Forum Discussion

l1noo6's avatar
l1noo6
New Novice
3 days ago
Solved

The game does not start

Hello everyone, I've been unable to log into the game for 3 days. I open it from EA or Steam, but the game page window opens and that's it. It says that the game is being prepared and then the EA page opens. What should I do?

crashing
ea app
launching
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    3 days ago

    l1noo6​  Please open both the EA App and Steam first, and make sure both have loaded fully, before trying to open Sims 4.  If that doesn't help, restart your computer and do the same, except this time, open both apps as an admin: right-click each desktop shortcut and select "Run as administrator."

    If that doesn't help either, please try playing in a clean user folder.  Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  If it copies instead of moving, or you get an error when trying to move it, stop here and let me know.

    Otherwise, when you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you've moved but temporarily unread by the game.)  Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just start a new save and see how it runs, that is if you can get that far.

    If you still can't play, please provide a dxdiag.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

6 Replies

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    7 hours ago

    l1noo6​  Your dxdiag shows that the C partition of your drive is very low on free space.  7 GB sometimes isn't enough for Windows to maneuver properly even when it's not running a demanding application.  Since this is a partition rather than a separate drive, you wouldn't lose any performance by moving data to D, so please do that to the extent possible.  For example, you could uninstall any programs currently on C and reinstall them to D, or move your Documents directory to D, as described here:

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/74952-move-location-documents-folder-windows-10-a.html

    Most of the errors in your dxdiag are crashes of a component of Zoom.  I would suggest uninstalling and reinstalling it, which may clear up the issue, but I would also test with the app uninstalled.  If you don't want to do that for some reason, at least make sure Zoom is closed and nothing that belongs to it is running in the Task Manager's background processes list when you want to play.

  • l1noo6's avatar
    l1noo6
    New Novice
    8 hours ago

    I managed to play for 2 days, but today the same problem happened again. The previous tips didn't help, so I came to the last one.

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 days ago

    l1noo6​  GameVersion.txt stores the current game version, and the .exe is the game's executable, as in, the file that runs Sims 4 itself.  So basically the game is trying to update the version in the text file, as it should.  This is normal and nothing to worry about.

    I would suggest setting an exception for TS4_DX9_x64 in Avast, and also exceptions for TS4_x64 and TS4_Launcher_x64, or the entire Bin folder they're all in, so you don't keep running into issues like this.  If you don't know how, please see this guide:

    https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/10/add-exceptions-to-anti-virus-programs.html#avast

  • l1noo6's avatar
    l1noo6
    New Novice
    3 days ago

    Thank you very much, your first advice really worked. But now I get a message that some program is trying to modify or delete another file. Of course, after ignoring it, the game starts...

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    3 days ago

    l1noo6​  Please open both the EA App and Steam first, and make sure both have loaded fully, before trying to open Sims 4.  If that doesn't help, restart your computer and do the same, except this time, open both apps as an admin: right-click each desktop shortcut and select "Run as administrator."

    If that doesn't help either, please try playing in a clean user folder.  Move the entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents > Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  If it copies instead of moving, or you get an error when trying to move it, stop here and let me know.

    Otherwise, when you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  (Your saves and other content will be intact in the folder you've moved but temporarily unread by the game.)  Don't add anything to the new folder yet; just start a new save and see how it runs, that is if you can get that far.

    If you still can't play, please provide a dxdiag.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

  • maddie22287's avatar
    maddie22287
    Seasoned Newcomer
    3 days ago

    hey ive had the same problem but its telling me i need to update instead but ive updated it like 9 times and it still wont let me play

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