Serious Computer Problems!?
This all started a few day ago... I started getting this error message about how ATI Radeon Express wouldn't work because it wasn't installed or had a problem. I suspected that it was a virus.
I did something hoping to fix it ( i can't remember exactly what i did).
The end result was that when i re-booted my computer it took a really long time.
Then there was ANOTHER error message that said something about a file called system32 being missing. I knew that those were valuable files so i tried to fix it by going back to a system restore point.
That didn't work. I then decided to just restore the computer back to factory settings. I realized that all my files would be lost, but i thought that was better than having the computer not work at all. After i recovered it everything seemed okay. I even had some of my stuff left. When i tried to play the sims 3 i got another error message that said Sims3 launcher has encountered a problem and needs to close, we are sorry for the inconvenience. I thought this might be related to an EARLIER error message i got about Microsoft Framework. I attempted to download the latest version but it wouldn't install completely.
Update:Thanks Matt, it didn't work, but if no one else answers you get the points!
Now when i try to open sims 3 it says "A fatal error occured. However mscorees.dll could not be loaded to display the appropriate error massage.
Please reinstall the >NET Framework
Which version?!?! none of them finish because they have errors!
I think i'm screwed
Comments
It sure does seem like you had some issues with a possible virus or malware before the system restore, but it could have also been your hard drive corrupting and spitting read errors back at you. There are three things you should do:
1) Download Speedfan (link 1 in source) and after installing click on the SMART tab, select your hard drive from the drop-down menu, and check out the Fitness and Performance ratings. If they're not both at least 80% full, then you very well could be looking at a hard drive issue. If it looks good then proceed to steps 2 and 3.
2) Get the latest drivers for your video card by going to the website of your computer manufacutrer and going to the support section, entering in your model number, and viewing the available drivers to download. You'll be looking for a Radeon or ATI video driver. Download and install.
3) Download the latest version of DirectX, which is what Sims 3 uses for 3D acceleration (second link in my source)
Hopefully that will get Sims running for you again.