I tried installing it on both local disk(C) and on my SSD, but neither worked. I also tired installing it on clean windows 10 and 11, but sadly nothing. Other games installed fine. Well except my the sims 3 add-ons. The Sims 3 got installed, but an error showed when I tired to download add-ons. The Sims 4 is still stuck on preparing
@formanv Your dxdiag shows that the graphics driver for your iGPU isn't installed properly. While this shouldn't affect the EA App's ability to install games, it's still worth manually installing the appropriate driver to avoid other potential problems. You can find it here:
Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator." Restart your computer after installing and before doing anything else.
If you'd actually like the iGPU disabled entirely, do that through BIOS rather than simply uninstalling the driver.
Your G drive, the 500 GB 860 Evo, is also almost completely full. I don't know whether that's intentional or the result of a failed attempt to install Sims 4, but that should be addressed before you try to run any programs installed on G. It obviously shouldn't directly affect your attempts to install on C unless you have an unusual system configuration, but some leftover Sims 4 files on G might be a problem. Please clear at least 20 GB space, ideally more like 50, and restart your computer.
For the Sims 3 issue, please use this thread:
@andy40953 Your laptop doesn't have enough free space on C to install Sims 4. Even though you're trying to install to a USB, the EA App budgets space in an odd and unnecessarily expansive fashion, so this could be a problem. Please try to clear another 8 GB or so, for a total of 25 free, if at all possible. The Sims 4 base game takes up just over 20 GB, and the EA App generates temp files. Please also try installing only the base game, at least at first.
Additionally, make sure your USB is formatted as NTFS.
it does not seem to be a problem with disk or drivers.
I tested it on fresh installation of W10 and W11 and it did not work either.
There are other games, like Mass Effect 2 that I can download and play on my PC or on the fresh installed W10 and W11.
So the problem seems to be is only with SIMS.
@formanv Thanks for letting me know. It would be interesting to know whether a different connection helped, for example if you could at least start the download while using your phone as a mobile hotspot. (If you're going to test, make sure the phone is using data, not your home wifi.) I'm not suggesting you download the entire game using data, only that you let the download progress far enough to start or error out.
Other than that, I'm not sure what the problem is here, but I've flagged the thread in case there are other potential issues or troubleshooting steps I haven't thought of.
I'll try downloading it on mobile data as soon as I can. Thank you for trying to help me. I really appreciate it.
I had this problem and the solution that worked for me is as follows:
Note: Do not restart your computer until all steps are complete or it may break
Step 1: backup saves and mods you want to keep to a folder on desktop
Step 2: Delete the "The Sims 4" folder in C:\Users\(name of account)\Documents
Step 3: Delete "EADesktop" folder in C:\Program Files
Step 4: Delete "EA Games" folder in C:\Program Files
Step 5: Delete "EA Desktop" folder in C:\ProgramData
Step 6: Delete "Electronic Arts" folder in C:\Program Files
Step 7 Delete "Electronic Arts" folder in C:\Users\(name of account)\AppData\Local
Step 8: Delete "Link2EA" folder in C:\Users\(name of account)\AppData\Local
Step 9: Delete all shortcuts to sims 4 or the EA app
Step 10: Open windows apps and programs, select EA app, and click uninstall (if you do this before deleting those folders it will break)
Step 11: redownload the ea app installer off the website
Step 12: use the installer to install the EA app
Step 13: select download sims 4 and unselect all expansion packs to download (if you skip this step it will break)
Step 14: let the download finish and open the base game
Step 15: download expansion packs
Step 16: enjoy sims 4
Note: These steps have to be done in this order or it will break. I tried uninstalling before deleting those folders it broke, I tried downloading the packs with the base game it broke, I skipping the deletion of one of the mentioned files it broke. Why it only works in this order I do not know and I frankly feel like this has turned into some sort of arcane sims 4 summoning ritual but this has a 100% success rate on my machine and I'm not going to question it so long as it works
This worked! Thank you so much.
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