@nicvinn and @betharies2 Please disable any antivirus you have installed, at least long enough to test. Merely setting exceptions isn't always enough.
It may also help to disable Origin in-game: hover over your username, select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header, and disable the option at the top.
@betharies2 As far as I know, there aren't any reports of Windows Defender causing exactly this issue, so leave it for now. But please double-check to make sure your computer didn't come pre-installed with some other antivirus, because that could be blocking Sims 4.
Otherwise, you can try the steps I wrote out here, at least those that you haven't tried already:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Sims-4-won-t-launch/m-p/9734633#M195227
And if none of them help, try running both Origin and Sims 4 as an admin: right-click on each shortcut and select "Run as administrator." (I think you're already doing so for Sims 4, but do the same for Origin.)
@puzzlezaddictI've done everything at the link you posted.
I've reinstalled the game 3 times. I've reinstalled Origin twice. I'm turned off the Origin In Game. I've used the Repair option. I've disabled my windows antivirus. I'm running both the game and Origin as Administrator now.
I'm just lost.
I did run the dxdiag and attached it here.
Also... I just realized that ever since I uninstalled and reinstalled the game, the icon is no longer a normal Sims 4 icon. It is just a plain white icon that looks like a blank white sheet of paper. I'm not sure what that means.
@betharies2 Your laptop is pretty far behind on software updates. Dell lists a number of updates, some of which are marked urgent, that you don't have. It's probably easiest to install the Dell Update Application at the top of the list and let it do its thing. But if you don't want to do that, please at the very least install these, in order, with restarts in between:
Once you've either done the manual installs or let the Dell application do it for you, restart one more time and try to play. If you still can't, please run a new dxdiag.
