Sims 3 wont work

[mamapanda]

My problem is I needed a new computer and my fiance bought me the Imax, best buy told me the Sims 3 would work amazing on the Mac. I got home and installed the Sims 3 and when I did the game will run but crash and I will lose all my saved data. I uninstalled the Sims 3 and then reinstalled all the games and now a error pops up and says it can't open the launcher. I've heard that you switched to lion and that's why a lot of Mac computers are having trouble with the game. Do you as EA have a fix for this I spent a lot of money on your games and I can't play them. 

[gaa17 · Accepted solution]

Best Buy is super misinformed; you should go correct them.  The game does not run amazingly on Macs; it's awful.  Despite the game cases saying it's Mac-compatible, many many people cannot play their game for very long without it crashing because of a memory problem.  This is not a hardware issue, it's a game issue (see below for more info).  It sounds like the first problem you had before you reinstalled.  There is no solution for this problem.

As for your second issue, I don't know what you can do specifically to fix that.  It is not because the game is made for Lion or Snow Leopard or Mountian Lion, etc because it crashes on all of them...However, you should be able to least open the game and play for a little while.  It sounds like something with the launcher got corrupted when reinstalling.  Although super annoying, the only thing I can think of is to do a clean / manual uninstall, and then reinstall your games.  If you want to do that, these are the instructions for Macs: http://bluebellflora.com/ts3-on-a-mac/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac-2.

Once your game is working again (i.e. gets past the launcher and let's you play), there are some things you can do to help the game with the crashing.  I'm not sure how much troubleshooting you've already tried, but here's some advice:

If you actually want to "play" the game as it's supposed to work, then get a PC or Bootcamp & Windows for your Mac. The game is not natively written for our systems (I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro). As long as EA uses Cider, a "wrapper" for the game that enables Macs to play Windows games, it's going to crash with memory issues.

Do not follow EA game advisors' advice without taking into account that many times their advice is wrong for Mac users and can harm our systems. If EA's customer support tells you to open Activity Monitor and quit processes - DO NOT DO IT. Your Mac will freeze resulting in you needing to power it off using the Power button which can be harmful. This is the first "solution" they tell all Mac users to do. Just use common sense when it comes to their "advice."

Here are two good posts from the Sims 3 Mac forum that have a couple of useful "band-aids" to get the game to work temporarily:
-- http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/658546.page  <---especially this link
-- http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/611723.page

Best of luck in your battle to play the Sims 3.

[gaa17 · Accepted solution]

Best Buy is super misinformed; you should go correct them.  The game does not run amazingly on Macs; it's awful.  Despite the game cases saying it's Mac-compatible, many many people cannot play their game for very long without it crashing because of a memory problem.  This is not a hardware issue, it's a game issue (see below for more info).  It sounds like the first problem you had before you reinstalled.  There is no solution for this problem.

As for your second issue, I don't know what you can do specifically to fix that.  It is not because the game is made for Lion or Snow Leopard or Mountian Lion, etc because it crashes on all of them...However, you should be able to least open the game and play for a little while.  It sounds like something with the launcher got corrupted when reinstalling.  Although super annoying, the only thing I can think of is to do a clean / manual uninstall, and then reinstall your games.  If you want to do that, these are the instructions for Macs: http://bluebellflora.com/ts3-on-a-mac/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac-2.

Once your game is working again (i.e. gets past the launcher and let's you play), there are some things you can do to help the game with the crashing.  I'm not sure how much troubleshooting you've already tried, but here's some advice:

If you actually want to "play" the game as it's supposed to work, then get a PC or Bootcamp & Windows for your Mac. The game is not natively written for our systems (I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro). As long as EA uses Cider, a "wrapper" for the game that enables Macs to play Windows games, it's going to crash with memory issues.

Do not follow EA game advisors' advice without taking into account that many times their advice is wrong for Mac users and can harm our systems. If EA's customer support tells you to open Activity Monitor and quit processes - DO NOT DO IT. Your Mac will freeze resulting in you needing to power it off using the Power button which can be harmful. This is the first "solution" they tell all Mac users to do. Just use common sense when it comes to their "advice."

Here are two good posts from the Sims 3 Mac forum that have a couple of useful "band-aids" to get the game to work temporarily:
-- http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/658546.page  <---especially this link
-- http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/611723.page

Best of luck in your battle to play the Sims 3.

[mamapanda]

Thanks this has helped me alot. I understand there is no solution for this fix and this makes me so made i feel like EA has falsley advertised there product telling there customers that it will run on mac. I think they need to fix there mistake but intill they do i will windows for my mac idea. 

[gaa17]

You're welcome.  It is super sad because most people see the Mac compatible sticker and assume that means it works.  From what I've experienced myself with Game Advisors and what I've read other Mac people post, EA has yet to even acknowledge their game and Cider are to blame.  They always end up blaming our computers.  However, if that was the main issue, then the game wouldn't run perfectly on Bootcamp with Windows.  Bootcamp proves it's not the hardware, it's the software.  Good Luck Simming when you can.