I cannot for the life of me get the cheat bar to show up in game anymore. I used to play Sims 3 on my laptop with no real issues a couple years ago, and wanted to try it again here recently. I uninstalled and cleaned all my files out, then reinstalled the games. I have no custom content, no mods, no anything that isn't base.

And yes, I am trying CTRL + shift + C. I've tried every combination of the two shift and control keys too. I even tried adding the windows key to the mix.

I don't have an HP so there is no HP health check, I don't have stardock cursor XP, and I don't have any screenshot programs.

I've even tried typing things in even when I can't see the bar in hopes that it's just invisible, but that doesn't work.

Someone please help, because I really want to play Sims again, and I really don't want to do it without the cheat bar.

As an alternative you could use the NRaas mod called Overwatch, it has a function where you can enter the cheat commands. It does work a little differently than the cheat bar, though in my opinion it's better since it stores the commands you enter and allows for commands to run automatically. If you want to know more just go here and read the interactions right at the top (Console Commands). Also I would recommend using that mod anyway since it can help clean up problems that cause performance issues. The notifications from the mod can get annoying though they can be turned off, just set "Display Nightly Notifications" and "Report On First Reset Check" to false.

Sorry that I can't help with actually getting your cheat bar to show up, but if you can't figure out the problem then I think Overwatch would be a nice option.

Oh and just one quick question, did you update the game after installing? Not sure that would have any affect on the cheat bar but hey you never know.

The only time I had this problem was when the ctrl key on my keyboard was messed up. Ended up having to replace my keyboard......../cry.

Try opening something with a lot of files in it. Click on one then hold ctrl and click some more. If it is selecting them then it's not your control key.
Cant think of anything else that would cause the problem unless its a bad mod.