I agree that EA is a very horrible company. I haven't bought a single game from them for many years. Spore almost tempted me to, but luckily (for my wallet) and unluckily (for the good of all gamers) the game turns out to suck big time. Dragon Age is my next target, and it seems like it will suck too.
When I try to launch The Sims 3, it crashes immedeately. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling TS3, nothing. I tried upgrading my graphics driver... nothing. The only think I haven't tried is reformatting my whole harddrive, which is a pretty realistic and inevitable choice right now. Any ideas?
Start The Sims 3 again, let it crash. Then right-click on My Computer on desktop, click Manage. Expand the tree on the left: System Tools | Event Viewer | Windows Logs | Application.
Check the entries at the top, look for a red exclamation mark labeled "Error". Go through them and see if any of those belong to The Sims 3. After you found the entry you can right click on it, choose Copy | Copy Detail as Text and post it here and on EA support forums. That might give some idea about what happened.
I don't have The Sims 3, but here's some uneducated guesses (
since we know nothing about what has happened):
1. Dig around The Sims 3's install directory to see if The Sims 3 uses a launcher application. If so, start The Sims 3 with its real EXE file.
2. Assuming you are running Vista with UAC on (
since you said nothing about your system) Run the launcher/real EXE as Administrator. Sometimes it's the program itself, sometimes it could be the DRM it employs. I suspect EA has already updated its studios' programming practice for Vista, but it's worth a try.
3. Try running the launcher/real EXE in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2. It's a long shot, since a new game should have been coded for Vista, but again worth a try.
4. Look for available updates for your video and sound drivers.
5. When asking a question, posting detailed information will get you more helpful answers.
