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Aristianassa's avatar
Aristianassa
New Novice
3 years ago

Sims 4 won't load past main menu

I've downloaded sims 4 on my new pc for the first time and it refuses to work. I own the base game as well as a few game packs. This is a fresh install with NO CC OR MODS whatsoever.

My PC specs are as follows:

CPU: Intel i7-4790K 4GHz

RAM: 32 GB

GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB VRAM

2TB HDD with 1.8TB free

I know the pc is more than capable of running the game. I got the pc to run Hogwarts Legacy which is... demanding haha. My older, less capable pc could run sims no issue. What happens is I start the game, and get to the main menu with no issue. I click 'resume 'or 'load game' and it goes to an infinite spinning plumbob screen. Literally left it for 4 straight hours and it just spun forever. Task manager doesn't show the game as having stopped responding. 

List of fixes I have tried: 

- Starting a new save. Goes through CAS, lets me choose their lot/house, and then gets stuck on loading.

- Repairing the game in the EA app. 

- Downloading just the base game in steam and running it there. Verifying the game files through steam as well. 

- Erasing the entire EA/The Sims 4/ folder and re-loading the game.

- Clearing just the cache folders. 

- Installing only the base game through EA. 

- Running as Admin. 

- Updating Windows.

- Installing GPU/CPU drivers.

- Uninstalling and reinstalling the entire game.

- Turning off antivirus.

- Clicking load game, and trying to enter build mode on another lot or home also gets stuck at loading. 

- All worlds have the same result.

If anyone has any idea what I can do, I just really want to play the new update :/

6 Replies

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @Aristianassa  Please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the Nvidia graphics driver, as described here:

    https://crinrict.com/blog/2019/02/clean-re-install-of-graphics-drivers-with-display-driver-uninstaller-ddu.html

    But instead of using the newest driver, try one from December or January.  I've seen a couple of reports of Sims 4 not running well on the most recent drivers, not sufficient to say there's definitely a problem but enough to make it worth testing a slightly older driver.  You can update again whenever you want, and you can find a number of older drivers here:

    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/

  • Aristianassa's avatar
    Aristianassa
    New Novice
    3 years ago

    Thank you for the reply. I will give this a try and update on how it goes.

  • Aristianassa's avatar
    Aristianassa
    New Novice
    3 years ago
    @puzzlezaddict No luck. I tested a driver from January as well as early December with the same result. Plumbob spins, tips text floats in and out.
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @Aristianassa  Please try a few things together, to be extra thorough.  Disable your antivirus for this test.  Create a new admin Windows account, and make it a local one, as in, don't sign into Microsoft.  Try playing in a clean boot in that account.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

    The one service to leave enabled is the EA BackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run.  Disable the rest, as described.  And when you reboot, go through the Task Manager's background services list shutting down anything that doesn't need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be active.  If you accidentally kill the wrong process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot the computer again.

    Finally, put the EA App in offline mode before launching the game.

    If this helps, you can undo the interventions one at a time until Sims 4 stops working properly again, and then you'll know where the problem is.

    If this doesn't help, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of Sims 4 and the EA App, still with your antivirus disabled, at least until you can test the game once.  Start with Sims 4:

    • Put aside your Sims 4 folder in Documents\Electronic Arts and rename it to something that doesn't include the words "Sims 4."
    • Download Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) from here.
    • Launch Revo, select Sims 4 from the list, and click Uninstall.
    • Once the game is uninstalled, select "Moderate" under "scanning modes," and click Scan.
    • Review the list, in case there's something you want to save; otherwise, click Select All, and then Delete.
    • Close Revo, and restart your computer.

    Uninstall the EA App with Revo as well.  I don't have instructions for that at the moment, but the process should be straightforward.  Restart again when you're done.

    Install the EA App, then create a new folder into which you'll install Sims 4.  The folder should be on the root level of the drive of your choice, for example C:\Games is fine, but not C:\Program Files\Games.

    Keep the other interventions in place the first time you test, and there again, start reverting settings if the game works properly.

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