Game crashes to black screen
Hi, I'm running a PC desktop with Windows 10 and no CC or mods. About an hour into gameplay my game crashed to a black screen. No warnings. I could not get back to my desktop and had to manually reb...
Forum Discussion
@kittell17 Hi again. Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
I attached the crash report. Thanks again for your help! 🙂
Edit - I deleted it because you have already seen it.
@kittell17 None of the errors in your dxdiag relate directly to Sims 4, although one of them could have caused the crash. (They could also be related to your internet issues from before, but since the dxdiag doesn't have timestamps, it's impossible to say without more information.) Since they're system errors, it's best to start with a couple of checks of your Windows system files. Here's how:
- Hit Windows key-X
- Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
- Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, 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 “Command prompt (Administrator)”
- Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
- Post the message you receive here
If sfc reports that it found corrupt files and was unable to fix some of them, please stop here and let me know. Otherwise, restart your computer, and manually run any pending updates. Hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.
Restart again, and go ahead and play. If you get another black screen, check the Reliability Monitor for related errors. Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes; you'll see a chart of errors and updates, with a column for each day. Today is on the far right. Look for any errors that mention Sims 4 or Origin, or any with a timestamp matching the crash. (The timestamps can be up to an hour off.)
For any entry you find, click "View technical details," copy the information into a text document (Notepad is fine), and attach it to a post. Or, if there's only one error, you can just copy it directly into a post and put it under a spoiler.
My computer finally did update and install 3 important Windows files. And the restore health and scan now produced no errors. The only thing remaining that I could not perform was the Reliability Monitor. When I typed what you said in, Windows said that it does not exist. Weird. After that initial black screen that forced me to reboot my PC (this is all before performing your steps), I had some minor black screens (approx 3-4 times) that lasted mere seconds. Sims 4, however, runs normally otherwise except for Origin going offline now and again.
So the question remains if I need to perform that last step as you suggested, or is there something more that I need to do. Thanks again.
@kittell17 There are a few different ways to open the Reliability Monitor. You can type "reliability" into the search box; the "view reliability history" option will open it. Control Panel > Security & Maintenance > Maintenance > View Reliability History works too.
The point of this though is to look for information on any crashes. If you don't get another crash, you don't have to look. From what you've described though, this sounds like it's not going to just disappear. It would be useful to check after any black screen, even if it's just temporary; maybe wait at least a couple minutes to look, in case the data doesn't show up right away.