Sims 4 Lagging, taking forever to load, not responding
Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.54.120.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Seasons, Get to Work, Get Famous, Get Together, Cats and Dogs, City Living, Parenthood, Outdoor Retreat, Toddler Stuff, Perfect Patio Stuff
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? I'm not sure if you can. I think it's just happening with my computer.
What happens when the bug occurs? It takes forever to load, and everything's in slow-mo. Sometimes the game just stops responding. Sims don't do anything I tell them to do, and when I click on things, it takes forever for the game to act like I did something.
What do you expect to see? I expect to be able to play the game again.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? No
When I click on the icon to open the game, it takes a while for anything to happen. Then it takes several minutes of loading just to get to the main menu. Now even the title is lagging (the opening sequence with the green gem and the Sims 4 letters). It takes a long time to load my saved games after clicking on "Load Game," and it takes a long time to load my saved game once I've selected one. And if I click on a household to play, it takes even longer. We're talking ten or more minutes just to get to some gameplay. Then playing is impossible. I click on an item or another sim, and the option bubbles don't pop up for a while. I try to switch to a different sim in the household to control, it doesn't switch over to them for a long time. I give my sims a few tasks - clean up dish, use toilet, go to sleep - and they just stay sitting at the kitchen table. I give another sim some friendly and flirty interactions to do with the visiting sim, and they just stand there in front of each other not doing anything. Time passes in the game, and they're not frozen (they have those subtle movements all video game characters do so you know they're not statues), but they're all stuck. Their tasks don't drop down and they never start doing them. Then it takes forever to exit the game, too, until it says Sims 4 is not responding.
This started randomly, not after a download or anything. I had two sims hanging out and things just got glitchy and laggy for a second, but then it got a tiny bit better (though still laggy), so I kept playing. But then it got bad. With each attempt I've made to fix the issue, it's gotten worse. I've tried switching to 32 bit, emptying the trash on my desktop, restarting my computer, completely shutting down my computer and turning it back on, repairing the game, going offline, etc.
And no, I don't use mods and I don't have any custom content.