Sims 3 Launcher Won't Launch (Windows 10) - No common fixes work

[power9ranger]

Many of us have been having issues with getting the sims 3 launcher to open/launch.

I have read many forums, contacted EA advisors four times and have tried all the suggested solutions offered but nothing seems to fix my issue.

When I click the "play" button for sims 3 on Origin, Origin minimizes and the "play" button greys out, indicating that it is trying to launch the sims 3. Then Origin maximizes and the button is no longer greyed out, showing the game hasn't launched. I have looked in Task Manager and the sims 3 launcher does not appear there. Sims 4 runs perfectly fine via Origin on my laptop.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the sims 3 multiple times, I have done a deep dive on my laptop to delete all leftover sims 3 cache files, I have made sure all my stuff (Origin, Windows, etc.) is up to date, I have tried booting my laptop up on safe mode, I run Origin as an administrator, I have tried bypassing the sims 3 launcher altogether, I've installed the DX9 thing that many said solved their issues on the forums. Nothing works. I'm getting very desperate and I would love to start playing the sims 3 again.

I have been playing it on this laptop for YEARS with no issues and then two months ago it stopped working. The day before it stopped working, I installed some programs to try to fix my broken phone. I have since uninstalled said programs so I don't know if that could be an issue.

I'm attaching those Dxdiag text things so you all can try your best to help me.

Let me know if you need any other information

[puzzlezaddict]

@power9ranger  The Sims 3 errors in your dxdiag don't look anything like the errors related to DirectX 9, but they do look like a system issue.  So please start by running a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
• The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
• After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
• Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
• Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
• Post the message you receive here

Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.  If any install, restart again afterwards.

If you still can't play, try updating the driver for your graphics chip.  You can find the newest one for Windows from Intel, dated February 5 2021, here:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/75105/intel-core-i34005u-processor-3m-cache-1-7...

Do not try to install the newer-looking one from April; that's not meant for Windows 10 and is probably not fully compatible.  Restart your computer afterwards.  If you get an error that the driver from February isn't compatible, don't try to fix it, just let me know.

[power9ranger]

Hi! Sorry for the slow response, I was extremely busy yesterday, and thank you so much for the response. 

This is the message I received after the scan:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.

After the scan and updates, Sims 3 still won't work. I tried installing the driver from February but there was an error message "the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer manufacturer. Setup will exit.'

[puzzlezaddict]

@power9ranger  Your computer's old graphics driver is from 2016, and it could well be the issue here considering its age and the errors in your dxdiag.  Force-installing a newer driver is a bit of work though, and it sounds like Asus software is blocking you from installing the easy way.  So since your dxdiag also lists a couple of Origin errors, let's try a clean uninstall and reinstall of Origin first:

• Quit Origin, then right-click on the Task Bar and open the Task Manager.  Scroll through looking for Origin entries.  If you find any, click on them and End Task.
• Clear Origin's cache.
• Download Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) from here.
• Launch Revo, select Origin from the list, and click Uninstall.
• When it finishes uninstalling, select "Moderate" under "scanning modes," and click Scan.
• If Revo finds any remaining registry entries, select all, delete, and click Next.
• Revo will display "Remaining Data and Folders."  Select all of them except for the "Origin Games" folder, if it appears.  (This is where Origin games are installed by default.)  Delete the rest.
• Close Revo, and restart your computer.

Next, download the full Origin installer and run it.  Here's the direct download link:

http://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe

Be sure to run both the installer and Origin itself as an admin: right-click on each and select "Run as Administrator."  When you try to open Sims 3, run it as an admin too, which you can do by right-clicking on the desktop shortcut or TS3.exe within the game's program files.

If that doesn't work, I want to double-check the new errors you get when trying to open the game.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, which will open the Reliability Monitor.  You'll see a list of errors and updates, with a column for each day.  (Today is all the way on the right.)

For any errors that mention Origin or Sims 3 from after you reinstall Origin, or any that happen at the same time as you try to open the game, click "View technical details," then copy the information and paste it into a reply here.  Sometimes the Reliability Monitor doesn't update right away, so if you don't see any related errors, be sure to check back an hour or two.  The timestamp on the initial chart can also be off by up to an hour, so that's not an entirely reliable metric, but the one within the technical details should be accurate.

[power9ranger]

Hi. I did all that you suggested but Sims 3 is still not working

Here is the message I received from the Reliability Monitor about Sims 3 after I tried to open it a few times.

