Nine Steps to a Fixed Sims 3 Game

in Sims 3 Gripes, Sims 3 Lists, Sims 3 Technical Stuff

I wrote about getting a Qtcore4.dll error with my Sims 3 game last week and trumpeted my relief that I had fixed my issues when in fact, I hadn’t.

I am happy to report that I played Sims 3 last night and everything worked like it was supposed to work.

This is what I did to get my game back to good.

Step One: I uninstalled the EA Download Manager.

I did this by using Windows’s Control Panel and the Uninstall Program function. That completely removed the Download Manager with no issues.

Step Two: I manually removed all Sims 3 games from my system.

The Unistall Program function wasn’t doing the job for some reason so I followed the instructions posted on EA’s website regarding manually removing Sims 3 from my system. I didn’t not follow the back-up part since I was so fed up with my issues that I didn’t care about my saved games. I DID back up my Registry files and suggest you do the same thing since deleting Registry files can be a dicey thing and if you delete the wrong thing you’ll bork your system.

Step Three: I manually deleted the EA files from My Documents.

This is something I didn’t do after my initial uninstall of my Sims 3 games and it caused issues. Don’t forget to remove stuff from My Documents.

Step Four: I ran CCleaner.

I found a butt ton of Registry errors when I ran this program and deleted them all.

Step Five: Reboot

Kind of self-explanatory, don’t you think?

Step Six: I checked my Adobe Flash version.

From my understanding – and tons of Google searches – the Sims 3 Game Launcher is all about some Flash and if you’re not running the most recent version of Flash player, you might/will probably have issues. They’re on version 10.0.45.2. If you’re not running that version, you can download Flash player version 10.0.45.2 here.

Step Seven: I reinstalled my Sims 3 games.

Can I just say I will NEVER buy another Sims game via Digital Download? The downloads took forever and I have a super fast connection.

Step Eight: I reinstalled the custom content I love.

I play Sims 3 with game default skin replacements [Go AWAY PUDDING!] and wanted to make sure the future Sims I created were as pretty as my old ones.

Step Nine: I clicked on Sims 3: High-End Loft and crossed my fingers.

When, after all those hours of work, I got a black loading screen, I freaked out but the game did load and I was able to create a Sim – my three year old daughter helped – and everything worked like it should.

In the end, I’m pretty sure I had more issues than just the Qtcore4.dll issue, but this is how I got my Sims 3 game back to good.

If you’re having issues similar to the ones I’ve had, I hope this works for you as well. I know how frustrating it can be to really want to play Sims 3 and not be able to.

Happy Simming!

Need help installing downloads? Watch a video tutorial on how to Install Sims 3 Custom Content with Framework and/or read Five Steps to Shiny Custom Content in Sims 3!