Hi, this is not about a particular mod, but I'm asking here b/c there might be some geeks here. I've been all over the place to try to find help on this issue. I've read Crin's post in the EA help section, I've been to Carl's forum and they've been somewhat helpful, but it's not working. Even our tech is mystified by this. This is my last resort before completely uninstalling and re-installing the game. For the past few days now when I load my game and then *just* before it gets to the family selection screen, everything goes black and my only option is to restart my comp using the hard restart button. I've tried everything from starting normally to going into program files 86/.....game bin/TS3W and running as admin to trouble shooting the app from right clicking on the TS3W and nothing is working. I recently installed a very old game that requires Direct X software to be installed and I'm wondering if maybe that messed things up? That software is gone now though, but I'm still getting the black screen. Are there any geeks here who would know some tricks? Thanks!

Not sure how helpful this is going to be, but the game requires DirectX 9. Other versions can co-exist alongside of it, but I wonder if you've somehow affected or removed DX 9 when putting in or getting rid of the older software? I would suggest the usual attempt at a clean run first (pull your TS3 game folder out to your desktop), a reinstall of DX from Microsoft then, if still no go, a full TS3 uninstall, registry clean, and reinstall as you said. Maybe others here will have less drastic suggestions than the reinstall, though.

Ah, and note that unless this is an all-disc install featuring a base game disc from pre Sept-2012 or a Steam installation, a reinstall will require Origin and you will land on Patch 1.69.

Hi and Thanks Igazor! I did try a completely vanilla game (renaming the old one and let the game generate a new folder). That one also blacked out. Is it DX9c? I started out w/all disks, but then I started buying store content and a couple of worlds that I downloaded.

I forgot to mention that this is also affecting my TS4 game. For that one, I actually got to loading the family, but it blacked out just as the family was loading.

Yes sorry, I forgot the "c." DirectX 9c or DX9c for short.

Store content and worlds do not require Origin (except to purchase them now, not to install). Those are still installed by way of downloads from the TS3 site. It's only the base game and EP/SPs that must be disc to stay on 1.67, if that's part of the goal.

This really doesn't sound like a TS3 thing though if it's also affecting TS4 like that.

What kind of graphics card do you have and have you checked for a driver update lately? Or the other way around, have you accepted a video card driver update lately that isn't working out well?

I have a GeForce GTX 970

my other stats are Intel i7 processor, and 15 gigs RAM

Oh, you're one of "those" with an over the top system (by TS3 standards).

Let us know if a DX reinstall and a check on the drivers for that GTX 970 help at all. I wouldn't bother with a TS3 reinstall since the effects are reaching further than the program. But it does sound like something that older game did with DX, probably to be "helpful" as it might have been long ago, had disturbed what really needs to be there now.