Re: DxDiag

@roberta591 I am going to ring them again this morning. How can I ensure I get help about the problems I'm having and make it clear? Any suggestions? The men I’ve been communicating with via phone and email haven’t been very helpful - at all really.

I really don't know why the links are only available for 24 hours - makes no sense and is really stupid. I did purchase it recently from PCSpecialist - very recently, early February! Absolutely it's their responsibility but they're doing the absolute minimum so far when I've contacted them via phone and email.

Really fed up 😕😠.

@puzzlezaddict  I copy the link paste it into the web address bar then a pop up shows saying open or save I press save then once it's finished and I click it, it asks what to open it with it says Firefox so I click open but then that same pop up opens in a new tab on Firefox each time I press the pop up to open it the same pop up opens in a new tab on Firefox.  😕☹️😠 Hope that makes sense and you can make some sense of what I'm talking about...

@WallFlower26  When downloading a file, don't choose "Open with," choose "save file."

@WallFlower26  Don't open them, just let me know the last modified date on the files.

@puzzlezaddictWhere will it say the last modified date? I need to get links again, I've emailed them to get them.

Update

At the beginning of April I phoned PCSpecialist and the person I spoked to connected to my laptop and did bits and bobs (no idea what) I know he deleted something which has really frustrated me because I don't know what he deleted or how to find out what it was and said see what that does, if still happens phoned back. It happened a couple of days after.

Today i phoned them again and spoke to a different person and told him the problem and he said it's an application problem as the screen goes white instead of black so reinstall the game. ??Don't know if that will stop it, how to reinstall??

Hope someone can help

@WallFlower26  Since it's been so long, and the information you last posted is somewhat out of date, please do this in order:

• Open Documents\Electronic Arts and drag your Sims 4 folder to the desktop
• Restart your computer, and open only Origin
• Try to launch the game, and let me know whether it works
• If it doesn't work, close everything, restart your computer, open only Origin, and try to play again
• If it still doesn't work, run a dxdiag and attach it to a post

Since the PC Specialist people weren't all that helpful when you asked about drivers, it will probably be easier to just skip their downloads entirely for now.  It may make things a bit more complicated, but at least for the graphics drivers, it's manageable if not ideal.

I did bullet 1 and 2. It worked but it doesn't always happen, it happens randomly. Though it's most likely to happen when i first start playing a game after turning it on or going back to it after minimising it while the laptop is on or turning it back on after it being in sleep mode.

@WallFlower26  Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Here it is...

@WallFlower26  Your dxdiag shows that you somehow have four separate drivers installed for your integrated graphics chip.  You can try just installing the newest Intel driver, to see whether the old ones will be removed.  This works some of the time, but if it worked all the time, people wouldn't have multiple drivers installed.  You can get the newest Intel driver here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29465/Intel-Graphics-Windows-10-DCH-Drivers?product=191045

However, the only surefire way to get rid of them is to do a clean uninstall.  Given the way your laptop works, it would be best to uninstall the Nvidia driver first, then the Intel driver, then install a new Intel driver, then finally a new Nvidia driver.  But this is a bit of a complicated process, so you might want to review it and ask questions before trying it.  If you'd prefer to just install the newest Intel driver first and see whether it works, go ahead, and let me know whether the game still has issues.

Otherwise, here are instructions for a clean uninstall of both drivers:

Your dxdiag shows that you somehow have four separate drivers installed for your integrated graphics chip What does that mean, how did that happen, how many are there supposed to be. I'm regretting getting this bloody stupid laptop and feel like giving up!!

@WallFlower26  In the Display Devices section of your dxdiag, you have four separate Intel drivers listed:

       Driver Name: C:\windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\iigd_ext.inf_amd64_8a1113071d21d7c4\iigd_ext.inf
          Driver Version: 25.20.100.6519
             Driver Date: 01/09/2019
         Driver Provider: Intel Corporation
      Catalog Attributes: Universal:False Declarative:True 
             Driver Name: C:\windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\iigd_ext.inf_amd64_b228ba679342e37a\iigd_ext.inf
          Driver Version: 26.20.100.7528
             Driver Date: 11/13/2019
         Driver Provider: Intel Corporation
      Catalog Attributes: Universal:N/A Declarative:True 
             Driver Name: C:\windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\iigd_ext.inf_amd64_5dd8d07dfea9036b\iigd_ext.inf
          Driver Version: 26.20.100.6911
             Driver Date: 05/28/2019
         Driver Provider: Intel Corporation
      Catalog Attributes: Universal:N/A Declarative:True 
             Driver Name: C:\windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\iigd_ext.inf_amd64_c6eda0764eb4372b\iigd_ext.inf
          Driver Version: 25.20.100.6793
             Driver Date: 04/09/2019
         Driver Provider: Intel Corporation
      Catalog Attributes: Universal:N/A Declarative:True 

There's one active, and three others that are present, or at least that have left behind some files.  I don't know why it happened this time, but there are various reasons why it might.  It's not important though.  The extra drivers can be removed easily enough using Display Driver Uninstaller.  Situations like this are one of the main reasons such software exists.

Just to be perfectly clear, this does not mean that your computer is broken.  This is an error of software that didn't get deleted when it should have, or that was installed when it shouldn't have been.  This does not indicate any hardware issue, or really anything that can't be solved.  In fact, it's good news in a way, because it could explain the occasional issues you have with Sims 4, and the cause would be simple and easily solved.

I know that the instructions for Display Driver Uninstaller are a bit complicated, but if you feel comfortable running it, or you can get someone else to help you run it, the software should fix the driver issue easily enough, and then you won't have to worry about it.

@puzzlezaddict The driver is old so that problem will still be there from removing the extra drivers therefore Sims still acting up and the same error popping up outisde Sims (no?)

How many drivers are there meant to be on here?

On the instructions to uninstall the extras where it says 'and double-click the DDU.exe' double click it where?

Separate question, can this laptop work/play previous Sims games from the website old-games.com?

@WallFlower26  The point is to remove all drivers currently installed, then install exactly one driver each for the Intel integrated graphics chip and the Nvidia dedicated graphics card.

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@WallFlower26 wrote:

On the instructions to uninstall the extras where it says 'and double-click the DDU.exe' double click it where?

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You download Display Driver Uninstaller, it lands in your Downloads folder, and then when you're ready, you go into Downloads and double-click the downloaded .exe file.

I don't know what old-games.com is.  This laptop would run Sims 3 easily, and likely Sims Medieval, and it would probably run Sims 2 and the original Sims if you were willing to put in some work to make the games run correctly.  The driver issues would still be there regardless of what game you were playing.

@puzzlezaddicthow do I know what Intel Driver to install?

@WallFlower26  I linked the driver for you already, a few posts ago.  But there's a newer one available now:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29554/Intel-Graphics-Windows-10-DCH-Drivers?product=191045

@puzzlezaddict But there’s 2

@WallFlower26  From that same page:

Notes

• Self-installing format (.exe) is the easiest installation method and our recommendation.
• Manual installation format (.zip) is intended for developers and IT professionals.

See the ReleaseNotes for installation instructions, supported hardware, and more.

@puzzlezaddict I’m terrified I’m going to do it wrong.

@WallFlower26  I understand that, but the Intel driver installer is built to handle its business with minimal input from the user.  If the driver install goes wrong, it's likely because there was already something so wrong with state of the driver that the installer couldn't fix or remove the problem.  That probably sounds intimidating, but the point is that either the install goes fine, or you already had a big problem that needed to be addressed, and this is how you find out.