Uhm... this dilemma didn't really fit any of the category descriptions, so hopefully I'm putting this in the right place.

My old computer passed away recently and from the ashes a glorious new computer was built.

I had purchased TS3 quite some time ago, played the poop outta it and loved it. I now need to re-install it on my new computer, but my key code has gone missing.

Is there any way I can possibly find that information out again or contact EA or some legitimate channel I can go through to retrieve my lost information? I really miss playing and would rather not have to buy another game when I have a perfectly good disc sitting in front of me.

Thank you in advance.

<3

You should be able to go into Origin "My Games", click on the "I" button on the Sims 3 icon, and it will have your product code there. AFIK, the info wasn't saved on your old computer, but on the Origin Server.

That is only possible if one have registered the key in Origin (or bought it from there).
Another option is if you have registered the key on the official site, i belive you can contact EA to have them give you the key (they proberly will require some verification though).
If you haven't registered the key in any of thoose, you are out of luck i am afraid, only option is to buy it again.


Actually the key is stored on the computer (in the registry i belive) but since your old computer passed away, it proberly won't be possible to retrive it.

Thank you both for the suggestions! I registered the game quite some time ago with EA, but I think that was before Origin... I'm not sure. They still seemed to have my information, but not anything about what games I had downloaded. :'(

I tried to go into the section to contact EA for help, but the service is "temporarily unavailable".

As for the old computer, I still have the hard drive, but I'm not sure what files are salvageable. I literally just finished setting up this computer. :X

I'll see if I can access the registry somehow.

Thank you! If there are any more suggestions, please keep them coming.

Sadly to my knowledge getting access to the registry form an old windows installalation on another computer isn't possible.
Though your not completly out of luck if it had had upto XP and you still have the installation disk/s (original Windows one, no recovery ones) you can plug the old drive to your new computer (just remember to unplug the one/s your using now first) and start a installation of that OS but instead of doing a complete new one choose to repair, the steps on how to do that is diffrent depending on what Windows it had, so i can't tell you how it's done.
Doing that will give the OS back as it was on the old computer before it died but on the new computer
Though the above depends on what condition the old drive is in, if it is in bad condition, it might give up, but unless there is very importment files that you wanto keep on it, i say give it a try.

I lost my gamebox for Pets which I wanted to so that I could register it to Origin just in case.

I just asked EA and they asked me to provide a paper with my name + signature and the date, and then take a picture of it all together with my cd/gamebox (whichever I had available, seemed like they failed to understand that i lost the box).
And then they actually gave me a completely new code from the one that I have installed.

I don't know what it is that makes them choose to do that but I had the CD and I had all the other stuff packs/expansions installed and registered on Origin so they probably figured I wasn't a pirate.

How did you get in contact with EA? So far that's been my biggest hurdle. Something's been wrong with the Origin site. Every time I try to log on a popup comes up saying "This service is unavailable at this time." It's becoming slightly daunting. XD

This might be a bit old fashioned, but try calling them on the phone.

Lesson to be learned folks. Keep your game boxes in a safe place with the keep code slip in them. I keep mine in a media bookshelf case. My sims discs get stored in their cases unless it in the computer. The disc actually usually lives in the computer until another EP comes out, when it is retired to its case in the media cabinet.

...like a savage?!?

<3

For some silly reason I thought contacting them online would be quicker. Lesson learned.

I just logged onto https://help.ea.com and chose the contact us box. Got an email within 2 hours (at 2 am on a monday morning!) and then they will say whatever it is you can do to retrieve it or say it's not possible.

I have a lot of bad things to say about EA but this I actually was pretty impressed by.