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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Oct 2014 at 7:02 PM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life
Default "Cannot connect to EA servers" pop-up (know why but not how to fix)
I haven't posted here before, I'm actually just getting started with the Sims 3, but I'm hoping I can get some advice. This is longer than I meant it to be, but I wanted to include details on what all we tried.

The computer I have now, alas, cannot play the Sims 1 (yes, I was one of the people still sticking with the first game). My husband spotted the digital download version of 3 on sale so we bought it. It download and install went fine. Since there were so few furniture items (compared to what I was used to) I picked up the High End Loft stuff pack, which installed just fine as well.

After I got the hang of the base game, I decided to grab some of the expansions: Late Night and Supernatural. Here's where my trouble started. I downloaded the expansions fine, they installed and I fired up the game to be met with a gray pop-up window telling me that my computer cannot connect to the EA servers- check my internet connection and try again. So I did and everything came back fine on my end. I then tried uninstalling one expansion and attempting to connect, but neither of them on their own worked either.

I went online and saw that there had been other people with the issue but I could not see where a solution was listed.

We called customer service, first checking it wasn't a problem with Origin (it wasn't). That meant EA customer service. The first step was going over the long list of know issues/interactions that's always handed out when you have a problem. We went through that list multiple times, up to and including completely taking our firewall offline temporarily. We even went so far as to briefly uninstall our anti-virus programs. Nothing. We tried installing it on the other computer in the house and got the same error.

Where that window comes from in the process of installing is when your computer tries to relay back to EA that the computer you're on is running an authorized copy. Customer service checked my account, even logging in with my information on their computer, and it came back just fine. They gave us a few more things to try while they looked for more information. We tried... and nothing.

Except, finally, we got the cause of the pop-up (at least for us): our internet connection is too slow to connect to the EA servers.

We live in a tree heavy rural area, so yes the connection is really slow but there's nothing we can do about that. There's satellite (which we have) or dial up here and that's it. Since this is going to be installed on a desktop computer, I can't exactly pack the computer up and take it to somewhere with faster internet. Is there anything anyone here can think of? Like I said, we have a fully legal digital copy. We just can't get it authenticated online (we asked customer service about manually authorizing this computer- I take their silence as “no”.). We have been trying since December to get this fixed.

The only solution I can think of would be to find physical copies of the expansion (hopefully on sale) but I really want that to be a last resort.
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 5th Oct 2014 at 10:42 PM
Download the last patch might fix the problem.

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...lp:TS3_Patching

My flash animation
http://robingravel.byethost15.com/eflash.htm

A Christmas day at 25o Celcius
http://robingravel.byethost15.com/noel2014.htm
A girl whiches a warm day at Christmas.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#3 Old 6th Oct 2014 at 2:24 AM
I'm fully patched up to 1.67.2
Field Researcher
#4 Old 6th Oct 2014 at 1:49 PM
Then, EA just dropped the sims 3.

That's why I never never never buy digital games because they always need connection to internet to run and when companies drop their games, they're no longer working.

My flash animation
http://robingravel.byethost15.com/eflash.htm

A Christmas day at 25o Celcius
http://robingravel.byethost15.com/noel2014.htm
A girl whiches a warm day at Christmas.
Alchemist
#5 Old 6th Oct 2014 at 4:56 PM Last edited by varpunen : 6th Oct 2014 at 10:19 PM.
You don't need to be online to play the game but only if you have a base game dating before september 2012. At that point the process changed to require online access. I have the release version of the base game + almost all the rest in digital format and I always play the game offline, starting it from the TS3W.EXE shortcut which bypasses the launcher. So getting a release version of the base game might be your solution.

Have you tried putting Origin into offline mode before starting the game?
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/707794.page
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#6 Old 7th Oct 2014 at 1:38 AM
I almost always switch Origin to offline mode as soon as I can, although I've tried both having Origin online and offline with no luck. Thank you for pointing out the change that apparently took place without the help staff knowing about it. We had wondered why attempting to directly launch the game wouldn't work like the help desk said it would.

I wonder if that would that take care of needing to authorize the expansions though.
Alchemist
#7 Old 7th Oct 2014 at 4:53 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Tacitala
I wonder if that would that take care of needing to authorize the expansions though.


Hmmm... like I said, I have most EP's in digital format, including Supernatural. You said installing those EP's went fine. So you did manage to get online and register them properly? If so, then the problem might lie in the newer version of the base game. By launching directly, do you mean opening the game from the TS3W.EXE?

Not sure if this might help: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/NoCD
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#8 Old 8th Oct 2014 at 2:08 AM
Trying to open the game from TS3W.EXE causes the Origin software to start itself and log-in my account. The digital download forces you to start the game from Origin (which then takes you to the game launcher). And by instillation I meant everything before registration. The program files themselves are fine, and registering for the base game worked, my computer just apparently can't connect to the EA servers to register the expansions.
Alchemist
#9 Old 8th Oct 2014 at 3:26 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Tacitala
Trying to open the game from TS3W.EXE causes the Origin software to start itself and log-in my account. The digital download forces you to start the game from Origin (which then takes you to the game launcher). And by instillation I meant everything before registration. The program files themselves are fine, and registering for the base game worked, my computer just apparently can't connect to the EA servers to register the expansions.


Since you cannot register the EP's, then the older version of the base game is probably not enough because you do have to register the digital EPs once. It's odd that you could register the base game but not the EP's. Anyway, since you bought the games from Origin, then basically you could return them and get your money back. Origin has that return policy of theirs. Then get the disk versions, in which you manually insert the registration code. I cannot 100% promise that it will work but it's the only thing I can think of.

The new version of the base game has text... "New! Go social..." in the front of the box. That's one way to recognize it.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#10 Old 9th Oct 2014 at 5:02 PM
Thank you for your help I probably will have to ask for a refund.
Top Secret Researcher
#11 Old 11th Oct 2014 at 12:04 AM Last edited by Tuney : 11th Oct 2014 at 5:07 AM.
Try this: Turn off the internet connection to your computer first. Since the DD Base Game and EPs are already installed, they are already registered. Launch Origin, it should launch in offline mode. Launch your game, which also should launch in offline mode, so internet speed is a non-issue. Hope this works.

Also, if you still want to play The Sims 1, try this: https://www.platinumsimmers.com/art...-1-on-windows-8 it may work with any newer operating system, not just windows 8.

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