My Launcher is not working...can't play Sims argh!

[kat]

Hey, my game launcher isn't working? keeps freezing/crashing and won't let me 'play' the game. I dont have any mods or CC, and I have WA but it has been working fine up until now....
any tips? should I restart my computer??

[Metropolis Man]

Yeah, kat, restarting is always a good, free solution to try first. If that doesn't work, a reinstall might be in order.

[PJSim]

If it's just the launcher that's not working you can bypass that and start the game without it. Just browse to the .exe file in program files and start the game with that.

If you only have the base game it's this one:

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3

If you also have WA installed you need this instead:

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 World Adventures\Game\Bin\TS3EP01

Just double-click on that to start the game. You can also right-click on it and choose Send To... Desktop. That will put a shortcut to this file on your desktop so you can start the game from that instead of the launcher.

[Draigh]

You might want to check your video drivers. There seems to be an issue with those if you use the latest version of NVIDIA.
They are already working on that one.
In the meantime manually starting the game (as described above) works fine.

[kat]

Thanks for the feedback - I restarted my computer and that fixed the issue ; I would have done that before posting, but I didn't think it could be something as simple as that.
I never knew you could open it without the launcher, thanks heaps for that tip, too!

[jmz95]

Thanks for the feedback - I restarted my computer and that fixed the issue ; I would have done that before posting, but I didn't think it could be something as simple as that.
I never knew you could open it without the launcher, thanks heaps for that tip, too!

Always, always, always restart your computer first if you have no idea what is causing the problem, especially if your computer's been on for a long time as that can sometimes be the cause of the problem, too much going on as the RAM doesn't "reset" until you turn off the computer or manually do it.

[samoht04]

Ha I left my PC alone for two days and relised the game hadn't shut down just minimized so i just started playing and it kept freezing every 2mins and then playing normal but soon as the game was restarted it worked fine again! 

[Swede1992]

Also, I have personally had some difficulty with the launcher if you try to click on the sub-menus that have anything at all to do with downloading further from the Exchange. Since I never do, I figured it was a relatively minor bug and just avoided that all together. However if I do, the launcher for some reason freezes for me and I can't go back, but have to restart it to at least start up my game.

I can still see what I have so far downloaded (which is only Riverview).

[annieb]

I know you got this worked out, but I figured I would share what I learned last night. My internet was down at my house (I think the ice storm had something to do with that) so I decided to play Sims for awhile. I tried to start it but the launcher would not open. It would say it was loading but eventually just froze. I restarted and did everything I could think of and nothing worked. Finally as a last attempt I turned off my wireless internet (which says it was connected, but it wouldn't work) and the game started right up.

My theory is that when trying to load the launcher it was trying to connect with the internet which seemed like it should be working but it wasn't. Might have been too much for my little computer to handle! But it's something to keep in mind if you are ever having problems again.

[samoht04]

I know you got this worked out, but I figured I would share what I learned last night. My internet was down at my house (I think the ice storm had something to do with that) so I decided to play Sims for awhile. I tried to start it but the launcher would not open. It would say it was loading but eventually just froze. I restarted and did everything I could think of and nothing worked. Finally as a last attempt I turned off my wireless internet (which says it was connected, but it wouldn't work) and the game started right up.

My theory is that when trying to load the launcher it was trying to connect with the internet which seemed like it should be working but it wasn't. Might have been too much for my little computer to handle! But it's something to keep in mind if you are ever having problems again.

So the launcher had identified that your PC had a connection but it wasn't working. It then crashed because it wasnt able to fully load or something.

[annieb]

So the launcher had identified that your PC had a connection but it wasn't working. It then crashed because it wasnt able to fully load or something.

Yeah, I think it must have been something like that. I have a Mac so it could be a Mac specific problem, or just something my computer does. It's 2+ years old and can be a little temperamental at times. But I thought I would post what I learned just in case it helps someone else.