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d5de23deb497ea0's avatar
9 months ago

Sims4 crashing without error code PLEASE HELP

Hi! I have been playing Sims 4 for years on a Macbook air, without any problems. This weekend I installed them on my desktop PC and it worked for a few hours, then out of nowhere the game crashed, the game window just disappeared. This have continued to happen since Sunday. I can play for about 15-60 minutes before it crashes. Today it is even worse, the game either crashes like before, or freezes to the point where I have to force it to close with task manager. It can happen either during build/buy or live mode. I don't get any error codes. 

So far I:

  • Reinstalled the Sims 4 
  • Took out all mods and CC
  • Took out all save files I had transferred from my Macbook
  • Updated my graphics card using custom and clean install 
  • Updated Windows
  • Switched from fullscreen to windowed fullscreen in game options
  • Repaired the game
  • Cleared out EA app cashe

My computer meets the recommended requirements for Sims 4. DxDiag is attached. 

Please someone, how can I fix this?

6 Replies

  • @d5de23deb497ea0d  Your dxdiag lists a few generic Windows update errors, so please run a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:

    • Hit Windows key-X
    • Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
    • Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes, and enter
    • The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
    • After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
    • Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator)”
    • Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes, and enter
    • Post the message you receive here

    Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the box to check for updates.  If any install, restart again afterwards.

    When you updated your graphics driver, did you specifically use Display Driver Uninstaller?  If not, please do so now.  Your dxdiag also lists some serious crashes of the graphics driver, but the errors aren't timestamped, so I don't know whether they happened before or after you updated the driver, or both.  Here's how to use DDU:

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

    If you used any other method, even one that should be reliable, please use DDU anyway just to be as thorough as possible.

    If this doesn't or didn't help, please try again to play Sims 4, let it freeze or crash, and look for new errors in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll see a chart of errors and updates with a column for each day.  Today is on the right.

    Look for an error that happened at exactly the time of your most recent attempt to play Sims 4.  If you find one, double-click it to see more details, then copy that info and paste it into a reply here.  If you don't see a new error, check back in an hour or so—the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away.

  • @puzzlezaddict Thank you so much for your response!!! I have done all that you suggested, (I used Geforce Experience, when I did the last clean install). Unfortunately it still froze after a few minutes. I will attach print screens from PowerShell and the last error.

    Extra info:

    • I tried playing The sims Medieval last night to se if other games worked, it did for a much longer period of time, but it was also shut down after a few hours. 
    • I got this computer used last week, but the previous owner used it for games. I am in contact with him if any other information is needed.
    • I looked at all the errors on the problem history and everyone from 19/10 to today happened in connection with playing Sims 4, the first one from before I got the computer is "Windows was not properly shot down".

    The warning symbol from  19/10 details: 

    Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80073D02: 9NMPJ99VJBWV-Microsoft.YourPhone.

    TS4 stopped responding (Todays error) details: 

    The program TS4_x64.exe version 1.110.265.1030 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
    Process ID: a7c
    Start Time: 01db26341a971431
    Termination Time: 4294967295
    Application Path: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe
    Report Id: 22d1f4ff-e5a8-4910-ba00-6c7230c0d4f9
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:
    Hang type: Top level window is idle

    I am so grateful that you take the time to help me!

  • Thank you so much for your response!! I posted a reply earlier tonight but now I cant find it, so if you see this twice just ignore one of the replies.

    I tried all off your suggestions (I used GeForce experience when I did it the last time) so I did it again today using DDU. Unfortunately the game froze after a while anyway. I will attach the PowerShell print screens and a print from the reliability and problem history. 

    Extra info: 

    • I tried playing The Sims medieval last night to se if other games worked, and it did for a few hours but then it crashed. 
    • I looked at the reliability and problem history and all errors from 19/10 to today are in connection with playing The Sims 4 (and Medieval yesterday).
    • The first error from 14/10 was "Windows was not properly shut down", but this was before I got the computer. I am in contact with the previous owner if any other details is needed. 

