Re: DxDiag

@puzzlezaddictSometimes it plays ok and sometimes it does all the business or just goes straight to the error messages.

Ok I’ll do that in the future.

I’ll do the repair later today.

PC Specialist have online chat service so I’ll see if someone on that can help point me in the right direction.

I didn't post the message/s here I received after doing the scans.

@WallFlower26  To clarify a few things:

First of all, your dxdiag does list some errors related to your graphics card drivers, likely the driver for the 1660 ti.  Since you're having trouble locating the driver downloads on the PC specialist site, I suggested trying other steps first, because they're simpler.  But if those other steps don't help, the driver issue does need to be addressed.

You have a laptop with dual graphics cards: the powerful 1660 ti for gaming, plus the Intel integrated chip for everyday tasks.  For most laptops with dual cards, the manufacturer of the laptop will tweak the original drivers released by Intel and Nvidia so that they work better with each other and with the hardware in that particular laptop.  So it's best to try to use the drivers offered by PCSpecialist, rather than just downloading a new one from Nvidia.  If the newest drivers you can get from PCSpecialist keep throwing errors, you can try installing a driver from Nvidia directly.

If you do not have the newest drivers that PCSpecialist offers, you can merely download and install those drivers.  If you do have the newest drivers already, you'll need to do a clean uninstall of at least the Nvidia driver and then reinstall that newest version.  I can help with that, but the first question is whether it's necessary.  That's why I was asking about the driver dates.

Please try again to find graphics drivers on the PCSpecialist site.  If you can't figure out where they are, you could also post on that site and ask.  I can offer you an example of what to post there, if you want.

@WallFlower26   The first place to check for device drivers is the laptop's manufacturers support site for the latest they use. The next place to look for the latest driver is the graphics chip manufacturer and in your case the manufacturer is Nvidia. Look in the Nvidia support site for the chip NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. Download the one for your chip and run the file that downloaded. Nvidia should install over the old drivers without having to uninstall the old drivers. The Nvidia download will uncompress and then install. When the installer is complete it is a good idea to restart your computer.

add: the integrated video chip (the chip that is part of the cpu chip) is Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630. Intel does not update the video driver as often as Nvidia. As the game should be using the Nvidia gaming chip updating the Intel chip should not be necessary at this time. If you go to Intel there is a slightly newer driver for the Intel 630 and you will want the one for 9th generation chips. I don't think this is necessary at this time.

@WallFlower26  Call PCSpecialist again, or better yet, sign in and post on their forums.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/forums/laptops-notebook-pcs.12/

Say that you want to download graphics drivers for your laptop, which has an Nvidia GTX 1660 ti and an Intel UHD 630.  Ask for a link where you can find those drivers, or a link to where you can input your model number and see all available drivers.

If someone from the company says they don't offer the drivers at all, let me know.

@puzzlezaddictI did a post on the technical forum just now asking where the graphics drivers on the website are and a member replied "they're not they're on nvidia if you have an nvidia card or AMD if you have an AMD card."

@WallFlower26  I see your post now.  I'd still wait for someone who works for the company, not just a volunteer moderator, to confirm.  It's still better to get one directly from the manufacturer of your laptop.  However, if it is in fact true that they don't offer their own drivers, download this one from Nvidia instead:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/158760/en-us

Once you've downloaded the driver, either from PCSpecialist or Nvidia, take your computer offline, and shut down any antivirus/firewall you've installed (temporarily, just while you're installing the driver).  Right-click on the download and select "Run as Administrator."  Select Custom mode, then "perform a clean install," which will remove the existing components and replace them with new ones.

Once the driver is installed, restart your computer, reenable your antivirus/firewall, go back online, and test Sims 4.

@puzzlezaddict This is a dumb question but how do I know it’s someone who works there?

I went on Sims just now and it went white so I turned it off using the power button then back on and the following appeared:

That’s the second time it’s appeared the times the laptop and Sims have messed me about.

So I let it do it’s thing loaded Sims and it had changed to Windowed and displayed the second error message I sent you in the private message. I changed the Graphics in the Game Options to Fullscreen, played regardless but the Edge Scrolling and Sims movements were ‘bumpy’ this time - never before.

My laptops broken 😩 I just want to play Sims 😩😡 Why’s it broken 😭

@WallFlower26  This is an example of a post by someone who works at PCSpecialist:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/reported-throttling-on-8th-gen-mobile-chips.60205/

You can see their role under their forum name.

