@puzzlezaddict okay, I followed all those steps and started a new game with one sims and its still laggy! I'm stuck, I don't even know what else to do. I got my C: drive to 20.4 gb of free space. The game itself is on my D: drive so I'm not sur
@Ages6AndUp Please test in a clean user folder: move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, which will allow the game to create a new one. If you get an error when trying to move the folder, or it copies instead of moving, stop here and let me know.
Otherwise, start another new save in one of the base game worlds and see how it runs. Don't add back your mods or custom content, and don't run anything alongside Sims 4, other than the EA App of course.
If you still get lag, restart your computer, and before doing anything else, open the Task Manager. Wait five minutes, then let me know how much memory is in use by the system overall. Start Sims 4, but nothing else, let the game clock run for a few sim-minutes, then put it in windowed mode (but don't minimize it) and look at the Task Manager again. This time, I'd like a screenshot of what you see. Make sure the Task Manager is in detailed mode and showing the Processes tab.
@puzzlezaddictno lag this time! I have noticed when I'm playing Sims, my memory is almost maxed. I've included a screenshot (which doesnt even have all of what is running). I have no idea what tasks I can end and what tasks are necessary to make my computer work My next problem is, how do I make it so my main save doesn't lag? Or do I just need to start from scratch? Again, thank you so much, you are a lifesaver.
@Ages6AndUp The real question here is definitely what else doesn't need to be running. As you can see, Windows and other programs are using more than half your installed RAM, and while your new save is only using 2.3 GB, your more-progressed currend one probably has significantly higher memory use, perhaps enough to cause the lag.
Please open the Task Manager's Startup tab and post a screenshot of what you see. There may be a number of programs you can disable at startup. That doesn't mean the apps won't work, only that they won't launch themselves with Windows and start eating RAM without your permission.
@puzzlezaddict Here's what shows under the task manager startup screen. I tried to disable Avast but it won't let me.
@Ages6AndUp In order to disable Avast, you'd need to either use its built-in settings, if there's a setting for that at all (I don't actually know), or uninstall it. I'm not telling you to do either since I don't know how you use your computer and whether you need or want Avast at all. I will say that Windows Defender is overall as good as the free version of Avast, but neither is perfect, and your use case may make Avast the better choice. It's up to you.
For the rest, you can disable Edge, DellMobileConnectWelcome, and probably Waves MaxxAudio on startup. For Waves, if you notice any sound issues, reenable it. Then restart your computer and see how much RAM is in use. Windows itself shouldn't use more than 2.1 GB or so, and if overall memory use is above 3 GB, then it's worth disabling Avast just as a test. It's not that you need to lower memory use to the minimum, but bringing it down to the 3 GB range will free up the RAM that your existing save needs to run well.
If even disabling Avast doesn't lower RAM use enough, try 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, check memory use again—it should be significantly lower. Then try playing your main save and let me know how it goes.
The clean boot isn't a long-term solution overall, but if it helps where the previous interventions didn't, you may end up leaving some of those services disabled over the long term. For example, I have a few game client-related services, basically the EABackgroundService for other launchers, permanently disabled, and I only enable them one I want to use its game launcher.
If there are other services you only use very rarely, this may be a good strategy for you too, provided you remember that you did this. It's not necessary to memorize everything you disabled; just know that if some other app doesn't start properly, you might need to go back and reenable an associated service through msconfig.
@Ages6AndUp That's great to hear. If you find that some other app isn't starting correctly, you may need to go back into msconfig and reenable an associated service. But most of the rest can be disabled most of the time, if you'd prefer not to go through the clean boot process every time you want to play. A lot of those services and the apps they belong to are basically bloatware.
