Forum Discussion

linalush's avatar
linalush
Rising Newcomer
1 month ago

Brand new PC: Game keeps randomly crashing

Hello there,

I just got a new high-end gaming laptop and was looking forward to playing Sims 4 on it. I have played for years and have never had this issue on my old laptop (which was otherwise performing pretty badly). The issue is that Sims 4 constantly crash for no apparent reason. I don't get any error message and the application just seems to close on its own (it kinda freezes for a bit and then a quick flash of white or black screen before it closes).

This is on a freshly set-up PC with W11 where the only things I have downloaded this far is the EA launcher, Sims 4 and my current browser. I have followed the troubleshooting guide and otherwise tried most tips that I have found online. Steps include (not neccesarily in this order): 
- Uninstalling and reinstalling both the game and the launcher
- Deleted mods folder and cache-file 
- Moved entire Sims folder to desktop and multiple fresh saves 
- Checked that drivers are updated

I dont have any mods or custom content downloaded, and it doesnt seem to matter if I load into a game or start a new game. I dont see any clear pattern to it happening either - as it can happen after 5 minutes or after 2 hours (max time before crashing) and there isnt any particular location or action that my sim is performing that I notice.

I just want to get back to playing Sims 4. Please, could anyone tech-savy help me with this? Ive included the dxdiag for a crash that happened after 2 hours (DxDiag2) and the most recent for a crash that happened when restarting and playing for like 5 minutes (DxDiag3). Ive also included a screenshot from monitoring CPU and GPU while playing, as I noticed something that may (or may not) be of relevance. See the attached picture where it seems that the GPU goes idle at the approx same time as the crash happenes. 

Can anyone please help me with this? 

5 Replies

  • 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.

  • linalush's avatar
    linalush
    Rising Newcomer
    1 day ago

    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. 

  • Dustlex's avatar
    Dustlex
    Rising Hotshot
    1 day ago

    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.

  • Dustlex's avatar
    Dustlex
    Rising Hotshot
    8 hours ago

    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.