Re: Simulation lag and game clock out of sync - December 2023

Hello, thank you firstly for your willingness to help! 

I have tested a new save a few times - always without mods - and the lag is present straight away. I tested the save before adding my save data back and tried again after adding my save data back in - no change. Even when I turn the graphics all the way down to the lowest and untick the uncompressed textures & post processing effects boxes, the game still lags on all speeds. I've removed "The Sims 4" folder as well as let the game populate a new one. Again I tried playing before adding any of my data back in as well as after adding my data back in - no change.

The online features is something I hadn't tried yet - I just tried playing with this box unchecked both in online and offline mode and the lag still persists. I played for around 4 sim hours with lots of animation and camera stuttering - went into CAS and back out - the clock went back in time by almost 2 hours. 

What would cause something like this to happen literally overnight? I didn't make any changes or do any updates the day before this started. The lag is present no matter what I try. I've read so many threads here about similar issues in the last few years and a DxDiag report is usually asked for - so I've attached mine if this would be useful. Thanks again for your support! 

@GouchoMarx  There are plenty of reasons lag can show up seemingly overnight, but it's usually that something updates (Windows, a graphics driver, the game, a different app you use all the time) and is no longer compatible with whatever else it needs to work with.  It's also possible for some necessary resource to become corrupted, or for the system drive to effectively run out of storage, or a bunch of other things that aren't worth listing.

In your case, your dxdiag shows that the Nvidia graphics driver is from 2020, and it might have been reasonably compatible with Sims 4 before the patch but not now.  You can simply install the newest available driver:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/216663/en-us/

Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator."  Choose the Custom (not Express) option, and check the box to perform a clean install.  Restart afterwards and before trying to play.

Your dxdiag also shows that some Acer registration service is crashing pretty much all the time.  So it's worth shutting that down, which might be as simple as disabling it in the Task Manager's Startup tab.  If not, you can also disable the associated service in msconfig; let me know if you need help with this.

And the dxdiag would have been my next request, so thanks for providing it.

@puzzlezaddict I downloaded the driver in the way you outlined and it's saved to my C: drive (the only drive on my laptop). When I restarted and tried to launch the Sims 4, the issue is the same but it looks like the game is still using the 2020 driver. In Device Manager under "display adapters" I only see the same 2x graphics driver listed (Intel and Nvidia MX450) which is the one you said is from 2020. I tried adding it to display adapters manually by using the path the installation saved the download files to and it says drivers were successfully added, but it still only shows Intel and MX450. When I had the game running, I looked at Processes on Task Manager and it had data for MX450 saying it was in use, but it doesn't list the new driver I downloaded anywhere.    

Is it as simple as downloading the driver data, saving it to your computer and that's it? Or do I have to connect it/set it up/configure it somehow once I have downloaded it? Or should downloading the data to my C: drive be sufficient, i.e. no further steps? How can I make the sims use it instead of the 2020 driver? Should I uninstall MX450?

I have looked all through my laptop for any program called Acer Registration Service and there's nothing on my laptop like this. I looked at what Acer apps were listed in the Task Manager's Startup Apps tab and there's nothing by this name or anything Acer-related. I also checked the Services tab and there's no service called this either. Anything Acer-related in this tab is already set to "Stopped". 

Any ideas on how to activate the driver data I just downloaded?   P.S. I've included some screenshots of the points mentioned above. 

@GouchoMarx  When you download a new driver, you download an executable file, ending in .exe.  (Sometimes it's a .zip that you need to extract first.)  This is the installer for the driver.  You double-click the .exe to run it, and the installer is what actually installs the driver.  The install location is within protected Windows space, so no, you can't simply extract the data and place it in the correct location.

Installing the driver won't change what you see in Display adapters.  That lists the graphics processing unit(s), not the driver(s).  Your GPUs are the Intel integrated chip and the Nvidia MX450; the drivers are software that tells the OS how to use the hardware.

I don't know where the Acer Registration software is hiding, but it has to be somewhere if it's throwing that error.  If you want to look more closely, try installing Everything, from VoidTools, which is a much better search tool than the one built into Windows.  Search for Acer and see what you find; you can list the file path for me if you want.

@puzzlezaddict then it seems I've done the download + install correctly and as per your instructions. I tried redownloading it and taking the GeForce App this time - it also tells me that I have the latest Nvidia Game Ready driver installed. 

