Re: Sims 4 Using Up all my RAM

I know my laptop can be upgraded to have more RAM I’m just confused why my game is suddenly using all my RAM. 

I do have CC but it’s not high poly. I don’t use any mods and none of my cc is realistic - it’s just maxis match but like I said I haven’t downloaded any cc in a while and don’t have that much of it. 

so not really sure why it’s using all of my RAM up suddenly. 

And by fixes I meant just basic fixes like clearing EA cache, starting the game and letting a new fresh sims 4 folder generate, and slowly adding my content back- making sure my game is updated, that my PC is updated, etc. but now none of these things are fixing my game. 

@smilelikemiles 

OK you say that the RAM on your Laptop can be upgraded so if you want to you can just take it to a shop and ask them to do it. Be warned that it will be unlikely to have any significant effect on your game.

A PC will use as much RAM as possible. This is not limited to your game but Windows and what else you have running on it.

If you post a DxDiag. https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/ I may be able to see a reason for lag but the game by itself will occasionally lag a bit. That is just the way it is programmed.
You can attach the txt file directly to your answer.

Ok I will send one eventually this week but it’s Christmas Day and I likely won’t be on my PC for a couple days now. 

the only thing I had open was sims to test this and when I am not playing, it’s not using much RAM at all. I provided to screenshots I had taken before Sims and after. 

I had nothing open with the first screenshot except the task manager and I was also downloading the new nvidia graphics card update. But when I play sims that’s all I had updated. 

I purchased this PC when it was given to me in a link on here when I was looking for a PC for Sims and I spent a fortune on it - it’s a gaming laptop. So if this isn’t the cause for my game not being able to be played then I’m extremely disappointed. I don’t have the money to buy another PC so therefore this game would be a waste of money then bc I’ll never be able to play it again if that’s the case…… 

Sending my latest dxdiag. Thank you for the patience and for replying to help/

Bumping this post as I still have no solution (I did not upgrade my RAM yet)

@smilelikemiles  Your dxdiag crashed while running, and although this could be a fluke, the dxdiag also lists some generic Windows errors and is missing information about certain drivers.  All that means it's worth doing a repair install of Windows, as described here:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

This should not delete any of your data, but if you get to step 13 and are NOT asked to keep personal files and apps, back out and start over.

Windows should also not be using 3.4 GB on startup, with nothing except the Task Manager running.  That could also be a fluke, for example if Windows was trying to download an update, or you captured the exact moment when the Task Manager was using significant resources as it loaded all that data.  So please check again after the repair install, and let me know how much RAM the system is using around five minutes after the restart.

If it's still above 3 GB, click the Task Manager's Startup tab and post a screenshot of what you see.  Some apps may be starting with Windows when they shouldn't.

Please also let me know how much memory a new Sims 4 save uses, and whether this changes if you disable all the settings under Options > Game Options > Other.  You'd need to restart the game to see the effect.

Thank you I will try my best but since I won’t have anyone that may be able to answer me during the process I get nervous about losing my data. 

sometimes I understand that everyone is busy but it can take days to get a response on here so I can’t leave my PC laying around because my dog could knock it off the table when I’m not home. 

as for startup- I did a clean boot a while back and windows themselves disabled all the stuff from starting at startup and I haven’t added anything new to my PC as I only ever really use it for sims these days. So not sure why any programs would be starting up. 

windows may have been downloading an update in the background since I haven’t been on my PC in a few weeks. I had a lot going on and had to be a caregiver for a sick family member for a few months so I haven’t used my PC. It downloaded/installed a quick update the other day but that was the only update that showed but there could’ve been more and it was downloading in the background but sometimes the percentage takes hours to go up even 1% while downloading in the background so I’m unable to install them since it takes so much time. 

I plan to upgrade my RAM later on anyhow as I’d like a faster PC, even if unrelated to sims. 

@smilelikemiles  A repair install doesn't take much time, maybe ten minutes or less on your computer.  And you can back out up until the final steps, where you're asked whether you want to keep personal data.  If you don't want to do that at the moment, that's fine, but even installing more RAM won't fix the errors in your dxdiag, although the extra memory may disguise the problems somewhat.

I would still like to try to help if you're interested, and I'm here every day, almost always multiple times a day.  At the very least, it's worth finding out what else is starting with Windows, because as I said, the system shouldn't be using nearly that much RAM on startup.  Mine uses a little more than 2 GB, and I haven't done anything special.

