Not sure if they've fixed this yet or not but just thought I'd mention it in case others have the same issues. When I first got the Sims 3 I couldn't get into it at all. Installed everything fine and got all the updates and then go to load it up and it goes through the whole loading screen, right at the end when the bar's almost green it would crash. After hours of sifting through EA's tech support site I found out that there was a conflict with a particular version of Nvidea GE Force graphics card which happens to be the one I have (I don't remember the model # right now, sorry, 6400 maybe?) That was causing it to crash. They said that it was a known problem but they basically weren't doing anything to fix it at the time, and all they could suggest was running the game without updates.
So what I had to do was uninstall the base and EP, re-install and decline the updates when it pops up at the launcher. It works, just every time you load the game you'll have to resist the urge to install the updates when it pops up, lol. Now I don't know if it was the same issue or something to do with the fact that my desktop is on the way out, but the game was super super laggy in buy and build modes. I had to stop playing one of my games because my sim was following the architectural design career path and every time I did a job redecorating someone's house it would take me half an hour or more just to place a few pieces of furniture. I got frustrated but didn't want to change career paths.
So if you do have the same issues at loadup and find it works without the updates just a warning that you might want to avoid design and stylist careers once you get going or you'll be tearing your hair out if it acts the same way mine did. =/
After all the headaches, now that I've switched to my husband's gaming laptop it is so nice to be able to play with no issues or lagging.
