Steam & EA App, game won't launch?

@Pepperbutt  Just to be clear, if you install the Sims 4 base game from Steam, it works; but if you then install Horse Ranch (or any other pack), the game won't launch?  If that's not the case, please let me know.

Please also let me know whether the game starts in a new admin Windows account, with some or all packs installed.  Make it local, as in, don't tie it to your Microsoft account, and don't import any user files or other data.

Husband said when he installed just the base game, it came from EA. He's worked on it, too. I don't know where to tell what came from where.

New account did nothing.

@Pepperbutt  Please do a clean uninstall of Sims 4 with Revo Uninstaller, as described here:

• 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 install the Sims 4 base game from Steam, just the base game, and let me know whether it launches.  Run both Steam and the EA App as an admin: right-click each desktop shortcut and select "Run as administrator" before trying to launch the game.  If that doesn't help, let me know what you see when you try to play.  Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Again, there's nothing to see. No error codes, no nothing. It just.. doesn't happen. It's like casting a magic spell where you expect all this fanfare and it.. doesn't happen. It goes from "loading" on Steam to just.. "Play", because nothing happened. :/ I don't know how to explain it better than that.

DxD attached. Thank you for this. I do appreciate it.

Just bounces from "play", click on it and it goes to "loading", stays that way for maybe 5 seconds, then to "play" again.

@Pepperbutt  Your dxdiag shows a number of crashes of the Nvidia graphics driver.  It would be odd for these to prevent Sims 4 from loading when installed through Steam but not through the EA App.  However, the errors are real and should be addressed.  So please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the Nvidia driver, as described here:

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

Use the newest driver provided by MSI rather than the newest one from Nvidia.  You can always update later if you want, but with dual-graphics laptops, the manufacturer-provided driver is often tweaked to work with the specific models and may work better than the generic Nvidia driver.  You can find the MSI driver here, after selecting Graphics from the dropdown menu:

https://www.msi.com/Laptop/Katana-GF76-11UX/support?sub_product=Katana-GF76-11UD#driver

Restart your computer after installing the driver and before trying to play.

If that doesn't help, please try playing in a new admin Windows account.  Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account.  You'll be able to (try to) launch Sims 4 without reinstalling anything.

I'm not confident the new account will help though—this sounds very much like an issue with the Steam entitlement.  But a new account isn't going to break anything.  If it doesn't help, the next question I have is whether you've ever subscribed to EA Play through either the EA App or Steam.  A blocked EA Play-related entitlement from Steam could explain the problem.  Let me know either way.

@Pepperbutt  Just to be clear, it may not be sufficient to simply update the Nvidia driver.  The clean uninstall and reinstall is the only guarantee that a driver-related issue has been addressed.  I'm not sure from your post whether you know and already did that or just tried to update, but if the latter, please do a clean uninstall to be thorough.

If that and the new Windows account didn't help, the entitlement issue might be fixable by removing Sims 4 from your Steam account and adding it back, or by unlinking and relinking your Steam and EA accounts.  I know it's possible to remove the base game from Steam when someone owns only the base game, but I haven't heard if it works when the player owns packs as well.  And unlinking and relinking can have consequences for other games (possibly lost progress), plus once it's done the first time, there's a six month lockout before it can be done again.  So I thought it would be better to try everything else first.

If you do want to unlink and relink, remove Sims 4 from Steam and add it back while the accounts are unlinked, and clear the EA App's cache again as well.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

If none of this helps, let me know, and I'll ask someone from EA to look over this thread.