You won't loose your custom content if you need to do a reinstall of the game. Just back up the Sims 3 folder to a flash drive, desktop or some where else safe.
The Play button in Origin is gray
Here's a few tips you can try:
1. Repair Game: Open the EA App > Library > Find Sims 3 and Click Manage > Repair.
- Do note this repairs the game's install files for the actual game. It does not make any changes to the saved game files. Meaning that your saved games are safe, they won't be deleted. If you'd like you can copy the Sims 3 folder to a USB key for safe keeping.
2. Turn off EA App overlay: In the EA App, click Application and look for In-game Overlay this setting needs to be turned off.
EA App overlay is similar to what Origin in-game was. A feature that allows you to see friends online in-game as well as other game stats. However, It has been known to cause problems having this feature turned on.
3. Log out of the EA App. -- *If exiting the EA App isn't working, open Task manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc) search for a few files. Anything from EA (EA App and EA Background Services) and depending on your install files such as TS3.exe or TS3W.exe ; Sims3Launcher.exe or Sims3LauncherW.exe. Click on any of these that apply and select end process.
4. Clear the EA App Cache Files: Click Menu (☰) up top left > Help > App Recovery and select Clear Cache. * Restarting your computer maybe helpful after this step.
5. Run a Registry cleaner: Specially If you've recently uninstalled or reinstalled the game it maybe worth a try to use a registry cleaner such as Ccleaner or Revo Uninstaller to cleanup the files left behind from uninstalling the app and game files.
6. Uninstall/Reinstall the Game and/or EA App: It's recommended to uninstall the EA App, Sims 3 and related content. Use a registry cleaner such as Ccleaner or Revo Uninstaller to cleanup the files left behind from uninstalling the app and game files. Then reinstall the EA App (
https://www.ea.com/ea-app), Sims 3 and related content via the EA App.
–Consider Contacting EA: (
https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/) to see if it's an account issue, like game entitlements not being recognized as owned. You may need to try asking about it with Live Chat Support. If you don't see the option, change the location in your browser window to U.S. or U.K.
–If still not working or still crashing: Run the Error Reporter: They ask players to run the EA Error Reporter (
https://help.ea.com/en-gb/help/ea/ea-app/run-ea-error-report/) and share your Report ID with either a post at answers.ea Sims 3 Technical Help Board. (Sims 3 Tech Board:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/bd-p/the-sims-3) or EA Customer Service.
