@Vicilana One reason the game might not work in fullscreen mode is if the in-game resolution doesn't match your monitor. Is your laptop screen currently running at a 2560x1440 resolution? If so, please use that in Sims 4 as well.
@puzzlezaddict here is the dxdiag
@Vicilana Is there a reason you're running your laptop screen at such a low resolution? It's currently set to 1760x990, which not only means everything is going to be blurrier, it's an unusual resolution that Sims 4 may not support. So please revert to 2560x1440. If the icons are too small for you, increase the DPI scaling instead (option one):
https://www.elevenforum.com/t/change-display-dpi-scaling-level-in-windows-11.934/
Restart your computer and try again to play Sims 4. If you still get a black screen, force the game to load in windowed mode. Go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4, open Options.ini, search for fullscreen , and set it to 0 (zero).
If that doesn't help either, please 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 attempt to launch Sims 4, specifically in windowed mode. 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.
@puzzlezaddict so I changed the resolution and it still was black, and I couldn't find the options,ini folder. this is what I got
@puzzlezaddict so I changed and followed everything you said, the game loaded up to the menu in window mode, and was able to press play, n but glitches or blacks out when touched. Then when I click the minimize mode, it goes back to the game. then goes off, then I repeat it, and does the same thing. It just needs to be stable in window mode or fullscreen mode without glitching or going black in different modes.
@Vicilana Please try playing in a clean boot:
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 that doesn't help, repeat the test, except with your computer completely 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.
If that doesn't help either, please post a new dxdiag.
The "Windows was not properly shut down" errors are from your having to force the computer to shut down, not directly from Sims 4.
@puzzlezaddict so it works when popped up, and plays. so I wanted to try a theory and changed the game's resolution to fullscreen cause I don't like playing in windowed screen. What to do to let it play fullscreen without blacking out and glitching, and takes a while to load up in the beginning, is that normal?
@Vicilana One reason the game might not work in fullscreen mode is if the in-game resolution doesn't match your monitor. Is your laptop screen currently running at a 2560x1440 resolution? If so, please use that in Sims 4 as well.
@puzzlezaddict thank you so so much, works fine! if I have any other questions, ill send again. thankssssssss
@puzzlezaddict how do I make the text larger in game without messing with resolution and making it black and glitchy, it is small!!
@Vicilana You can resize some parts of the user interface with the UI Scale setting, under Game Options > Accessibility. You can also enable or disable the "auto scale with OS" option to see whether it makes a difference. But I don't know whether this will help with the text.
If it doesn't, there are other options to try, including playing in fullscreen at 1920x1080. If you can't get back into the game, edit Options.ini to set fullscreen to 0 again, then revert the changes and try something else.
@puzzlezaddict game is lagging and a little slow with the changes, do I fix that, please?
@Vicilana Is the game slow in a new save, using a default EA house, or just your existing ones? When does it lag: all the time, or only in certain situations, like on certain lots?
Additionally, what specific change(s) make the game lag? If it's the resolution or UI scaling, this may be a case where there's no perfect answer, only a trade-off between different issues. But you can try a couple other things here, for example playing in windowed fullscreen rather than normal fullscreen.
@puzzlezaddict Hey, I have a slight issue you could be of assistance, please? so I have a household that I can't play because it takes soooooo long to load, and only works in CAS, and no matter where I put them, they take forever to load, not sure what causes that for the sims
@Vicilana Is this only a single household, as in, other households in the same save load in a normal amount of time? Are these sims wearing any custom content, or do they have custom traits or aspirations? If so, try changing everything to EA-made content instead.
If that doesn't make a difference, I'd suggest posting in Game Issues:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-Issues/bd-p/the-sims-4-game-issues-en
It's not that I don't want to help, but problems with individual saves or sims are outside my area of expertise. The people who answer threads in Game Issues have a better idea of where to go from here. Of course if you have a more global issue with the game, like all loading times are too long, this is the place to ask.
@puzzlezaddict I am having the same issue. I followed the instructions you suggested for the previous user...... here is my DxDiag..
@AquaKoala90 Did you specifically try playing in windowed mode (post 8), and did you try a clean user folder (post 2)? Please do if you haven't already.
Aside from that, however, I'm not sure there's much you can do here. Your laptop hardware is under the minimum requirements for Sims 4, and further, you've installed Windows 11 on a machine with a processor that's about seven years too old to officially support it. The newest driver for your graphics chip is from 2013 and only supports Windows Vista and 7, although it would probably have worked on Windows 10 (not sure about 11). You can try installing it (the .exe, not the .zip) if you like:
I just don't have any confidence it'll help.
@puzzlezaddict I have an issue. Can you please assist me? My game does not load up to the main menu, it crashes every time I click on the screen. I've repaired and removed the broken mods. Would you know the next steps?
@Vicilana As a test, please try playing in a clean user folder. Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content. (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you moved but temporarily not read by the game.) Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just let me know whether you can get far enough to start a new save and play in live mode for a bit.
If that doesn't help, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
@puzzlezaddict so removing the mod folder to the desktop method works, so it must be a mod/cc causing the game to lag/freeze. very unsure what it is. Are you able to assist? Not sure atp
@Vicilana You can start with this list of mods and custom content known to be broken after the December patch:
For anything not on that list, you'll need to test it yourself. The 50/50 method can make the process more efficient:
https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Finding_Problem_Custom_Content#The_50.25_Method
You an also ask in the Mods & CC Issues forum if you really can't figure out what's going on.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mods-CC-Issues/bd-p/the-sims-4-game-issues-mods-en
