Freezing Sims 4 Issue [ Edited ]

[hotpink4956]

Hello,

I have been having a problem with my Sims 4 game going on just over 6 months now. I have had multiple chats with techs (~ 15 or so) and am still having the issue. Basically I can get into the game just fine, can select my Sim and all that but when the game is actually playable I have maybe 5-10 minutes tops before it freezes the entire computer. I have been disconnected from chat at least 3 times when techs apparently get frustrated that their, "This will absolutely fix your problem, doesn't work", which is incredibly frustrating... I have no mods or custom content, I have the following expansion packs: University, island living, get famous, Seasons, cats and dogs, city living, get together, & get to work. Game Packs: Realm of Magic, Strangerville, jungle adventure, parenthood, vampires, dine out, Spa Day, & Outdoor Retreat. Stuff Packs: Tiny living, my 1st pet, laundry day, toddler, romantic garden, movie hangout, cool kitchen & Perfect patio.

I am at a loss on what to do next, I have tried all of the below:

Repair Game

Reset to game to factory 

deleted save files

Clean Install

Clean Boot

tried with a different user login

ran in windowed mode

ran in win 7/8 compatibility mode

formatted computer and reinstalled only basic needs and drivers and only sims 4

made sure drivers were all updated

ran in offline mode

game is updated

windows is updated

deactivated origin in game

only installed base game without expansions

changed graphics properties to lower

Please Help Me!

P.S. It is only with Sims 4 that this happens, all of my other games play fine.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@hotpink4956  Sorry for the late-ish reply.  Which computer froze: the one with your CPU and board and your fiancé's other components, or the one with your fiancé's CPU and board and your other components?  If it's the first, then this probably is your CPU, although it could be the board too.  For the board itself, look for bulging capacitors, which would be an obvious sign of trouble.

Otherwise, you may need to find a computer shop that has a compatible processor and mainboard for testing: they'd drop your CPU into their board, or drop one of their processors into yours.  Since your hardware is six years old, it's harder to find these days, although a local repair store should have something suitable on hand.  And you wouldn't want to buy a replacement part without knowing for sure which component was defective.

I'm sorry I don't have something better to offer, but both processors and motherboards are difficult to repair, if it's even possible, and perhaps not worth the investment.  If the board turns out to be the issue, you might be able to find a replacement for a reasonable price and get a few more good years out of this system.  If it's the CPU, a new 4790K would be almost $300, although they're cheaper used on Ebay.

Regardless, the first step is to find someone who can test each component separately and confirm which one is causing the crashes.

[puzzlezaddict]

@hotpink4956  Please undo any compatibility settings; the game is supposed to run fine in Windows 10.

A few of the crashes in your dxdiag reference a component of Razer's Synapse software, so please try uninstalling it.  Here's how to do a clean uninstall:

https://support.razer.com/articles/1699349771

And disable OneDrive as well—it's been crashing too.  If you have OneDrive set to automatically sync the contents of Documents with cloud storage, copy your Sims 4 user data folder (in Documents\Electronic Arts) elsewhere first, so it doesn't get removed from your hard drive.

If these steps don't help, please try playing in a clean boot.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

[hotpink4956]

Hello! thank you for the recommendations i greatly appreciate a new perspective to this problem. Sadly your ideas did not work dxdiag-update was after the first two suggestions and then dxdiag-cleanboot was after the clean boot which resulted in the game freezing and getting a blue screen with MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION error. Appreciate any follow up you may have.

[puzzlezaddict]

@hotpink4956  Interesting that you got a BlueScreen.  I'd like to see the crash dump from that, as well as any other recent ones you might have.  Please open a File Explorer window and enter C:\Windows\Minidump in the address bar.  For any files from the last two days, right-click and select Copy, then right-click on the desktop and select Paste.  Zip the files together, upload them to the free filesharing site of your choice, and link them here.

I'll take a look at the files, but maybe not until tomorrow, because it's getting a bit late.

[hotpink4956]

Hey! followed your instructions but the folder is empty.

[puzzlezaddict]

@hotpink4956  You should definitely have a minidump if you get a BlueScreen, so it's strange that you didn't get one.  The error you listed is definitely a BSOD too, although it can have a number of causes.  And there are different reasons the dump file might not get written, but it's speculation without more info.

Please make sure though that the system is set to write the files, and if it's not writing to C:\Windows\Minidump, you'll see where the files are landing and can grab them as described earlier.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "sysdm.cpl" without quotes, and System Properties will open.  Click Advanced, then open Settings under Startup and Recovery, and make sure the box is checked to "write an event to the system log."  It's also a good idea to uncheck the box to overwrite existing files for now, in case you happen to get more than one.  You'll see the file location as well, which should say %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP.

Let me know whether these are already the current settings, because that would mean the dump file wasn't written for other reasons.

In the interim, please run a couple of checks of your Windows system files.  Here's how:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, 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 “Command prompt (Administrator)”
• Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
• Post the message you receive here

Please also let me know what motherboard and power supply this computer has.  If you're not sure and you bought a prebuilt model, you can link me the product page or the manual instead.

[hotpink4956]

The settings for the dump are as you described. T

+he overwrite box was checked so I unchecked that. Write event was checked. The file location does say. %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP. Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool was run successfully, Got to 100% without any errors being thrown.

System scan had this as the output:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.

I have attached the CBS log.

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI Impact

PSU:  Seasonic G-650

[puzzlezaddict]

@hotpink4956  Alright, that's good news at least.  Did you try playing again?  Sometimes the repairs sfc completes are enough to make the game work.

I'm still thinking about the BlueScreen without a BlueScreen though.  There are plenty of reasons one might not be written; one is a faulty hard drive.  Yours is high quality, but to be thorough, please run chkdsk:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste "chkdsk /f /r c:" without quotes, and enter
• You'll get a message that you can't run the scan unless you allow a restart; say yes
• When the scan is done, hit Windows key-X again, and choose Command prompt (admin) or Powershell (admin) again
• Copy and paste this command without the outside quotes: "get-winevent -FilterHashTable @{logname="Application"; id="1001"}| ?{$_.providername –match "wininit"} | fl timecreated, message | out-file Desktop\CHKDSKResults.txt"
• A .txt file with the chkdsk results will appear on your desktop.  Please attach it to a post.

The next step would be hardware monitoring, to see how your other components are performing.  Let me know if you'd like instructions.

[hotpink4956]

Here is the chkdsk results.

by the way I did try and play again and it froze and gave me a blue screen again. The error this time was whea_uncorrectable_error. was also again no file in the minidump folder either.

[puzzlezaddict]

@hotpink4956  Okay, I think it's time for some hardware monitoring.  Download hwinfo from here:

https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

You don't need to install anything if you don't want to; just choose the Portable version, unzip it, and launch it from Downloads or wherever you want.  (If you would like to install, be sure to click the green button, not the orange one.)  Do another clean boot, and don't open any other apps.  Please also shut down your antivirus/firewall, if you have a third-party app installed.  Launch hwinfo, choose "sensors only," and click the icon that's a sheet of paper with a + sign to start logging.  Save the file to your desktop for easy access later.

Wait five minutes, then launch Sims 3 and play for 20 minutes or until it crashes or you get a BlueScreen.  Click the same button to end logging.  Then upload the log to a third-party free filehosting site and link it here.  Please leave it in .csv format, or if you use OneDrive to share, please compress it in .zip format instead.