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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
7 years ago
SolvedApproved

Sims 4 will not run, various errors

I am unable to get Sims 4 running on my Windows 10 PC. I will try to provide as much detail as possible.

I have attempted the following:

Uninstalled Origin and Sims 4, used CCleaner to clean registry, reinstalled everything

Reinstalled Sims 4 without extra content (Seasons and Pets)

Found some websites regarding the errors I am receiving and attempted those fixes

I reinstalled the game again this evening. When I started the game, it got to the loading screen, crashed and I got the error "Sims 4 is out of memory". When I attempt to start the game again, I get "Unable to start game: Initialization error at startup". I followed the steps multiple times at the following site with no success: https://sims4.crinrict.com/en/2014/09/unable-to-start-initialization-error-at-startup/

The PC is more than powerful enough for the game. Sims 4 used to work perfectly fine before installing Pets and Seasons. After those were installed, the save file corrupted. Now the game won't boot at all.

The worst part is that I don't even play this game! My girlfriend is obsessed with it and she's really bummed out that it isn't working. It would make me very happy to be able to fix it, but I am running out of ideas.

Thank you for any help!

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    7 years ago
    Approved

    I found the solution, finally. I'll post it here in case anyone has a similar issue.

    Windows Defender has an option called "Ransomware protection". With that enabled, programs cannot access User folders, so the game was unable to access the documents folder. In theory, the Ransomware protection is supposed to allow legitimate programs through, but Origin and The Sims is clearly not marked as such.

    Everything works now!

2 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    7 years ago
    Approved

    I found the solution, finally. I'll post it here in case anyone has a similar issue.

    Windows Defender has an option called "Ransomware protection". With that enabled, programs cannot access User folders, so the game was unable to access the documents folder. In theory, the Ransomware protection is supposed to allow legitimate programs through, but Origin and The Sims is clearly not marked as such.

    Everything works now!