I opened the game after months of not playing about a week and a half ago with no issues. Then, every time I've launched it after that, the game crashes my entire PC each time I load into a world (when making a new game) or a lot (when trying to resume). I tried so many things to fix it and nothing is working. I have no mods or CC in my game anymore and I repaired it via EA app and even switched all of my PC's files from OneDrive to local. I also uninstalled a windows update that was corrupting files. Dxdiag attached.

rorythepsychic Your dxdiag lists one serious crash of the graphics driver and a pile of Windows update errors, which may be crowding out almost everything else. So please start with a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files: Hit Windows key-X Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator),” whichever option is offered Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes, and enter The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator)” Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes, and enter Post the message you receive here Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the box to check for updates. If any install, restart again afterwards. Next, update the graphics driver. You can get the newest version here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/results/253163/ Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator." Choose the Custom (not Express) install method, and check the box to perform a clean install. Restart afterwards and before trying to play. If you get another crash, of just the game or your whole computer, please look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor. Click Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day. Today is on the right. Look for an error that happened at exactly the time of the most recent crash. If you find one, double-click it to see more details, then copy that info and paste it into a reply here. If you don't see a new error, check back in an hour or so—the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away.

rorythepsychic As you can probably see, this is a crash of the Realtek audio driver. That doesn't necessarily mean the driver itself is the issue—it could be some other software interacting with it. So please test by disconnecting all sound devices (headphones, speakers), restarting your computer, and trying again to play. I realize this isn't how you'd want to play normally, but it's a useful test. If the game crashes with no sound devices connected, try uninstalling the Realtek driver and reinstalling the newest one available for your motherboard. Find your exact model board, google "[board model] drivers," and look for a support page from the manufacturer. Download the newest Realtak audio driver, and take your computer offline. Click Windows key-X, choose the Device Manager, expand the Audio section, click the Realtek entry, and uninstall. Check the Sound section too. You don't need to uninstall any other drivers, at least not yet. Install the driver you downloaded, restart your computer, go back online, and test the game, still with no other sound devices connected.

rorythepsychic Are you getting the same error as before, or something else? Do you have any recent files in C:\Windows\Minidump? If so, I'd like to see them, but only ones from after you first posted here. You'll need to copy the files and paste them onto your desktop, rather than dragging and dropping; and you'll need to upload them to a third-party site rather than attaching them to a reply here.

rorythepsychic Okay, then what about new Reliability Monitor reports? Usually a system shutdown produces a crash dump if it's triggered by software, so with nothing in the Minidump folder, I'm not sure there'd be anything relevant from the shutdown in the Reliability Monitor either. But it's easy to check.

rorythepsychic I've merged your new post with your previous thread so we have all the relevant info in one place. Your new dxdiag lists a couple of crashes of the graphics driver, and yours is a year old. So please update it, but don't install the absolute newest version. Instead, go here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/ And download the Game Ready Driver version 577.00. Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator." Restart afterwards and before trying to play. Part of the reason not to install the newest driver is that you can easily update from an older version to a newer one, but going backwards requires clean-uninstalling the current version. If your game crashes again, whether it's only Sims 4 or your whole computer, please look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor. Click Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day. Today is on the right. Look for an error that happened at exactly the time of your most recent Sims 4 crash. If you find one, double-click it to see more details, then copy that info and paste it into a reply here. If you don't see a new error, check back in an hour or so—the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away. I'd like any errors that happened at the time of the crash or a few minutes beforehand.

Game Crashes Each Time I Load a World/Lot

16 Replies

rorythepsychic
New Rookie
3 months ago
Ok I found all of the errors that happened at the time of the crash. It was way too much to copy & paste so I've provided screenshots.
My latest crash was 3:41pm. I also had an error when I booted up my PC upon arriving home about 10 minutes ago, not sure if you want to see that.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 months ago
rorythepsychic LiveKernelEvent 141 is a crash of the graphics driver. LKE 1a8 and 1b8 are generic enough that I'd need to see a crash dump to get anything out of them, and that's not certain. The d3d11.dll error points to a component of DirectX 11, which of course interacts with the graphics driver. So updating the driver is the logical next step here.
rorythepsychic
New Rookie
3 months ago
Interesting.. I updated the graphics driver like you said right before that crash. Am I supposed to update it to something besides 577.00?
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 months ago
rorythepsychic You could update to the current driver, but given the error, I'd suggest instead doing a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver, and using 577.00 first. If you get another LiveKernelEvent 141 (or 117 or 193 for that matter), install the newest Nvidia driver. Here's how to clean-uninstall:

https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

If that doesn't help either—you get more crashes of the graphics driver on both 577.00 and 581.xx (whatever is current; I don't have it in front of me), I would suggest testing on the iGPU instead. Remove the graphics card and plug the monitor into the motherboard, then see how the game runs. Performance won't be the same, but the question is whether it crashes, and the answer will tell us whether the problem has to do with the GPU or the system overall.
rorythepsychic
New Rookie
3 months ago
Ok I tried both driver updates and it still crashed and... it runs on the iGPU. The game doesn't crash and plays normally. So I'm guessing that means my GPU is no good. I'm planning to just get a new PC at this point for this reason and others honestly. If you have any recommendations on PCs for playing games like Sims and Minecraft I'd appreciate it :) Thanks so much once again for your help!
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 months ago
rorythepsychic I'd be happy to make suggestions for a new PC, but I do want to point out that you could instead install a new GPU, or alternately, a used GPU that you find for cheap on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. That would of course be a lot cheaper, and the rest of your computer is more than fine for Sims 4 and Minecraft.

If you're considering that route, I'd suggest borrowing a known-good graphics card from a friend or family member just to make sure your computer does in fact work with that GPU, i.e. that it's not some other problem we've missed that somehow didn't affect the integrated graphics chip. That seems unlikely, but it's always better to test before spending money.

If you do want a new computer, and you'd like suggestions, just list your budget and country as well as any other details that matter to you. There's no real benefit, for these games at least, to going over about $1,200 USD no matter what you want, although you don't need to spend nearly that much.