Hi there and Happy Holidays if you celebrate! Unfortunately I have a somewhat unpleasant Christmas surprise after updating my computer with some new hardware and installing Windows 10 in the process as the C drive is also new. Installing the Sims went smoothly, but it won't start. The Launcher does, but after hitting play button the process just vanishes from the task manager and nothing happens. Nothing seems to happen at all if I try from the TS3W.exe directly. I install from disc pre-origin. That had worked flawlessly on my computers before, even on a Windows 10 one.
After uninstalling I only installed the Basegame for now, if I can't get that one to work there is no need to spend the time installing all other packs. I patched it to 1.67.2 with the patch downloader tool. First install I used the super patch.

Computer:
- New CPU, mainbord, SSD, RAM. GPU is the same as before and didn't have problems to run the game in the past (dxdiag attached for more detailed system information removed]).
- freshly installed Windows 10 on a new c drive (ssd)
- all drivers updated, including NVIDIA

Installation:
- from disc pre-origin
- installed at the default path
- basegame only (for now), patched to 1.67.2
- no errors

What I tried so far:
- installing DirectX 9
- making sure .NET 3.5 is activated
- changing the GraphicsRules.sgr and GraphicsCards.sgr to make the game recognise the card. Hard to tell if I did it right as the game wouldn't start, so in current install I left it untouched
- uninstalling and install again
- trying to add the .exe to the Windows Defender exceptions, I even added the full folder, no difference
- running the game in compatiblity mode (Win 7, 8, XP SP2)
- adding the mods folder and the NRAAS no cd mod
- added TS3W.exe to DEP
- run as administrator

It's so weird the process won't even start/is killed immediately, but the launcher works (I can see the irony here, I never used the launcher before, so maybe it's The Revenge Of The Launcher? ). Also an Antimalware Service executable still kicks in if I try to start the TS3W.exe so I'm not sure if maybe Defender isn't still the problem.
What might also be weird that all entries in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\ for the Sims are empty apart from the registration key. The launchers does have its settings. The game does show up in the Apps list though. But maybe that is normal? I never checked registry entries before.

So, I hope I got everything and I hope even more one of you lovely folks has an idea how to get that game to work!

Yuck. Sorry be the bearer of bad news here, but TS3 is known to just not run on 12th generation Intel processors. And your dxdiag reveals right away that is what you are working with. Haven't been watching very closely, but this is the thread to watch as EA is aware of the issue and I don't think there is a solution for this one yet.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical...U/td-p/11057820

Oh dear, the worst case coming true I don't see EA doing anything to fix this, but who knows, sometimes miracles happen. What a bummer! Thanks, Igazor!

It's not clear yet if the impending solution needs to come from EA, from Intel, or a combination of the two. Hopefully it will be simple and straightforward, whatever it is, but from the way it's been described it doesn't sound like it will be impossible to overcome in the very near future. Let's just hope that whatever it is doesn't require Origin as that will leave 1.67/disk and Steam players on that class of processors out in the cold, but it's way too soon to jump to any conclusions like that.

I will definitely monitor that thread you linked and keep an eye open. Or two. I already start to feel withdrawal symptoms...

Quick update: I tried to enable Legacy Game Mode as suggested here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...processors.html That didn't work for me either though. It affects quite a few games actually, but the Sims is missing on all those lists Maybe it's too old even for "older games" or too niche.

It seems a problem with DRM which is a bit more explained in the Intel page I linked @nitromon.

Thank you very much, @Nitromon! Sadly it doesn't change anything. Neither of the processes show up in task manager, also the game won't even start to load. It does something though, I have a Black & White 2 folder in my documents folder now.

I tried a program called Process Lasso as someone suggested in the EA thread, limiting the number of cores for the TS3W.exe process to one. That does work indeed, but now I wonder, will one core even of this advanced strength (12th Gen Intel Core i5-12600K ~3.7GHz) be able to run a game with all EP/SP and possible mods and cc?

ETA: the DeviceCofig.log is still completly empty which shows that something is not ok.

Yes, I did play around with the number of cores and the type of them. It really works only with exactly one core, intrestingly enough it doesn't matter if it's a real or a hyper core. The only difference is, that for the real cores it needs to be an uneven one. The hyper cores all work. Good to know this can be done with the Task Manager also.

I haven't tried a "fixed" exe, I usually stay away from these things but maybe desperate times need desperate measures... I'll try that tomorrow and report back.

Maybe another weird fun fact - TS 2 installs and runs fine with nothing else to do than patch it properly (including 4GB patch).

The exe from G4tW wouldn't work at all. I didn't install the full G4tW SIms 3 BG version though, just used the exe, so I guess that's part of the problem. But that's not a way for me to go, so I won't pursue this any further.

Someone on that EA thread wrote a powershell script for setting the affinity before starting the game. Allegedly all cores are available after the initial start of the game but I'm not sure if that is true - process monitor still shows that the games runs on one core only. It does work for kick-starting the game though, so that's maybe something to work with? @nitromon I have no clue about powershell programming though.

Eta: with this kickstarting method also the DeviceConfig.log is filled.

Thank you very much, I learn something new in this community everyday! For now I will stick with the script, it has been updated to actually activate all cores again after the game started. Even running just Basegame on one core only wasn't the best user experience. Thanks again @nitromon for all your help and a Happy New Year!

For anyone else who might run into the same problem, here is the link again: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical...1144265#M249006