Forum Discussion

SimSiili's avatar
9 months ago

Persistent video card error [0e6d1221:1df4e8dc:0000012d:912c9c10]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.110.265.1030
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All except two or three kits.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? I do not know.
What happens when the bug occurs? After a minute or so playing, the screen goes white and the game is unresponsive. When I end the game through task manager and try to open it again, it gives the error message: "Unable to start: Can't run The Sims 4 with the video card in this system. Please check that the video card meets the minimum specifications and that the latest video drivers are installed. [0e6d1221:1df4e8dc:0000012d:912c9c10]" After that I get the blue screen and my PC restarts itself.
What do you expect to see? My game working smoothly.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? No

I have:

  • tried the game in normal mode, fully windowed and windowed
  • repaired my game
  • tried the windows 8 compatibility mode
  • modified my graphics card settings to prefer maximum performance
  • reinstalled the game three times
  • updated windows
  • uninstalled NVIDIA driver and reinstalled it
  • ...and finally today reset my whole computer 

Nothing has helped. In fact, after today the blue screen seems to appear even faster, and I haven't even brought back my trayfiles or saves, so the game is pristine. The problem began before the latest update and continued after the update. A few days before the first occurance my Reaper Reward thingy stopped working, if that means anything. I work full time so I have not had too much time to try all the fixes which is why I am only now reporting this.

Playing The Sims is my lifeline, I have played for few years now, and I have already bought the Life and Death pack in advance. I am mortified (yes I said it) about this.

I have no other games installed (never have), and I use this specific PC only to play The Sims 4 and to watch YouTube.

I am by no means a tech savvy but I have really tried everything my layman brain could think of. Could you please help me?

Here is the info of my PC: 

Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 22631)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Razer
System Model: Blade Pro 17 (Early 2021) - RZ09-0368
BIOS: 1.01

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10875H CPU @ 2.30GHz (16 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Page file: 8161MB used, 11028MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 12

Name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU

Manufacturer: NVIDIA

Chip Type: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Display Device
Approx. Total Memory: 14119 MB
Display Memory 5996 MB
Shared Memory: 8123 MB

DirectX Features

DirectDraw Acceleration:

Direct3D Acceleration:

AGP Texture Acceleration:

DirectX 12 Ultimate: Enabled

Enabled

Enabled

Enabled

7 Replies

  • Also tried the "Tick the DX 9 box" trick as well as set Dpi to 100%. Neither of those helped, unfortunately. 

    I also forgot to include the Dxdiag... Here it is.

  • Aaand for the sake of trying (no, I am not desperate, you are) I tested also entering the -dx11 to the properties. Did not remove the problem and the game as well as the PC crashed as per usual. 

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    9 months ago

    @SimSiili  Some of the crashes in your dxdiag reference a component of Razer Chroma, so please uninstall Chroma for now.

    If that doesn't help, as a test, please try running Sims 4 on the integrated graphics chip.  Performance won't be anywhere near what it should be on the Nvidia card, but this should at least tell you whether the problem is the Nvidia GPU or driver versus something else.  There are two approaches to try.  One is to open Windows Settings > System > Display > Graphics settings, click Browse, choose TS4_Launcher_x64, and select the power-saving option.  Do the same for TS4_DX9_x64 and TS4_x64.

    You can see whether this worked by opening Config.log, inside Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4, and scrolling down to Graphics device info.  (Launch the game once after making any changes so that the file updates.)  Whichever GPU is listed is the one the game was using when it loaded, at least.  If you're still seeing the Nvidia card, right-click the desktop, select the Nvidia Control Panel, choose Manage 3D Settings > Global settings, and choose the Intel iGPU.  This will affect all programs, so you'll want to undo the setting later, but it's a quick and easy way to test.

    Running on the Intel chip, Sims 4 should default to DirectX 9 mode, which may not work well on the Intel chip for completely separate reasons.  So make sure DX11 mode is still forced in the EA App.

    The BlueScreens in your dxdiag point to a misbehaving driver, but not which one.  So if you're still getting BSODs when running Sims 4 on the Intel iGPU, please provide the crash dumps.  Go here:

    C:\Windows\Minidump

    For the most recent two or three files, right-click them and select Copy, then right-click your desktop and select Paste.  From there, zip the files together, upload the .zip to a third-party filesharing site, and link it here.  Please make sure that anyone with the link can read it; an easy way is to open it in a private window, where you're not signed into whatever account you've used.

  • SimSiili's avatar
    SimSiili
    9 months ago

    Thank you so much for taking the time to investigate this! 

    Removing The Chroma did not help, but switching to the Intel UHD Graphics did. The game - albeit looking like something from the 90's - ran for several minutes before I saved and closed it myself. It seems that the blue screen is not happening with this solution.

    Could you help me a little bit more: What should I do next now that we are fairly sure the NVIDIA is the problem? It seems silly to use this fairly fine gaming laptop to play with the Intel. Ugh, now that I said it out loud I sound so snob... Sorry about that.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    9 months ago

    @SimSiili  I would say the same thing in your position, except probably a lot less politely (in private at least).  What I'd suggest is waiting for at least a few hours of playtime before concluding that this issue is fixed, just in case.  I can still look at a crash dump if you want—maybe it'll point to something specific and helpful.

    If you're itching to try something else, you can try installing an older Nvidia graphics driver.  You'll need to clean-uninstall your current version first.  Please use this method:

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

    You can find older Nvidia drivers here, after inputting your GPU specs:

    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

    The Game Ready Drivers (the type you want) go back to April, which is still recent enough to be compatible with Sims 4.  Any time you're installing an older driver, you'll need to DDU the newer one first, so if you're going to try multiple versions, I'd start with the oldest you might use and work your way forward from there.

  • SimSiili's avatar
    SimSiili
    9 months ago

    Inside my head I am less polite, cursing in Finnish which is to my understanding one of the best languages to curse in. I am revealing my age here but I told my little sister that now I really understand why my niece, 13, looses her cool immediately if she can't play her Genshin Impact! 

    Aaanyway, I will play more with the Intel and perhaps in a day or two try the older NVIDIA driver. I am so out of my league with all this, but your instructions are very clear and helpful. 

    Here is a link for the crash dump zip-files: https://we.tl/t-ixgOh90LdB Please prioritize other players that cannot access their game at all before spending more time with my issue. 🙂 Have a happy Sunday ahead and greetings from Finland!

  • Oh shoot. Unfortunately this version can not handle even the basic (and in my eyes must-have) mods of Peacemaker, Pierism, Harrie et al., so to me it is unplayable. As soon as I move the mods to the mods folder the game becomes unresponsive. The old saves and tray files it handles ok.

    Repairing did not help, and I am too old and tired to try anything else now (oh the drama)...

    I'll try installing the older versions of the NVIDIA drivers next week. 🙂