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NatalyaMae's avatar
NatalyaMae
12 months ago
Solved

Stuck on loading screen

Updated my game today but now the game will not pass the first loading screen. Cannot access the menu at all. It continues to cycle through the tips, the plumbob still spins and the music continuousl...
pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    12 months ago

    @NatalyaMae  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 launch Sims 4 without reinstalling anything, but your saves and other user content won't be available.  That's fine for now and can be addressed later if necessary.

    If this doesn't help, please try playing in a clean boot, still in the new Windows account:

    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.

    If this doesn't help either, please 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 launch Sims 4, specifically in the clean boot.  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's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
12 months ago

@NatalyaMae  Try forcing the game to open in windowed mode.  Go into Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4, open Options.ini, search for fullscreen , and set it to 0 (zero).

If that doesn't help, try updating the Nvidia graphics driver.  You can get the newest one here:

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/230094/en-us/

Run the installer as an admin: right-click the download and select "Run as administrator."  Choose the Custom (not Express) install method, and check the box to perform a clean install.  Restart afterwards and before trying to play.

Please continue to test with no mods or custom content present.

NatalyaMae's avatar
NatalyaMae
12 months ago

Thank you for this.

I've tried all of the things you have suggested and unfortunately, still no luck. 

Really not sure what else to try. It was working absolutely fine before the most recent game update and now cannot get past the first loading screen to access the main menu. ☹️

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    12 months ago

    @NatalyaMae  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 launch Sims 4 without reinstalling anything, but your saves and other user content won't be available.  That's fine for now and can be addressed later if necessary.

    If this doesn't help, please try playing in a clean boot, still in the new Windows account:

    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.

    If this doesn't help either, please 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 launch Sims 4, specifically in the clean boot.  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.

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