I am currently experiencing an insane amount of simulation lag which seemingly began overnight. I logged in to play the Sunday BEFORE the For Rent patch on December 2023 and there is noticeable lag when asking sims to do anything. If I travel to a different place with a sim or go into CAS, the time will revert back to some point in the past - sometimes almost a whole sims day! This means I'm getting notifications to go to school at 03:23 and sims returning from university at 17:21 when they originally went to attend a 10:00 - 11:30am lecture! I notice the camera stuttering as well if I pan across the lot. CAS seems to run OK but I see occasional stutters in the sims' animations while you're in CAS. I'm convinced that it's not a problem with my laptop as the game has run smoothly for years and wouldn't let me play without lag if I wasn't meeting the minimum requirements to play.I have tried probably 20+ suggestions in the last week and nothing has helped - here's what I can remember doing:I have checked that my laptop meets the minimum requirements and surpasses them in all categoriesMy drivers are all up-to-date. I have searched for general Windows updates to all systems and everything is updated, including optional updates affecting driversI have removed the few mods I use and played withoutI have opened a completely new save without mods installedI moved "The Sims 4" folder to my desktop and renamed it. I rebooted the game to create a fresh "The Sims 4" folder and tried playing a new game before adding my saves/tray back in and after adding my data backAlthough I have enough RAM space, I cleared up even more and deleted a lot of temporary filesI have tried repairing the game probably over 100 times in the last weekI delete the caches files regularly anywayI tried playing offline by using the EA App offline function, then physically disconnecting from my Wi-Fi and even killed the EA app via Task Manager before loading a householdI changed all in-game graphics to 'Low' and unticked uncompressed textures/post processing effects and ticked laptop mode and tried playingI tried playing the game in windowed mode with the lowest resolutionI have disabled a lot of background apps I downloaded various "simulation lag" mods and none helpedI ran a virus scan with my antivirus software and nothing was detectedI uninstalled and re-installed the game 2x I uninstalled and re-installed the EA AppI cleared the EA App's cache filesThere are probably others that I just can't remember at this point! I'm on generation 42 and a 4-year save files and I've spent a week trying to figure this out but I'm just not getting to the bottom of this! I'm totally baffled how it can run perfectly one day to barely functioning upon the next boot-up... I really hope there's somebody out there with a solution!

@GouchoMarx Please test a new save, with no mods or custom content, for comparison's sake. I'm not telling you to delete your current save, only saying that this test will help narrow down the source of the issue. Please also disable the Online Social Features setting, in Options > Game Options > Other, which has been causing lag for people who play with the EA App in offline mode. I don't think it's causing all the problems you've described, but it's better to eliminate additional sources of lag.

Hello, thank you firstly for your willingness to help! I have tested a new save a few times - always without mods - and the lag is present straight away. I tested the save before adding my save data back and tried again after adding my save data back in - no change. Even when I turn the graphics all the way down to the lowest and untick the uncompressed textures & post processing effects boxes, the game still lags on all speeds. I've removed "The Sims 4" folder as well as let the game populate a new one. Again I tried playing before adding any of my data back in as well as after adding my data back in - no change.The online features is something I hadn't tried yet - I just tried playing with this box unchecked both in online and offline mode and the lag still persists. I played for around 4 sim hours with lots of animation and camera stuttering - went into CAS and back out - the clock went back in time by almost 2 hours. What would cause something like this to happen literally overnight? I didn't make any changes or do any updates the day before this started. The lag is present no matter what I try. I've read so many threads here about similar issues in the last few years and a DxDiag report is usually asked for - so I've attached mine if this would be useful. Thanks again for your support!

@GouchoMarx There are plenty of reasons lag can show up seemingly overnight, but it's usually that something updates (Windows, a graphics driver, the game, a different app you use all the time) and is no longer compatible with whatever else it needs to work with. It's also possible for some necessary resource to become corrupted, or for the system drive to effectively run out of storage, or a bunch of other things that aren't worth listing. In your case, your dxdiag shows that the Nvidia graphics driver is from 2020, and it might have been reasonably compatible with Sims 4 before the patch but not now. You can simply install the newest available driver: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/216663/en-us/ Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator." Choose the Custom (not Express) option, and check the box to perform a clean install. Restart afterwards and before trying to play. Your dxdiag also shows that some Acer registration service is crashing pretty much all the time. So it's worth shutting that down, which might be as simple as disabling it in the Task Manager's Startup tab. If not, you can also disable the associated service in msconfig; let me know if you need help with this. And the dxdiag would have been my next request, so thanks for providing it.