Additionally, updates to apps or even Windows can change the settings, for example Edge decided to start with Windows after a recent generic Windows update, which I didn't know until I happened to check the Task Manager and found it running.

The book an again for the response. 

I was reading about the windows install and I may try this tonight but I’m a little confused by some of the wording in that article. I’m not tech savvy so I’m not sure what they mean by ISO or whatever that is. So I’m not sure how to go about installing it without messing anything up. How do I know the correct way to go about it? 

I'm working all day and will be eating dinner when I get home but after dinner I can try. Just want to do a quick backup to my external drive of any important files I don’t want to lose in the event something were to happen. 

as for backing out, is there an option to click on to keep personal info and files? Or do I have an option to go back and start over? I’m a bit confused on that part. 

and I see. Hmm I don’t know why my windows always had errors and issues? I don’t hear others complain that often about windows having errors and issues to this extent so why does every update break for me? I will be honest though my wifi is iffy now because my uncle had to get rid of our second backup router so my wifi isn’t as smooth since every single one of us in the house (5 people) each have multiple devices on the one router so sometimes wifi is a little slow but sometimes I play my game offline anyways but as for the computer itself things are slow but what can I do? It’s all we can afford right now. 

before I attempt the update after getting it dumbed down for myself (lol), should I send a screenshot of my task manager before playing sims so you can see maybe what’s starting up? My computer has like 48 background processes that are always running, some don’t appear to be using much or any memory tho but I’m not sure what is and isn’t important. I’ll probably be online around 7pm EST tonight if you are able to help me at any time after that. 

thanks

@smilelikemiles  Sorry, I had a busy day today and wasn't online until just recently.  I should be on tomorrow morning, around 10 am PST and for a couple hours after that.

The guide I linked has screenshots of almost everything you'd see during a repair install, and I couldn't explain the process better than it does.  An ISO is an install medium, sort of like a disc installer without the disc.  The guide has a link for creating one, which Microsoft makes extremely easy: you go to a website and click a few things, then wait.

It's possible that one or more of your computer's Windows updates were interrupted, resulting in some kind of corruption that hasn't been fixed.  That's just speculation on my part, and there are plenty of other possibilities too, for example malware or an overzealus cleaner app.  The important thing is that the errors in your dxdiag are real and should be addressed.

As for the Task Manager, I still think a repair install is necessary, so there's not much point in checking startup tasks beforehand unless you're curious.  48 background processes isn't high in and of itself, especially since a single application or driver can have several entries.  The Startup tab will be more illuminating.

Thanks, I didn’t get to it tonight but I won’t be around until tomorrow afternoon probably but even so it’s the holidays so I don’t know for certain when I’ll be able to check as I have some coming and prepping to do. 

I plan to do the repair install as you said it shouldn’t take long. Just haven’t gotten to it and I’m off to sleep. 

hopefully sometime tomorrow. I’m EST so by the time it’s 10am for you it will be 1pm for me so I’ll let you know if I get around to it after I grocery shop. 

I’m going to attempt this tonight if anyone’s going to be around. I will not be upgrading my RAM just yet but soon I will. 

So I watched a tutorial how to do this but where do they get to the file that says startup? I’m confused on how to download this. Also I saw somewhere that I have to reinstall things so like desktop apps like the EA app and stuff I would have to reinstall? 

Well once again time is dwindling. I wish there was a way for someone to be actively talking me through and helping me otherwise I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m just going to give the sims up at this point and find other hobbies bc I can never figure this stuff out and everyone always responds when I’m in work or unavailable 😞 is there somewhere I can actually talk to a person to help me with this kind of stuff bc waiting days

for responses doesn’t work. And I get it, not blaming anyone as we are all in diff time zones and have different responsibilities that change our availability but I just don’t feel like I ever truly get anywhere and I thought a few months ago I already fixed my windows. Why is there always errors or something wrong with it? Feel like I just wasted money on a computer and this game at this point 

@smilelikemiles  I'm here now, but I'm not exactly sure what you're seeing, so a screenshot or two would help.  And no, you won't need to reinstall anything if the repair install proceeds correctly.

I will say that this might be easier if you have someone in your life who can walk you through this process in person.  Even if not, there might be a resource near you, anything from a friendly computer repair shop to a school library to tech support at work, that can give you pointers and answer questions as you have them.

