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WitchLilith69's avatar
WitchLilith69
Rising Newcomer
30 days ago

Game won't load/ crashes within minutes if it does and nothing fixes it

  • Issue: My game has become completely unplayable from crashes. they happened when starting, at the 1st loading screen, when on main menu, when loading a safe, within a few minutes of playing even if nothing is happening even if it's paused. For weeks I've been looking everywhere, trying everything I can find but nothing seems to work and I don't know what to do anymore. the only thing I haven't done is I saw someone say they needed to factory reset 4 times before it worked again and I really don't wanna do all that 3 more times. I'm AuDHD and this game genuinely helps me body double to get things done without getting stressed from actual people so this really really sucks. plus the hundreds I've spend on this. before this it was fine, what the heck happened?
  • When did it start: I'm not sure exactly when but somewhere between 1 and 2 months ago, I think after an update around that time. it started with a crash or not loading every now and then and got worse until it's now constant and unplayable.
  • Do I use mods: deleting mods was the 1st thing I tried. I even accidentally deleted my mod folder and didn't realise until after CC cleaner, one drive is clean and should not be linked now and everything should be 100% gone after PC reset and still the same issues. I did just now add MC Command Centre and Better Exceptions so they can hopefully help with crash reports.
  • What app do I use: Normally Steam but I've tried the EA app too with no change
  •  One problem or multiple? Because it seems so random it's really hard to tell if it's one issue or a ton of issues coming together. either way nothing so far has worked
  • What packs do I own, in order of when I bought them: >Awesome Animal Hats. >Blooming Rooms Kit. >Cats & Dogs. >Cottage Living. >Desert Luxe Kit. >Digital Deluxe Edition. >Digital Soundtrack. >Holiday Celebration Pack. >Laundry Day Stuff. >Life Of The Party. >Seasons. >Up All Night. >Eco Life Style. >Outdoor Retreat. >Parenthood. >Bust The Dust Kit. >Nifty Knitting. >Growing Together. >Outdoor Playtime. >My First Pet Stuff. >Romantic Garden. >Discover University. >Get To Work. >Toddler Stuff. >Vintage Glamour. >Backyard Stuff. >Crystal Creations. >Home Chef Hustle Stuff. >Horse Ranch. >Island Living. >Jungle Adventure. >Snowy Escape.
  • Files included:
  • PC Specs: Processor:         Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-14600KF   3.50 GHz
                           Installed RAM:  32.0 GB (31.8 GB usable)
                           Device ID:          090E4D26-40E8-4259-B639-82F5440B93D9
                           Product ID:        00330-54120-40733-AAOEM
                           System type:    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor                                                                       Graphic Card:   AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
                           Edition:                Windows 11 Pro
                           Version:               23H2
                           Installed on:    ‎   11/‎13/‎2024
                           OS build:             22631.4460
                           Experience:       Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22700.1047.0 
  •  

Please let me know if there's other information needed, I'll answer as fast as I can. I might need clear steps on where to find it tho. Idk if this is too long but I really wanted to add any and all information I could think of that might help. Thank you for reading.

  •           What I've tried:

Remove all Mods and CC

EA App Recovery, Restart App and Steam Verify Files before and after every other step

Turn down/change graphics in game and at the pc system settings

Made sure anything and everything is updated and used CC cleaner pro

Reinstall both apps before and after PC reset, and tried to launch on Steam with EA app not installed, it just auto instals it

Reinstall Sims 4, new safe files. then removed all extra packs etc

Delete files: Sims4 folder, accountDataDB.package, local thumbcache, avatar cache, restart PC, made sure Onedrive was not connected and empty just to be sure

Tmex Better Exceptions, Sim Unclogger, MCCC

Check task manager, DXDIOG, Check Specs, Antivirus off

Delete sims 4 folder, restart PC. Delete accountDataDB.package

Windows terminal, DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth: No error. sfc /scannow: Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Windows key+R perfom /rel

Completely reset my PC, literally starting 100% new

I did all of those except for PC Factory reset over and over, I'm really hoping I won't have to do that again as well

Oh and I saw that there might be problems with Razer stuff and I have a Razer mouse but I can't find any related programs on my pc and tried a different brand mouse and it still happened. I also asked the Deaderpool discord for help and they didn't know what else to do and told me to ask EA which I did and eventually they send me here cause they didn't know either. This is my last resort lol. while I wait for answers I'm probably gonna reinstall the game again or something

crashing
ea app
expansion packs
game packs
hardware
kits
launching
steam
stuff packs
updates
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    30 days ago

    WitchLilith69  Do you use ReShade or GShade?  If so, please remove it and repair Sims 4 (again, if you have already).  And please go back to DirectX 11 mode, which should work fine on your computer.

    If that's not the problem, please try playing in a clean boot:

    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.  This is also a good place to look for any services belonging to Razer, as a couple of the crashes in your dxdiag look like the ones that Razer apps can trigger.  Having a Razer mouse isn't by itself an issue.

    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.

    • WitchLilith69's avatar
      WitchLilith69
      Rising Newcomer
      30 days ago

      I don't use any Shade, I've spend the last few hours doing everything you said multiple times, eventually in different orders etc and still nothing. I've tried to look Razer programmes but the ones on their website don't seem to be on my pc unless the program file has a different name than the ones I can find on the website, is there a clear list I of programs/files I need to look for? also I'm not sure what programs I can safely end in task manager, can I close them all and hope for the best/restart if something goes wrong? and the clean reboot mentions a reset, does that mean I need to factory reset my pc again after this? 

      I'm currently downloading the game on an old pc to see if it works there, I'll update on that later

    • WitchLilith69's avatar
      WitchLilith69
      Rising Newcomer
      29 days ago

      It might be too soon to call it but I've been letting it play autonomously (like with my other tests) on an old pc without any crashes for about half am hour now compared to the max 5 minutes on this one. Does that mean it's my pc?

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    29 days ago

    WitchLilith69  When the game is crashing after it starts to load, regardless of how long that takes, the problem is almost always the PC.  The game certainly has the occasional bug that causes a crash, but these are relatively uncommon, and we'd see a lot more reports.

    The clean boot process should show you all the non-Windows services that could run, so if you don't find anything from Razer on the list, you probably don't have any Razer apps installed.  And yes, it's fine to kill some random process in the Task Manager and hope for the best; these will all restart when you reboot your computer.  That's why the clean boot is the first step—it prevents those services from opening after a restart, until you reenable them.  But we've found that a few services stay active in a clean boot, hence the need to check the Task Manager too.

    You don't need to factory reset your PC or anything like that.  The clean boot is reversed just as easily as it's applied, and then you're back to where you started.  The "reset" in the clean boot article is explained further down, and it's really just undoing the clean boot steps, nothing special.

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