Forum Discussion

Daalia1's avatar
4 years ago

Sims 4 lag (2021)

Hello!

So I have been trying to fix this lag for some days now... reading multiple posts about it and nothing seems to help. Here is the story:

The sims open and work perfectly for a couple of minutes and suddenly out of nowhere it gets extremely laggy. 

I have noticed this behavior during events, after taking a picture, or after multiple social interactions specially in apartments and University Households. 

This issue happened a week ago, before that, the game was reasonable playable. 

I have repaired the game multiple times, remove all mods and cc, updated the game and the computer and started a new file with factory reset after removig "The Sims 4" folder from the "Electronic Arts" file. Nothing of this worked, the lag was still there in the new game. 

Attached is the dxdiag in case is needed. 

I am desperate ☹️ Thanks! 

9 Replies

  • roberta591's avatar
    roberta591
    Hero (Retired)
    4 years ago

    @Daalia1   First thing to check is Windows update. It looks like there are some failed downloads for an update. This could be using system resources in the background causing program (games) to have poor performance. Are you playing with the power brick plugged in?

  • Daalia1's avatar
    Daalia1
    4 years ago

    I am.

    Also the online features are disabled, forgot to mention. 

  • @Daalia1  Please start by running a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:

    • Hit Windows key-X
    • Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
    • Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
    • The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
    • After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
    • Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator)”
    • Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
    • Post the message you receive here

    Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.  If there are several pending, you may need to try multiple times, with restarts in between, to get them all installed.  Restart again when you're done.

    Next, clear Origin's cache:

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

    and repair the game: open your Origin game library, right-click on the Sims 4 icon, and select Repair.  While the repair is running, please open the Task Manager and watch CPU use.  Let me know if Origin is maxing out the processor, or coming close; if it is, quit and restart your computer when the repair is finished.

    When you play, please again open the Task Manager and look at Origin's CPU use.  If it's close to 100%, quit the game, close Origin and reopen it, put it in offline mode, then test again.

  • Daalia1's avatar
    Daalia1
    4 years ago

    @puzzlezaddict thanks for your response and sorry on the delay.

    I did everything you suggested. 

    For the Restorehealth nothing happened. 

    For the scannow the message I got is attached. Looks like there was a mistake that was fixed.

    There was a pending Windows update which I installed. After restarting, I cleaned the origin cache and repaired the game. 

    While repairing the game the CPU usage was fine with the base game (around 15% usage), when it started to repair the expansions it became very high, 85% max. 

    I had to restart the computed and load TS4. During the game the usage was low, no more than 30%. 

    The game worked fine with the new saves, so I felt comfortable on using the regular ones I play which were working fine as well. 

    I started adding the mods and cc slowly between saving and quiting the game trying to see if there was an issue and the game worked perfectly for aroung an hour, after that the lag came back, it desapeared when the sims were traveling though. 

    At some point none of the househoulds were loading and the error 102:7580a62e:de5baa8 was on the screen. 

    I removed the CC and mods but it didnt work, I had to launch the previous save file and it is working now, just the lag stills there. 

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    4 years ago

    @Daalia1  As long as Origin's CPU use stays low while you're playing, you don't have to worry about it.  Having said that, 30% is a bit high, and you may be able to improve it by disabling a couple of services.  Click Windows key-R, enter "msconfig" without quotes, click the Services tab, scroll down to the Origin Client Service and Origin Web Helper Service, and uncheck the box next to each one.  Then restart your computer.

    For the in-game lag, I'd like to know how your old saves run with no mods or custom content, or how your new saves run with all your mods and cc.  (Or both, if you have the time to test.)  The issue might be that your old saves are well-progressed, or it might be mods and cc, so testing them separately is crucial, especially since the problems don't show up immediately.

    The error you're seeing is probably related to cc.  It doesn't show up right away because you need to use the item(s) in question first, so if you made any changes between when your households would load and when they wouldn't, that's where to start looking.

  • Daalia1's avatar
    Daalia1
    4 years ago

    Hello! It's me again

    Just out of curiosity before I give up.

    I did all the tests required. 

    In all scenarios the game had lag, with my main play with no mods, with a new save with mods. The only way it worked was with a new save with no mods or CC, not a single file, not even a CC hairstyle or a skin.

    I ended up unistalling the whole thing (TS4 and all expansions) and reinstalled all again. It finally worked perfectly.

    I put back my main save and it allowed me to play perfectly during the weeked, even with the mods and CC. Turns out the error with the code was because I deleted a baby, I just put her back in the household and the problem was fixed. 

    Today, after I loaded the game the problem with the lag came back 😢 it is unplayable again. Not sure if this might be the computer, the graphics card or anything else.. any chance this could be a software problem? 

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    4 years ago

    @Daalia1  There are plenty of other things to try before you give up.  First of all, please let me know what antivirus you use, if any.

    Please also do some hardware monitoring while you play.  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 green button, not the orange one.)  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 for at least 20 minutes.  Click the same button to end logging.  Then 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.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    4 years ago

    @Daalia1  I apologize for the late reply.  I meant to get to your log yesterday but ran out of time.

    Anyway, there's one obvious issue in the log: your processor is overheating to a significant degree.  Here's a graph of the CPU temperatures:

    The CPU package temperature (there are several readings that correspond to slightly different locations) hits 99℃ at exactly the same time as the above peak, the package thermal throttles, and from then on, the processor's clock speed drops down to idle:

    The integrated graphics chips temp peaks at 98℃ and it downclocks in exactly the same way:

    I can't tell you whether the lag is due primarily to the CPU or GPU's low speeds, or both, as in, I don't know which happens to be the limiting factor in this scenario.  But it doesn't really matter—the problem is the internal temperatures, and there's a good chance that getting temps under control will fix the lag issue.

    This is not at all critical, but I do also want to mention that about eight minutes in, your computer is using almost all its physical memory (RAM)  before the load decreases.  The system can certainly use virtual memory to compensate, but it shouldn't have to if all you're running are Sims 4 and Origin.  When the log starts, in fact, almost 4 GB RAM is already in use.  So you may have some background programs that should be closed, or some bloatware that needs to be disabled.  You can save that for later though; the temperatures are the much more obvious problem.