Sims 4 freezes/crashes/ goes to BSOD

@Pen061  When you ran sfc /scannow, what did the scan say? (no integrity violations, found corrupt files and repaired them, found corrupt files and was unable to repair some of them) Your dxdiag does list a few failed Windows updates, but they could be from before you addressed the issue.

Your PC does meet the requirements for Sims 4, and playing shouldn't produce BlueScreens.  So there's something else going on.

The next time you get a BSOD, or think you did, please open a File Explorer window and copy and paste C:\Windows\Minidump into the address bar.  Grab the last two or three dump files: right-click, select Copy, then right-click on your desktop and select Paste.  From there, you can zip them together, upload them to a free filesharing site, and link them here.

Please also grab the Reliability Monitor information from any Sims 4 crashes.  The timestamp might be slightly off, depending on when you view the entry and what happened, but it should be easy enough to find the most recent entry after a crash or BSOD.  Click on View technical details, copy the info, paste it into a text document, and attach it to a post.

While testing, please play in a clean user data folder, if you're not doing so already.  Drag your entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add anything to it yet; just play with a new save and see what happens.  BlueScreens shouldn't be related to mods or other user-generated content, but it's always better to remove all complicating factors before testing.

@puzzlezaddictFirst of all, thank you so much for your reply!

sfc /scannow's result is no integrity violations.

I'm attaching a text doc with the latest Reliability Monitor results for both generic BSOD and Sims 4 related.

As soon as I'll experience a BSOD (unfortunately, I'm pretty positive it will occur again) I will add the minidumps.

Meanwhile, in case it helps, I'm also attaching  WhoCrashed results of the last 3 occurrences.

I will now try to launch again a clean data folder and give you some update.

Thanks!

PS: OT is that your cat in your photo? He/she is tremendously cute! 🙂

EDIT: I had the chance to play in a clean data folder. Everything seemed to run quite smoothly for awhile, but then my PC freezed. I had to manully reboot it, hence no minidump to read. ☹️

@Pen061  The WhoCrashed tool is just reporting the Windows definition of each bug check you get, so it's not really any extra information.  It would still be much more efficient to see a minidump.  The bug check codes indicate what happened, but not always why it happened, i.e. which driver or other software caused the problem.  But of course you wouldn't get a minidump when the game froze without any system errors.

The Reliability Monitor entries aren't from today, and they also indicate your game isn't fully patched: the current patch level, as of a week ago, is 1.62.  Even though it's highly unlikely to have anything to do with the BlueScreens, it's still a good idea to update.  If Origin isn't letting you, try a repair first, and if that doesn't help (or you can't repair), clear Origin's cache, restart your computer, and try again.

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

If you get another freeze and there's still no new Reliability Monitor entry, please check again in a few minutes.  But the fact that there isn't one from a given freeze is also interesting information.  If you're interested in sifting through way too much information, you can check the Event Viewer as well (Windows key-R, enter "eventvwr").  You can ignore the informational events and warnings; only the errors (red icon) are worth checking out.

P.S.  Yes, the photo is of my cat.  It's a couple years old, from when he was still technically a kitten, but he really doesn't like having his picture taken.

@puzzlezaddict  Ok, I updated the game to 1.62 (I was waiting because I wanted to understand what was happening with all the freezing/crashing). But as you correctly suspected, the update didn't improve the issue.

I experienced another freeze (twice) and, again, I had to manually reboot.

Aside from the usual Windows updates, I don't see anything new on the latest Reliability Monitor entry, and Event Viewer didn't help either (at least in my eyes).

Anyway, I'm attaching a text file with the last 3 errors I copied from Event Viewer which occured approximately at the same time I had to reboot .

OT even if your cat is not a selfie fan, it's absolutelt adorable! 🙂

EDIT: 3rd freeze, but this time there's something new in the Reliability Monitor entry. It mentions that the Antimalware Service Executable (MsMpEng.exe) stopped working (I'm attaching a file).

