I feel like EA hates me.

I am beyond pissed right now. I bought The Sims 3 on October 30, 2010. It is now almost 3 months later and I'm still dealing with customer service, as I try to get this game to work on my computer.

I keep on getting this error whenever I click the "play" button
http://i52.tinypic.com/vmwu90.jpg

The customer service people keep saying my code is legit, though...

A guy on customer service recently told me to un-authorize The Sims 3 using the EADM tool, but then I'd get this error
http://i54.tinypic.com/30bjwir.jpg

I sent him a message asking him if this was supposed to happen, but I just continued on with the other steps, just in case that error was supposed to happen. I deleted The Sims 3 and EADM, restarted the computer, and reinstalled everything again and lo and behold, THE PROBLEM STILL PERSISTS

Is it because I keep updating The Sims 3 to the 1.18 version? Because originally my game is version 1.12 but right when I open The Sims 3 after installing (I've tried reinstalling 4-5 times now) it says to update the game. Is this a version 1.18 bug? I'm going to try and re-install everything one more time to check if my game will run with 1.12. but I still want my game to be able to run with 1.18, cause if I buy one of the new Sims EPs I'd want the bugs worked out of my game.

Please, please help. I'm just so frustrated with EA's handling of this. I used to have no problem at all with Sims games. Apart from The Sims, I have no interest in buying another EA game if I'm going to have to go through this hell. At this point I've invested too much time into fixing this to just give up on Sims. and I love the Sims and want to be able to play it on my computer, dangit.

I have no Custom Content, and there's enough room on my computer, too.

Slightly stupid question: did you buy the game new? Wondering vaguely what would happen if a person bought a game second-hand which had already had the registration code activated on another computer.

• Sims 3 - Launcher and/or EADM Issues
  If you encounter issues while downloading Store/Exchange items or when trying to patch or Launcher won't even start, please try the suggestions on these FAQ articles:
  
  • Game Help:Launcher Issues^wiki
  • Game Help:EADM Issues^wiki
  
  
• Sims 3 - Uninstall
  This Game_Help:TS3_Uninstall^wiki link has the step-by-step instructions to guide you through uninstalling The Sims 3, and its packs (EP/SP).
  
  If you're reinstalling because you're reverting to an older patch, or just do not want to use the Launcher/EADM to patch, read this FAQ Game_Help:TS3_Patching^wiki once through before patching and then follow the guide.
  
  

Where did you purchase & download the game from? If game was purchased from 3rd party retailer or is second-hand, then you need to contact the seller.
And what digital download delivery system are you using? Steam? EADM?
Is the account for Sims 3/Steam/EADM using the same email as your EA master account?

What do you mean by "deleted The Sims 3 & EADM"? Was it uninstalled properly via Control Panel?
Have you tried a clean uninstall as shown in the FAQ? You might want to backup your game data first in the path shown in the EADM issues FAQ, else you need to redownload the 5-6 GBs of data over again.


http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/312707.page
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/160794.page
http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/...ty-reasons.html

I bought the game through the official EA website brand-new. I installed it once on a laptop, but it broke, and now I am having these problems getting the game to work on my desktop computer. I was guaranteed more than 1 installation, though. And EA says my codes are still valid, so I don't get why I still get this error.

I deleted The Sims 3 and EADM through Add & Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

I have no game data at all, I haven't even been able to get pass the welcome screen as the error pops up right when I click "play now"

What do you mean by - "it broke"?
Do you mean to say that the laptop still have the game installed on it or no longer?
Did you get a replacement disc (for the one that broke(?)) or just a digital downloadable version?

So, you uninstalled EADM without first backing up the ProgramData folder contents of the downloaded game?

And you're using the same product key from the retail disc on the digital install, which you did get assurances from EA support from?

So the issue is now a total wipeout of Sims 3 data on the desktop (as you had followed our Uninstall FAQ), a newly redownload of EADM and game data and fresh reinstall on the desktop is now giving you this error message?

My laptop was old. One day it just wouldn't turn on anymore. I think the motherboard fried. Sims 3 worked fine on it, though.

The game was downloaded through EADM. I have no physical copy of it in a CD or anything.

I only had to put a key in for the game to show up on the EADM so I could download The Sims 3 to my computer, and then install it. Otherwise, I have no other keys.

I got assurances from the EA live assistance through Pogo, as well as the customer service on ea.com that my key was valid.

It was a total wipeout of Sims 3 data on my laptop, since it crashed/broke in November. Ever since I've had this problem, with trying to get the game to work on my desktop. I've tried un-installing The Sims 3 and EADM multiple times (5+ times) and the problem still persists.

A few hours ago I got another response from EA customer service, and they gave me the same advice as before, to de-authorize (but then I'd get this error: http://i54.tinypic.com/30bjwir.jpg), un-install everything, and then re-install. I don't understand why they keep telling me to do the same thing when it hasn't worked.

So I asked them to send me a new key, hopefully they'll oblige, or I'll be pissed and want my money back, because they clearly do not know how to fix this problem if they can only tell me to un-install and then re-install.

Okay, I'm not following this at all. How can you deactivate your key and uninstall Sims 3 from the laptop if the laptop won't switch on? Repeatedly uninstalling Sims 3 from the desktop machine won't do anything useful at all!

You need to explain to EA that the machine you have Sims 3 installed on is no longer functioning, otherwise they will continue to tell you to deauthorise the game from that computer!

^ okay, I just told them. everything they tell me has been no help for more than a month. if EADM had such issues they shouldn't have made it available to the public, because this is fucking ridiculous

if they still can't solve it could I ask them to ship me a copy of The Sims 3 since their online version won't work, for all the time and headache they've caused me to waste by trying to get this game to work through EADM download?

You should be able to request a new serial; it will cost, but it'll be cheaper than buying the game again outright.

According to the website, you only have 90days to get a replacement serial number. I'd request one now, before your time runs out. (I had to hunt all over for this info, as 1/2 the links to this article are DEAD!)
http://support.ea.com/app/answers/d...nded%20warranty

I seem to remember a warning message when I was going to buy something through EADM, like it would only be available for download/install for 30days. I can't remember the specifics, and I can't confirm this through EA's support site. I tried looking up warranty and extended warranty, but all I got was the link above,