Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 3rd Nov 2017 at 9:44 PM Last edited by lesbara1 : 3rd Nov 2017 at 10:05 PM. Reason: Added more details

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default Balck screen after starting The Sims 3
Hi!

today, I downloaded lots of mods and when I launched the game, the screen went black and nothing else happened. I tried to solve this by using the Sims 3 Dashboard tool (like always) which found a few duplicate, conflicting and corrupt packages. After solving the conflicts by moving dcdb1.dbc from DCCache to a safe place (just in case) and letting the tool disable the corrupt packages, I started the game again →black screen. Desparetly moved all the mods downloaded today to another folder → black screen. Deleting cache files (following this tutorial) → black screen. Okay, troubleshooting step #1: Clean run. Moved Documents\...\Mods\Resources.cfg to somewhere else → no black screen.
It seems like the mods causing the issue, however, the game run just fine yesterday evening with exactly the same mods (because I didn't put the new mods back just yet).
So my questions are:
'WTF?' and 'What can I do to play the game with mods?'

List of "old" and newly downloaded mods.
Please let me know if the admins at Pastebin delete either one (or both) of the lists so I can edit the topic.
Advertisement
Tartan McBadgerface
#2 Old 3rd Nov 2017 at 10:14 PM
I believe it has to do with the amount of mods and your PC's ability to handle them, but I could be wrong. I built my PC to handle TS3 and my mods, but even so, I get a black screen for maybe a minute or two, but it eventually goes away. When I run my game without mods, it just loads straight to the loading screen. On my old PC, it was just black indefinitely until I reduced the amount of mods that I have and tried again.

Another possibility is that your graphics are unable to handle TS3 at your current settings. Even some high end cards have trouble with TS3, it's a known drain on resources.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 3rd Nov 2017 at 10:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Hellfrozeover
I believe it has to do with the amount of mods and your PC's ability to handle them, but I could be wrong. I built my PC to handle TS3 and my mods, but even so, I get a black screen for maybe a minute or two, but it eventually goes away. When I run my game without mods, it just loads straight to the loading screen. On my old PC, it was just black indefinitely until I reduced the amount of mods that I have and tried again.

Another possibility is that your graphics are unable to handle TS3 at your current settings. Even some high end cards have trouble with TS3, it's a known drain on resources.


Like I said, I removed all the new mods their amount is exactly the same as it was yesterday evening when the game run just fine. There were some noticeable lags with NRaas StorProgession mods (mainly when they replaced EA's story progression) but besides that, the game run just fine.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 4th Nov 2017 at 10:25 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Mods don't really do that, unless it was a mod that is broken or one that somehow changes your graphical option.

1) Start a clean run. After successfully running it. Save down the file "options.ini"
2) Replace the folder with your original folder, but not with any of your new mods. Copy the new options.ini into this folder. Run and test, verify it works.
3) Um... well, you gotta figure out which mod broked it.


It turned out I just needed to wait some more... The game started with after about 5 minutes. It didn't take that long (usually it took 2-3 minutes) before and that's why I thought it doesn't start.

Now it starts and loads correctly. Loading is slow but that's normal for me. It always took up to 15 minutes to start the game and load the world - even without mods.

Maybe because my graphics chip isn't in the game's list. Whatever. It works and for now, that's the only thing that matters.
Test Subject
#7 Old 4th Nov 2017 at 4:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lesbara1
Hi!

today, I downloaded lots of mods and when I launched the game, the screen went black and nothing else happened. I tried to solve this by using the Sims 3 Dashboard tool (like always) which found a few duplicate, conflicting and corrupt packages. After solving the conflicts by moving dcdb1.dbc from DCCache to a safe place (just in case) and letting the tool disable the corrupt packages, I started the game again →black screen. Desparetly moved all the mods downloaded today to another folder → black screen. Deleting cache files (following this tutorial) → black screen. Okay, troubleshooting step #1: Clean run. Moved Documents\...\Mods\Resources.cfg to somewhere else → no black screen.
It seems like the mods causing the issue, however, the game run just fine yesterday evening with exactly the same mods (because I didn't put the new mods back just yet).
So my questions are:
'WTF?' and 'What can I do to play the game with mods?'

List of "old" and newly downloaded mods.
Please let me know if the admins at Pastebin delete either one (or both) of the lists so I can edit the topic.

Were you told that the game was blocked from accessing graphics hardware?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#8 Old 16th Nov 2017 at 6:08 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Well you can always post your deviceconfig and let us take a look.

Sorry, I didn't have time to check back here. Here 's my config.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#9 Old 16th Nov 2017 at 6:34 PM
Quote: Originally posted by mistydoggoxo
Were you told that the game was blocked from accessing graphics hardware?

I didn't say anything like that. What I meant is, an error message popped up, notifying me about my graphics card is not supported and I should consider replacing it. You know, the 'Warning: Unrecognized graphics card' pop-up window.
Sorry, but I can't take a screenshot of it and I can't find one either.
Instructor
#11 Old 17th Nov 2017 at 6:39 AM
Based on this;



The OP's AMD HD Radeon 8500M 4 digits Device ID is 666F, put this 4 digits replacing one of the "AMD Radeon HD 7500 Series" in GraphicsCards.sgr file to make TS3 recognizes the gpu.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#12 Old 21st Nov 2017 at 10:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
deviceconfig is a log file located in your sims 3 user folder.

Sorry. Here's the content of DeviceConfig.log.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#13 Old 21st Nov 2017 at 10:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by PapaEmy
Based on this;



The OP's AMD HD Radeon 8500M 4 digits Device ID is 666F, put this 4 digits replacing one of the "AMD Radeon HD 7500 Series" in GraphicsCards.sgr file to make TS3 recognizes the gpu.

Thanks!
Back to top