@puzzlezaddict I downloaded the driver in the way you outlined and it's saved to my C: drive (the only drive on my laptop). When I restarted and tried to launch the Sims 4, the issue is the same but it looks like the game is still using the 2020 driver. In Device Manager under "display adapters" I only see the same 2x graphics driver listed (Intel and Nvidia MX450) which is the one you said is from 2020. I tried adding it to display adapters manually by using the path the installation saved the download files to and it says drivers were successfully added, but it still only shows Intel and MX450. When I had the game running, I looked at Processes on Task Manager and it had data for MX450 saying it was in use, but it doesn't list the new driver I downloaded anywhere. Is it as simple as downloading the driver data, saving it to your computer and that's it? Or do I have to connect it/set it up/configure it somehow once I have downloaded it? Or should downloading the data to my C: drive be sufficient, i.e. no further steps? How can I make the sims use it instead of the 2020 driver? Should I uninstall MX450?I have looked all through my laptop for any program called Acer Registration Service and there's nothing on my laptop like this. I looked at what Acer apps were listed in the Task Manager's Startup Apps tab and there's nothing by this name or anything Acer-related. I also checked the Services tab and there's no service called this either. Anything Acer-related in this tab is already set to "Stopped". Any ideas on how to activate the driver data I just downloaded? P.S. I've included some screenshots of the points mentioned above.

@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.

Forum Discussion

GouchoMarx

2 years ago

Simulation lag and game clock out of sync - December 2023

I am currently experiencing an insane amount of simulation lag which seemingly began overnight. I logged in to play the Sunday BEFORE the For Rent patch on December 2023 and there is noticeable lag when asking sims to do anything. If I travel to a different place with a sim or go into CAS, the time will revert back to some point in the past - sometimes almost a whole sims day! This means I'm getting notifications to go to school at 03:23 and sims returning from university at 17:21 when they originally went to attend a 10:00 - 11:30am lecture! I notice the camera stuttering as well if I pan across the lot. CAS seems to run OK but I see occasional stutters in the sims' animations while you're in CAS. I'm convinced that it's not a problem with my laptop as the game has run smoothly for years and wouldn't let me play without lag if I wasn't meeting the minimum requirements to play.

I have tried probably 20+ suggestions in the last week and nothing has helped - here's what I can remember doing:

I have checked that my laptop meets the minimum requirements and surpasses them in all categories
My drivers are all up-to-date. I have searched for general Windows updates to all systems and everything is updated, including optional updates affecting drivers
I have removed the few mods I use and played without
I have opened a completely new save without mods installed
I moved "The Sims 4" folder to my desktop and renamed it. I rebooted the game to create a fresh "The Sims 4" folder and tried playing a new game before adding my saves/tray back in and after adding my data back
Although I have enough RAM space, I cleared up even more and deleted a lot of temporary files
I have tried repairing the game probably over 100 times in the last week
I delete the caches files regularly anyway
I tried playing offline by using the EA App offline function, then physically disconnecting from my Wi-Fi and even killed the EA app via Task Manager before loading a household
I changed all in-game graphics to 'Low' and unticked uncompressed textures/post processing effects and ticked laptop mode and tried playing
I tried playing the game in windowed mode with the lowest resolution
I have disabled a lot of background apps
I downloaded various "simulation lag" mods and none helped
I ran a virus scan with my antivirus software and nothing was detected
I uninstalled and re-installed the game 2x
I uninstalled and re-installed the EA App
I cleared the EA App's cache files

There are probably others that I just can't remember at this point! I'm on generation 42 and a 4-year save files and I've spent a week trying to figure this out but I'm just not getting to the bottom of this! I'm totally baffled how it can run perfectly one day to barely functioning upon the next boot-up... I really hope there's somebody out there with a solution!

14 Replies

AngenaChase
2 years ago
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.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@GouchoMarx A nonworking fan would definitely explain all the lag, although of course you won't know for sure until you test with the new fan. Let me know how it goes.

@AngenaChase Please test with no mods or custom content. (You don't need to save your progress.) If the game is still not running properly, create your own thread describing the issues you see. Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to the post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
GouchoMarx
2 years ago
@puzzlezaddict I have spent a few hours today trying to get the game to play without lag - even with the new fan - and nothing has changed ☹️ I generated a new "The Sims 4" folder, created a new save file, made a new sim - but the lag and clock issues persist... I obviously tested without any mods - it's still lagging without mods and on fresh saves. The new fan is working and spinning freely like it should. What haven't we tried by this stage? I really think it's a fault in the game.
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
2 years ago
@GouchoMarx Double-check your laptop's internal temperatures just to make sure everything's fine. It's great that the fan is working, but nothing substitutes for testing.

Please also disable Online Social Features, under Options > Game Options > Other. While this setting shouldn't introduce any lag, it can cause a significant drop in fps when the EA App can't connect or is offline, which can confuse or seem to exacerbate the issue.

If that's not the problem, please try playing in a clean boot:

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 EABackgroundService, which the EA App needs in order to run. Disable the rest as described.

When you reboot your computer, go through the Task Manager's background processes list shutting down any service that doesn't absolutely need to be running, for example anything from MSI Afterburner to RGB software might still be enabled. If you accidentally kill a critical process and it doesn't restart on its own, just reboot your computer again.

Don't open anything other than Sims 4 and the EA App while testing, not even a browser window.

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