Sims 3 freezing up 2nd monitor

@qtmoosie  Are you trying to play in fullscreen mode, and if so, does it help to use windowed mode instead?  You can switch at the Main Menu or by editing Options.ini, in Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3.  For the latter, open the file, search for fullscreen , and set it to 0 (zero).

If this helps, but you want the fullscreen effect, you can use Windowed Borderless Gaming, a free utility that works well with Sims 3.  Lazy Duchess's Smooth Patch also has a borderless mode, but if you want to try it, don't use the included .package file, as it's not completely stable.  The files that go in the Bin folder are fine.

If this doesn't help, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

idk if i attached exactly what you were wanting, but my game is in windowed fullscreen mode. im not too sure what's causing it to freeze like that.

@qtmoosie  There's nothing obvious in your dxdiag, so some experimentation might be in order.  First, please play in windowed mode, not windowed fullscreen and not with any third-party app handling this setting.  (That means no Smooth Patch Borderless setting, no Windowed Borderless Gaming, nothing else that would override the game settings.)  Just use the in-game setting and see how it goes.

If that doesn't help, try setting your secondary monitor to run at 60 Hz rather than 144, just as a test.  The option is under Windows Settings > System > Display > Advanced.  Restart your computer after changing the setting and before trying to play.

If that doesn't help either, 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 3 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.