For the past two months The Sims 4 has been randomly freezing up. Not just the game, but my whole system so that I have to restart my machine. I've completely uninstalled/reinstalled the game and all packs and am not using any CC or mods. I'm including my DxDiag text. Any help would be appreciated!
@HowEmbarraSim How often do you get BlueScreens? There are a couple in your dxdiag, but it only lists the last ten errors overall.
Please look for minidump files and upload any you find. Open a File Explorer window and write C:\Windows\Minidump in the address bar. For the last two or three files, right-click and select Copy, then right-click on your desktop and select Paste. You can zip them together from there, upload them to the free filesharing site of your choice, and link them here. If you don't see any minidumps, just let me know.
Your dxdiag is also missing some information, because it crashed while running. And most of the other errors are failed Windows updates. So it's a good idea to run a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files. Here's how:
Restart your computer, and run any pending Windows updates: hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates. Then restart again and try to play Sims 4. If it doesn't work, please run another dxdiag.
I'll try these things, thank you!
Hello again!
I found the minidump file - there in one from August 3rd. I'm having trouble loading it to a file share service, or opening it at all (Permission Denied - though I'm the admin on the computer)
I ran the check on Windows System files and got this:
"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>"
I did check for updates, but my computer says I'm up to date.
@HowEmbarraSim Windows will deny permission when you try to access files stored within the Windows directory. It's to prevent people (or viruses) from accidentally deleting an essential system file. That's why you need to copy the minidump and paste it to your desktop before trying to upload it.
And please don't open it first, or at least don't save the changes if you do. The apps you have installed likely won't be able to make sense of most of the symbols, so if you save it while in Notepad or something, the data may be corrupted and unusable.
@HowEmbarraSim The dump file won't unzip for me for some reason, but I don't think it matters: it's much too small (59 bytes) to contain enough information to be useful. Let's try another way instead. You can tell Windows to create crash dumps, play until a freeze, then find the dump and upload it. Here's how:
To be clear, this might not work with the kind of freeze you're seeing. But it's difficult to tell without more information. Regardless of whether you get a crash dump, please look again in C:\Windows\Minidump for any files created while you were playing. If you find one that's at least a few hundred KB (up to several MB), please upload it.
If this doesn't work either, hardware monitoring would be an entirely different approach. It won't catch software errors, but then again this might not be a software error.
@HowEmbarraSim The minidump files all list the same error: an access violation related to Malwarebytes. So it's a good idea to uninstall Malwarebytes entirely, and of course reinstall it if that's the antivirus you use. Malwarebytes offers a tool that allows you do do a clean uninstall, and then reinstall if you choose:
The error in the crash dump is related to your computer's page file. So please check the connections of your installed hard drive(s): make sure any M.2 drive is properly seated, and unplug and reattach any SATA cables. I don't actually know what drive(s) you have, since that was missing from your original dxdiag. So please let me know, and if you get another crash, run another dxdiag. The above might not help, but a loose connection is a simple problem to fix, so it's worth starting there.
Thank you again for your help! Unfortunately I'm still getting freezing issues after trying everything you've mentioned. Since it only seems to happen in Live mode and after 2-3 hours of game play I may just start setting a timer or spend more time building.
I've included my most recent dxdiag in case there's anything in there. Otherwise I really appreciate your time!
@HowEmbarraSim The BlueScreen error at least really does need to be addressed, regardless of whether you can play properly for a while. Since it referenced the page file, it's possible that the game crashes after a couple hours because that's how long it takes for the page file to be used. You have enough memory that the game shouldn't need to page at all, but I don't know what else you're doing while you play.
To that end, it's a good idea to run MemTest86. It's more thorough than the built-in Windows memory test, although you will need a USB stick you don't mind erasing. You can get it here (the free version is fine):
https://www.memtest86.com/index.html
And this is a good guide to using it:
https://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/memtest86_memory_guide/
There are also a number of Windows-related errors in your dxdiag. So to be thorough, it's a good idea to run a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files. Here's how:
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