I haven't been able to play Sims 4 since February and I am getting no help from EA. I keep getting a message that says the game failed to launch because of an error on EA's end. I did everything I could find and nothing worked. When none of that worked, I just reset my whole laptop and still nothing. I can play other games from the EA App. It happened so randomly. I've been using the EA App since October with no problems and then there was an update for the app in February. I did the update and that's when it all started. My most recent error report ID is: 38d2f267-63ea-4ca4-89ea-c6d8cb8b5e1cI also did the dxdiag thing. Please help!

@puzzlezaddict Thank you. I appreciate all the help that you have given to this point. It is far more than EA even offered to do. Every time I would finally get in a chat with them I would get disconnected for some reason. I couldn't get any response through email and when I finally was frustrated enough I gave them a call and was brushed off argued with and then told I would receive an email. That was a month ago and no email. I will give this a try and see what happens. Thank you again!

@MysteryKoolAid7 Yes, I would like to know where the Memory use stabilizes after you've restarted your computer and before you open anything. But the Startup tab has the more important info at the moment. Please disable Edge, Teams, and Toolkit from starting with Windows. That doesn't mean you won't be able to use them, only that they won't be running in the background on their own. For the EA App, open the App itself, click the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner, select Settings > Application, and deselect the option to open the App at startup. This should remove the App from the Task Manager's Startup list, but double-check anyway. While you're there, it's worth disabling the in-game overlay, as this also takes resources better spent on other tasks. I understand you have an external drive, but Windows uses the internal drive for temp files as well as the page file. You could in theory move the page file to your external drive, but this would probably have a significant and very noticeable impact on performance any time the page file needed to be used, and anyway the more important issue is lowering RAM use overall so Sims 4 has more to work with. Please make the changes above, restart your computer, wait five minutes without opening anything, and let me know how much memory the Task Manager reports is in use. I'd also like to see a new dxdiag run at that time.

@MysteryKoolAid7 That looks much better, although Edge is still enabled at startup. Your computer's page file is not quite as full either, but I'd still try increasing its size. Here's how (option 3): https://www.elevenforum.com/t/manage-virtual-memory-paging-file-in-windows-11.8618/#Three Please set the minimum to 8000 and the max to 12288, then restart your computer and try to play.

@MysteryKoolAid7 What happens now when you try to play: the same error from the EA App, or something else? Your dxdiag lists a few BlueScreens as well. Have you noticed them, and in what context do they happen? It's also worth installing Sims 4 using a different EA account just to see whether this is truly an account issue. (The base game is free now, so it's an easy test.) The errors in your dxdiag did need to be addressed, but perhaps you started out with more than one problem.

@MysteryKoolAid7 Right, since the new account works, the issue is only on the main account, which is good news all by itself. First of all, if you use OneDrive in the main account, try pausing syncing before you try to launch Sims 4. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the lower-right corner of your screen, select Pause syncing, then 2 hours, and see whether you can play. If you can, it becomes a matter of adjusting OneDrive's settings. If you don't use OneDrive, or pausing syncing doesn't help, try running the takeown command on the Documents folder in the main account. You're going to use this command: takeown /F "C:\Users\username\Documents" Write your actual username for this Windows account (your main one) instead of username. Since the syntax needs to be exactly right, please copy this command to a Notepad file, substitute in your username, and then copy that string when you're ready to use it. Hit Windows key-X and choose either "PowerShell (Administrator)" or "Windows Terminal (Administrator)," whichever option is offered, paste the command into the window, and enter. Then restart your computer and try again to play.

Can't Launch Sims 4 | EA Forums

23 Replies

puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@MysteryKoolAid7 Please restart your computer and open nothing except the Task Manager, click the Processes tab if it's not showing already, and let me know how much memory your system is using. Then click the Startup tab and post a screenshot of what you see.

The reason I ask is because your computer only has 4 GB RAM installed, which isn't really enough for Sims 4. You should still be able to play, with excess data spilling over into the page file. However, your computer's page file is already almost all used at the time of the dxdiag, meaning something else not game-related is eating all your computer's resources before you even try to play. So the first question is what, then the next question is what to do about it.
MysteryKoolAid7
3 years ago
I went into task manager and it was already in the processes tab. I got a screenshot of it when it first opened. I did notice that more things kept popping up as I took the screenshot. Should I get more screenshots as its loading or is the first one all you need? I'm honestly not good with computers so I am clueless here.
MysteryKoolAid7
3 years ago
@MysteryKoolAid7 I also forgot to add that I do have an external hard drive thing for the extra space. Its a Seagate backup slim. That's all I know about it..lol. Also, thank you for the help.
MysteryKoolAid7
3 years ago
I forgot this. I'm sorry.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@MysteryKoolAid7 Yes, I would like to know where the Memory use stabilizes after you've restarted your computer and before you open anything. But the Startup tab has the more important info at the moment. Please disable Edge, Teams, and Toolkit from starting with Windows. That doesn't mean you won't be able to use them, only that they won't be running in the background on their own.

For the EA App, open the App itself, click the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner, select Settings > Application, and deselect the option to open the App at startup. This should remove the App from the Task Manager's Startup list, but double-check anyway. While you're there, it's worth disabling the in-game overlay, as this also takes resources better spent on other tasks.

I understand you have an external drive, but Windows uses the internal drive for temp files as well as the page file. You could in theory move the page file to your external drive, but this would probably have a significant and very noticeable impact on performance any time the page file needed to be used, and anyway the more important issue is lowering RAM use overall so Sims 4 has more to work with. Please make the changes above, restart your computer, wait five minutes without opening anything, and let me know how much memory the Task Manager reports is in use. I'd also like to see a new dxdiag run at that time.
MysteryKoolAid7
3 years ago
I wasn't sure if my external drive mattered or not for this issue. I just wanted to give as much info as possible. I followed the steps you listed. Thank you.
DxDiag.txt83 KB
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@MysteryKoolAid7 That looks much better, although Edge is still enabled at startup. Your computer's page file is not quite as full either, but I'd still try increasing its size. Here's how (option 3):

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/manage-virtual-memory-paging-file-in-windows-11.8618/#Three

Please set the minimum to 8000 and the max to 12288, then restart your computer and try to play.
MysteryKoolAid7
3 years ago
I gave that a try and it unfortunately did not work.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago
@MysteryKoolAid7 Do you mean that you couldn't increase the page file size, or that doing so didn't help with the Sims 4 issue? If the latter, please post a new dxdiag.
MysteryKoolAid7
3 years ago
I'm sorry I didn't specify. I followed the steps and it still didn't work.
DxDiag.txt83 KB