Since then I've repeated many steps, such as getting the game to regenerate a new "The Sims 4" folder, I played in a newly created save, I tried online and offline, I put the graphics in-game all the way to Low... I still have the same lagging and game-clock issue ☹️   

I'm very grateful for you taking the time to help me while being very clear and concise. I'm currently downloading an update to the Intel Iris Xe Graphics driver which - I think - is the driver my laptop uses to display documents/programs etc.  Could this have an impact once it's downloaded? What else could I possibly try at this stage? 

EDIT:  I downloaded the Everything tool and... there were LOADS of files called Acer Registration so I simply got rid of them all. Unfortunately I still have lag and out-of-sync clock in the sims

@GouchoMarx  Sims 4 should be using the MX450 at all times, although the data does pass through the Intel iGPU on the way to the screen in most laptops like yours.  Still, the Intel driver is probably not the issue, and I would suggest not updating it if you haven't yet.  These drivers are often tuned for the specific laptop, so an older driver provided by the manufacturer may be more compatible for general use than the newest generic Intel driver.  This doesn't necessarily apply for games, but as said, Sims 4 should use the MX450.

For the lag itself, it's worth finding out whether this is an overheating issue.  Please download hwinfo (it's free) from here:

https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

You don't need to install anything; just choose the Portable version, unzip it, and launch it from Downloads or wherever you like.  If you do want the full installer, be sure to click the button for hwinfo itself, not for lansweeper.

Restart your computer, open hwinfo, choose Sensors Only, and click the button that's a sheet of paper with a + to start logging.  Save the log file to your desktop for easy access.  Wait five minutes, then open Sims 4 and play for at least 20 minutes.  Don't alt-tab out of the game or run any other programs, aside from the EA App of course, while you're testing.  When you're done, click the same button to stop the logging.

Please upload the log to the third-party filesharing site of your choice (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it for me.  Either leave it in .csv format or, if you're going to use OneDrive, create a .zip file, and don't open the log before uploading it, or else my log reader might not be able to interpret it.

Did everything uninstall install even bought the rent pack I didn't want still the same.What ever it's it's something they did do with the update 😞

@wxuyv49zc2my  Please describe your issue in your own words.  Many current problems sound similar but are not identical and have very different causes.  Please also let me know what platform you're playing on: Windows, Mac, Playstation, or XBox.

@puzzlezaddict I'm sorry for the long gap in response - I followed your instructions on trying to get a temperature reading of my laptop and it was hitting a high of 97°C while the Sims was running...! It was only then that I realised that I had actually not heard the fan spinning for weeks! While I was figuring out how to turn the data into a link for you, I just took my laptop to a computer shop and asked them to investigate it for overheating. They confirmed that the fan was very broken but the laptop itself seemed O.K. (no fried components etc). So I'm waiting to get the new fan fitted on Thursday this week (it took over a week for the fan to arrive... ¬_¬) Let's see if this makes a difference! If I still have game lag, I will run a new test with the new fan installed and respond (hopefully) with a link. Thanks again for helping out! 

Hello, I'm facing the same issue you are. However, my laptop works fine, the drivers are updated, there is no overheating either. My sims take too long to respond when I cancel any action and like you mentioned, the clock is completely out of sync. I tried removing my mods and yet I'm facing the issue. I am playing on Dell laptop, I have also tried repairing and updating the game. If I uninstall and reinstall the game, can I replace the save files, will it still work? Please help me with the lags and the bugs.

@GouchoMarx  A nonworking fan would definitely explain all the lag, although of course you won't know for sure until you test with the new fan.  Let me know how it goes.

@AngenaChase  Please test with no mods or custom content.  (You don't need to save your progress.)  If the game is still not running properly, create your own thread describing the issues you see.  Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to the post.

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

@puzzlezaddict  I have spent a few hours today trying to get the game to play without lag - even with the new fan - and nothing has changed ☹️   I generated a new "The Sims 4" folder, created a new save file, made a new sim - but the lag and clock issues persist...   I obviously tested without any mods - it's still lagging without mods and on fresh saves. The new fan is working and spinning freely like it should. What haven't we tried by this stage? I really think it's a fault in the game.

@GouchoMarx  Double-check your laptop's internal temperatures just to make sure everything's fine.  It's great that the fan is working, but nothing substitutes for testing.

Please also disable Online Social Features, under Options > Game Options > Other.  While this setting shouldn't introduce any lag, it can cause a significant drop in fps when the EA App can't connect or is offline, which can confuse or seem to exacerbate the issue.

If that's not the problem, please try playing in a clean boot:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest as described.

When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled.  If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.