SimCity has just launched and like most PC games in memory, there’s a LOT of issues to be had — mostly with the always-online DRM of the game but that’s really out of our hands isn’t it. Once you do get the chance to login properly though there’s still a few issues that’ll mar the experience. Here’s a few fixes that should help ease your way into playing SimCity.

Solving problems with SimCity [2013]

First things first, make sure your PC can meet SimCity’s requirements:

Minimum System Requirements

• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better or Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
• Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7
• RAM: 2GB RAM
• Hard Drive: 10GB HD Space
• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 2×00 or better*
• nVidia 7800 or better*
• Intel Series 4 integrated graphics or better*
• Broadband Internet: Minimum 256 kbps download, 64 kbps upload
• *Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

Recommended System Requirements

• Processor: Intel Core i5 or faster
• Operating System: Windows 7
• RAM: 4GB RAM
• Graphics Card: nVidia GTX 275 or better, or ATI 5850 or Better

If you meet the requirements, be sure to run through the Common PC Gaming Problem Checklist for any band-aid or necessary things you might have to fix.

Online Issue #1 SimCity Server Busy

No way around it.  You have to wait things out.

Online Issue #2 SimCity throws a Not yet released Message

EA is checking your IP for validity as the game is still in the process of releasing elsewhere in the world.  This will likely go away some time soon.

SimCity Crashes

Now we get to the meat of the issue, fixing the crashes of the game.

Issue #1 SimCity  Crashes on Launch – Missing DLL File

Check if your anti-virus software or firewall has flagged anything in the Origin or Sim City Directory.  Unmark it or simply flag it as clean.

Issue #2 SimCity force closes while in Windowed mode

I haven’t seen a solution for this one aside from playing in full screen mode.  Also be sure to run through the Common PC Gaming Problem Checklist, you might have an outdated video card driver.

Issue #3 SimCity continues playing music but crashes

Currently no work around other than disabling origin in-game and restarting the game.

Issue #4 SimCity hangs, Windows throws ‘SimCity as stopped working’ error

Reports indicate it’s an issue with the autosave and the crowding of servers (see if you read it and think huh?  what’s that got to do with the crashes, you’ll see why EA”s decision with the always-online DRM is such a bad idea).  One solution is to change regions but that’ll reset your progress since cities don’t carry over per region.  Looks like we’ll have to wait for EA on this one.

SimCity Error Codes

Error Code SMCY1, SMCY5, SMCY7, SMCY10, SMCY21

There is a connectivity issue with your client and EA’s servers.  Be sure to check if you have an intermittent internet connection before proceeding to retry

Error Code SMCY2, SMCY3, SMCY4

You have installed SimCity to a directory which needs administrator rights, either run the setup as an admin or install into a different directory.

Error Code SMCY32

If you encounter this error, you will need to uninstall and then reinstall the game.

SimCity Bugs, Graphical issues, gameplay issues

Issue #1 Tools don’t Show up

Restart the game.

Issue #2 No guides, or Data layers, No Zots

Check that you meet the minimum requirements for the game and run through the Common PC Gaming Problem Checklist.  If you don’t see anything wrong, try toning down the graphics quality of the game.

Issue #3  Ground Texture and Other Objects not Being Displayed Properly

Same as above.

Issue #4  SimCity runs but getting Unable to Create a City at this time

EA says it’s due to the overwhelming number of users.  Should we give them pass for not anticipating the surge of players?

That’s it for now.  If you have any fixes to suggest or bugs to report, you can post them in the comments and I’ll add them here.