@GouchoMarx When you download a new driver, you download an executable file, ending in .exe. (Sometimes it's a .zip that you need to extract first.) This is the installer for the driver. You double-click the .exe to run it, and the installer is what actually installs the driver. The install location is within protected Windows space, so no, you can't simply extract the data and place it in the correct location.
Installing the driver won't change what you see in Display adapters. That lists the graphics processing unit(s), not the driver(s). Your GPUs are the Intel integrated chip and the Nvidia MX450; the drivers are software that tells the OS how to use the hardware.
I don't know where the Acer Registration software is hiding, but it has to be somewhere if it's throwing that error. If you want to look more closely, try installing Everything, from VoidTools, which is a much better search tool than the one built into Windows. Search for Acer and see what you find; you can list the file path for me if you want.
@puzzlezaddict then it seems I've done the download + install correctly and as per your instructions. I tried redownloading it and taking the GeForce App this time - it also tells me that I have the latest Nvidia Game Ready driver installed.
Since then I've repeated many steps, such as getting the game to regenerate a new "The Sims 4" folder, I played in a newly created save, I tried online and offline, I put the graphics in-game all the way to Low... I still have the same lagging and game-clock issue ☹️
I'm very grateful for you taking the time to help me while being very clear and concise. I'm currently downloading an update to the Intel Iris Xe Graphics driver which - I think - is the driver my laptop uses to display documents/programs etc. Could this have an impact once it's downloaded? What else could I possibly try at this stage?
EDIT: I downloaded the Everything tool and... there were LOADS of files called Acer Registration so I simply got rid of them all. Unfortunately I still have lag and out-of-sync clock in the sims
@GouchoMarx Sims 4 should be using the MX450 at all times, although the data does pass through the Intel iGPU on the way to the screen in most laptops like yours. Still, the Intel driver is probably not the issue, and I would suggest not updating it if you haven't yet. These drivers are often tuned for the specific laptop, so an older driver provided by the manufacturer may be more compatible for general use than the newest generic Intel driver. This doesn't necessarily apply for games, but as said, Sims 4 should use the MX450.
For the lag itself, it's worth finding out whether this is an overheating issue. Please download hwinfo (it's free) from here:
https://www.hwinfo.com/download/
You don't need to install anything; just choose the Portable version, unzip it, and launch it from Downloads or wherever you like. If you do want the full installer, be sure to click the button for hwinfo itself, not for lansweeper.
Restart your computer, open hwinfo, choose Sensors Only, and click the button that's a sheet of paper with a + to start logging. Save the log file to your desktop for easy access. Wait five minutes, then open Sims 4 and play for at least 20 minutes. Don't alt-tab out of the game or run any other programs, aside from the EA App of course, while you're testing. When you're done, click the same button to stop the logging.
Please upload the log to the third-party filesharing site of your choice (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it for me. Either leave it in .csv format or, if you're going to use OneDrive, create a .zip file, and don't open the log before uploading it, or else my log reader might not be able to interpret it.
@puzzlezaddict I'm sorry for the long gap in response - I followed your instructions on trying to get a temperature reading of my laptop and it was hitting a high of 97°C while the Sims was running...! It was only then that I realised that I had actually not heard the fan spinning for weeks! While I was figuring out how to turn the data into a link for you, I just took my laptop to a computer shop and asked them to investigate it for overheating. They confirmed that the fan was very broken but the laptop itself seemed O.K. (no fried components etc). So I'm waiting to get the new fan fitted on Thursday this week (it took over a week for the fan to arrive... ¬_¬) Let's see if this makes a difference! If I still have game lag, I will run a new test with the new fan installed and respond (hopefully) with a link. Thanks again for helping out!
Hello, I'm facing the same issue you are. However, my laptop works fine, the drivers are updated, there is no overheating either. My sims take too long to respond when I cancel any action and like you mentioned, the clock is completely out of sync. I tried removing my mods and yet I'm facing the issue. I am playing on Dell laptop, I have also tried repairing and updating the game. If I uninstall and reinstall the game, can I replace the save files, will it still work? Please help me with the lags and the bugs.
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