    Last error (today) details: 

    The program TS4_x64.exe version 1.110.265.1030 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
    Process ID: a7c
    Start Time: 01db26341a971431
    Termination Time: 4294967295
    Application Path: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\TS4_x64.exe
    Report Id: 22d1f4ff-e5a8-4910-ba00-6c7230c0d4f9
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:
    Hang type: Top level window is idle

    Warning from 19/10 details: 

    Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80073D02: 9NMPJ99VJBWV-Microsoft.YourPhone.

    I hope I didn't miss anything rewriting this post but I think that is all. I am so grateful for your help, thank you so much! 

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    9 months ago

    @d5de23deb497ea0d  Now that your posts have been restored, hopefully we can have a proper conversation.  If a post of yours disappears in the future, it'll probably be fastest to just click Report on the first post of the thread and say you think the spam filter ate a reply.  That way, you don't have to wait for me to show up again; instead, whatever EA community manager is around can take a look right away.

    For the issue itself, I would like to know what those hardware errors are that are showing in the Reliability Monitor.  Please also let me know whether they happened while you were playing Sims 4 or some other game, or anything demanding at all.  It looks like the second one might have happened during Sims 4, at least.

    Please also download the 3DMark Demo from Steam, and run Time Spy several times in a row.  Let me know whether it crashes (and the corresponding RM error, if you get one at that same time), and if not, what your scores are from the last run.  You don't need to sign up to view the 3DMark report.

  • Thank you for your response! Over the weekend, since my posts disappeared I continued to look for solutions in the meantime. After your previous advice, I knew there was a hardware error. My computer, did not have an option for hardware search under "Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter", but I found a solution. I will post my steps, so you know what I have done so far, but also if anyone else is or will have the same issues as me. 

    The normal way to troubleshoot hardware issues on windows 10 and 11: Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Additional troubleshooters. Then, you select the hardware or device you want to troubleshoot.

    If anyone else has the same issue as me, and don't have the option to troubleshoot "hardware and device" you can still do this by typing CMD in the search bar, open CMD,  paste: "msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic" without quotation marks and ENTER. Thanks to Stella on MiniTool for the help.

    After running the troubleshooter I got the message:  “SM Bus Controller doesn’t have a driver”. Meaning the computer could not find any chipset drivers, for what I learned. This could not be fixed using the troubleshooter, but according to device manager I had no chipset drivers at all. After finding the right chipset drivers for my motherboard and installing those I could actually play TS4 for hours. Windows crashed again yesterday with a new hardware error code, this I think was because of a windows update because it was fixed using troubleshooting and rebooting. I can see a few of the crashes happening within an hour from different windows updates.

    Additional to your questions: It only crashes/crashed while playing, all error codes and crashes except the one saying that it was not properly shut down is while playing.  

    Since the crashing have stopped I believe and hope we have fixed the issue. However I will download 3DMark Demo if I keep getting different errors, and post again.

    Today the only issue is that I cant place furniture in build buy, they disappear before I even have the chance to place them. I saw there was other threads with answers for this issue though, I hope this is unrelated and that I just have the worst luck playing this game. 

    I am so very grateful for your help! I would never have figured any of this out by myself. 

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    9 months ago

    @d5de23deb497ea0d  Thanks for the update, and I'm glad you figured it out in the interim.  It's odd that you didn't have any chipset drivers installed because your dxdiag does list some of them, at least; they're under System Devices.  (Some of these drivers are not chipset-related, but most are.)  If you're worried about this in the future, you can check the support page for your motherboard, which should always list suitable drivers, although Windows may install newer generic ones at times.  I believe this is your board:

    https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/h97m-g43/support

    You can also check the Device Manager for specific components or features that might be missing a driver, and have Windows search from there.  Your way is more efficient when everything is a problem; this would be more for when a specific device isn't working properly.

    Let me know if you need any more help, aside from the issue with building, which is unfortunately somewhat common these days and, from what I've seen, mostly a game bug/save glitch rather than a system issue.