PC EA app - "The app crashed unexpectedly" or "Background Services Crashed"

So I try to play sims 4, i click play on my steam, and nothing happens...so I try again, same thing...then I try to open the EA app manually, and nothing. I was getting as far as the app opening, but just a blank window with the menu lines at the top left, but nothing else...Then I followed the advice on here that suggested clearing the cache and now the problem is worse since the app won't even open to the blank screen. When I click the EA App icon this is what happens: 1. After i double click from my desktop I get a window saying, "Background services crashed- The services aren't responding, so we're kicking off the update manually. Stay put while we get the app up and ready." an hour later it's still there, 2. I click restart App. 3. I get a DOS prompt that says the update is already installed. and it closes after a few seconds and sends me back to the desktop with nothing done. putting me back to the start. it's a never-ending loop. 

I've never had this issue before, it was working fine yesterday.