Re: Sims 4 crashing on new laptop

It's not working, I am getting the unrecognized video card setting now. Trying various graphics settings. It runs for 10 minutes and then crashes.

I tried setting the graphics to high performance and the Power saving, both crashed.

I'm trying now to turn off optimization for Windowed, since I always play in Windowed.

@AmeliaSCooper  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, if it launches, 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.

You can ignore the unrecognized card message for now.  It's easily fixed but also won't be contributing to the crashes; we can deal with it later if you want.

If the above doesn't help, please try playing while your computer is offline.  You can sign into Origin or the EA App and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cable before pressing Play.  If your packs don't load, that's a known issue with the EA App, or at least it was recently.  Please ignore it and just play a new save with the base game content; that's enough for this test.

If you get yet another crash, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

I'm attaching the file requested.

I have done several clean reinstalls to no help. I deleted all the files, saved my saves over to the desktop for restoring later. Tried a new save, base game.

Even tried with the graphics set to Low

It goes longer but still crashes

@AmeliaSCooper  You shouldn't need to play on low graphics settings.  If this laptop can't run the game on ultra settings, that's a problem in and of itself.

Did you try playing while your computer was offline?  If not, please do so now.  This is a useful test even if it's not a long-term solution.

If that doesn't or didn't help, 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

When you reboot, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down anything that doesn't absolutely need to be running.  Some utilities like MSI Afterburner are still active in a clean boot, so it's necessary to check.  If you accidentally kill the wrong process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

And just to be clear, does the game crash while the same thing is happening on-screen?  Ten minutes might mean you're still in CAS, or just moving your sim into a house, or traveling; the question is whether there's any pattern to the crashes at all aside from time.

I'll try your suggestions

The only pattern is it crashes or freezes when loading screens or pop ups like do you want to join your sim at work.

If i leave it alone age don't play it doesn't crash but that's not a solution

I think it usually play in offline mode since it always asks me to connect if I go to the gallery but I'm going to check that.

Did the log show anything useful?

This laptop is brand new and ran fine for like 3 weeks. I'm not sure what happened

@puzzlezaddict 

Interesting, playing offline was OK, I used high graphics settings and went 20 minutes without a crash. I was in and out of building and CAS the whole time.

@AmeliaSCooper  The dxdiag showed a few different types of crashes, including one of a component of Lenovo laptop software and two of to the service that manages hotkeys for the driver for your integrated graphics chip.  They may or may not have anything to do with Sims 4.  The dxdiag also lists several crashes of the game itself, but all except one are access violations, a type of crash so generic it could be caused by just about anything, in-game and otherwise.  There's nothing else in the dxdiag that jumps out as problematic, which is not to say there are definitely no problems, just nothing obvious.

That's why I suggested some experiements.  When you played offline and the game didn't crash, did you get any of the same pop-ups that have been causing you problems?  When you're online, do you ever get one of these pop-ups without the game crashing?  And do you usually play in fullscreen, borderless ("windowed fullscreen"), or windowed mode?

I play in windowed mode. 
when it crashes the game acts normal until The crash. The pop up I was referring to is when the game is asking a question.  

when I played offline it just didn’t crash. It was getting really late though so I wasn’t able to test much longer. Still 20 minutes is longer than I’ve made it before. 

it just crashed in offline. This laptop is only 3 weeks old. I have an appointment at the place where I bought it this afternoon. Hopefully the geeks there can figure something out.

Because the laptop was also blue screening and so new they’re replacing it. The one I had is not in stock so I’m getting a Mangear. 
I’m guessing this will fix it 🤣

@AmeliaSCooper  I'm sorry to hear this laptop has been giving you so much trouble, but yeah, when a new computer starts throwing BSODs, it's best to just get it replaced and let it be someone else's problem.  And if there's a silver lining, it's that you found out relatively quickly.  Also, Maingear makes some excellent custom laptops.

Thank you for all of your assistance!