Re: Sims 4 fullscreen mode keeps minimizing

I stated in my original message that I've already attempted a clean boot without any background processes running but that didn't help either and the game still would not stay open. I've also turned off every overlay and notification I can think of. Geforce, Origin, Windows Notifications, Windows error reporting. I don't believe I have any other overlay programs. Also, the more I've tried to open sims in fullscreen is less functional it is. Now if I can manage to open it before the settings revert, all it takes is moving my mouse over the X button that appears and it shoves itself right back into the taskbar.
I've also gone into the task manager and set the Sims 4 process as high priority but that doesn't seem to have changed anything either. I'm almost to the point where I've considered completely resetting my PC to factory settings (backing up and keeping all files of course) but I wonder if whatever is causing this won't change even after all that.

For windowed fullscreen, I have a noticeably lower fps and the game gets choppy and laggy if I move the camera too fast. While I don't have a high end gaming laptop, I do have a rather good one that's better than my old one, and that one ran sims just fine before its motherboard died from other causes.

@Maasterash  When you said you turned off all background processes, I wasn't sure what you meant or how you went about it: some people just kill anything suspicious-looking in the Task Manager, which is fine as far as it goes but isn't the same as a clean boot.  So I didn't want to assume you'd done one.

Anyway, please run a  dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

Please also let me know what antivirus you use.

That's understandable. I promise that I've been through many different troubleshooting processes that I could find for people with similar problems but so far nothing has worked for me. I actually had no antivirus when the issue began but I recently got Norton to rule out malware (a full scan showed nothing wrong). I've attached the dxdiag and hopefully there's something in there that can help

@Maasterash  The AppHangB1 errors at the end of your dxdiag are most often related to the graphics driver, or one of the graphics drivers if you have dual GPUs.  The Nvidia driver you currently have installed is newer than the latest Lenovo offers for your laptop, and with laptops, you'll generally get better results with the manufacturer-provided driver than a more generic one from Nvidia.  So the first move is to clean uninstall the Nvidia driver and install thiis one:

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/yoga-series/yoga-c940-15irh/81te/downloads/driver-list/component?name=Graphics%20Processing%20Units%20%28GPU%29%20and%20Server-AI%20Accelerators

This guide will walk you through the process:

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

Restart after the new driver is installed and before you try to play.

If that doesn't help, please clean uninstall both graphics drivers: first Nvidia, then Intel, using the same instructions.  Install the Intel driver from the Lenovo page first, restart, then install the Nvidia driver and restart again.  Or, if you prefer, you can go straight to replacing both drivers rather than simply addressing the Nvidia one.

If replacing both drivers doesn't help, please set your user and system DPI scalings to 100% (96 DPI).  Sims 4 should absolutely be able to handle your current settings, but sometimes weird things happen.  And you can always undo the changes later.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5990-change-dpi-scaling-level-displays-windows-10-a.html

I had high hopes for this one because it was something new but unfortunately even after trying everything suggested it still doesn't work. I'm at a complete loss right now

@Maasterash  Please try playing in a new admin Windows account.  The username should contain only letters and/or numbers, no special characters, accents, etc.  And make it a local account, as in, don't sign into Microsoft, and don't sync with any other services you normally use.  For good measure, try a clean boot in this account as well.

If the game still minimizes, please look for any new errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes.  You'll see a list of errors and updates, with a column for each day.  (Today is all the way on the right.)

For any errors that mention Origin or Sims 4 from after you've made the new account, or any that happened at the same time as you tried to play, click "View technical details," then copy the information and paste it into a reply.  Sometimes the Reliability Monitor doesn't update right away, so if you don't see any related errors, be sure to check back an hour or two.  The timestamp on the initial chart can also be off by up to an hour, so that's not an entirely reliable metric, but the one within the technical details should be accurate.