These freezes look completely random. ☹️

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@Pen061 wrote:

EDIT: 3rd freeze, but this time there's something new in the Reliability Monitor entry. It mentions that the Antimalware Service Executable (MsMpEng.exe) stopped working (I'm attaching a file).

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That's part of Windows Defender, and the fact that it stopped working is not a great sign.  If you have a third-party antivirus/firewall installed, please disable it, at least for now, and test.  If that doesn't help, or you don't have one, 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 you still get a freeze, try playing in a clean boot:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

@puzzlezaddictI don't have a third-party antivirus, only Windows Defender, hence I run DISM.exe and scannow. Both didn't show any error.

Strangely enough, yesterday I played a couple of times (probably for 1/1.5 hour each) and didn't experience any freeze. And I played both before and after the two checks.

I doubt the issue is suddenly and magically solved, but I'll try again today to see what happens and I will let you know.

Thank you!

EDIT: I managed to play for 1.5 hr and then I experienced another freeze at 12:45pm; at 12:52 I had to forcefully reboot. Nothing in the Reliability Monitor, in the Event Viewer there was an error, event ID 6008 "The previous system shutdown at 12:23:51 PM on ‎4/‎18/‎2020 was unexpected". But I was still playing at 12:23.

Today I tried again, I managed to play for approximately 40 minutes, before the freeze (at 10:33am).

I found the following errors in the Event Viewer:

-10:21am: Session “PerfDiag Logger” stopped due to the following error: 0xC0000188

-The previous system shutdown at 10:18:57AM on ‎4/‎19/‎2020 was unexpected (again, I was still playing at 10:18).

At 10:34 I had to reboot.

Ok, I tried to play in a clean boot, but I still experienced a freeze. ☹️

The error I keep seeing in the Event Viewer it's always: The previous system shutdown at 6:13:45PM on ‎4/‎20/‎2020 was unexpected. But I was still playing at 6:13.

At 6:53 I had the freeze and had to manually reboot.

Apparently  this is the only pattern I'm seeing: after 30/40 minutes since "the system shutdown" error, the freeze happens.

But I really don't know if this occurance has actually something to do with the freeze.

@Pen061  Please upload a couple of crash dump files, if you have them.  Open a File Explorer window, and copy and paste C:\Windows\Minidump into the address bar.  Grab the last two or three dump files: for each one, right-click and select Copy, then right-click on your desktop and select Paste.  Zip them together, upload them to a free filesharing site, and link them here.  Please also let me know whether the timestamps on the files correspond at least roughly to the times Sims 4 crashed or froze, if you can tell.

Unfortunately the last dumps file are from several days ago, I guess they're referring to the last BSOD I experienced.

I'm attaching them anyway.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nMuQTVFGqAg8eduRBWrLLewTepyzTpBF

Thanks.

EDIT: sorry, it seems they're not readible, I don't know why, maybe because they're too old?

Event Viewer is the only source of (some) information apparently. ☹️

I read here and there and quite often I read that it could be possibly the Power Supply... in your opinion, is it a real chance?

This is the one in my PC: https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00BDB28HS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Unfortunately I have no chance to test other PSU.

EDIT: I just experienced a new BSOD. This is today's minidump (hope it's readible... I just see symbols inside): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hMOaZ2hU7tkFai1ylwiv9cThp6Rlmp5z

This is what I found in the Reliability Monitor:

Nome evento problema: BlueScreen
Codice: a
Parametro 1: ffffc8d2cc52cad0
Parametro 2: 2
Parametro 3: 0
Parametro 4: fffff804134cfd34
Versione sistema operativo: 10_0_18363
Service Pack: 0_0
Prodotto: 256_1
Versione SO: 10.0.18363.2.0.0.256.48
ID impostazioni locali: 1040

And then that the following errors caused the reboot: 

0x0000000a (0xffffc8d2cc52cad0, 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000, 0xfffff804134cfd34).

ID segnalazione: 2b1febef-c7b1-4cb4-b7ab-0ed4c233aca4.