Re: Sims 4 Doesn't Recognize My Video Card

Thanks for the feedback! Ok, I ran the report and this is what it uploaded. 

@Pooka20  Please start with a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes, and enter
• The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
• After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
• Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator)”
• Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes, and enter
• Post the message you receive here

Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the box to check for updates.  If any install, restart again afterwards.

It's worth trying to run the game again after DISM and sfc.  If it doesn't work though, which it might not, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the Intel graphics drivers.  Here's how:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

Use the drivers Asus provides for your laptop, which you can find here:

https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/up6502zd/helpdesk_download/

Please also download the newest driver from Intel, the one labeled WHQL and dated July 19:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/228342/intel-arc-a370m-graphics/downloads.html

Download both graphics drivers and the command center application.  Install the driver with version number V30.0.101.1325 (the second one listed) first, restart, then install the other, then the command center app, then restart again.  The reason for the two drivers if that your laptop has an integrated Intel chip and a dedicated card, and the drivers may not both support both GPUs.  Asus's documentation is not clear.

It may be that these two drivers only support the integrated graphics chip, so while your computer is still offline, please find out whether Windows detects a driver for the Arc card.  Hit Windows key-X, select the Device Manager, open the Display adapters section, right-click the Arc card, and select Properties > Driver.  The driver version should be either 30.0.101.1325 or 30.0.101.1631 (or close enough; the last four digits should match at least).  If it does, you're fine; go back online and test Sims 4.

If you don't see a driver, or see something about the Microsoft Basic Display adapter, install the driver you downloaded from Intel and restart again, then test the game.  You can also install the Intel driver, and restart, if you get the same error as you were seeing originally.

@puzzlezaddict   here's the info from the SFC. Thanks again for the help ☹️

@Pooka20  I take it the game didn't work after running DISM and sfc.  Did you try the clean uninstall and reinstall of the graphics drivers?  That's the next step here.

If that doesn't help, please post a new dxdiag.

@puzzlezaddict   No, I think it's working! It's worked the first couple times I booted up the game, so hopefully it continues to work. Thank you so much for your help! 

@puzzlezaddict   Never mind it's not working. I want your opinion on this, the game runs with no CC. I added some and it still ran, then I added a little more and the game freezes on the load screen.

1. It seems like the game is setting a CC limit?

2. Or could it be that the game struggles with recognizing my video card? In the past the game will run fine, then occasionally it won't launch and display the "unrecognizable video card" error code. Do you know a way to get the game to recognize my video cards? Maybe that would resolve all my issues. 

Thanks again for all you time 🙂

@Pooka20  Your graphics card not being recognized shouldn't have any bearing on this.  But if you want to get the card recognized and see whether it helps, that's simple.  I added both the integrated chip and the dedicated card to this file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n1pA375fZBRJbWlBHAPbhUoBuMP7yOCV/view?usp=share_link

Take the - off the name, so it's called GraphicsCards.sgr , and drop it in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > ConfigOverride.  The game will use this file rather than the one in the program files, and you can delete this file any time you want to go back to using the original.

I still think this might be a custom content issue, but it might also be worth testing how the game runs on your computer's integrated graphics chip.  Open Windows Settings, then System > Display > Graphics settings, click Browse, add TS4_x64.exe, click on it and select Options, then choose the power-saving option.  That should list the Xe graphics rather than the high-powered one, which should list Arc graphics.

You can double-check that the game is now using your integrated (Xe) chip in config.log, after you've launched the game again of course.  This is not a solution or even a good workaround, since the Arc card is so much faster than the Xe chip, but it would at least let you know whether the problem is with the Arc card or its driver rather than with Sims 4 or with something else on your system.

@puzzlezaddict   I don't have any CC in the game anymore and I've reinstalled it.

I followed your directions and changed my graphic setting from ARC to Xe. On Xe the game runs, but it opens in window mode for some reason. 

When it's set to run on the ARC card it still shows an "unrecognized video card error" and refuses to start the game. 

Any suggestions? 

Here's a pic of the game in Xe mode. 

@Pooka20  With the game using the Xe graphics chip, please post the first 40 or so lines of Config.log.  (Stop when you get to Options.)  You can delete your user and computer names, about 20 lines down; the file doesn't contain any other personal information.

@puzzlezaddict   I talked with Asus, and they said this laptop won't support Sims 4. It's just odd because it played the game with EVERYTHING for months. I guess I just bought the wrong laptop =/. 

I attached the config. 

@Pooka20  Asus support is wrong.  Frankly, even if it were true, that would be an incredibly shoddy result for a gaming laptop that is heavily marketed as such.  I'd love to speak to that support rep myself and share some thoughts, but suffice it to say that that statement is categorically incorrect and also totally irresponsible.  Now if Asus wants to give you a full refund so you can go buy something else, that's fine.  But making up a bad answer and punting is not the way to go.

Your config file shows the Xe chip isn't recognized.  I triple-checked my work before uploading the GraphicsCards.sgr file, but I checked it again just now to be sure, and the device ID is in the file.  So there are a few possibilities here.  One is that you didn't remove the - sign from the file.  Please double-check that and that the file name is properly capitalized.  Another possibility is that you added the .sgr file to the wrong ConfigOverride folder, not the one the game is reading.  Please make sure it's in the correct folder; here's how to find it:

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2018/07/how-to-find-your-user-folder/

Finally, you'll have needed to launch Sims 4 once after adding the .sgr file to ConfigOverride, and you'll need to look at the Config.log that's in the proper user folder, again the one in the file path the game provides.