So I actually got another Window's update and whatever changed, the problem is now completely gone. I'm guessing something in the last update was conflicting with Sims or taking priority away from the window being opened. I thank you very much for taking time to try and troubleshoot my problems since I was completely and utterly stumped. (honestly I reset my PC and it didn't fix but then I got a random update and now it's fine).

Again, thank you so much!

@Maasterash  That's great to hear, and also very useful information.  If you have time, could you look up what the update was?  You should be able to see it in the Reliability Monitor too.  I'm just curious what the exact name is so I can look up what it's supposed to fix, and also of course in case someone else has the same issue.

I ran the monitor and there are actually several updates I'm guessing since the reset erased a lot of programs and had to catch up again, so I don't really know which one exactly fixed the problem. Sorry

It seems like the stability was short-lived. The game is right back to minimizing to the taskbar and unplayable again.

@Maasterash  Please download Malwarebytes (the free version is fine):

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

Open it, click Scan > Custom Scan > Configure Scan, check all the boxes both for scans and for your C drive (and any other if you happen to have an external plugged in), and let it do its job.  This will probably take at least an hour, so you may want to set it to run while you're doing something else.  Let me know what it finds.

Please also post a new dxdiag so I can look for any new issues.

Malwarebytes found nothing after a full scan unfortunately. I also tried the previous advice of making a new user. The game actually ran perfectly fine for a day and a half, then suddenly in the middle of playing, it started minimizing and wouldn't stop. When I ran the reliability monitor, no error specific to origin or sims showed up.
I've attached the new dxdiag for now

@Maasterash  So even when the game kept minimizing in your existing user account, it ran fine in the new account?  That strongly suggests something about your account settings.  Did you happen to change anything in the new account right before the problem showed up?  Did you change something earlier and then restart your computer right before the minimizing started, or perhaps start using another application in that account?  Anything at all that you did might be relevant.  And a change might not have taken full effect until after a restart.

I honestly did nothing with the new account other than start Sims as soon as I created it. I didn't even start with a clean boot. I played for an entire day with no problems, and pretty much resigned myself to just playing on an alternate account if that's what worked, put the computer into hibernate for the night and picked up the next day. It was running fine for several hours then in the middle of playing, the game suddenly minimized. Nothing else was open, not even origin. Then when I tried to open it from the taskbar, the problem started up all over again. Restarting the game did nothing to fix it and repair didn't either, and I didn't restart my computer.

@Maasterash  In the new account, please try disabling all notifications under Settings > System > Notifications.  Specifically do it in this order: first, turn off the notification for each individual app, then all the check boxes above the apps list, then the global setting.

If that doesn't help, please post a screenshot or two showing all the apps listed in Notifications.

Notifications are some of the first things I turn off, honestly. not a single app or browser has them on. When the game minimizes, nothing actually pops up, it's just that I can't keep it open.

@Maasterash  I'd still like to see the list of apps that would want to generate notifications if you allowed them.

Additionally, have you tried uninstalling GeForce Experience?  It would be odd for it to have this effect on Sims 4, but even with the overlay disabled, it could still be interfering.

I haven't reinstalled Experience since uninstalling and reinstalling my drivers, but I never let it optimize games I play because it wants to run them in the wrong resolution. Also whenever I play any games I try to make sure nothing at all is running because I'm always concerned about PC temps and good performance with highest possible graphics. There's not many apps on my computer that show up for notifications, and the only one I actively use, discord, is also closed whenever I play (completely shut down, not just minimized).

@Maasterash  This is kind of a long shot, but try playing with no internet connection.  You can sign into Origin and put it in offline mode, then disable wifi and/or disconnect the ethernet cable before launching Sims 4.  You should be able to open it from Origin, but in case you can't access your game library, double-clicking the .exe or its shortcut should still work.

I gave up on trying to fix it for a few days and when I went back, it's completely stable again. Other than one infinite saving screen and a crash(from a lot with too much on it from the gallery), there's no problems anymore. I have no idea what is causing this or if it will come back, but I hope not.