I haven't had much time to play in the past month, but I have noticed a problem since early January : my game keeps crashing at random times, even in new saves and even without mods (though my latest DxDiag was with a couple mods that were unactivated). I might get to build or play for a little moment, but after 30 seconds to 30 minutes, the game closes without warning. At first, I just waited, thinking the game would get patched, but the January patch apparently has not helped. In the few days before I noticed the crashes (considering I don't play all that often), I had bought the For Rent expansion and I had a computer repair that involved updating my Bios. I have also updated my drivers yesterday, so it should not be related to that. Can anyone figure out what I should do?

SerraNolwen Do you ever see a BlueScreen, or a computer shutdown, when playing Sims 4? Your dxdiag lists one BSOD, but a dxdiag doesn't provide enough context to be useful beyond the type of error. The Sims 4 crashes listed are access violations, too generic to be of any use on their own. So the other important question is whether a new save crashes too, or the problem is confined to your main save(s). If a new save crashes, please try playing in a clean user folder. Move the 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. (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you've moved but temporarily unread by the game.) Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just start another new save and let me know how it runs. I'd also like to know what happened during the computer repair aside from updating the BIOS.

The recent Blue Screen happened when I attempted to upgrade to Windows 11, if I'm not mistaken. (Edit : I also had one playing Civ 7 multiplayer yesterday, but never with Sims 4) As for the Sims 4, the game closes on its own, but doesn't seem to cause any other problems to my computer. As for the computer repair, it was just to replace the cooler on my processor because the water-cooling system wasn't working anymore : it got replaced with a simple fan which seems to be doing the job quite well. I had already tried new saves (the latest crash yesterday was on a brand new save, as soon as I entered Live mode after character creation). Today, I tried removing my entire Sims 4 folder, starting the game over with a new save file. Once again, I was able to go through CaS, get to live mode, but then the game crashed right after I went to "Save as" to give the savefile a name. I reopened the game, played only a couple minutes before it closed on its own again. Any idea what this could be? I'm adding the newest dxdiag.

Well, another update : I've tried to repair the game and start a new save (not putting anything back into the folder yet), and it still crashed. I then try to uninstall the sims and reinstall everything (directly from the EA app), and that did not help either.

SerraNolwen Please install the newest chipset drivers MSI offers for your motherboard. Double-check that you have an MSI X570 Gaming Plus, which I believe you do from your dxdiag. If so, go here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-X570-GAMING-PLUS/support#driver Select Drivers & Downloads > Driver > System & Chipset Drivers, download the installer, run it, and restart your computer. Next, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the graphics driver, as described here: https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html Restart again and try to play. I would be curious to know whether installing the newest chipset drivers clears up the BSODs even if they're not related to Sims 4.

I've done both updates. It still does not work. The BSODs seem to be related mainly to my attempts at updating my computer to Windows 11. It keeps rolling back to Windows 10.

Sims 4 game keeps crashing randomly

13 Replies

SerraNolwen
Seasoned Ace
6 months ago
Ok, nothing worked, I had to focus on other things for a while, now I have a new graphics card (slight upgrade from the previous), I just did a fresh install of both Windows and Sims 4 (wiped my C disk), and it still crashes within 2 sim days on a brand new save with no mods. What could possibly be going on?
Edit : My partner says the Sims seems to be filling my VRam. If I play the sims until it crashes, if I don't restart my computer, other games also start crashing. Does anyone know what to do about that?
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
6 months ago
SerraNolwen Please provide a new dxdiag, so I can take a look.

It's not unusual for a game to use as much VRAM as is available, in large part so that the player doesn't see any long wait times as new graphics assets are loaded. The point is not that the game requires all that VRAM so much as it's attempting to be efficient. Last I checked, Sims 4 did NOT behave this way, topping out at about 2.5 GB VRAM used on my gaming system, but admittedly it's been a while since I ran any rigorous tests.

I would be curious to know what program is showing Sims 4 using all your GPU's VRAM, and how exactly it's showing that, and whether that program shows the VRAM as being released after a crash. It would be extraordinarily unusual for VRAM to not be released when the program closes, crash or not.
Nuke615
New Ace
4 months ago
It's the 24H2 Windows update that is causing those crashes. I just updated to the 24H2, and all my games now randomly crash, or the computer reboots while playing a game. I read Microsoft is working to track down and fix this bug in their software (it is a common problem). No need to be tweaking your system to try and fix it, it will be a waste of time, as we must wait for a Microsoft patch/update to fix it or rollback to your previous version 23H2.

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Sims 4 game keeps crashing randomly

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