Sims 4 Won't Launch to Main Menu
Hey All -
As of August 5th, 2024 my Sims 4 game will not reliably launch to the Main Menu. There are some ways to maybe get it to get me to the main menu, though interacting with anything in an actual Sim game results in an immediate crash. To save time in listing them all: I have every DLC/Pack for the Sims 4 product, maybe barring 1 or 2 small content packs for things like furniture.
Error Details:
- Faulting application name: TS4_x64.exe, version: 1.108.349.1020, time stamp: 0x66ac1eaf
Faulting module name: TS4_x64.exe, version: 1.108.349.1020, time stamp: 0x66ac1eaf
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000fe11d1
Faulting process id: 0x0x47A0
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1DAE9ED7A9CD7D5
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe
Report Id: 7f4c36ad-0629-488d-a4bc-455044b2f121
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Error Reproduction Steps:
- Install Sims 4
- Launch Sims 4 (DX9 or DX11)
- Sims 4 loads and creates the Electronic Arts directory within Documents
- SIMS logo with blue background displays
- Music starts
- Music becomes choppy
- Sims crashes
Hardware Specs:
- CPU: Intel i9-13900K
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero WiFi 6E LGA 1700 (Latest Firmware with Intel Baselines applied)
- Graphics Card: GIGABYTE Aorus Waterforce 4090
- Windows: Windows 11 Home, Direct X 12
I feel as if I've tried everything, and I've broken the tests up into two different categories hardware and software:
Hardware Tests:
- RAM MEMTEST performed at a BIOS level, without issue on 12 total passes (3 separate tests);- no issues
- CPU Test through BIOS;- no issues
- GPU, CPU, RAM graphical benchmark through Heaven, Cyberpunk and 3DMark;- no issues
Motherboard configurations with the Intel Optimizations for my z690 updated with the latest BIOS; Tested Intel Extreme and Intel Optimized;- same issue regardless
XMP profile disabled and enabled;- same issue regardless
Software Tests:
- DDU Uninstall and reinstall of Nvidia Graphics Driver through 3 different methods: GeForce, Manual, Device Identity, including previous driver versions and latest;- same issue regardless of driver version or install method
- DxDiag shows no errors, and DX9 and DX11 are reliable in other games that use them
- SFC Scan also returns no issues, same with the DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth or /RestoreHealth commands
- Fresh Windows Install, complete format with just the graphics and motherboard chipset drivers in place;- same issue
- Windows 11 is fully up to date, reverted cumulative update packs to be sure;- same issue
- Disabled Font Edge Scrolling (Font Anti-Aliasing);- same issue
- Playing offline;- same issue
- Launching through Steam or EA App;- same issue
- Compatibility Mode with Windows 8;- same issue
- Administrator prompts (UAC) for each executable;- same issue
- Running repair through EA App, or manually reinstalling about 20 different times throughout each and every test;- same issue
- Moving the default Electronic Arts Directory from Documents onto another drive;- same issue
- OneDrive completely disabled, not managing the documents folder;- same issue
- Removed ASUS Armory Crate as per another thread;- same issue
- ProcDump to try and identify the source of the memory read/write, but without Maxis Symbols, I cannot read them
All tests are performed with no mods and no pre-existing Electronic Arts directory under Documents.
This was running fine since July 31st, 2024 - and without changes taking place, to my knowledge, suddenly ceased working as of August 5th, 2024. I have been unable to launch Sims 4 on this PC since. I have genuinely no idea what else I could try, but every other game that uses Direct X does work fine for me. Including Baldur's Gate 3 which has a higher utilization cost than Sims 4.
My last hail-mary test was to try and reinstall Windows 11 by completely formatting the drive and doing a bare minimum launch test of Sims 4; which also failed in the same way. I'm at an absolute loss, and wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas or if they're experiencing the same thing.
I believe I corrected the issue. It looked to be a bad high capacity surge protector that was limiting the power draw of the PSU. This would cause memory-based issues within Windows, likely triggering an issue with DirectX's attempts to write to the RAM or be read through the CPU. Been running for roughly 3+ hours without an incident with and without updated mods.
- Plugged PC directly into the wall outlet instead of protector
- Reinstalled Windows (since previous Fresh Install also turned out to be unreliable due to the power draw issue)
- Reinstalled Sims 4
- Launched Sims 4
- It was now functional as expected
Just wanted to relay this to anyone else that might have been driving themselves crazy for this same issue. If nothing else, it's at least something to try.
