Game Randomly Freezes/Stops Responding but doesnt crash (PC)

Update: I noticed that during several of these incidents that if I tried opening the Nvidia game overlay I would get a pop-up message that the Nvidia app was not responding with the option to close or restart (unlike TS4). So I disabled the overlay entirely through the Nvidia app and then relaunched TS4, but this time about a minute into gameplay TS4 crashed to desktop instead of the not responding. Right before CTD windows task manager listed TS4 as "Suspended" instead of the previous times "Not Responding".

I've also attempted to attache the lastCrash file generated from this. But I've had trouble seeing that it actually uplouded when I posted this comment so I've also added the file to GoogleDrive with the following link to it: GoogleDrive LastCrash.txt

Hi ysabaeu​ 

I moved your post to the PC tech forum for further help

Could you post your Computer's DxDiag?

- Press Windows-Key + R
- Type: DxDiag
- Click on Save all Information.
- Attach the Text File to your post

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nGMJoLeybZJZ0Ha8Th-bdpiTP0UzC0Be/view?usp=sharing

Here is a google drive link for the DxDiag

ysabaeu​  All the crashes in your dxdiag are from Notepad++, whihch either means it crashed a lot after the last time you played Sims 4, or that the Sims 4 freezes aren't real crashes or at least aren't generating the usual crash data.  So I'd like you to look for that data manually.  First though, since your dxdiag crashed while running, please run 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.

Try again to play, and if you get a freeze or crash, look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit 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.

Please make sure Notepad++ is closed while testing.  It shouldn't have anything to do with Sims 4, but I don't want its errors to get mixed up with anything coming from the game.

1. The sfc message I got back was "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violation"
2. I ran the game three times today and none of the times showed anything in the reliability monitor at the specific time the game froze/started not responding even with hours of waiting for updates in the monitor. The only thing I got today was this about 30 minutes before the game freeze happened:

EACefSubProcess.exe

Problem: Stopped working     Date: 6/11/2025 5:03 PM

Description
Faulting application name: EACefSubProcess.exe, version: 13.482.0.5995, time stamp: 0x68407f6e
Faulting module name: libcef.dll, version: 109.1.18.0, time stamp: 0x63ced377
Exception code: 0x80000003
Fault offset: 0x00000000041a58f6
Faulting process id: 0x1ebc
Faulting application start time: 0x01dbdb141de1c1f5
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop\EACefSubProcess.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop\libcef.dll
Report Id: 640d80c7-a109-4b3c-9960-9f4ac0a16802
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

I have some screenshots of the events from last week if those might help also.

ysabaeu​  The one error you did get is from the EA App, and even if it preceded the game freeze by a significant interval, it's still worth addressing because it's a breakpoint error, which should never happen with a properly-coded program.  So please do a clean uninstall of the App with Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine), restart your computer, download a fresh copy of the App installer, and run it as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator."

For the old Sims 4 issues, I do see you're playing in DirectX 9 mode.  Is there a reason for that, and does the game run better in DX11 mode?  It shouldn't freeze either way, but if switching to DX11 helps, you wouldn't need to troubleshoot any further.

If it's a matter of your custom content not being compatible with DX11, I believe Sims4Studio has batch fixes for most types of content.

Life stuff put ts4 on the backburner but today I did finally do the clean uninstall of the EA app with Revo Uninstaller and reinstalled the EA app as administrator but the game did the same thing where after a few minutes in live mode it freezes (without the waiting/not responding cursor windows usually does on not responding programs and no pop up either) and I have to open task manager to see that it is not responding to end the program since the pop-up never happens. HOWEVER, after about 20 minutes of waiting for some crash or file to generate I started trying to test/replicate if using the keyboard shortcup to open the NVIDIA overlay menu during this would seem to be the only consistent thing to show in the reliability menu since the game itself doesn't--the NVIDIA app crashes opening the overlay here and windows gives the program not responding options pop up for it and choosing end process does cause the TS4 window to finally go white but nothing else but previously I ran the game without the overlay enabled at all and the game still freezes the same weird way except I never found it in the reliability monitor or saw any changes other than the almost screenshot stuck fullscreen that can't be minimized or even tabbed out etc. 

I have several screenshots of the Reliability monitor at the time of crash(~4:00Am was the uninstall/reinstall, 4:53AM maybe game launch? 7:13-14AM nvidia test, ~6:50 was the game freeze not shown alas) 

Here are screenshots of the technical details of the critical events:

It's been a while but any futher assistance would be so appreciated. I haven't done the running in dx11 test yet I'd rather not have to unless all else is lost. 

Additional details: I run the game in fullscreen with online features enabled, auto-reconect & notifications on also if that effects anything.

I also did the DxDiag shortly after I did the above and ended the game via task manager so hopefully it will be more usefull and/or accurate to the issue this time. 

ysabaeu​  Does it help to disable the EA App in-game overlay, under Settings > Application?  I'd like to know whether this prevents the problem both with and without your trying to open the Nvidia overlay.

If not, please try playing in a clean boot, as some other software might be interfering.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

The one service to leave enabled is the EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest as described.

When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled.  If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.

If this helps, you can selectively reenable services until you find the culprit, then either leave that disabled or (if it belongs to an app you want to keep using) let me know what it is so we can try to fix the underlying issue.

If the game freezes or crashes in a clean boot, please try again, except with your computer offline.  You can sign into the EA App and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable before pressing Play.