@MSLsiblings Your dxdiag shows a number of generic Windows errors, among other things, so please 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 box to check for updates. If any install, restart again afterwards.
Try playing Sims 4 with nothing else running other than Origin or the EA App, and put that app into offline mode before launching the game. Please test both your existing save and a new one again.
If the interaction menu is still not showing up right away, please put Sims 4 into windowed mode (but don't minimize it), bring up the Task Manager, put it into detailed mode (as in, you see a full list of running processes) if it's not already, and post a screenshot of what you see. You can use Windows key-shift-S to capture that portion of the screen.
Please also post a new dxdiag run after you've tested this second time.
task manager ss and dx diag.
@MSLsiblings You could run sfc again, but the only reason you'd need to care about the message it outputs is if it said "Windows found corrupt files and was unable to repair some of them," or words to that effect. Otherwise, it doesn't matter.
The immediate cause of your current issue is clear from your Task Manager screenshot: your processor is maxed out while you're playing. Lag when opening menus is one common symptom of this. But Sims 4 is only using 56% of the CPU resources, which is high but not a problem by itself. So the next question is what else on your computer is using a significant amount of the processor. The Task Manager can be ignored since you're not normally going to have it open while playing. For the rest, click on the CPU header to sort the list by how much of the processor it's using, and list any task that's using more than 5% CPU.
Please also click the Startup tab and post a screenshot of that; there may be applications set to start with Windows that really don't need to be running all the time.
I listed both, a screenshot of my cpu and startup from task manager. Desktop windows manager,feedback hub,microsoft one drive and system have more than 5% cpu .
@MSLsiblings The short version of this is, your computer has a lot of what some of us might call bloatware running, and collectively it's eating enough CPU resources that Sims 4 doesn't have what it needs to run properly. This is a problem on many computers, but particularly older ones with relatively weaker processors that can still handle any one or two significant tasks but not 20 at the same time.
Personally, I would disable everything that shows as Enabled in the Startup list, with the exception of Windows security notifications, plus OneDrive if you're actually using it. For the rest, you'll free up computer resources if you don't let them open with Windows, and it's trivial to open each app yourself when you have use for it. Even though none of these apps takes up much in the way of resources on its own, together they add up, as you can see from the fact that non-Sims 4 processes are using more than half your CPU.
If you really want one or two of them to start with Windows, that's probably fine; just be selective. For some of these, telling the app not to start with Windows is enough to remove it from the list entirely. For others, you can disable them from starting with Windows from this same screen.
Definitely also disable the Windows Feedback Hub, or at least set the frequency of feedback as low as possible. The setting should be under Windows Settings > Privacy & Security. If you don't use OneDrive, get rid of it; it's also using a lot of resources. If you do use it, disable syncing while you play.
If none of this helps enough, try playing in a clean boot:
The only service to leave running is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run. Disable everything else, as the article describes. When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list again looking for any service that might still be running. If you accidentally kill the wrong process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer.
If this helps, you can start adding back processes until you get to the point where you notice lag again, and then you'll know where the line is, more or less, and can adjust from there.
Hi! I have been having this same issue for a few days now. When I click on other interactable items, such as a table, the menu pops up quickly with no problem. On the contrary, selecting a sim, other sims, or a computer takes a significantly longer time to load. Clicking on a non-selected sim being the longest. I have followed your steps in the thread, as well as attached the messages received once I completed them. I attached the DxDiag file as well as my view from the Task Manager. As you can observe, the CPU is very high. I'm not quite sure how to reduce it from here. I also ran the scan on sfc, and the first time I received a message that it found corrupt files. After following the rest of the instructions and running sfc again, this was fixed, and I did not receive the error message again. I also repaired the Sims 4 game through the EA app. I disabled nearly everything in the Startup menu except for Windows Security. Despite these efforts, my game still has the same delay as described. Earlier, I had a bug where the menu would not appear completely upon clicking on another sim or any sim for that matter. It had appeared another mod was messing with the UI. This was reported to me by the BetterExceptions mod. I fixed the issue and have not encountered it again. Though the problems are similar, I do not think they are the same. I believe it may be the high percentage of the CPU, although I don't know how to fix this. If you have some suggestions, they would be extremely appreciated. Thank you!
@emilyffaye Thanks for covering the basic troubleshooting steps and providing all this info. It makes my job a lot easier. You're correct that the CPU use is the most likely culprit, but unfortunately, your laptop's hardware makes addressing that difficult. First of all, the processor is quite weak for Sims 4 even if it's technically over the minimum requirement. So the CPU use will probably always be high, and the question is how much you can bring it down.
The easiest step is of course to run no other apps while you play. The best practice is to restart your computer before launching the game to free up as much RAM as possible (more on that later), and make sure that no apps are set to start with Windows. For that, check the Startup tab, and disable anything you don't absolutely need. You can always run these programs manually.
It can help to put the EA App in offline mode as well. This will probably prevent you from using the Gallery, but you could browse the Gallery in a separate play session, then quit, restart, and play in offline mode when you're ready.
Another issue contributing to the CPU load, perhaps in a major way, is the fact that your laptop has only 4 GB RAM and a very small page file. The low RAM means the processor has to send excess data that would normally be in RAM to the page file, which is a space reserved on the C drive for this purpose. Swapping files back and forth takes CPU resources, and the more memory apps want to use, the more swapping has to happen. This is why I suggested not running anything alongside Sims 4.
On your laptop, this is further complicated by the somewhat small and almost entirely used page file. Normally, I'd show you how to increase its size and leave it at that. But your C drive has only 11 GB free, which is technically enough to prevent storage-related issues, but decreasing that to more like 5 GB could have other significant consequences. So before increasing the page file, please try to free up more space on C, and let me know how much progress you make.
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