Sim stops short of doing any task

@andprosper  That's quite a lot you've tried.  Just to be extra thorough, have you in fact tried playing in a completely fresh Sims 4 folder also without adding anything back?  (It sounds like you probably did, but just in case.)  If you've only been removing content from that folder, or creating a fresh folder but adding back content, please instead move the entire folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, then run another repair.  Don't add anything at all to the new folder that spawns; just start a new save and see how it goes.

If that doesn't or didn't help, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

I believe I did that during the uninstall and re-install, but I can't honestly remember, so I've been trying it again just to be sure. The error occurred about two hours in. Let sims generate the folders itself and didn't add anything back. 

@andprosper  There are a number of Windows errors in your dxdiag.  So it's a good idea to run a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files.  Here's how:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
• The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
• After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
• Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
• Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
• Post the message you receive here

If sfc reports that it found corrupt files and was unable to repair some of them, please let me know, and stop here.  Otherwise, restart your computer, then manually run any pending Windows updates: hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.

Your dxdiag also lists a few errors related to an element of the Acer User Experience Improvement Program.  So before you launch the game again, please find any tasks with that name (or similar) and End Task.  Then see if it makes a difference.  If you're looking, the exact faulting module is AppMonitorPlugIn.exe, although I'm not sure what you'd see in the Task Manager.

No errors during restore health. Completed successfully.

During sfc scan now, here is the message:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Giving you this update right now before I try restarting and handle any of my Acer User Experience Errors. 

Thank you

Ah ha! I have found someone else with the exact same problem as me.

I started a new save game, in Strangerville, with a single sim, adopted a dog. A few hours into game play, my sim and the dog just seem to be standing around, not frozen, but standing on the spot, the dog wags its tail. The next action doesn't drop in to active, if I cancel the current action, my sim may move to the next object but just stand there and doesn't complete it. Game time moves on. The neighbours continue to walk by, as much as a Stangerville neighbour can!  If NPC visitors are hanging out, the same happens to them.

My go to solution was to travel and come back, which solved the issue for a while. But it has been happening progressively sooner and sooner too. And to top it all, it went and happened just as they would most likely have defeated the mother!

So I haven't tried as many things as OP, but I tried repairing through Origin. 

I checked out my graphics and made sure my dedicated card was selected. - I had wondered if all the extra effects in Strangerville were the reason!

I tried an old save but not for long, as it seemed OK, and I was thinking it was my new save game.

My game was playable ish! until all my efforts to solve the Strangerville mystery were then thwarted!

I may be wrong, but now I have found another player with the exact same issue, this doesn't feel like a hardware issue, though I am more than willing to be proved wrong and find a way of solving this.

Specs

Lenovo Ideapad 510

Intel Core i5 6200U  CPU @ 2.3Ghz 2.4Ghz

RAM 8GB

64bit windows 10

Graphics Nvidia GEforce 940MX

@jeni2810  Does it make a difference if you play this same save in a clean user data folder?  Move your entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, then launch the game to create a clean folder.  You can quit at the Main Menu.  Go into the saves folder inside the Sims 4 folder you moved, and copy your most recent save.  (You can tell them apart by last modified date.)  Paste the save inside Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves, and you should be able to load it from the Main Menu.

Okay! So I found a solution (so far!)

Sorry for taking a while to get back, but I wanted to play for a while to make sure it didn't happen. 

I did the following: 

https://help.ea.com/en-in/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

And I had no problems playing 8 hours yesterday. It might be a combination of the above and the solutions already worked through, but this was the final step that seemed to fix it so far. 

Oddly enough, my problem also originally cropped up in Strangerville, but followed me around to other neighborhoods when I went to see if it was a neighborhood problem (tried Brindleton Bay and Newcrest.) 

Ooh Nice! Interesting it was Strangerville too. At first, as it was my first proper save game there I wasn't 100% it wasn't supposed to be a gameplay thing!

I'm currently in 3rd hour of playing a previous save game, no problems. And hence thinking of workarounds so as not to have to start a new save, which was my current theory! 

Clearing the cache makes loads of sense! I shall go and do that now.

Fingers crossed, as having invested in all EPs, GPs and Stuff Packs in the last 3 months I was going to awfully disappointed if I now had a laptop that no longer coped really well! Thank You

Clearing!