Invalid File Found, Service Initialization, game crashes, won't update, and can't use fix because I can't install expansions because it won't update. Fml. PLEASE HELP. [SOLVED]

So I've been trying to get this stuff for a week now, sending email after email, with a less than satisfactory result. I'm passed the point of frustration but I'm still willing to get it to work.

First off you should know that I have searched for days on these forums and found nothing to match my exact problems so I'm assuming that I'm on a brain overload from all the potential fix information and I'm missing something, or it's an unusual problem. I have more than enough space on my computer, it's a 64 bit, no mods, no cc, and I've had the sims 3 on it before and it ran perfectly. Sadly I had to wipe my computer and I can't find my disc, nor did I register it. My bad -__-

So here I am, a year later and I stumble upon you guys via pirate bay. I downloaded the Sims 3 and that was only the start of my problems. First I was having installation issues, which I downloaded WinRAR because my usual program wasn't working. So I installed the game, mind you I read the installation guide and followed it down to the very letter. I FINALLY got it to install, it got passed the intro video and got to the loading screen and right when it got to the very end when the game should have started, it crashed. -__- then came an initialization error. (I have unistalled and reinstalled the game around 10 times and came across a number of these initialization errors so I cannot specifically remember which one but the most common one was (0x039e88474)) So I uninstalled and reinstalled, this time I did not use the shortcut thing from the "#crack" file, and still the same issue. So I uninstalled and reinstalled again and then this time, the intro video ran, skipped the loading page and went straight to a gray page with a picture of sunset valley with blue comic sans script and a blinking dark gray to lights gray box in the center. I clicked on the box, crash. (I tried to screen shot it but when I pasted it into paint it was just a black screen with two white lines, so please don't ask for one :/ ) -.- This has happened twice now. So once again, unistall, reinstall, and then everytime after I started the game it would go to the loading screen (like the video intro was about to start) and it would crash.

So at this point everyone was telling me to download the fix, but I need to patch it first. OKAY! (Mind you, I did combinations of installing the fix, then trying the update, or trying the update and the fix and the outcome was the same every time.)
So I downloaded the fix and the manual patch, I tried to install the patch and what do you know, at the very end of the installation I get an "invalid file error" message. (Yes I downloaded the patch from 3 different browsers, still the same outcome for each one)

Kill. Me. Now.

I look through the forums for a few more hours and there were lots of different ways to get rid of this message, (I even tried to use the 1.38 patch just in case it was a bug with the 1.42, that came with the same result.) and looky here! Everyone says The Fix should fix that, hehe. Well it says I need to install another expansion, Supernatural was catching my eye So I downloaded it, and I have to update my game to install it. -___- wut.

So the update window came up and froze, yay. So I force stopped it, restarted my computer, tried to install it again, and it still won't update. I tried doing the manual patch for 1.42 AGAIN, still wouldn't work.

I am COMPLETELY out of ideas, I even reinstalled the Sims 3 AAAAGAAAIN to have fresh files to work with if anyone gives me a good answer. (I also tried to launch it again, and the evil gray screen appeared once more.)

I just don't know what to do, I hope I provided enough information. I'm sorry if the answer is right in front of me, I've just had so many issues and tried so many fixes that maybe I saw something that could help, but it wasn't the problem at the moment. I'd really appreciate any kind of help, I just want to play this game I'm willing to be very flexible.

***** I've read every "how-to" installation guide, watched the video, read all the installation guides word for word, done them step by step.


EDIT: So I think I was getting that (0x039e88474) error because I had pasted the TSE application into the start disk game bin folder, so when I pasted it into the disk 1 game / bin folder and that's how I was getting the gray screen. I'm not sure if that helps, but yeah..

Hello there,

You seem to have a lot of bad luck!
Just contact me via the Forum's chatbox when you see me online on the Forum, I'll try to fix the game for you via TeamViewer, if you like.

Sorry about the double posting! the person before wasn't helping me so much and I noticed it was under download problems rather than in game problems, I will do that!

//EDIT

Actually, when are you usually online?

Thanks so much !

(12/6/2012 EDIT)- unfortunately I've been trying to catch you online since I posted this and haven't been able to, is there anything you can do just from this post? Like can you think of anything else to help? I'm still having the same problems. Thank you.

Hello,
I am having a very similar problem to OP. I have the Deluxe version which includes Ambitions, Fast Lane Stuff, Generations, High End Loft, Late Night, Outdoor Living Stuff, Pets, Town Life Stuff, and World Adventures.

These all worked fine until I tried to install Supernatural and Seasons. Firstly, when trying to install them an update was required to even install them. So I figured I would install the manual patch from the ultimate fix guide and then proceed with the rest of the fix.

When trying to install the patch I got the error;
"Error Number: 0x80040702
Desciption: Failed to load DLL: DSETUP
Setup Will Now Terminate"

This happened at the very end of the installation. However, even though the installation failed I was able to install the new expansions.
After I installed them I followed the Ultimate Fix guide, copy & pasting the TS3W and TSLhost.dll files into their appropriate bin folders.
Once I finished with that I tried the update again, getting all the way to the end before recieving the same error message.

I figured since I was able to install the expansions that the update had worked after all. So I installed the files from the #Crack folder provided in the ultimate fix.

I then tried to run the game. Upon startup I got a black screen, then an error message;
"Unable to start game
Service Initialization Failed (0x024e424f)"
This is as far as I have been able to get. I tried reinstalling everything starting with the Deluxe version and ran into all of the same issues.

(Also, I was using WinRAR to extract all of the files.)

Please help.

Please open a new topic, so that we can keep everybody's problems straight, and help you better.

I AM EUPHORIC. So much so, that I need to post a separate comment instead of editing my last. I SOLVED ALL MY PROBLEMS. First off, I apologize for bugging you guys, second, I feel like the biggest idiot in the world. I realized that if I ran Supernatural Installation for long enough (I thought it froze, it was just being slow) it finally updated! I realized then that I was actually modifying and applying the cracks to the unzipped files themselves instead of going to Computer/ Program Files 86 (etc.) which is something huge I overlooked. As I looked through some of the posts I also realized that many people might be forgetting to do that step too, so maybe you guys should include a very specific and large BOLD step that says to make sure that you put it in there instead of modifying the files that I did . Even though I solved my own problems, thank you so much for your help.