Disc Authorization Failure?

violetlyviolent

Hey, everybody. This issue has been frustrating me, and I literally created an account just to ask this question. Whenever I try to start up my Sims 3 file, I get to the point where you can create a new file or continue with an existing family, but before I can click anything, it pops up with a "Disc Authorization Failure," where it tells me to try again. Whenever I exit, I realize that I get the "The Sims 3 quit unexpectedly" error message before the game even began loading; like, I clicked the arrow in the welcome screen, but it pops up and then the screen goes back to show all of the creators and the clip with them all partying on the beach and everything. I think that has to do with it, but I'm not sure. I haven't been able to play my Sims for months, and it used to sometimes work, but now it never works. I have Pets, Seasons, Ambitions, Generations, and Supernatural, but it's weird and only runs on the Seasons disc, even though my most recent expansion pack is Generations. So, anyway, can anyone please help? I don't want to uninstall if it means losing all of my files.

lisasc360

Are you trying to open your game using Generations? Even though Generations is your most recent game that you brought and installed, you will still need to use Seasons as that is the most recently released one out of those that you listed.

igazor

@violetlyviolent - What you are describing could be a symptom of a dirty/scratched EP disc or a failing CD/DVD drive. Unless you happen to be playing the Mac version of the game as the latest Mac operating system also coughs up those errors for a different reason. But yes, Seasons is the disc you would have to use to startup given your collection of EPs, not Generations.

Of course, try to clean the disc first if it is the Seasons disc that you are still trying to use. But an option to consider in any event if your base game and EP/SPs are registered is to uninstall and switch over to the Origin (digital) version of the game. Or you might try patching up to Patch 1.69 by way of Origin without the uninstall and reinstall as the discs are no longer needed to authenticate if you are on that patch and you would launch your game through Origin instead. There are reasons to not like Origin and Patch 1.69, but this is one place where it does have an advantage over the disc installs.

However it's done, if you pull your TS3 game folder out of Documents/EA Games to your Desktop first for safekeeping, your saved games will be in there and could be put back later on once you are able to get the game working again if more than just using the right disc or cleaning it is part of the solution.

violetlyviolent

@lisasc360 - Oh, well, that explains the reason why I need to use Seasons to open it. But yeah, I'm using the Seasons disc and the image on my toolbar is the Seasons logo.

@igazor - Okay, I'll try that. Thank you!

violetlyviolent

Why is doing this in Origin so hard? I couldn't find my Seasons booklet, so I used my original Sims 3 booklet code to redeem it so I wouldn't have to pay... but now I'm lost? It never downloaded or installed or anything.

igazor

Sorry you're getting stuck there, but this shouldn't really have been the difficult part. Were your base game and its EP/SPs ever registered on the older TS3 site? If so, using the same login credentials with Origin should already be showing them under "My Games" or something like that. If you have accidentally ended up with two different accounts, I'm afraid EA Customer Support would be required to fix that. Or maybe I am misunderstanding the problem?

I've never done a transition from disc to Origin this way myself, but at least this is how I understand that it's supposed to work. Without the uninstall and reinstall, I believe Origin should be able to take over and manage the installations you already have if you can get that to work.

violetlyviolent

Hm, I don't know. I'm horrible with this tech stuff XD I don't know if they were registered or not. Is there any way to check?

igazor

If you have an account on the original TS3 website, http://www.thesims3.com you could log in there, go to "My Page" and see if you have the base game and EPs registered. You would have to use the same login credentials on Origin to get credit for owning those that way.

violetlyviolent

@igazor - So, I downloaded Origin, backed up my files, deleted my Sims 3 Seasons, and bought the Sims 3 on Origin. I downloaded it and installed it, and was so syked to play it, but then when I clicked on the plumbob icon, it said "Unknown error occurred." I looked online and found that uninstalling and reinstalling the Sims 3 helps, but I can't find how to do it. It's frustrating me so much. Do you know how to uninstall and reinstall?

igazor

Not really understanding why you had to repurchase anything. If you own the disc versions, you also have the rights to the Origin digital versions at no extra charge.

Anyway, I am assuming you are on Windows. Uninstall the disc versions base game and all of your EPs by going through Start Menu > Control Panel > Programs and Features. Clean the Windows Registry with CCleaner (it's a free registry cleaner program). Then install the digital versions through Origin.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

If you are on a Mac, the procedure is a bit different.