Ok, my issue is I don’t know what to install like how do I go about installing the repair update? I’m not catching on to how to download it to begin with. I saw on a video someone clicked on a setup file but where do I locate that? I’m super confused. 

well my job offers tech help but they’re not open now and I work full time so I don’t have a window of when they could help me since I’m on the clock. I can’t step away and by the time I’m clocking out those people are no longer there. Other then that everyone around me are all older people who have no idea how a computer even functions so there’s no help here.

sorry I did not do this sooner then today. It’s my first day off in a while and the past two weekends were holidays and I had other commitments and was busy so I couldn’t tackle this then. 

@smilelikemiles  The article I linked has embedded links to most steps in the guide that users might not understand.  For example, the link for creating an ISO goes here:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/9230-download-windows-10-iso-file.html

Use option one.

Thank you, which option do you find to be the easiest? Does it matter which one I do?

im trying option 2 but why are they having me click on iPad or iPad Pro? What does that have to do with my PC? 

I’m still not really understanding any of this. It all sounds foreign to me. Why can’t I just download it and be done with it? It seems so complicated.

it also says I need to burn a copy of the ISO file to a dvd? I don’t even have a dvd rom as my PC did not come with one so I guess I can’t even do this 

Well I got this far but the instructions completely skip this step. I have no idea what to click but I don’t have a flash drive or DVD player for my PC as it’s a laptop that never came with one. We are also facing bad weather so I’m wondering if u should not do this tonight in case of a power outage which would result in the loss of wifi

Idk when I’ll finally get this done. I never ended up completing since no one got back to me so I backed out and just left my computer as is. But still haven’t resolved this. I’ve been going at this now for weeks so I’m getting very frustrated now. 

@smilelikemiles  I'm sorry, I'm really trying to help here, but I don't understand why this was so difficult for you.  I said specifically to use option one, and you then asked what option should you use and tried option two.  I said create an ISO and then you said you didn't know which option to choose when one of them was "ISO file."

It is absolutely that simple, and maybe you're just overthinking everything, but I cannot be here all the time to hold your hand every step of the way.  I'm not trying to be mean or dismissive; that's just the reality of forum-based help.  I have things to do, and I sometimes need a break or just want to spend some of my free time doing something else for a change.  That's why I suggested finding someone in your life who could sit with you during this process.

If you manage to run the repair install and still can't play, please do post back, with a new dxdiag and a brief description of the current situation with the game itself.

But you’re not understanding that I don’t have anyone else. It’s just me here so idk what you expect me to do. Every time I come here it’s always “your computer is the problem.” But maybe it’s just this game. This game is so poorly executed and always has issues. Everything seems to always be a me problem or my computer. My computer isn’t old and I hardly have anything on it. I just use it to play sims so I don’t know why everything’s always breaking? This is the computer that was recommended to me on here and I spent a lot of money on this laptop, money I hardly have on my salary. 

I know you’re trying to help and I appreciate it but either of the two options didn’t work for me. It tells me I need to save to a dvd and I don’t have a dvd rom I told you my laptop doesn’t come with that. So I can’t proceed. And because you’re not here you can’t tell me that “it shouldn’t be this difficult for you.” Well for you it’s not but for someone like me who doesn’t get computers it is! 

and I understand you need a break, I do. I’m not expecting you to be here but if this only takes ten minutes you couldn’t be around for ten minutes till I attempted to complete the process? I waited with the options open for a few hours waiting for someone here to respond and for windows support to help but at that point I had thinks to do as I’m a caregiver to a family member and can’t waste hours sitting in front of the computer. I have reached out to so many people and no one sticks around to help. When you have nobody in real life then how do you get the help you need? 

but it’s fine I’m just going to say I wasted my money and give up on this game bc this doesn’t seem worth it anymore. I simply don’t have the time to commit when things break and it seems like such a hastle just to play the game for barely an hour in my little free time. Every time I fix my game and then don’t play for just a short while I let my computer and my game update and after a few times of playing something always happens again. I have all the requirements to play and yet it doesn’t work. I’m just tired of this. It makes the game not even fun. None of these processes seem to permanently fix anything or allow things to work nicely for a while. 

Hi @smilelikemiles 

I'd recommend getting in contact with our live support team for more specific one-to-one help on your time- here on the forums, our volunteers are not available 24/7 and may not reply immediately when you need help. 

If you'd like to continue to troubleshoot this issue, please reach out to live support from the help site here so they can work with you when you are available.