Have you tried repairing the game? You can find this option when right clicking the game in the Origin library.
If that doesn't help, post a dxdiag file so we can look for a possible culprit: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
If you installed any mods, disable them.
Repair was already tried, and it's been confirmed to not be an issue with the mods. I have no idea what a dxdiag file is, and I can't gather it anyway because in truth it's not my game that's having this issue, but that of my significant other, and I posted this ask while she spent several hours growing increasingly frustrated, panicking, and deleting the save file. Still, I was hoping to find a solution in the event that it occurs again.
