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ssourwastaken's avatar
3 months ago
Solved

Sims 4 screen flashing white/black upon launch, crashing

This has been my last resort. I've been working on a solution for this for the past couple hours but nothing has worked. After installing this new update through Steam, every time I open the game it'll launch EA, prepare to run the game and then will start flashing from white to black a couple times, until it opens a blank windowed tab that can only be closed through task manager. The opening animation doesn't play, it just opens a white tabbed screen, then a full screen black and flashes between the two until it hits the windowed 'Sims 4' tab that can't be closed.

So far I have:

  • Removed all mods from its folder
  • Updated my drivers
  • Repaired my EA App
  • Verified File Integrity on Steam
  • Uninstalled and Reinstalled completely
    • To which after, when trying to run, would give an error code saying something along the lines of 'an app required for startup is missing,' (sorry I didn't catch the actual error code) and after verifying files hasn't popped up, but now is back to the flashing white then black
  • Tried to install Origin, but doesn't work
  • Tried the whole 'config.txt' file thing with switching all the fullscreen values to 0

At this point, I have no clue what to do. I've ran the dxdiag and I'll attach it with this. 

6 Replies

  • @ssourwastaken  Thanks for the dxdiag, which shows you have a laptop that's frequently running into this issue.  These workarounds have helped most players with your model or similar:

    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

    I'm also curious whether this happens with the laptop in night mode.  One user mentioned that the problem only exists during the day, so I asked whether expanding the night mode hours made a difference, but they haven't gotten back to me.  If you're interested in testing, I'd love to hear some results.  Night mode can be set for any hours you want.

  • ssourwastaken's avatar
    ssourwastaken
    3 months ago

    I did test out the night mode theory, and yes it does fix the gameplay! I turned it on, opened it fine, and then turned it off, back to the crashing! But thank you so much for the rest of the links, I'll have to test them out in a second. 🙂

  • ssourwastaken's avatar
    ssourwastaken
    3 months ago
    @puzzlezaddict The second fix ended up working 🙂 thank you! Even though night mode fixed it, I don't want to have to turn it on every time I play LOL!
  • Please help it's been 5 whole days and nights of trying g every trick in the book from .moving the folders, uninstaling windows updates, graphics, deleting files, ETC. please..I need some help with this I love this game a lot and I don't wanna end up paying EA for it when I got from steam. I am currently factory resetting my computer and so far that has got me far. But then when I click the game main menu it freezes and flashes black and white.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    2 hours ago

    RGM12345  If you've brought over any content from your previous Sims 4 install (saves, mods, whatever), 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 a new save and see how it runs.

    If that doesn't help, please provide a dxdiag.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

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