Sims 3 not doing anything

[clairedear]

Okay so I'm new to the forum but I am desperate. I'm having problems with sims 3. Okay, here's the deal in a nutshell. My launcher won't let me uninstall cc or install cc. And now the game doesn't even start, just makes my screen black without anything ever loading. I would be fine with uninstalling all my cc to see if that was the problem but I can't because the launcher won't uninstall it. I've gone through deleting all the cache files that are deletable, i've restarted my computer many times, I have tried playing the game many times, I am fully patched and everything is up to date, I couldn't exactly find a thread post that was specifically about my problem so I hope this is okay.  (okay I'm calm...but still frustrated)

[Ricalynn]

Welcome to the forum, clairedear.


One of the first things I would suggest is renaming your Sims 3 folder under Documents > Electronic Arts to something else and letting the launcher load a new one.  You won't have any CC, any mods, any store content.   Do not download anything, do not move any files and just see if you can open the game that way.

[clairedear]

Okay I did what you said and yes the game runs. The problem is I had A LOT of store content and a nice amount of cc. I'm happy the game works but I really want some of the cc back in the game. And now that it regenerated a new folder, what do I do with the old folder that I renamed?

[DaDewd]

hello!

Claire, dear (lol) I'll give it a go: typically one DID something so the game doesnt work ? I do! Sure I tried this alot, being that i mod stuff and so on. Im guessing that you somehow got a bad CC ? Who knows, it could be it ? well, good thing the games works now (doncha just hate to reinstall and all that..)

The folder that you renamed, inside that folder, theres another folder called 'downloads' right ? Inside it there are all that custom stuff you had ? you can take them and move them over to the new folder you got, under the same name folder 'downloads'. Maybe do it one by one ? Maybe don't move the last few contents that you got ? I just figure the last CC you got were bad, so skip that, and see if it works ?

In the OLD folder, that you renamed, there's also things like, recorded videos, screen shots, saved sims, exported sims, you saved games, ya and so on. If you look inside those folders, and browse the files, you can see, there might be something you want, especially an old save game . It's easy to move them files over to the same directories.. and yeah, I think any file could be a problem, god knows why sims3 refuse to start.

You could also use winzip/winrar and occasionally take a backup of that whole folder, then you have a backup of these things like screen shots videos etc, these things that work with the 'integrated sims3 launcher'.

I try to stick away from these mods that are 'sims3 installation packages'. They are usually a s3p file or something, that you click and it installs thru the launcher. After that, the launcher places the particular installed content under that new downloads folder. Actually I think you can browse to the OLD folder and just double click the s3p files, they should then get installed, and end up in your launcher, under the download section..something like that

[Saltypaws]

You could try putting back a few things at a time, play the game and if it works, put a few more things in.  That way, if you put something back and it doesn't play, you might be able to find out what it is, just keep track of the few things you put back in.  This is something that I have done.  If I purchase something and install it and the game doesn't work, I will uninstall it and if the game works, I just don't use the item.

[Pam]

@ DaDewd:  I received your private message and would like to chat with you some more, if you don't mind.  You can email me at [email protected].  Hope to hear from you soon.

[clairedear]

Thanks everyone! I'm so glad I finally decided to join this forum!