Sims 4 CRASHING after November Update - NO MODS OR CCs

@abbydebz101  Please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post here.

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

Here you go! 🙂 

@abbydebz101  Your laptop has only 4 GB RAM, which will make it more difficult to run Sims 4 without crashing.  (Your processor and graphics card are also a bit weak for the game, but they should be able to run it on medium settings.)  The November patch seems to have made it more difficult to play on such systems as well.  So you'll need to lower the stress on your laptop as much as possible while you play.  Don't run any apps besides Origin and Sims 4, not even a browser, and make sure the laptop can cool itself: elevate it to let air circulate underneath, get a cooling pad, etc.

Your dxdiag also has a few errors related to Windows's update function.  Whether this is directly related to the game crashes isn't clear, but it's worth addressing anyway.  First, click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of your screen and select Settings > Updates & Security, then click the button to check for updates.  If there are a number of them pending, it may take a few tries to run them all.

Next, run a couple of 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

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.

Verification 100% complete.

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>
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

@abbydebz101  Great, so sfc made some repairs.  Please test the game with nothing else besides Origin running—restart your computer first, then open only Origin and Sims 4.  If you still get crashing, move your entire Sims 4 game folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  Launch the game, which will create a clean folder; start a new save and have a look around.  Let me know how it runs in both cases.

Hi there,

Been a while due to general busyness. The game worked for a while after I wiped and cleaned my laptop but it's now back to crashing. Will try your advice and see how I go. Any idea why the game works for a while and the gives up? Getting sick of losing all my progress.

@abbydebz101  There could be any number of reasons, but the first suspect is your computer's low amount of memory.  4 GB isn't a lot, and not always enough for Sims 4, especially post-November update.  That doesn't mean you can't play at all, just that a more well-progressed save, which uses more RAM than a new one, might crash soon after you load it.

While you're playing, you can open the Task Manager and see how much memory is being used overall.  There are ways to try to keep RAM use down; let me know if it looks like this is the problem.  But the crashing could also be related to any number of other issues.  It would be helpful to see another dxdiag now that you've wiped your laptop; there might be new information listed about the crashes.

Here's a new DxDiag. Uninstalled the whole lot yesterday because I got so frustrated with it, but trying again today.