I went through SOOOOOO much trouble to get this game and it doesn't work  This is my horror story to get it first, if anyone's interested. If not, the tech prob is next paragraph. First, I went on EA's page for WA, and the PC download said it "ships 11/16". I didn't believe it, so I chatted with one of their reps named Dylan, and he said I could download it & play it as of the 16th  ! So I got home, bought it... and my email said it wasn't available for download until 11/17 12:00 CST (which is 1am EST time on the 17th)! So I called EA, was on hold for AN HOUR, and got the rudest rep named John H! At first he told me that the EA page said 11/17, & I told him that's not what it said for the PC download. He kept telling me no and I was reading it wrong. Finally I gave him the link and he said "Oh, you can purchase it on the 16th, but the download won't be available until 10AM EASTERN ON THE 17TH! That's not what it said on the website- that should be clarified! So this is the THIRD TIME I'VE BEEN MISLED BY EA GAMES  !!! I was so fed up I asked for a refund. Then, I called my local Kmart. A lovely rep named Dawn kept me on hold for 10 minutes and told me it was in stock. So I got up at 7am (after only four hours of sleep), and was at the store by 8am when they open. Then the electronics dept. salesperson tells me "We don't carry PC games here." So I wait for AN HOUR for a manager to show up, but never does! I then called my hubby to call the closest Target. They had it in stock {enter angelic chorus here  }! I biked over, bought it & brought it home to install.


It installs with no hitches  ! I start the game; the screen comes up fine and I skip over the original opening sequence. I get to the loading screen- the one with the new WA logo. It's loading, loading, loading... but the little loading circle keeps going for five minutes and no progress is made in the green bar! So I call EA, got hold of someone named Tray (very nice, btw), and told him about the horrid EA experiences I've had in the past 24 hours. We tried a couple of troubleshooting techniques, but to no avail! He told me he was passing my probs onto the Tier 3 special troubleshooting.


I've defragmented my comp, used disk cleanup, removed and reinstalled, changed Windows startup settings- nothing! I am stark raving mad, as you all can imagine. Does anybody have ANY IDEAS?! And yes my comp does meet the requirements; I checked that out before I started this whole mess.


Thank you VERY much for listening,
Jess

Yes, if you've originally installed with CC, it will NOT work, just like it you patch it.

Have you tried COMPLETELY reinstalling TS3?

Also, you can try clearing out your Cache files (Under Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims 3/ folder - delete anything with .cache), and then you could try reintalling it (but I'd recommend just completely redoing the whole thing - if you don't want to lose saved files, be sure to copy them to a different location)

Also try this, it may or may not help.

Somehow mine installed without a hitch but now sometimes the game just switches itself off or it won't save.

Yes, I've tried EVERYTHING and it still won't work! I wrote the BBB about this, because as of today 1/22/10, I STILL do not have any Sims 3 working product! I'm glad you guys were able to fix your issues, though :-D!