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BosseyedWolf's avatar
BosseyedWolf
Seasoned Newcomer
21 days ago

USB mouse and hotkeys freezing in game

Hello, I've been experiencing this problem since January this year where around 2 hours in game my usb mouse will freeze and the hotkeys stop working (awsd, <>, etc), but sims itself doesn't freeze. I then go to quit and my laptop spontaneously restarts. Upon restart mouse and all keys work fine. I have mods and cc, which I have updated, but this also happens on vanilla save files, ( i have tried 3 different save files and it has happened across all of them). I have turned on window mode, repaired the game, a clean boot, turned off social overlays in EA app, I always delete the localthumbcache and tried without using the usb mouse and nothing has worked. I'm not tech savvie so dont really know what to do next!

9 Replies

  • BosseyedWolf​  Some hotkeys not working is a known issue, although from what I've read, the mouse isn't usually affected.  Having said that, your computer should definitely not be restarting on its own.  So 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.

    Please also look for an error that happened at the time of the mouse freeze or restart that is NOT simply "Windows did not shut down properly" or similar.  Click Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes, and you'll open the Reliability Monitor, with 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 one of these freezes, preferably the most recent one.  If you're not sure when that happened, you can try to trigger another one, but keep in mind that the Reliability Monitor doesn't always update right away, so you might need to check again an hour or two later.

  • BosseyedWolf's avatar
    BosseyedWolf
    Seasoned Newcomer
    20 days ago

    Thank you for your reply!! Attached is the dxdiag and screenshots from the perfmon / rel. Mostly every time it said 'hardware error' but one was also that the nvidia container stopped working.

  • BosseyedWolf​  The hardware error (LiveKernelEvent 144) is a crash of the Windows USB 3 driver, which is not a surprise to see given what you've described.  Typically, all that's needed to resolve this kind of issue is to unplug all USB 3 devices and restart the computer—a real restart, not sleep/wake or even shutdown/reboot.  Do you have any other USB 3 devices connected while you play?  Do you get the LKE 144 when you're not using the USB mouse?

    The dxdiag does also list a number of errors relating to the Nvidia graphics driver, and these could have muddled things when you were testing without your mouse.  Either way, it's a good idea to do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the driver, as described here:

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

    You can get the most recent Nvidia drivers here:

    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/

    I would suggest starting with one from October 14 or November 4, as they're recent enough to be compatible with Sims 4 (and almost anything else) but look to have been stable at the time.  It's easy enough to update from there, but going backwards would require using DDU to remove the newer driver.

    Once you've replaced the driver, if you're still getting crashes or freezes, try again without any USB devices connected, not even headphones (earbuds that use a jack would be fine).  If that doesn't help either, look for new Reliability Monitor errors and post what you find.

  • BosseyedWolf's avatar
    BosseyedWolf
    Seasoned Newcomer
    19 days ago

    puzzlezaddict​ thank you for this! Unfortunately I tried the reinstall of the graphics driver (Oct 14th one), and I'm still experiencing the freezing with or without the USB mouse. All the hardware (done through lenovo system update, the nvidia one and amd ryzen) is up to date as far as I can see and I also updated to windows 11 finally (wasn't able to update on release and had to use the deleting font workaround), but this hasn't helped either. I looked in device manager and it said all USB was up to date. The only thing that has changed is since doing the nvidia one, my laptop no longer restarts upon quitting sims and I regain functionality once back to my desktop. 

    Here's the hardware error info from the reliability monitor from my last crash:

    Source
    Windows

    Summary
    Hardware error

    Date
    ‎01/‎03/‎2026 20:24

    Status
    Report sent

    Description
    A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

    Problem signature
    Problem Event Name:    LiveKernelEvent
    Code:    144
    Parameter 1:    1009
    Parameter 2:    fffff6828f41f190
    Parameter 3:    0
    Parameter 4:    0
    OS version:    10_0_26200
    Service Pack:    0_0
    Product:    768_1
    OS Version:    10.0.26200.2.0.0.768.101
    Locale ID:    2057

    Extra information about the problem
    Bucket ID:    LKD_0x144_COMMAND_ABORT_FAILED_USBXHCI!TelemetryData_CreateReport_VEN_1022_DEV_15b9_REV_0000

    I've also attached a new dxdiag - thank you for help!!

  • BosseyedWolf​  To be absolutely clear, you get this LiveKernelEvent 144 error when you have zero USB devices plugged in?  That would be extremely strange.  The device ID listed in the error points to the AMD USB controller, but it shouldn't come into play if there aren't any USB devices connected.

    Still, the next step here is to manually uninstall and reinstall the USB drivers.  They should be part of the chipset driver package Lenovo provides for your laptop, which you can find here:

    https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/gaming-series/loq-15aph8/82xt/downloads/driver-list

    Download the chipset driver under Motherboard Devices, and take your computer offline (so Windows doesn't try to download a missing driver before you can replace it yourself).  Click Windows key-X, select the Device Manager, expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section, right-click each entry in turn, and select Uninstall device.

    Once you're done, while still offline, run the chipset driver installer, which should replace the missing drivers, but don't worry if it doesn't get all of them—Windows can replace anything else once you go back online.  Some of these drivers would come from Microsoft and some from AMD, but rather than parsing that out, it's easier and more thorough to just flush everything and replace it.

    So run the chipset installer, let it do its thing, restart your computer, go back online, give Windows a couple minutes to detect and install any missing drivers, then open Windows Settings > Update & Security and click the box to check for updates.  Restart yet again afterwards.

    If you get another crash, please post the same Reliability Monitor info.  And please test first with no mouse or other USB device, then only add it back if the game runs fine without it.

  • BosseyedWolf's avatar
    BosseyedWolf
    Seasoned Newcomer
    18 days ago

    Hi puzzlezaddict​ I have updated the chipset drivers as described, no usb attached and still got the freezing of the hotkeys, but when I saved my sims game and came off of the options menu, the hotkeys worked again. However this still generated a hardware error on the reliability monitor - 

    Source
    Windows

    Summary
    Hardware error

    Date
    ‎02/‎03/‎2026 14:31

    Status
    Report sent

    Description
    A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

    Problem signature
    Problem Event Name:    LiveKernelEvent
    Code:    144
    Parameter 1:    1009
    Parameter 2:    ffff8284da328190
    Parameter 3:    0
    Parameter 4:    0
    OS version:    10_0_26200
    Service Pack:    0_0
    Product:    768_1
    OS Version:    10.0.26200.2.0.0.768.101
    Locale ID:    2057

    Extra information about the problem
    Bucket ID:    LKD_0x144_COMMAND_ABORT_FAILED_USBXHCI!TelemetryData_CreateReport_VEN_1022_DEV_15b9_REV_0000

    I'm not well versed in this kind of stuff but the charger plug is next to the usb ports? But the charger works fine. I had no usbs plugged in for this one. 

  • BosseyedWolf​  As I mentioned originally, the hotkeys not working all the time is a known bug.  You can post in the master thread if you want:

    Various Hot Keys not working | EA Forums - 12582365

    You should not be getting this hardware error, either in conjunction with the hotkeys not working or in general.  However, if you aren't seeing any practical issues other than the hotkeys being finicky, you could choose to ignore this error.  Or we could keep trying to solve it.  It's your choice.

    Feel free to test with your mouse now, and let me know if there are any issues you don't see when the mouse is disconnected.

  • BosseyedWolf's avatar
    BosseyedWolf
    Seasoned Newcomer
    12 days ago

    Hi puzzlezaddict​ unfortunately the BSOD made an appearance so i'm going to take it to get repaired tomorrow. Thank you so so much for all your help!!!