Problem: APPCRASH

Description
Stopped working
Faulting Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Sims3Launcher.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Sims3Launcher.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 568d485b
Fault Module Name: KERNELBASE.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.2.19041.1202
Fault Module Timestamp: 448a4f5d
Exception Code: e0434f4d
Exception Offset: 0012b5b2
OS Version: 10.0.19043.2.0.0.768.100
Locale ID: 7177

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: c60c0f577e0151df94991e391a181193 (1484250782795043219)

Is the true problem identifiable from this report?

Thank you in advance

[puzzlezaddict]

@power9ranger  No, unfortunately the problem is not apparent from this error, although it's the same error as is in your dxdiag means the problem hasn't been addressed.  If you're curious, the difficulty is that the faulting module, KERNELBASE.dll, is a component of Windows that is unlikely to itself be corrupt; it's likely calling something else that isn't working properly, but the error report doesn't reveal what that might be.

Please try playing in a clean boot:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

When you reboot, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down anything that doesn't absolutely need to be running.  Don't open any other applications aside from Origin and Sims 3, not even a browser window.  Shut down your antivirus too, if you use one.  As long as you're not doing anything else, your computer should be safe.

If you still can't open the launcher, please instead try bypassing it.  Make sure Origin is completely closed (check the Task Manager for background services), then open this file path:

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

Rename these executables, in order:

Sims3Launcher.exe -> Sims3Launcher_old.exe

TS3.exe -> Sims3Launcher.exe

TS3W.exe -> TS3.exe

Open Origin and try to play.  If it worked, instead of seeing the launcher, the game should load as it would if you pressed Play in the launcher.  This isn't a perfect solution—you still wouldn't be able to use the launcher—but it'll be helpful to know whether the game itself works.

[power9ranger]

The clean boot didn't help me launch the game, but the renaming of those files did! Thank you so much.

So there must be an issue with the launcher. Is there any way I can fix it? Launcher is quite helpful to install custom content and to also select expansion packs.

I have been playing sims 3 now and the only issue is that my expansion packs aren't showing up (they are installed via origin but obviously without the launcher I cannot select them). The first time I opened the game after the fix, they were recognized but after I exited, pasted my mods folder into my new sims folder and opened again, the expansion packs no longer appeared.

Is there any way I can get my expansions to be recognized?

Thank you so much for the help!

[puzzlezaddict]

@power9ranger  Do the packs show up if you play in another clean Sims 3 folder?  I realize that doesn't help with the launcher, but it would be helpful to know.

The pack selections are stored in Internet Explorer's cache somewhere, I don't know exactly where (or what the data looks like for that matter), so in theory you could select and deselect packs without the launcher.  That's far from ideal though, and it also doesn't help with installing Sims3Packs.

For the launcher issue, please try opening it again, then look for a crash dump.  Click Windows key-R and copy and paste this:

%LocalAppData%\CrashDumps

When you enter, you'll see a list of .dmp files.  If one of them is from the launcher, please upload it to a third-party filehosting site (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it here.

If there is no launcher .dmp file, you can enable them:

• Hit the Windows key, type "command prompt" in the box, right-click on Command Prompt in the search results, and select Run as Administrator
• In the window, paste "reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\devenv.exe" /v DumpType /d 2 /t REG_DWORD" without the outside quotes into the box, and enter
• Try to open the launcher, and wait a couple minutes
• Hit Windows key-R and paste "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" without quotes into the box, and enter
• Upload the last .dmp file to a free filesharing site and link it here
• When you want to undo the auto crash log dumps, open Command Prompt as before, paste "reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps" /f" without the outside quotes, and enter.

Please use a clean Sims 3 folder while generating the crash dump.

[power9ranger]

Hi. So sorry for the late response, it has been a difficult few weeks.

When I play with a completely new sims folder, all of the packs are selected and work. Once I click save and exit and then reopen that same game, now only base game is recognised. It is very frustrating as I was so close to a fix.

I tried doing all of that stuff to generate a crash dump but nothing came up. Maybe I did it wrong.

It has been very frustrating, but it is good to narrow down the issue to the sims 3 launcher. 

Do you know if there have been any fixes made by EA to fix the launcher?

[puzzlezaddict]

@power9ranger  There haven't been any patches to Sims 3 in six years, so no, the launcher hasn't been fixed and likely won't be.  But you might be able to get around this.  In the Sims 3 user folder, there are a couple of files labeled Sims3LauncherLogFile and Sims3Logs.  These can be deleted like the cache files and will regenerate the next time the game opens.  Try removing them and see if your packs load in an existing folder.

It's also worth trying to play in a new admin Windows account, if you haven't already.  It's easy enough to set one up for testing, and you won't need to reinstall the game.