); it's much better than my old computer in that it is faster and plays the games I like at a higher framerate than the ~30 fps my old computer would max at. I used to play the Sims 3 on my old computer, and while it was slow, it was playable. After I purchased this new computer, I decided to install Origin and the Sims 3 again to play it. However, similar to the others in this thread, after selecting "Play" in the Origin Game Library, then selecting the "Play" icon in the Sims 3 Launcher, the game immediately crashes to desktop without actually opening. The Origin icon in my taskbar flashes Origin when this happens and it essentially just boots me back to Origin Game Library. Additionally, attached to this message is the error log that is created in my "Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3" folder; this .txt file as well as an identically named .mdmp file is created each time the game crashes when I try to open it through the launcher. Attempting to open the game by running the "TS3.exe" and "TS3W.exe" files has the same result as trying to start the game from Origin and then the Launcher. 

If you are able to assist me in any way with my issue, I would greatly appreciate it. 

Max

[puzzlezaddict]

@PermaFrost358  I've merged your post with the master thread for this issue, which is that Sims 3 doesn't start correctly on 12th-gen Intel processors.  The workaround is to limit the game to one CPU core while it's loading, which you can do in several different ways.  The simplest is to run this patch that LazyDuchess created:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-won-t-open-Alder-Lake-Intel-12th-gen-CPU/m-p/11...

Or if you prefer, you can use a tool like Process Lasso to manually limit the game to one core as it launches, then remove the limit once you have a save loaded.

[xllo3ollx]

@LazyDuchess Thank you so much! The Sims 3 works fine.
However, there is a problem that the game keeps turning off during play.
At first, it turned off five minutes later, and when I turned it on again, it turned off ten minutes later.

[puzzlezaddict]

@xllo3ollx  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 done anything to cap your in-game framerates.  If you haven't, that would be the place to start; I can help with that if you want.

[PermaFrost358]

Hi there @puzzlezaddict, 

Thank you for merging my post into this thread as well as recommending Duchess's patch. When I first downloaded and extracted Duchess's patch and attempted to run the patch's .exe and applied it to my TS3.exe, it gave me an error message and the patch would not apply. The next day I tried the patch .exe again and for some reason this time the patch apparently worked since it gave me a message saying it was successfully applied. However, upon opening the game from the Launcher, it launched to the loading screen and then developed a black line flickering effect across the screen, and the game would not load past the loading screen. 

I did try to limit my in-game framerate by using the Nvidia Control Panel and setting the TS3.exe max framerate to 60 fps, I turned on vsync, and turned on Triple Buffering. This did limit my framerate to 60 fps when I booted the game, but the game still had a flickering effect and did not load past the loading screen. 

I did try another person's suggestion in the thread which was to enter the Task Manager when the Launcher is open, go to Details tab, right click the Sims 3.exe, click "Set Affinity", and then deselect "All Processors" and instead select only CPU 1. This seems to work with letting me enter the game and play around in it, but also it seems I'd have to do this every time I play the Sims 3 or open it up. I'm not sure if after opening the game I can then reselect all my CPUs to be activated. 

If you have any thoughts on this, please let me know as your help is greatly appreciated.

[puzzlezaddict]

@PermaFrost358  I wonder whether you're getting exactly the same error as before or something else.  If you have a third-party antivirus, it's possible that it interfered with Lazy Duchess's patch and running it didn't actually address the underlying issue at all for you.  Setting the CPU affinity to 1 has the same effect as the patch should, except that it doesn't expire.  I don't actually know whether undoing the Task Manager setting would allow Sims 3 to use multiple cores again in that play session, but you could try it and see.

To confirm, pllease look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit Windows key-R, enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart with a list of errors and updates with a column for each day.  If you see an error that lists Sims 3 and is timestamped from after you ran the patch the second time (when it said it worked), right-click on the error name, select "View technical details," copy the info, and paste it here.

Another option for limiting the game to one CPU core is this PowerShell script created by another user:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-3-won-t-open-Alder-Lake-Intel-12th-gen-CPU/m-p/11...

You'd need to run it every time you opened the game, but it does expire after five seconds, so you wouldn't need to do anything else to restore the game's ability to use multiple CPU cores.  I'm also curious whether this works, since it and the patch do exactly the same thing.