More Awesome Than You!

Well, I had an arred Sims 3 installed (razor, by the way). Everything was great. Then, I tried to install World Adventures. It had an updating error, and closed. I then tried to open up Sims 3, and the screen turned black, and went right back to the desktop. I tried redoing the crack and removing custom content, but nothing worked. Help?

Attached is a log file I found in the Sims 3 folder. Not sure if it will help, but I thought it'd stick it on just to be sure.

Uninstall everything, then reinstall. Don't forget to patch up to 1.7 before you install WA and then 2.2 afterward. If it happens again, you might have gotten a corrupted version or something. A different download might help.

Darn. At least I still have the iso. But how did it get corrupted, anyway?

No idea. People screw up and forget important files, sometimes. Or maybe they just did it wrong. Might even be they screwed with it on purpose just to be malicious. When I was trying to download Sims 3 Reloaded before I gave in and bought a legal copy, I kept getting downloads that either contained or were entirely viruses.

But mine was the Razor version. It was supposed to be good. :/ Oh well. Maybe it screwed up during the install.

When you uninstall the game, go back to where the folders were in your computer, and make sure there are no folders still there for Sims 3, if there are, that means that the files in it are not from the original game installation, so delete it.  Move out any custom music, and custom content you might have had in the game from the Documents>EA section.  Ok, now, install the game.  Once it is installed DO NOT PUT IN THE CRACK, I REPEAT, DO NOT PUT IN THE CRACK!  Before you dare to put in the crack, update the game.  Now, it should work, the reason that updateing usually fails is because it finds a file that is not part of the original installtion.  And CC, Custom Music, and Cracks will qualify for this.  Now, if the update works, install WA. Update. Then, since you are on these forums I assume you use AwesomeMod, so what you're gonna do is say "FUUUUUCKKK YOUUUUUU!" to the crack from Razors, and in the Awesomemod Config tool "Morestupidthanyou.com" you enable the no cd check, this will work like a crack, without replacing any of the .exe files.

By the way, I too use Razors torrents to play this game, and it works great for me!  So I hope this information helps you, and if not...well sorry man but you might just be fucked.

Thanks! I'll try that out this weekend. I don't get access to Sims 3 until then. Heh.

Oh, and mine wasn't really a torrent. It was from Usenet. Works better, IMO. Much faster.

Had a similar problem when WA first came out. And that was a LEGAL copy. Seriously, EA have screwed me over for the last time. Screw you guys, I'm off back to The Sims 2.

Won't let me uninstall. It says 'An error (-5005 : 0x8000ffff) has occurred while running the setup.'.

Help?

Edit: Alright, I managed to uninstall and install both of them. I then put in AwesomeMod. But after I click the shortcut (I changed to target to TS3EP01.exe to avoid the sucky launcher), the screen turns black and goes right to the desktop. Any ideas?

Black screen in my case was a corrupt install caused by the firewall. I disabled it and the game installed (almost) fine, now I have codes displaying instead of names in all WA added items/sims. I still don't know what causes *that*, but the game is otherwise playable.

I'm sorry for digging this thing up, but Sims 3 still doesn't work. Uninstalled WA, put in awesomemod, it's already patched to 1.5[insert lots of numbers here]. I can't figure out what the problem is. Click it, screen turns black, and desktop crash. :/

Are you using the 3booter? IF not, you might give it a try, it kept mine from spontaneously crashing to desktop.

Alright. I put 3Booter in the root install, double clicked, and all of a sudden the screen was turning black every five seconds. And if I would move my cursor before it turned black, it would move back once the black had cleared. The only way to get rid of it was to end 3booter in Task Manager, which ended Sims 3. Apparently, since it couldn't start up, it kept restarting over and over. So, yeah, guess that's not the solution.

You are saying it's already patched to "1.5[insert lots of numbers here].  First of all, the base game is up to 1.8 and the expansion is up to 2.3.  AwesomeMod is not compatible with any previous versions of the game/patches, only the latest.  Pescado discontinued everything but the current test version.

