Product: The Sims 4
Platform: PC Windows 10
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time since Nov. 17 (Game won't open)
What is your current game version number? 1.68.154.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Everything but "Snowy Escape," "Fitness Stuff," "Luxury Party Stuff," and "Romantic Garden Stuff."
Steps: Everything listed in this thread. Also booted up another Origin game to make sure it's not the client that's glitching. Reverted game to the original version purchased in Origin, but that won't open either.
What happens when the bug occurs? Click play on the Sims 4 detail page, the whole thing disappears for a few seconds, then comes up again. The game doesn't open.
What do you expect to see? The loading screen for Sims 4.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Custom content, but that's all been removed from the game folder.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? After the Nov. 17 patch to address in-game crashing. I had the same issue after the Nov. 10 game update, but clearing the game cache fixed that issue. It's not working this time.
I'm sure I'm overlooking something obvious, so I'm attaching the DxDiag from last night in hopes fresh eyes will pick up on something. Thank you for any insight you can provide.
@dyrinda Do you have some sort of external display adapter? If so, please disconnect it, as well as any other monitor you have plugged directly into the laptop, then test the game. I'm not saying you definitely can't play with this setup, just that it's the place to start testing.
If that doesn't help, please uninstall and the 2015-2019 VC++ runtimes. Click Windows key-i, select Apps, scroll down to the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables, and uninstall both the x86 and x64 runtimes that are dated 2015 or later. Don't touch any runtimes dated 2013 or earlier. Then download new versions of the runtimes from here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads
Restart your computer before trying to play.
hey hey, just wanted to post my DxDiag again just in case- cause something might have changed idk tbh
@TaylorinoBoi I'm sorry, I can't find another recent post from you, at least under this username, so I don't know whether you've tried any of the following already. Even if you have though, please do it all again, together and in order, just to be thorough.
Start with a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:
Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates. If there are a number pending, it may take a few tries, with restars in between, to get them all to run.
Next, go back to the Windows Settings page, select Gaming, and disable Game Mode and Game Bar entirely.
Restart your computer and try to play. If the game doesn't open, please try playing in a clean boot:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10
If none of this helps, please let me know what happens when you try to play.
@dyrinda It's not all that strange that a new user folder would be created. That just means that the game gets far enough to spawn one rather than being prevented from loading at all, as it might if an antivirus was blocking it. (It's not a precise indicator, since the game could be blocked later in the process, but it is useful to know that it could write to the Documents directory.) At any rate, please try clearing Origin's cache and uninstalling it "the hard way" together, to remove all traces of Origin from your computer.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/
For good measure, run a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files:
Restart your computer, download the full Origin installer, and run it as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator." This is a direct download link:
http://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe
If you still can't play, please check the Reliability Monitor for any relevant errors. 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 errors that mention Origin or Sims 4, or any with a timestamp from when you tried to launch the game, that happen after you reinstall Origin, 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.
