My fiancé let me use his Asus gaming laptop (windows 7) to play sims and I can’t even play. I play the game through the Origin Application and it shows the first starting screen like the plumbob and “Sims 4” logo and plays the startup music- then it freezes, causes the laptop to make a buzzing sound, then shuts off the laptop. I’ve updated the drivers for Nvidia and Intel HD Graphics and turned on Vsync, put the game into windowed mode, even turned wifi off and still nothing works. I’m stuck and really sad because I was so excited to get to play sims normally and now it’s not even working and potentially harming this laptop. Any advice?
@falloutames If overheating were an issue, you'd likely notice the heat to at least some degree. What's interesting here is that the Nvidia card is still not listed, although its driver is (and has the correct date). Try doing another clean uninstall of only the Nvidia driver, but don't reinstall it, and see whether that helps.
Please also check the Reliability Monitor for any relevant entries. Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes. You'll see a list of errors and updates, with a column for each day. (Today is all the way on the right.)
For any recent errors that mention Origin or Sims 4, or any that happened at the same time as you tried to play, click "View technical details," then copy the information and paste it into a text document. (Notepad is fine.) You can attach the file to a post as you did with your dxdiag. Sometimes the Reliability Monitor doesn't update right away, so if you don't see any related errors, be sure to check back an hour or two. The timestamp on the initial chart can also be off by up to an hour, so that's not an entirely reliable metric, but the one within the technical details should be accurate.
The buzzing sound could be from the hard drive or fan(s), in which case it could be fine, even expected: a higher workload means some components will make more noise. But you're right that this could also indicate a more serious issue. If there aren't any obvious software errors, as might be found with the above info, a hardware problem becomes more likely.
I've attached the DxDiag report and Reliability Monitor results below. The main two things I saw during the Reliability Monitor check was Windows "Video Hardware Error" and of course Windows "Shut down unexpectedly", so I copied the technical details and labeled them for you. Thanks in advance for looking over these for me.
@falloutames The errors in the Reliability Monitor are related to the graphics driver, although it's not clear which one. This laptop has an Nvidia driver installed, but the Nvidia card itself doesn't show up. That could mean there's a problem with the driver or the card. Strangely enough, most of the information about the driver for the Intel graphics chip is missing from the system devices section, which could be a fluke, or a sign of a problem as well.
The first step here is to do a clean uninstall and reinstall of both drivers. Download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:
Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe. Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract. If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window. Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode. Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog. Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:
Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again. For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting). Once you login, you'll see this:
In the blue box, choose GPU, then Nvidia if it's not already showing. Then click Clean and Restart (red box).
Repeat the above process, except this time, choose Intel rather than Nvidia.
Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the Intel graphics driver install .exe as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator." Restart again and run the Nvidia driver as an admin. If you get an error when trying to install, that's fine, just let me know what it says.
Whether or not the Nvidia driver installs properly, you can restart (again) and try to play. The Intel graphics chip should run Sims 4 on low settings, so even if the Nvidia card doesn't work anymore, you should still be able to play.
Thanks for your reply! So uninstall/reinstall of drivers went smoothly but unfortunately did not fix the problem. I've attached a new DxDiag and Reliability Monitor check below if you want to take a look. I'm wondering if this could just be from dust buildup in the laptop? The laptop never feels hot like it's having trouble cooling itself though so I'm not sure.
@falloutames If overheating were an issue, you'd likely notice the heat to at least some degree. What's interesting here is that the Nvidia card is still not listed, although its driver is (and has the correct date). Try doing another clean uninstall of only the Nvidia driver, but don't reinstall it, and see whether that helps.
@falloutames I would guess that the Nvidia card is unusable, whether through age or some other cause. The fact that the dxdiag doesn't even detect it enough to say there's a problem with the card is telling, although that could in theory be caused by a bad driver.
When Sims 4 launches, the system likely calls the Nvidia driver, but the driver is useless without the card, and it throws errors that are serious enough for Windows to initiate an emergency shutdown. Remove the driver, and the system defaults to the still working Intel graphics chip and its driver.
I don't know whether the Nvidia card could be repaired at all—that would depend on the issue and how this particular laptop was built—but I would guess that it would be much more expensive than it's worth. If you got a cheap quote, or maybe even if you didn't, you'd probably just be receiving someone else's used laptop with the same (or close enough) hardware, perhaps with your hard drive switched out. That doesn't really seem worth the price.
I just asked him and he said he had his friend replace the hard drive a couple years ago so I guess the cards not even there. But hey thanks so so much for all of your help. I’d be bald right not from pulling my hair out if it weren’t for you. You’re an amazing and incredibly smart person! Seriously cannot thank you enough. I hope life treats you well and you receive blessings upon blessings for all the help you’ve given others.
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