HELP!

I'm from the UK, and a mac user. (Leopard 10.5.7)

I've installed the game and when I get to the part to pick a town the following message pops up:
Disc Authorization Failure
We are unable to verify that your disc is a valid copy of The Sims 3.
Please contact customer services.

I have to accept the following message, and when I do the game quits itself.
I was really looking forward to playing it too

I bought The Sims from the GAME store last week, and today I swapped the disc for a new one in store in case there was a problem with the disc itself.

I've tried all the FAQ on this site, and they're no help.

It does the same to me too. Have you tried just starting it over again? I've done that after it gives me that message. Sometimes it will give me the message again, I restart the game and for some odd reason, it starts up like it was never a problem.

I don't understand why they need a disc authorization after I've bought it with all $63 DOLLARS of MY U.S. MONEY, and registered it to get my European sports car that comes with the Collector's Edition.

Yeahh, and I've un-installed and re-installed.
It's really irritating.
I've sent a message to EA so hopefully they'll get back to me soon, I really want to play it!

I have the Collector's Edition too, not much use at the moment though.

Mine is doing the same thing!

When I get to the menu to choose which family/town I want to play with, it gives me that Disc Authorization Failure message.

So far, I've been able to eject the disc, insert it again, and it will work fine. But, I'm really scared that one time it's not gonna work and then I'll just be out $55.

If you guys hear back from EA, please post and let us know what they tell you!

Thanks!

Try this guys....

http://easims.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/easims.cfg/php/enduser/std_a
dp.php?p_faqid=22234&p_created=1243991662&p_sid=XcCSjnAj&p_acc
essibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9J
nBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xMzIsMTMyJnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0
mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX
3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWRpc2M*&p_li=&p_topview=1

I had the game running off of my external hard drive but as soon as I installed it on the computers hard drive it hasn't given me any problems so far *fingers crossed*

hope this works for you guys

You aren't the only ones to be having this problem. I've had it a few times and tried a few different things that people have said fix it...

-Ejecting and restarting the computer
-Starting the game without the disc and waiting for it to ask for it

Results have varied.

I've also un-installed, updated, reinstalled, repaired disk permissions.

I have emailed EA.
So as soon as I here back, I shall post it on here.

I tried doing this "-Starting the game without the disc and waiting for it to ask for it"
but then the graphics didn't load properly. It's all one big problem really.
Although I guess it's good to know it's not just happening to me.

Heyy

I had the same problem, since the 5th when it was realised, til this morning
They issued me with the rights to download the game from EA download manager, and now it works fine.

Yes I've taken time out of my simming time to tell you this

Hope it all works out

Same thing is starting to happen to me too. So far restarting my iMac has always solved the problem. I admit though it's a bit annoying to have to do this.

I've found this happens less often if I don't leave the disk in the drive when I don't intend to play the game for a while - like taking the batteries out of something if you don't intend to use it for a while, or draining the fuel from my RC truck...

Emmzyiscool wrote:Heyy

They issued me with the rights to download the game from EA download manager, and now it works fine.

I am having the same problem on my Mac, all the tips suggested don't seem to work.
I bought The Sims 3 from Game last week and it was working perfectly until today.

How did you get them to issue you with the rights to download the game Emmzy? Did you email customer services or someone?

I had this same problem.

I installed the game on the evening it was released and it worked fine for almost 2 weeks. Then, it suddenly started giving this message and failing to run. Nothing on the iMac had changed during that time.

My machine has 2 external USB harddrives, which are used with Time Machine and as an archive for downloads, in order to reduce the amount of stuff on my internal disk. I had to eject these 2 disks before the game would play.

Then it stopped giving the error and resumed working again for a while.

I confess I have now used a no-cd crack to overcome this problem. I have bought a genuine copy of the game, installed it and registered it correctly. The game is - and always will be - installed only on my own computer. I have no wish to support piracy in any way. However, when the properly installed genuine copy of the game starts preventing me from running it, I feel the use of the crack is justified.

The bonus is that not only is the game now running without rejecting the genuine disk but I no longer have to risk scratching the disk by inserting it whenever I want to play the game.

The patch seems to have fixed this issue. Thankyou EA.

Unfortunately, it did remove the no-CD hack - but it also removed the need for it, so fair is fair.

I had this same "Disk Authorization Faliure" problem since the other day when I downloaded the game update. I unistalled, reinstalled, and even re-downloaded the update. Nothing was working until magically, it just did work. I don't know why, I don't know if it will again. But I guess just try ejecting the CD and put it in again and see if it works. I was really upset yesterday, called EA support and they offered NO help! The tech guy just made me delete the history on my browser and that was it and it didn't work. So I don't know why it magically worked this time, but just trust it might if you try it over again enough. Oh, and when it did, the speed worked the way it should, or at least faster. So it's worth it lol.

Good luck

What works for me, when I get that error message this is what I do.

1) Exit out of all running programs (including internet and background)
2) Disconnect any external hardrives, USB sticks or any other usb connection products (not including mouse)
3) Disconect Internet cable/ disable wireless to your computer
4) Eject disk
5) Re- insert current play disk
6) Try to open game again

If the above steps didn't work.

1) Eject Disk
2) Re-start computer
3) Repeat steps 1)-6) excluding 4)

If none of these steps work then lets now examine any programs currently on your hard drive

1) Open your Applications folder/ where you keep your computer programs
2) Search for any disk emulation/ copy software For example,

Sound Flower
Fantom CD Emulator
Alcohol 120%
Nero Image Drive
Phantom CD
Clone CD
Ark Virtual Drive
Veritas DLA
Daemon Tools

Either disable of uninstall (Keep backup copy of program/ reinstaller!)

Repeat first steps 1)-6)

If it STILL wont work then contact EA and hope for the best!
Goodluck

(Background Information: Macbook on OS;10.6.4)