Given how inactive employees seem to be on that forum though, you might have better luck calling again.  Just ask something like, "Do you offer updated graphics card drivers for download anywhere on your site?  If so, where do I find them?"  There might be a live chat option you could use instead, so that someone could send you a link.

The image on your computer screen is a classic BlueScreen.  I can't tell what this one is about, but the others in your dxdiag are most likely related to your graphics card driver as well.  Those BlueScreens and most of the other errors all suggest that you need a new driver for the Nvidia card at least, if not both Nvidia and Intel.  Once you have that new driver installed, if the errors persist, we can look at other solutions.  But it's clear that at least part of the problem is the GPU driver.

@WallFlower26  While researching a similar issue I came across this nvlddmkm.sys error   I thought you might be interested as it details how to fix this error.

@puzzlezaddict @roberta591 I got this email from PC Specialist today:

Not sure what the next step is.

@WallFlower26  Please download the 02_VGA_W10_parts 1 through 5, and let me know what the last modified dates are on each one.

@WallFlower26  You need to contact someone at PCSpecialist preferably by phone and walk you through what they want you to do. I get a general idea what they want you to do but they don't give you details of what each link is for so you are blindly downloading some compressed files but there are no instructions for what to do once you download all the links. I'm guessing the driver may be large and they broke it down into smaller downloads? Why would PCSpecialist make the downloads available for only 24 hrs? Ultimately if you purchased the laptop recently from PCSpecialist, it is PCSpecialist responsibility to get the laptop in working order. Updating the video driver is pretty straight forward. Your download the driver. You run the executable that comes with the driver download. You may have to uncompress the download. Run the installer. Reboot the computer. and If everything went good you should be running the new video driver. Long ago I had issues with an ATI video drivers and since then I use Nvidia graphics. It looks like they want you to reinstall ALL the device drivers. But again without the laptop I'm not sure what they want. Perhaps there is a pc wizard near you. I would recommend you download all the links and as you uncompress the downloads it may make more sense. There is a free version of winrar available.

@roberta591 I am going to ring them again this morning. How can I ensure I get help about the problems I'm having and make it clear? Any suggestions? The men I’ve been communicating with via phone and email haven’t been very helpful - at all really.

I really don't know why the links are only available for 24 hours - makes no sense and is really stupid. I did purchase it recently from PCSpecialist - very recently, early February! Absolutely it's their responsibility but they're doing the absolute minimum so far when I've contacted them via phone and email.

Really fed up 😕😠.

@puzzlezaddict  I copy the link paste it into the web address bar then a pop up shows saying open or save I press save then once it's finished and I click it, it asks what to open it with it says Firefox so I click open but then that same pop up opens in a new tab on Firefox each time I press the pop up to open it the same pop up opens in a new tab on Firefox.  😕☹️😠 Hope that makes sense and you can make some sense of what I'm talking about...

@WallFlower26  When downloading a file, don't choose "Open with," choose "save file."

@WallFlower26  Don't open them, just let me know the last modified date on the files.

@puzzlezaddictWhere will it say the last modified date? I need to get links again, I've emailed them to get them.

Update

At the beginning of April I phoned PCSpecialist and the person I spoked to connected to my laptop and did bits and bobs (no idea what) I know he deleted something which has really frustrated me because I don't know what he deleted or how to find out what it was and said see what that does, if still happens phoned back. It happened a couple of days after.

Today i phoned them again and spoke to a different person and told him the problem and he said it's an application problem as the screen goes white instead of black so reinstall the game. ??Don't know if that will stop it, how to reinstall??

Hope someone can help

@WallFlower26  Since it's been so long, and the information you last posted is somewhat out of date, please do this in order:

• Open Documents\Electronic Arts and drag your Sims 4 folder to the desktop
• Restart your computer, and open only Origin
• Try to launch the game, and let me know whether it works
• If it doesn't work, close everything, restart your computer, open only Origin, and try to play again
• If it still doesn't work, run a dxdiag and attach it to a post

Since the PC Specialist people weren't all that helpful when you asked about drivers, it will probably be easier to just skip their downloads entirely for now.  It may make things a bit more complicated, but at least for the graphics drivers, it's manageable if not ideal.

I did bullet 1 and 2. It worked but it doesn't always happen, it happens randomly. Though it's most likely to happen when i first start playing a game after turning it on or going back to it after minimising it while the laptop is on or turning it back on after it being in sleep mode.

@WallFlower26  Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/