Sims 4 Not Opening Steam

[Lorin Cupples]

Iplay and installed my games through Steam. Just recently I tried to play it, but the game would not start past the launcher. I am not a computer savvy person, so excuse all of my ignorance. I feel as though I've tried everything: I tried to start the game through its files and bypass the launcher, I've followed instructions online and deleted files that caused others' issues, I've uninstalled and reinstalled both steam and Sims(1.67, by the way). I cannot really list everything I have done because I feel like I've sat for hours trying to solve it, doing various different things, to no avail. I even had help from others, and we cannot solve this.

I have seen this issue in many places where Sims 3 will say "running in tray" and will not begin past the launcher(I don't think the game is even opening up... i think it's just the launcher, but the game will not open when I try to open it through The Sims Files, either). I have no clue how to solve this, and I am pretty desperate at this point considering that I'm reaching out for help here. I feel like I've gone through just about every post on different sites about this issue and tried all of the solutions, but nothing has worked. My computer so totally capable to run the game too, considering it runs every other game and has never had an issue with Sims until a few days ago.

@victorlemorte The launcher running in the tray issue doesn't normally prevent TS3 from opening at all, although it can be annoying. (It's easy enough to fix, but there's no point until the game is actually working.) First, please make sure that .NET framework 3.5 is enabled on your computer. Hit Windows key-R and type "appwiz.cpl" without quotes into the box, and enter. In the File Explorer window that appears, click "Turn Windows features on and off," and you'll see this:

If this isn't the issue, try temporarily disabling your antivirus/firewall, just long enough to test. If that's the issue, you can set an exception for TS3W.exe (with the W), and perhaps Sims3LauncherW.exe as well, although the second one usually isn't necessary.

If none of this helps, please run a dxdiag and attach the results to a post here. It will cover not only hardware but things like drivers and disc space, as well as list the last 10 Windows errors, hopefully with some information about why TS3 didn't launch.

My game wont launch. It launched for the first time when I downloaded it onto my new laptop, I then added all my mods to the folder and it wouldn't work. I restarted my laptop and then it launched and played fine for an hour. It launched this evening but I closed the game to add more custom content, it won't launch now, I know it's not the custom content as I sent it to a friend to check if they worked on her game and they did. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game on steam, I have uninstalled the EA app, I have cleared the cache, I have moved my sims 4 folder to my desktop so it would spawn a new one. I have ended ea background manager in task manager it still would not launch. I am at my wits end it is so frustrating. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

@KarenLouise88 Your dxdiag is full of errors from the EA App and a component of Steam. Usually Steam itself works okay and doesn't need reinstalling, so please instead remove the EA App with Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine). Restart your computer before reinstalling the App, and be sure to download a fresh copy of the App's installer.

If that doesn't help either, please let me know what antivirus you use. Please also confirm that you're currently trying to launch the game through Steam, since that's the app you used to install Sims 4.

@KarenLouise88 Does the game currently launch with no mods or custom content present? I understand your cc works on your friend's computer, but please test without it and let me know. If you still can't play, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

So just this last week unable to open the FSX-SE through steam. It goes to the startup screen and then disapears? I see the beta version is out but I tried installing that and I get the DLL error do not click on it or might corrupt the computer??? So now not sure what version of FSX I have but neither seemed to open for some reason. Not an expert to steam but can I download FSX-SE standard version somewhere and see if that helps? I don't want to lose any items from my present FSX setup though? Any assistance on getting FSX-SE to open would be great?

Just another suggestion is that I never use the steam buttons to lauch FSX, I have created a shortcut that I pin in my taskbar. What this does is it accesses FSX directly from where it is on your computer vs. using steams launcher. Have you tried going to your FSX folder and clicking on the FSX.exe to see if it launches correctly? (I also have my shortcut set up to launch fsx as an administrator). I can kind of walk you through it if you need help.

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A week ago I tried installing the sims 4 on my 512GB SD card through steam.

It did download, i clicked on launch, it showed its launching, and boom... it did not launch, no screen, no nothing, just the button "launch" showing again later on again, as many times as I tried, it just didn't launch, for example I managed to run Pixel worlds with proton, euro truck simulator 2 also, with some crashes though.

I resolved most (But not all) of these when I completely reinstalled Steam from Scratch - which necessitated re-downloading and installing games... (sigh).

Astroneer currently is the only remaining title in my steam that suddenly does exactly as you describe.

Yes, sadly. I removed all of Steam however I did back up my game save files into a new separate folder that I restored after reinstalling Steam from APT (Either Software Store or terminal).

I only backed up specific files and only for a couple of titles.

I watched many YT tutorials and eventually got up and running. Kind of. I purchased and downloaded the sim, then downloaded and installed WMR, Steam, SteamVR, and OpenXR. After all that, I was able to have a go in a Cessna 152 for a bit. Beyond fun!

Now my issue is I can't recall how I got it all going or from what app I should be launching the sim. Every session seems to require a lot of trial and error before I can have the sim running in the G2 instead of my monitor. The settings in the sim say I switch between the two using CTRL + TAB, but that never works and another message says to use Windows key + Y, which sometimes works.

What ALWAYS works for me is a concise, clear STEP-BY-STEP checklist of clicks and selections I can print out and learn through repitition which always result in a successful launch. What frustrates me to infinity is that out of all the so-called "experts" out there in cyberspace, such a checklist has so far been impossible to find. What ever happened to the simple double-click of a game icon to launch a game to the default start screen??

My other issue, for now, is that I wish to tweak settings in OpenXR, which I KNOW I downloaded and installed to get all this going, but now has gone MIA and I cannot find the app anywhere on my system.

I will have more questions down the road, but if someone could please help me just get the steps down to the simplest way to launch a VR session of this sim, as well as where I can find my OpenXR app, that would go a long way to prevent my heaving all of this right into the garbage barrel. (not really, but that is how I feel right now). Your time and expertise is most appreciated, and I promise to pay it forward once I have it down myself. :^)

The short answer - If you are currently able to open MSFS via the desktop icon, and steam VR is not open (or running in the background) at any time before, or while playing MSFS in VR, you are most likely doing it the way that's offering best performance (as of how things stand at the time of writing this). It's also an indicator that WMR OpenXR is your active OpenXR version.

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