TS4 is not launching - Help

Question

I am looking to see if anyone else is having this problem. Whenever I try to launch The Sims 4 through Steam or EA it opens the EA app, the EA preparing game pop up, and then it doesn't launch and it takes me back to the EA app. I have restarted my PC, unplugged it and replugged into the wall socket, deleted my caches, uninstalled and reinstalled the EA app, recovered the EA app, cleared files, removed my mods, removed and transferred my saves, cleaned out and created a new EA folder, ran EA and Steam as admin, ran a dxdiag... aaaaaand nothing seems to be working. My PC is fine and runs games like RDR2 on high quality graphics with no lag. The sims did load for me a few days ago and worked fine until I tried to open it the day after. I did not install any new mods or packs. I did not install any new unrelated programs either. I really want to finish some builds I've been working on.

Further relevant info:
-I do have an antivirus/vpn software (Norton) but it has never caused me problems in the past with the sims.
-I have never pirated or brought packs from anywhere other than Steam or the official EA store.
-I've never received anything about having to verify game files, as some users here have experienced.
-I have had this problem in the past but it was fixed by restarting or shutting down my PC.
-I did try to install a reshade in the past but found the instructions confusing, so I tried to uninstall and delete it and that got my game working mostly except for being unable to customise the window size.

puzzlezaddict · Answer

slavichorsegirl​&nbsp; Please make sure that your EA and Steam accounts are properly linked to each other.&nbsp; Try to sign into any EA site using your Steam credentials.&nbsp; If you land in the correct EA account, they're linked; if anything else happens, let me know.
Please also disable any family sharing or similar you've enabled in Steam.
If that's not the issue, please open both the EA App and Steam as an admin: right-click each desktop shortcut and select "Run as administrator."&nbsp; Make sure both have loaded fully before trying to launch Sims 4 through Steam.
If that doesn't help either, please repeat the above, except in a new admin Windows account.&nbsp; Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address.&nbsp; You should be able to (try to) launch Sims 4 without reinstalling anything.
If you still can't play, I'd like to see that dxdiag, or rather, a new one you run after doing all of the above.

slavichorsegirl · Answer

yes, my steam and EA accounts are linked as i re logged into my ea through my steam user. i have never had family sharing turned on as i made my steam account using my own email.

i have turned both my steam and ea app to run as administrator, except i am confused on what to do from there and which specific settings i go into so i didn't get particularly far with that method.

slavichorsegirl · Answer

i tried the run as admin method (as far as my knowledge of that method goes at least) but in a fresh windows account without any link to mine, and i had the same issue as i have had on my main windows account. i can't really try using another computer as my laptop runs on mac os.

slavichorsegirl · Answer

puzzlezaddict​&nbsp;

puzzlezaddict · Answer

slavichorsegirl​&nbsp; For running Steam and the EA App as an admin, I didn't mean that you needed to set them to run with admin rights in general.&nbsp; I only meant that you should manually run them as an admin one time, as a test, by right-clicking and choosing the option directly in that right-click list.&nbsp; You can remove the "run as admin" setting under Properties for both apps.
Your dxdiag shows some Windows processes are crashing, so please run a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:

Hit Windows key-X
Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes, and enter
The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator)”
Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes, and enter
Post the message you receive here

Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update &amp; Security, and click the box to check for updates.&nbsp; If any install, restart again afterwards.
Next, please install the newest graphics driver Nvidia provides:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/245376/
Run the installer as an admin (again, right-click, Run as administrator; no need to dive into Properties).&nbsp; Choose the Custom install method, not Express, and check the box to perform a clean install.&nbsp; When you see the list of features you're installing, make sure the sound driver is selected.&nbsp; Restart your computer after installing and before trying to play.
If you still can't open the game, please try with Norton disabled, temporarily of course.&nbsp; After disabling Norton, repair the game in Steam (Sims 4 &gt; Properties &gt; Installed Files &gt; Verify integrity of the game files) before trying to play.&nbsp; As long as you don't do anything else while testing, your computer should be safe.&nbsp; If this helps, you can set exceptions in Norton for TS4_x64, TS4_DX9_x64, and TS4_Launcher_x64, or the entire Bin folder they're in.&nbsp; Set an exception for EADesktop.exe as well.