Forum Discussion

SynthesisAstra's avatar
SynthesisAstra
Seasoned Traveler
2 months ago
Solved

Screenshots Cause White Screen + System Freeze. Build/Buy Crashes to Desktop.

Platform: PC (Windows 10/11)

After the most recent update, attempting to take screenshots or entering Build/Buy mode causes severe instability. Taking multiple screenshots in CAS results in a white-screen freeze that hard-locks the entire system, requiring a manual restart. Build/Buy mode typically crashes to desktop within seconds of loading. This issue persists even in a completely clean, unmodded game environment.

To rule out user-side issues, I have done the following:

  • Removed all mods and CC.
  • Cleared all caches (localthumbcache, spotlight, etc.).
  • Repaired game files through the EA App.
  • Deleted and regenerated my entire Documents/EA folder (fresh installation).
  • Retrimmed my SSD to ensure the game’s files were not being read from degraded sectors
  • Verified GPU drivers are up to date.
  • Tested multiple other GPU-intensive games, all of which run without issue.
  • Restarted my system multiple times to clear RAM and cached data.

Despite the above steps, the issue continues.

Additional Details:

  • The file originally showing corruption was DeltaBuild00 (Build/Buy resources).
  • I manually deleted that file and allowed the game to regenerate a fresh version.
  • The regenerated file did not resolve the issue; the freeze and crashes still occur.
  • To test reproducibility, I launched a completely clean game and spammed the C key in CAS — this immediately caused a white-screen freeze and a full system lock that required a hard reboot.

This behavior only began after the recent patch and does not occur in any other games on my system.

Expected Result:
Screenshots should save normally, and Build/Buy mode should load without crashing.

Actual Result:
White-screen freeze requiring full system reboot, and Build/Buy crashes to desktop.

cc or mods removed
crashing
  • SynthesisAstra's avatar
    SynthesisAstra
    20 days ago

    Nevermind what I just said. With the recent patch that just launched last week... I tested in the game without mods to see if it was stable yet, and it is. No more gray screen in screenshots. No more crash in build/buy. I moved all over to weird angles, zoomed in, out, spammed the screenshots 100 times in CAS and in live mode, with sims moving around, from lots of different angles, and while moving the camera rapidly to try and trigger the hang, Not a single hang or stutter. Going forward, I will still only ever be playing in windowed mode for OS safety, but... Problem resolved by current patch.

    Hope it stays that way. This is the end of this thread.

    PS. To the Dev who saw my error code, saw the offset and quietly fixed the issue without arguing or complaining about it... Thank you. Whoever you are, you're my hero at the moment.

12 Replies

Show More
  • SynthesisAstra's avatar
    SynthesisAstra
    Seasoned Traveler
    20 days ago

    I am unable to safely provide a DxDiag while reproducing this issue because The Sims 4 fully hangs my OS, locking me into a white screen and forcing me to do a hard reboot. A reboot means that any data captured by DxDiag gets wiped before it can be saved.

    The Sims 4 is the only game that exhibits this system breaking behavior. I have tested with other titles that are far more demanding, such as Baldur's Gate 3,  without any issue, I have reason to believe it is not my hardware, drivers, or OS because further testing of my games shows them all running perfectly.  If I had hardware, driver or OS issues, the OS hangs would not be isolated to one game.

    I have gone through all of the other safe steps that are available to me. I have updated GPU drivers,  checked for OS corruption, and provided an error code from Reliability Monitor that pertains to the issue. There haven't been any patches released since I provided this code, so the information is not yet stale or irrelevant. All of my hardware is properly seated, connected, and has enough power.

    My Conclusion? Something in the Nov. 4 patch broke the code. Full stop.

    This is not my computer's fault, and I am not going to cast blame on a machine that doesn't deserve it.

  • SynthesisAstra's avatar
    SynthesisAstra
    Seasoned Traveler
    20 days ago

    Nevermind what I just said. With the recent patch that just launched last week... I tested in the game without mods to see if it was stable yet, and it is. No more gray screen in screenshots. No more crash in build/buy. I moved all over to weird angles, zoomed in, out, spammed the screenshots 100 times in CAS and in live mode, with sims moving around, from lots of different angles, and while moving the camera rapidly to try and trigger the hang, Not a single hang or stutter. Going forward, I will still only ever be playing in windowed mode for OS safety, but... Problem resolved by current patch.

    Hope it stays that way. This is the end of this thread.

    PS. To the Dev who saw my error code, saw the offset and quietly fixed the issue without arguing or complaining about it... Thank you. Whoever you are, you're my hero at the moment.

Recent Discussions