Sims 4 Freezing Computer

Wanted to give a quick update as I know I haven't responded in a bit. I went ahead and decided to try uninstalling my current graphics drivers and doing a fresh install.

It was mentioned I needed my password, no big deal, I have that memorized. Well, it was actually a huge deal because what I didn't realize was my Microsoft account password would not work as there was no internet connection. 

Safe to say I very much bricked my computer as I did not have an actual password for the computer itself, I always signed in via pincode or my Microsoft account. 

So now we are installing windows updates again after I finally managed to completely wipe my hdsd and re-install windows again.

Upon reinstall of the network drivers, the computer went online and found the rest of the needed drivers including the Nvidia driver. GeForce experience is not currently installed, just the driver. 

I shall try my game again once my computer is fully updated and I have put all of my backed up files back onto the computer from One Drive. 

@rokelle2012  I'm sorry to hear that happened to you.  Please let me know if you have any more trouble playing Sims 4, and if so, please run a new dxdiag so I can see the current status of your computer.

Well, I thought this new and fresh install of Windows 10 and my graphics drivers did the trick but that was wishful thinking. I am able to play in CAS for as long as I wish it seems and if I have a sim in an empty lot it also never seems to freeze as well.

As soon as I load into a fully furnished lot, within 10-20 minutes it freezes my whole computer again without fail. I have ran another dxdiag file and have included it here.

I honestly have no idea why this is happening. Is it possible one of the packs is simply not getting along with my computer? I suppose I could try playing in a brand new save after uninstalling all packs and adding them back in one by one to see if there is a change.

@rokelle2012  If you wanted to test your theory, rather than uninstalling and reinstalling your packs, you could disable them in Origin, then reenable a few at a time.

https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2017/03/disable-single-packs/

However, I don't think this has to do with your packs, or perhaps even your game at all.  Your new dxdiag lists a number of BlueScreens related to memory management, in this case the page file.  So you could have a problem with a RAM module or with your hard drive.  I'd start by checking the hard drive:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste "chkdsk /f /r c:" without quotes, and enter
• You'll be asked to allow a restart; say yes
• When the scan is done, use this guide to find the results

Testing RAM is more complicated and time-consuming, especially if you have four modules.  The most thorough approach is to use MemTest86 and test each module separately in at least two different slots.  MemTest86 is free, although you will need a USB stick you don't mind erasing.

https://www.memtest86.com/index.html

https://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/memtest86_memory_guide/

By the way, your Nvidia graphics driver is more than a year out of date.  There's no indication in your dxdiag that the driver is causing errors, and it's compatible with your current Windows build, so I don't think you necessarily need to update it now, especially given the other problems you're seeing.  But it's something to keep in mind for later.  You can always find the newest driver by selecting your card on this page:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Ah, I was not aware that the drivers were out of date. Windows automatically found drivers online once it was connected to the internet again after the install. I'm not surprised in the least it didn't find the most updated drivers.

With that being said I'll follow the steps below to check my hdsd and my ram and then get back to you. Really hoping it's the ram because that is a much easier fix than the hdsd. Really don't want to have to completely reinstall windows again if I don't have to.

I'll perform the tests and check back in later.

*edit: I have performed the check of the hdsd and this is the txt file for that check.

@rokelle2012  Interestingly, you might have been onto something with the idea that one of your Sims 4 packs was causing an issue.  Chkdsk flagged some bad clusters, including ones that store data from EP04 (Cats & Dogs), although the issue is where the pack data is stored on the drive, not anything to do with the pack itself.

Let me get back to you on that, and if you have time to run MemTest86 before I do, let me know how it goes.

Edit:  I asked someone who knows more than I do.  It's possible that chkdsk did in fact replace the bad sectors, but it's better to check yourself.  You can use SeaTools, which is made by Seagate.  The "SeaTools for Windows" version is fine:

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

Here are instructions for using it:

https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/support-content/downloads/seatools/_shared/downloads/pdf/SeaTools-for-windows-en-us.pdf

Use the Fix All > Long option.  This may be able to remap bad sectors and therefore fix the issue in the short term.  However, if there are more than a handful of bad sectors (maybe ten), that can mean that the drive is starting to fail.  In that case, it's probably time to replace it, since a complete failure would mean losing all your data.

I'll look into Seagate thing once I finish with Memtest. I have tested two out of the four sticks and so far so errors.

I really hope my hdsd isn't already failing because it's only right around a year old. 

I had to buy it to replace my old hdd that had totally failed on me. 

Will check back in once Memtest is totally done and I have finished the other test.

@rokelle2012  On second thought, try running the SeaTools Short Drive Self Test first, and see what it reports.  Then we can go from there.  Please also let me know whether Long Drive Self Test is an option; the documentation is conflicting on that point

Finished up with Memtest just moments ago and all four sticks of ram are good. I'm in the process of running the short drive self test right now.

Actually, the short test passed while I was in the middle of typing this so that is finished as well. 

There was not a long drive test option, but a long generic option. 

I am going to go ahead and run that test on the drive and see how it goes. 

*edit: The long test finally finished and the hdsd passed that test as well, so I would suppose whatever was wrong got fixed during the check disk operation earlier. I'm going to try to play my game some tonight and see if it makes my computer freeze up again. 

** edit: Sims 4 is still freezing up the whole computer. It took much longer now, several hours at least. I didn't keep a timer on it. I played around with it for over an hour, saved, and then got up to do other things and when I went back to the computer and it was frozen.

@rokelle2012  Sorry, I didn't see your most recent edit until now.  Please run chkdsk again and post the results.  I'd like to see whether anything has changed, for better or for worse, between the last chkdsk and this one.

No problem. Here's the chkdsk results. 

I haven't tried playing since the big update today but I'm not too sure that it will help.

I actually already checked to see if it was under warranty still and it wasn't. Ah, well. I was hoping it could wait until I did my big pc upgrade in Feb-March but looks like I'll have to replace it asap.

Thanks for looking into everything for me. Really sucks that once again my problem is a hardware issue, again. 

I'll look into getting a replacement for it then. Guess I could always just use it for extra storage when I do build my new computer.