So, in order to be able to use AwesomeMod at all, you need to fully patch your games.  Perhaps this is your problem.

I tried taking out AwesomeMod and using the normal crack as well. AwesomeMod is not the problem. And I tried patching to a higher version, and it says it's successful, but the version does not update.

@Jaecin: I'll check with my father. He built the computer.

Same problem, screen goes black then crashes to desktop, 3booter made it happen over and over. I hadn't played for a while, got WA today, patched from 1.5 to 1.8, installed WA, patched from 2.0 to 2.3, downloaded Awesomemod, FPS limiter and 3booter again, followed instructions for file placement and then tried to run the game.

I suspect that EA themselves put out these torrents. Seeding the web with copies that will put a virus on your computer is a lot cheaper than taking all the pirates to court for copyright violation and whatnot. I think that's EA's version of stickin' it to the pirates. I wouldn't be surprised if they came onto this forum and uploaded dangerous versions of Store content here.

The problem with this is, myself and others (for some reason) get the blue screen of death and auto re-boot system when the driver is out of date. There is no option but to keep the latest model installed.

Did that help at all? Like I said, I tried patching higher, but it didn't update the version number. So I'm not exactly sure which version I have. Oh well.

And if I right click the desktop, I get an option that says 'NVIDIA Control Panel', so yes, I assume this computer has a NVIDIA card. I'm not completely sure on the driver though. If I knew how to check, I would. This computer's so confusing (it's not mine; it's my dad's). So once I can figure out the driver version, I could try installing a previous one. If that doesn't work, I'll just put it back. Maybe this computer's just not meant to run Sims 3. *sighs*

No, I meant that's what I did before I tried to play today, at which point I started experiencing the blackscreen-crashtodesktop problem.

Since I last posted I've uninstalled everything, deleted caches, removed Awesomemod etc etc and even a fresh install of the base game with no patches crashes in the same way. I've got nvidia, if it's relevant, and I suppose it's possible that I updated drivers since I last played the Sims. I'm surprised more people haven't had this problem if that's the cause, however.

Thoughts?

Update: Found this site describing the Nvidia driver issue (http://asilee.com/2009/10/07/the-sims-3-game-no-longer-works-with-new-nvidia-drivers/), followed the instructions (uninstall Nvidia drivers, download and reinstall the previous ones) and it works! *phew*

Here's hoping I haven't now crippled some other game which needed those drivers...wishful thinking?

Alright, I'll try that. Hopefully it'll work.

Edit: Now I'm getting a 'we were unable to verify that your disc is valid' error. Ugh. I tried re-patching, but to no avail. Will this thing ever work?

Awesomemod requires patch 1.8, or 2.3 if you've got WA installed, I have no idea if this is the cause however. You mentioned earlier that your version number is at 1.5, but despite patching higher?

I had to do things in the right order to get it all to work (took some time to work it all out let me tell you):

• install the base game and patch to 1.5 using the file provided on the WA disc (/support/Updates - ask if you don't know which to use)
• install any custom content that requires the launcher now - some Store stuff won't install before patching to 1.5, and apparently you can't use the version 1.8 launcher to install CC without melting everything
• install WA if you want (this requires you to be at version 1.5)
• apply the 1.8/2.3 patches - USING THE LAUNCHER TO INSTALL CC AFTER THIS CAUSES BAD SHIT TO HAPPEN
• install Awesomemod

As far as I can judge, this is the required order and must be followed every time you install the game.

Run the game after every step to make sure it loads/CC appears etc.

Anyway, if you're installing patches and the version number isn't updating, I would suggest that something bad is happening and you probably need to uninstall and start again. After uninstalling I suggest deleting all folders/files left behind and starting from scratch. Make sure you're using the right patches (the long version number should end the same as the version you're on - 00002 probably)

Sorry, I didn't see this until today. I managed to fix it on my own. I uninstalled, reinstalled, patched to 1.2.7, cracked (changed the original TS3 file to a bak, just in case), and ran. It works normally again, thankfully. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it. *hurries off to lurk more*