Simcity Keeps Freezing

Has your OS or graphic drivers been updated recently, or have you installed any new programs? This is usually caused by another program or driver interfering with SimCity, or a permission problem with an antivirus or firewall program, etc.

Quick things to try:

• Install the most recent graphic drivers for your card
• Double-check that SimCity.exe and Origin.exe are both added to exception lists for antivirus and firewall
• Set SimCity and Origin shortcuts to "Run As Administrator"
• If you have the antivirus software BitDefender or MSI's audio program Nahimic 2 installed, disable them. Known compatibility issues with both
• Set SimCity shortcut to run in Windows 7 or 8 compatibility mode 

If you still have problems, try performing a clean boot and see if the problem disappears. If you can successfully run SimCity without freezing after a clean boot, then you know that one of your startup programs is interfering with SimCity. To find it, you will need to enable each program on the startup list, one at a time, reboot, then try SimCity again. When you encounter the freezing problem again, you will know that the last program you enabled is the one interfering. Uninstall or disable that startup program, and it should take care of the problem.

Things get really frustrated when the city suddenly slows down.

Some obvious things I've noticed (for offline mode only) that lead to slowdown:

• Offline data collection - I always disable this
• When the city grows beyond a certain population - I see most cases around 250,000 there are incidents of slowdown (not all)
• Alot of objects - when I fill the entire city with objects (building, sims, cars)

These alone, slow down the game to some extent but they are still enjoyable.

What is most frustrating is that sometimes the game crashes and then there are a few symptoms:

• The new residential buildings start showing "DEBUG - Happiness Wave" this is usually an indicator that the game file is corrupt, no going back
• It takes a very, very long time for new residents to move in, regardless of wealth class (the DEBUG only happens to low wealth)
• The game gets super choppy and slow - on >>> speed one month takes nearly an hour to progress; in a typical game it takes a mere few minutes.  If you watch the cars & people they move and freeze, etc. and so slow it's painful.

I really don't know what causes these crashes but I see it happen to 20% of my cities.  Once it crashes, it's done for.. a very slow painful slowdown starts to occur.

Anyone know how to resolve this? besides hardware or OS related responses?

FYI I run things in optimal conditions - no other apps running, new laptop, etc. Windows 10

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@rjchoi wrote:

Anyone know how to resolve this? besides hardware or OS related responses?

FYI I run things in optimal conditions - no other apps running, new laptop, etc. Windows 10

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Kind of limiting any responses if you refuse to look at hardware or OS. I have seen many reports over the years about slowdowns being caused by large cities. I've not seen a lot of ideas that work to fix it, other than doing what you've already mentioned. I can say with certainty that when playing online, there are times when the server will seem to "glitch" when doing a save and there's nothing you can do, other than a rollback, which is almost impossible to get now that the game is no longer supported.

The "DEBUG - Happiness Wave" was something I've never heard of either. I found one reference that says it's related to adding an upgrade to a city building (usually the mayor's mansion) while an RCi building is under construction. They say to bulldoze the affected areas and it comes back unbugged, but I assume you've already tried that. I guess you could try to avoid adding upgrades to happiness-invoking city buildings while there is building going on and see if that helps.

Try running "Repair Game" from Origin (right-click SimCity icon in Origin, choose "Repair")

Try running SimCityRecovery.exe ("as Administrator") Default location is \Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity\SimCityRecovery\SimCityRecovery.exe 

If you have any mods installed, remove them.

Always run Origin.exe and SimCity.exe "as Administrator".

When you have problems with a city, delete the SimCityData folder (\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity\SimCityData) It will create a new folder when you log in; if there is corruption on your end, this will fix it. If the corruption is on the server side, it will not.

In the game settings, try forcing speed to 60fps; disable v-sync and anti-aliasing. These can sometimes be a cause of lag or stuttering.

A couple of hardware-related notes: SimCity is an older game. It does not work well with 4k resolutions or multiple monitor setups. Run at 1080p resolutions, in single monitor mode. Make certain your graphic drivers are up-to-date. When you're running a city that lags badly or is experiencing slowdowns, bring up process manager and watch your cpu utilization to see if it's being maxed out.