@Gemmawho Try killing any processes in the Task Manager called DTS [something] or Sonic Studio. You might not have sound, but the question is whether Sims 4 works. If you get another freeze, please try using the laptop's built-in speakers rather than any other device.
@puzzlezaddict Thank you. I started up the game and then switched to task manager and waited to see if any processes along those lines appeared. Control the DTS audio processing came up after a minute so I killed it and the game seemed to work absolutely fine after that so I'm assuming that must have been the problem. The sound still worked fine so should I just uninstall this DTS programme or will I need to go in and kill the process every time I play?
@Gemmawho That's great to hear, and if you want to uninstall the program, go ahead. It may get reinstalled with other system updates though, since it's software Asus has deemed critical for your laptop.
If you'd prefer, you can disable it instead. Hit Windows key-R, enter "msconfig" without quotes, select "Services," look for anything with DTS or Sonic Studio in the name, and uncheck the box next to whatever you find. This should prevent the services from starting at all, but double-check in the Task Manager anyway. This has the advantage that you can reenable the service(s) the same way if you happen to run an app that would need them.
@puzzlezaddict So it turns out that wasn't the issue after all and I just didn't play for long enough last week for the game to crash... I've tried playing a couple of times this weekend and both times I can play for about 10 minutes before the game freezes. Usually the fans get louder on the laptop and then it freezes and they get quiet again. I've checked the reliability monitor and there are no critical events around the time of any of the game crashes except for the usual 'windows was not properly shut down'. Any other suggestions? Can't believe I've spent so much money on a gaming laptop that can't seem to cope with playing the sims.
@Gemmawho I'd like to see on a hardware level what happens as the fans get louder and the game freezes. Download hwinfo from here:
https://www.hwinfo.com/download/
You don't need to install anything if you don't want to; just choose the Portable version, unzip it, and launch it from Downloads or wherever you want. (If you would like to install, be sure to click the button for hwinfo itself, not for lansweeper.) Restart your computer, and don't open any other apps. Launch hwinfo, choose "sensors only," and click the icon that's a sheet of paper with a + sign to start logging. Save the file to your desktop for easy access later.
Wait five minutes, then launch Sims 4 and play until it freezes. The log should still be intact up until you restart your computer, but please let me know how long you played before the freeze. You can upload the log to a third-party free filehosting site and link it here. Please leave it in .csv format, or if you use OneDrive to share, please compress it in .zip format instead.
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