Help! Sims 3 will not restore after minimizing - Black Screen!

Ben1010

Apart from this issue the game is working a charm and all of my drivers are up to date. However if I press the Windows tab to go to desktop and open another window and then try to restore my Sims game, it will not properly restore and I am left with a totally black screen but am able to click around on the game with the cursor.

The only way I can exit the game is if I go into task manager and sign out of my account because it will not let me exit out of the game either.

Please help! I have updated all of my drivers and have tried repairing the game through Origin but nothing has worked so far

EDIT:

Thought I should just post my specs too

---

System Information

---

Time of this report: 1/5/2016, 18:07:57
Machine name: BEN-GAMING
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 10586) (10586.th2_release.151121-2308)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Aspire TC-605
BIOS: P11-A4
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 12228MB RAM
Page File: 2025MB used, 12058MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Available, with HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DxDiag Version: 10.00.10586.0000 64bit Unicode

---

DxDiag Notes

---

Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

---

DirectX Debug Levels

---

Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---

Display Devices

---

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 745
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1382&SUBSYS_249A174B&REV_A2
Display Memory: 10148 MB
Dedicated Memory: 4034 MB
Shared Memory: 6113 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: AOC 2369
Monitor Model: 2369M
Monitor Id: AOC2369
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: HDMI
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 10.18.0013.6143 (English)
Driver Version: 10.18.13.6143
DDI Version: 12
Feature Levels: 11.0,10.1,10.0,9.3,9.2,9.1
Driver Model: WDDM 2.0
Graphics Preemption: DMA
Compute Preemption: DMA
Miracast: Not Supported by Graphics driver
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Not Supported
Power P-states: Not Supported
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 16/12/2015 00:00:00, 17104016 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-50C2-11CF-0463-97041FC2C735}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x1382
SubSys ID: 0x249A174B
Revision ID: 0x00A2
Driver Strong Name: oem13.inf:0f066de31a0a11c7:Section026:10.18.13.6143:pci\ven_10de&dev_1382&subsys_249a174b
Rank Of Driver: 00D10001
Video Accel:

{6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(S342,UNKNOWN) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
{F9F19DA5-3B09-4B2F-9D89-C64753E3EAAB}: Format(In/Out)=(S342,UNKNOWN) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
{5A54A0C9-C7EC-4BD9-8EDE-F3C75DC4393B}: Format(In/Out)=(S342,UNKNOWN) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(S342,UNKNOWN) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=
D3D9 Overlay: Supported
DXVA-HD: Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
MPO Caps: Not Supported
MPO Stretch: Not Supported
MPO Media Hints: Not Supported
MPO Formats: Not Supported

phoebebebe13

see thread . Not sure if this is your issue http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/868249/windows-10-users-update-kb3132372-incompatibility-with-launcher#latest

igazor

Not that other issues can't be in play here, but I get what you describe around 1 in 50 times that I alt tab or use the Windows logo key to switch apps while in full screen mode. Usually I get a TS3 crash a bit later as well, which doesn't really matter since I can't bring the game back up when this happens anyway. After years of putting up with that, I've finally learned to switch to windowed mode first and minimize the TS3 application to the task bar -- it's an annoying extra step going in both directions since I much prefer playing in full screen mode, but have never had problems app switching that way.

Ben1010

Still having this problem. Does seem to be quite a common problem now with this update. I'll just have to play in windowed mode for now

igazor

You don't have to actually play in windowed mode. I can stay in full-screen just fine, up until the time I want to switch apps. Of course, if you are routinely app switching every few minutes my way probably becomes almost as annoying as the crashes/getting stuck.