Re: While playing the Sims 4, my PC will suddenly shut off.

I have yet to test this but I think it could be right, I have also experienced this with Rebel Galaxy (really bad with that game as it corrupts the save forcing you to restart)

I have been dropping a few times since the recent Origin update, ie a couple of days ago no problems whatsoever, Origin updated and crashes. My motherboard is actually detects it as a power surge and shuts things off to protect the PC.

This happened on a prior Origin version as well. That time I took to testing heat which wasn't getting that hot (I got hotter doing other things) but cleaned my fans on GPU, Case, CPU and by the time I done that a new Origin patch was out and I did not have problems until now. I have just got done doing it again and since theres very little dust on those components I took my PSU apart and cleaned that too as it was the only area that had dust of any significant volume.

About to try Sims4 to see if that had any real effect.

Now going offline mode may work, but a better solution if you want online play might be to re-install Origin. I had to do this a month ago to get the FIFA18 demo to work, which screams to me that the Origin updater is not working as intended.

Edit: not really sure how so little dust changed much but it seems to have helped. just played 1.5 hours without a crash. You may want to check your graphics card settings (outside of game ie nvidia control panel) and turn on vsync. I did set it to "adaptive" judt dont go overboard on AA etc there as I tested these all maxed and it got my GPU working overtime, significantly slowing the game and making noise.

This is happening to me randomly also. I have tried all posted solutions. I even replaced my power supply and it isn't heat as I have been monitoring with cpu id. It is the only game that shuts off my computer and it happens randomly. It just shut off again after playing almost 3 hours (sometimes it only takes 15min). This is one reason I stopped playing this game. 

Hi @pokiedots

Could you post your Computer's DxDiag?

To gather a DxDiag on your computer, please follow the steps here: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

You can attach the txt file to your post directly.

Hi @crinrict 

I think the problem is probably my video card which I have RMA'd back to EVGA. It only happens with Sims 4 though for some reason. I have put in my old GTX660 to play in the meantime and so far, so good. I need to underclock the GTX660 to work with another game, because it isn't all that stable either I guess...just that one game though! I'll attach my dxdiag anyway if you want to take a look. I noticed DxDiag is only reported the video card with 4GB when it has 8.

Thanks for the reply

Tagging @roberta591 for better help with this.

@pokiedots  If the video card is supposed to have 8Gb and only only shows 4GB that would be an indication of an issue with the card. I have noticed the Sims 3D games have issues with dual monitors. I think it could be a video driver issue. Using dual monitors makes the video card work even harder and the Sims 3D games are hard on the video chip. Have you tried playing the game with only one card. Is the video card getting plenty of cooling? The thing that concerns me the most is 27.8Gb free space on a 250Gb ssd system device. You need to either free up space on the system drive or get a bigger system device. When you use a small system device you need to keep the free space as much as possible by off loading data to a secondary device. Your computer has a 29636Mb page file. This is space on your ssd and more then the 27.8Gb free space. The page file is large but reducing the page file will not solve the problem. The way the Windows operating system works is it bloats and each iteration has gotten worse. Is the game set for triple frame buffering. This could account for the large amount of video memory. The way your computer is configured needs to be be looked at and reconsidered.

@roberta591 Thanks so much. I did not think about the page file but I know I am running out of room there. I will have to free up some space. I did monitor temps for days and there did not seem to be a temperature issue. I used CPUID hardware monitor.

The problem began before I hooked up my old (second) monitor to the GPU. I did that mainly so I could monitor while playing. I don't play it on both screens but I will keep that issue in mind. I'll be back to update if the new card fixes it or not after I get it and play awhile. 

Just checked my pagefile and it is 16.7 GB

@pokiedots  You are not running out of room - you are out of room. I feel your page file should be ~6Gb. If you had a large system drive it probably wouldn't matter but this is the downside to having a small system device - you really, really have to manage your system. Many casual users only know the basics and only want to play the games. They don't care they need free space on the system drive and frequently use the system until there is no free space. The stores that are selling system with 128Gb ssd system device in a gaming machine is only going to cause customers aggravation in the near future. I wouldn't sell a gaming system with less then 500Gb system device. You can install 2 - 1Tb drives in a raid and have real good performance AND 2Tb storage. The biggest issue happens when people try to download a very large file. The file downloads to a temp location and will be copied to the final location upon download completion. This means you need twice the size of the download for a complete download and this is just one of the many things your system is doing at anyone time. The Windows operating system and does many things and sometimes making assumptions for you - example the size of your page file. When I send components back on a rma I usually use the original box, send it private carrier insured (it costs more but the manufacturers are not responsible for shipment), and I put a little mark on it so I know if they return the same component I sent.

@roberta591 Indeed, I wish I had gotten a 500gb SSD. I will on my new build if I ever get around to it. I originally got the 256 just to put WoW on and system files but I have not been playing WoW. I can't believe anyone would think 128GB would be sufficient for a gaming system. Anyway, I cleared about 10gb off the drive. I agree with you that I am out of room. I have been trying to make sure it doesn't get any fuller than it is for months now. I am not having any virtual memory errors at all. It's been my understanding that you need to keep at least 10% of the drive free for the page file and maybe a little more. I usually try to keep it around 20%. We also need space for our save games getting larger and custom content and such I really don't think that is the reason Sims 4 and only Sims 4 is causing my computer to shut off though. I have been playing it just fine (about 6 hours now) on the 660. I forgot to put a mark on the video card but the name panel glued to the side was loose when I bought it and fell off every time I I did anything with the card. I have been worried about them maybe sending the same one back! I hope they don't.

Well, the new video card didn't fix it. It is definitely a different card than the one I sent in. I was really hoping that the Sims 4 was just exposing some fault with it but now I don't know what to do. I guess I will go back to Sims 2 and 3. Maybe by the time I build a new PC all the expansions and dlc will be much cheaper. I like the older games better anyway.

@pokiedots  Another thing I just thought about. If one video card works and another doesn't it may be you are exceeding the specs of the power supply. Check what the power requirements are for the 2 video cards especially on the +12 rail. If the power supply is old(ish) it may be beginning to fail. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 requires a 500W minimum power supply. Manufacturers have stopped giving exact specs. Different 500W power supplies may have different values for the +12V rail and may come up short if you are close to the maximum spec of the power supply. Nvidia spec is 150W max for just the video card. That's about 13A on the +12V rail JUST for the video card.  If you power supply has a split rail (example 2 +12v sources at 15A each) you have to make sure the the power is distributed properly because 13A pretty much maxs out a 15A rail and if you have anything else on it that may shut the power supply off.