Display Keeps Failing While Playing the Sims 4
Hello everyone, I built my partner a gaming PC so that they could play the Sims 4 after their old computer died. Originally, everything was fine. However, the computer keeps randomly "crashing".
What specifically happens is this; My partner will boot up their computer and start playing the Sims 4. They will play either on one of their various challenge playthroughs or a new household, play for as long as a couple of hours or as little as fifteen minutes before the monitor goes black and seems to cease receiving input from the PC. The PC tower itself remains on, as does the monitor, but we lose any ability to interact with it via mouse or keyboard. No matter how long we wait, the monitor does not receive any input from the tower until we turn off the computer and reboot it via the power button or unplug and replug it.
After looking at various other tales of SIMS 4 shenanigans, I did the following things each time it crashed:
-Updated the graphics drivers. (I keep updating them every time there is an update available).
-Tested the graphics card and its power cables to make sure it was getting enough power. (It is.)
-Created a config override file to include the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 (my partner's graphics card) as an accepted graphics card, complete with proper coding for max allowable settings.
-Did a graphics-card test with Furmark2 x64 on high settings while monitoring temperature and power usage (all were well within safe parameters).
-Repaired Sims 4 whenever there seemed to be a problem, or the option was presented.
-Switched input cords, which I regularly check.
-Regularly air-dusted the PC and inspected the graphics card without damaging it while cleaning with approved tools.
-Run the Sims 4 in windowed mode with lower settings.
While all of these fixes seem to temporarily alleviate the problem, the crashes have returned and are getting worse no matter what I do. At this point my partner can no longer play the game for longer than 30 minutes without the monitor suddenly going black . I've run two Dxdiags, one without the Sims 4 open and the other with the Sims4 open, but I've been unable to get a Dxdiag when the screen goes black and the game appears to crash. I'm at my wits end and I am starting to wonder if we just have to buy a new graphics card.
The only other information I can provide is that, sometimes, when the screen goes black, a red indicator light appears on the graphics card. However, it is not flashing (which would indicate power failure). Instead, the light is a steady, unblinking red. And it only appears for a few moments before turning back off.
I should also mention that the computer ONLY does this for the Sims 4 game. I've installed other video games of various sizes to test using my own Steam account (only to test on days where my partner is away before uninstalling them) and I do not see this specific problem with any of them. I've also taken a day to just run Furmark2 on as high settings as it will allow, and the computer ran fine the entire time. After turning it off for a few hours, my partner then went to play the Sims 4, played for thirty minutes, and had the monitor go black and lose all of their progress.
At this point, we are only able to get the Sims 4 to run for a maximum of 30 minutes (usually it's less than that) before the screen goes black. Any help would be appreciated, as I don't think we can afford a new graphics card right now. I've attached the DXdiags I generated to this post. The one with "Sims" included in the title is the one I generated while The Sims 4 was running. Any help at all would be appreciated.
