Brand new PC: Game keeps randomly crashing

linalush​  I apologize for the late reply; I've mostly been away from the forums for a few days.  Anyway, all of the errors in your dxdiag are coming from one of the graphics drivers.  Since it's simpler, start by installing the newest (game ready) driver Nvidia provides:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/

Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator."  Restart the laptop afterwards and before doing anything else.

If that doesn't help, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of both the Intel and Nvidia drivers, as described here:

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

Use the UMA and RTX 5060 drivers Acer provides for your laptop:

https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/Nitro_ANV15-52/downloads?suggest=anv15-52;1

The proper order of operations is uninstall the Nvidia driver > uninstall the Intel driver > restart > reinstall the Intel driver > restart > reinstall the Nvidia driver > restart, all while your computer is offline.

And yes, the fact that the GPU idle is likely related to the crashes, but I would guess it's because the graphics driver has crashed and the GPU therefore isn't involved anymore.

Hello, 

I tried following the steps you described. Unfortunatey it did not fix the issue and my Sims 4 still keeps crashing after some minutes to about half an hour. First I tried to update the driver like you described. Restarted and then tried running Sims 4, which ran for a couple of minutes, then crashed.

I then tried to uninstall and reinstall both my Nvidia and Intel drivers by using DDU - following the steps described in the link you sent, while still making sure to follow the order in which you describe in your post. Sims 4 then ran for like 20 minutes before my whole computer crashed (I guess it was a bluescreen (?) because my PC showed a screen saying something like "A problem occured. The computer will now restart" or something like that, and then restarted). After logging back in I ran Dxdiag and saved that file. Please see the attached file (Dxdiag7).

As a final attempt before writing this response in the forums I again tried to update the Nvidia driver by installing the Nvidia app, letting Nvidia optimize my settings for games, updating to the latest driver and then restarting. When I then tried to run Sims 4 it ran for a couple of minutes before the aforementioned problem occured again - where the screen goes white for 20 seconds or so before the application just close with no further error message. When this happened I immediately ran Dxdiag again and saved the file. Please see the attached file (Dxdiag8). 

I bought my new computer mostly because I wanted to play Sims 4 with better graphics and framerate, hoping to expand my experience with more additional packs and expansions. But at this point im starting to loose hope and im becoming increasingly concerned that this problem wont be resolved. I really hope im wrong though and that you- or someone can help me with this. Im willing to try anything, including reformating my computer and resetting to factory settings if that what it takes. I wont make any more attemps at changes on my own at the time being and will be waiting and praying for some tech-god to help me further with this issue. 

Hello linalush​,

have you tried setting Sims 4 to use the RTX 5060 in Windows?

Go to Settings - Gaming - find the Sims 4 exe file and set it to maximum performance. Alternatively, you can set this in the Nvidia container.

Hope your problem is solved then. 

linalush​  Your newer dxdiags have more crashes of one of the graphics drivers, and the one BlueScreen is also related to video driver.  It's concerning that reinstalling the drivers didn't fix the issue.  So I would suggest testing Sims 4 on the integrated graphics chip, to see whether the problem is the Nvidia chip or something else.

Open Windows Settings > System > Display > Graphics settings, find TS4_x64 on the list, and set it to the power-saving option.  For the Nvidia App, I don't have it installed and don't know what options it offers, but you'd be looking for something that allows you to choose integrated graphics for TS4_x64.  The Windows setting is usually sufficient, but I'd check here too just in case the Nvidia App tries to override it.

To be clear, this is not a fix, just a test.  If the game works normally, then we've narrowed down the problem to the Nvidia graphics pipeline and can go from there.

Dustlex​  It shouldn't be necessary to specify the Nvidia GPU in Windows settings, in fact I haven't seen a case where the system chose the iGPU in years.  And you can clearly see from the image in the OP that the GPU was active up until just before the image was captured.

puzzlezaddict​ : 

Well, I've seen this problem many times before and have also experienced it myself, where the laptop started the game via the iGPU and not via the RTX, even though the RTX was marked as active. That's why I now always set the performance to maximum for games.

Thanks for the reply! 

@ Dustlex : 
I tried to setting it to high performance in the graphics settings of Windows, but no change to the issue unfortunately.

@ Puzzleaddict :
Reverted optimization in Nvidia app and changed driver settings of "CUDA - GPUs" from "NVIDIA GeForce RTX Laptop GPU" to "None". This was the only option I could find in the Nvidia app regarding Sims 4 and GPUs, as there doesn't seem to be any setting that's clearly related to changing to integrated graphics here. I also unchecked a box saying "Automatically optimize added games and apps".

I then went into the graphics settings in Windows, added the TS4_x64.exe and changed this from "high performance" to "power-saving". Sims 4 then ran smoothly all day yesterday on the integrated graphics! 

So I therefore assume that the problem is with Nvidia (?).
As good measure I tried to run another game than Sims on the Nvidia card (Tropico 6), using the reccomended graphics settings of Ultra. Like on Sims 4 it runs fine for a few minutes before crashing in a similar fashion (the screen freezes but doesnt close and my computer is otherwise responding). Here I also got a crash report when it happened and I attached it in this post in case it is related to the Sims 4 crashes (see the image below). 

I dont know for sure that its related or not though. What do you recommend as my next steps? 

linalush​  I don't know anything about troubleshooting Unreal games, but the error is clear enough: the game crashed because the D3D device (that would be the GPU) was "lost," i.e. no longer available.  That likely means the driver crashed, since that's what you've been seeing in Sims 4.

Since this is a new laptop, I would honestly just RMA it.  You don't want to have to play even Sims 4 on integrated graphics, let alone more demanding games.  And you already clean-uninstalled the Nvidia driver and tried the one that Acer specifically says is fully compatible with your laptop.

When requesting the RMA, bring up that point: DDU plus the Acer-provided driver didn't fix the issue.  Say that Sims 4 ran fine on the iGPU as well.  The technical name of the more common error you're getting, the one that only crashes the game, is LiveKernelEvent 117; the BlueScreen code is 116.  That should be enough for someone with technical knowledge to understand the immediate problem, along with the fact that you've done what you would have needed to in order to fix this kind of problem on the software side.

Practically speaking, there might in theory be some settings you could use to get the Nvidia chip to work, for example undervolting or underclocking.  In practice, a new computer should just work, and if it doesn't, the problem might get worse quickly.  So use the warranty and get a system that works the way it should.