@PeachyyDelight If you happen to have a newer (last two years) HP gaming laptop, Victus or Omen, please try one of the suggestions here:
https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-technical-issues-pc-en/game-won%E2%80%99t-launch/4992631/replies/5000160
https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-technical-issues-pc-en/managed-to-fix-my-problem-where-it-crashes-during-launch-after-update/4998584
Or put the laptop in night mode before launching the game.
If that doesn't help or isn't relevant, please try playing in a clean user folder. Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and 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 moved but temporarily not read by the game.) Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just let me know whether you can get far enough to start a new save and play in live mode for a bit.
If that doesn't help either, please run a dxdiag and attach it to your reply.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
I did end up trying a solution in the second link and it worked! thank you so much for your help!
Community Manager
