Hello,
My sims 4 game keeps freezing. I have no mods, and I just bought the game two days ago. I've updated and repaired the game but it didn't work. I also tried running it as an administrator.
I'm not sure why it's freezing. It doesn't allow me to exit the game, so I keep having to start it over. And I and end losing progress on my builds. Please help.
I've attached my DxDiag. Thanks!
@Thornheart1992 The issue is likely the driver for your graphics chip. Since your laptop is so new, it's best to keep using the driver that HP supplies, but you likely already have the newest driver. So you'll need to do a clean uninstall and reinstall. Go here:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/laptops
Enter your laptop's serial number, choose your operating system (Windows 10 build 1903) if necessary, and download the newest graphics driver for your laptop, except don't download a driver for Windows 10 build 2004 if you see one. (Anything for build 1903 or 1909 should be fine, but 2004 is different enough that it might possibly be an issue.) If you're not sure what you're looking at, feel free to link me the driver download page. It doesn't have any info about your own computer, just your specific model.
Otherwise, download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:
https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3067
Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe. Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract. If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window. Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode. Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog. Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:
Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again. For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting). Once you login, you'll see this:
In the blue box, choose GPU, then Intel if it's not already showing. Then click Clean and Restart (red box).
Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the driver install as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."
Reboot again, go back online, and see whether the game works normally. If not, let me know.
I updated my graphics driver to the most recent driver. But when I tried to DDU, in order to use it I have to create an account. And that comes with a fee. I don't want to spend more money as I already spent so much on the games already.
So I stopped all the apps from running in my background, and then ran as an administrator after the update. However, it froze seconds later. Is there any other way to fix this that doesn't require me to spend more money on the game?
Thanks for your help!
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@Thornheart1992 The issue is likely the driver for your graphics chip. Since your laptop is so new, it's best to keep using the driver that HP supplies, but you likely already have the newest driver. So you'll need to do a clean uninstall and reinstall. Go here:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/laptops
Enter your laptop's serial number, choose your operating system (Windows 10 build 1903) if necessary, and download the newest graphics driver for your laptop, except don't download a driver for Windows 10 build 2004 if you see one. (Anything for build 1903 or 1909 should be fine, but 2004 is different enough that it might possibly be an issue.) If you're not sure what you're looking at, feel free to link me the driver download page. It doesn't have any info about your own computer, just your specific model.
Otherwise, download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:
https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3067
Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe. Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract. If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window. Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode. Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog. Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:
Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again. For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting). Once you login, you'll see this:
In the blue box, choose GPU, then Intel if it's not already showing. Then click Clean and Restart (red box).
Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the driver install as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."
Reboot again, go back online, and see whether the game works normally. If not, let me know.
@puzzlezaddict wrote:@Thornheart1992 The issue is likely the driver for your graphics chip. Since your laptop is so new, it's best to keep using the driver that HP supplies, but you likely already have the newest driver. So you'll need to do a clean uninstall and reinstall. Go here:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/laptops
Enter your laptop's serial number, choose your operating system (Windows 10 build 1903) if necessary, and download the newest graphics driver for your laptop, except don't download a driver for Windows 10 build 2004 if you see one. (Anything for build 1903 or 1909 should be fine, but 2004 is different enough that it might possibly be an issue.) If you're not sure what you're looking at, feel free to link me the driver download page. It doesn't have any info about your own computer, just your specific model.
Otherwise, download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:
https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3067
Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe. Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract. If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window. Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode. Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog. Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:
Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again. For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting). Once you login, you'll see this:
In the blue box, choose GPU, then Intel if it's not already showing. Then click Clean and Restart (red box).
Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the driver install as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."
Reboot again, go back online, and see whether the game works normally. If not, let me know.
@Thornheart1992 DDU is free. When I went to the same page I linked and clicked "Official Download Here" towards the bottom of the page, I could download without paying or doing anything else. (And I don't have any kind of membership.)
There are definitely video driver errors in your dxdiag—the error code is clear—so the driver itself has to be eliminated as the source of the issue before doing anything else. DDU is the best way to do that.
@puzzlezaddict I see what you mean. I downloaded the DDU and did the reboot. When I tried to launch the game, it opened as if it was on a web page box. It made several strange beeping sounds and the was frozen for a bit. Then it crashed. I got a message from Origin stating that "Origin has encountered a serious problem and must close.
Then my computer gave me a message that a restart is required to finish setting up "Intel Graphics Command Center" back on my device.
And when I restarted my laptop, a window popped up that I attached.
@puzzlezaddict I tried running the game again. First there's no sound. After a few minutes of waiting a video screen popped up to show the trailer for an expansion pack. That's when the sound came on. But it sounds different than it did before. And the game is also open on a window screen.
Is there a way to fix this? I attached an photo of what it looks like. I'm not sure why this is happening.
@Thornheart1992 Try disabling Origin in-game: hover over your username, select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header, and disable the option at the top.
For the game in a window, you can switch among fullscreen, windowed fullscreen, and windowed modes in the graphics settings in game options. If the setting doesn't stick, that's a different issue. And if you keep having issues with the game, please run another dxdiag so I can see the new driver and look for new errors.
@puzzlezaddict I disabled Origin in-game a while back because I read somewhere it could help with the freezing.
I changed the window settings. It worked. Thank you! I tried going online, but I keep getting the message "unable to go online. One or more of the Sims online services is currently offline. Try again later." I'm assuming it has to do with the servers as a whole and not specifically just my game.
I'll play some time today and let you know if it's still freezing and if I'm still unable to go online. If so, I'll send another DxDiag. Thanks again!
@Thornheart1992 Yes, there's scheduled maintenance going on right now. Check back in a few hours, and if you still can't go online, clear Origin's cache:
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/
@puzzlezaddictRight. That's what I thought. Thanks!
So, I played for about 45 minutes and it was fine. But then the game froze and I had to shut off my computer. ☹️ I attached the DxDiag report.
@Thornheart1992 Try playing a new save in a clean user data folder, just in case there's something wrong with your current save or folder. Move your 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. Don't add anything to it yet; just see how a new save plays. (You can combine it with your other content later, if you want.)
And please keep looking for more entries in the Reliability Monitor, since you'll know whether the errors are new.
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