Sims 3 Launcher - ongoing problem

[kat]

Hi there,

It's been a while since I posted here, and ages since I played TS3!

I've been having problems with my launcher for a long time, and have searched for a solution everywhere but cannot find one. I can open and play the game without it, thanks to your guide on this site, but because I can't open the launcher, I can't download anything from the Sims shop online, or update my game. Is there a way I can do this without the launcher?
If not, the problem I have is that every time I open it up, my computer crashes and comes up with a 'System Dump' message. I have tried uninstalling & reinstalling, checking my system specs & free memory (totally fine), I have downloaded anti-virus (and there are no bugs on my comp), and followed instructions to delete unnecessary cache files.

Unfortunately though none of this solved my problem. Please, can anyone help me?!

ETA: The message it comes up with also says (in reference to the drive) "STOP: 0x0000008E" - this mean anything to anyone?

[Saltypaws]

Do you know the size of your video card and how much memory do you have?  Right after Sims3 was released, I had problems with my computer that I have read that others have now.  I put two more gigs of memory, for a total of four gigs and bought a new video card, Nvidia Gforce 9500, 1 gig memory.  I have not had one problem with anything, as far as download manager launcher or any other technical problems.  Every once in a while it will crash to desktop and I will catch it and click on the game in the tray and the game will come back so I can save it.  I am not saying it is either of those things that is causing the problems, I can only go by events that have happened to mine and what I did to solve it.  I have to remember to shut my game down after long game play or usually that causes some problems.  I feel very lucky compared to so many people that are having terrible issues and not even being able to play their games, I would probably go into sims meltdown, if I could not play my game, lol.