Re: freezing, crashing, & graphics issues after last patch

by SherwoodSpirit
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Original Post

Re: freezing, crashing, & graphics issues after last patch

★ Guide

After considerable research, I've learned that I can not upgrade to Sierra or High Sierra because I have a Fusion Drive in my iMac, and there was no support for APFS on Fusion drives until Mojave. So if people are considering upgrading from El Capitan, be aware that you'll need to go to Mojave if you have this drive. Regular hard drives will work, but run more slowly on the newer APFS file system, but if you have an SSD drive, it'll run fine. In fact, if you're considering buying a new Mac, you should get an SSD hard drive. They're more expensive, but your machine will run better and it will last much longer.

Also, I found a Last Crash file in my Sims 4 folder from the other night when I was trying different things with my game. I've been plagued by gallery crashes since a patch last summer. If I try to get into the gallery from Manage Worlds, or on an unplayed lot, it instantly crashes my game. The only way I've been able to get the gallery to open (and hence my own library) is to actually have a sim buy a lot, THEN open gallery, and most of the time it works. So I've just been dealing with that. I took a look at the latest lastCrash text and found a bunch of references to Metal in it. It mentions "AMDMTLBronzeDriver", which I think refers to my video card, with probably metal 1 running on it. Metal 2 is what's in Mojave and probably High Sierra. So I was curious and googled the bronze driver. I found numerous pages talking about metal crashing when trying to load various actions in several apps. So I think that's what's actually happening with our Sims games. Metal is crashing due to whatever code changes were installed with the last few patches. And since it's affecting our video cards, it's taking out the whole computer when it hangs.

You'd think they would have tested on the systems STILL listed on Origin & Apple as supported. But apparently they haven't. Can they walk this back in another patch? WILL they? Who knows?

Message 51 of 160 (1,294 Views)

Re: Screen Flickering

★★ Novice

@Bluebellflora 

 

My Mac info is:

OS x El Capitan

Version 10.11.6

Macbook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB

Video Card in Graphics/Displays is AMD Radeon M370x

 

Also, my computer has Avira Antivirus. 

 

Just want to note too, I changed a bunch of settings in game such as edge smoothing but it just got progressively worse and worse. Now I can't even load a household before my entire computer crashes.

Message 52 of 160 (1,285 Views)

Re: freezing, crashing, & graphics issues after last patch

@SherwoodSpirit

I don’t think that’s entirely accurate about APFS and Fusion drives. If it was true then those on El Capitan would have been stuck until Mojave, something Apple would just not have implemented. I also found this about the HS beta - https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/apfsfusion

There were issues but it can still work. Mojave would be a better bet in this situation.

The sooner Apple stop using fusion drives the better in my opinion. You’re absolutely right that SSD should always be the preferred choice.

As for the gallery crash, did you try this workaround? https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/Sims-4-keeps-crashing-when-accessing-the-Gallery/m-p/...


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Message 53 of 160 (1,281 Views)

Re: Screen Flickering

@bloodshield3

Moved your thread into this one on the El Capitan issue. Please upgrade to High Sierra or later to fix your problem.

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Message 54 of 160 (1,271 Views)

Re: freezing, crashing, & graphics issues after last patch

[ Edited ]
★ Guide

@BluebellfloraYes, I did the EAWebKit.so fix, and it DID work for a day or two, then started the instant crashing again. I think it's just the fact that El Capitan has the earlier version of metal, and the recent patches have made the game incompatible with Metal 1. I'd probably have to delete the EAWebKit.so file before I start my game every time. But that's a moot point now, since I can't even load a lot anymore.

From an article about APFS that was apparently released right before Mojave: "APFS currently works only with SSDs, although Apple says that full support for mechanical hard disks and Fusion drives is coming in macOS 10.14 Mojave."
The article said when installed on SSDs, High Sierra automatically switched the underlying file system from HFS to APFS. But not on Fusion drives. I don't know what Apple did to make High Sierra work on Fusion drives, but since Mojave now has full support for Fusion, that's what I'll be going to. Here's a link to one of the best articles about it I read. It's not written by Apple, so I can't speak to its 100% accuracy. Standard smile
https://tidbits.com/2018/07/23/what-apfs-does-for-you-and-what-you-can-do-with-apfs/

I'm probably gonna make the leap to Mojave today. Just working up the courage to take the plunge to see what kind of carnage will happen with all my older apps. haha
Worst case, I can always wipe and reinstall El Capitan via Time Machine backup if I had to.

Getting a Fusion drive in my iMac instead of the SSD was a trade off. The Fusion drive saved me a couple hundred bucks, which meant I could afford the AMD Radeon R9 M395 video card for it. My reasoning being that I was willing to sacrifice a little speed for better graphics. It was a decision I haven't regretted... until now. If I could go back and get that SSD instead, and just eat ramen for a while to afford that AND the beefy video card... oh well. Hindsight. haha

Message 55 of 160 (1,262 Views)

Re: Screen Flickering

★★ Novice
@Bluebellflora Thanks!
Message 56 of 160 (1,248 Views)

Re: freezing, crashing, & graphics issues after last patch

★ Guide
@Bluebellflora Just a quick update. Yesterday I took the plunge and installed OSX Mojave on my 2015 iMac. Thanks for your help, and @MuseByDesign for confirmation that the older Java extension works for Adobe Creative Suite. My game is UP AND RUNNING again, graphics set to Ultra, no lag, no crashing. So far, so good. AND so are my Adobe CS6 apps.
I'm still pissed at EA for blind-siding Mac users by listing our systems and specs as supported, when they clearly didn't test them. It isn't fair to those of us who did our due-diligence since the announcement in June that we were switching to 64 bit. My Sims 4 facebook groups are FULL of confused, upset Mac users who thought their games would run after the switch because of the misleading information on EA's site. They really need to update their own system requirements.
Anyway, thanks for all your help and information. You are always my go-to when I have questions or problems. <3
Message 57 of 160 (1,225 Views)

Re: freezing, crashing, & graphics issues after last patch

★★★★ Novice
@SherwoodSpirit Yay!! So happy it worked out for you!
Message 58 of 160 (1,218 Views)

Sims 4 Lagging Pixelated game/ No customer support

★★ Novice

 

Reposting this again to see if I can get any further help with this 

 

So I have been having a nightmare on EA help the past couple of days. After the game being pixelated and not working after an update I was able at that point to speak to someone on live chat where they gave me two options to help sort my game out first was the clear the cache and the second was to do a safe reboot on a mac. Neither of them worked so the next day I was able to get onto live chat where I spoke to someone different and they persistently told me to get rid of my mods, before that I had done a test and took my mods out of the game and the issue still persisted and told this to the Livechat assistant but he told me they could still mess up the game. I then decided to end the chat with that person and get back on it again and get a second opinion. That time and since then I have been unable to get onto live chat at all, the only option they bring up is to send an email which an advisor will respond in 72 hours. I have had no other contact from them and I don't know what to do because in this moment in time my sims 4 game is unplayable as the pixelation makes the game lag and my computer freeze up/ I have also tried taking out the options file in origin which I read on the answers page and it still didn't work 

 

 

The specs of my Mac 

OS X El Capitan

Operating System - 10.11.6

Mac Model - iMac (Retina 5K, 27 inch, Late 2015)

Processor - 4 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory - 16 GB 1876 MHz DDR3 

Graphics - AMD Radeon R9 M395 2048 MB 

 

 

Additional information - Currently I have no mods installed in the game, have tried various methods from youtube, EA help and sims forums but nothing and lastly when i go to the contact section of EA I either get a blank page or get an email support page where I type my case out and send it then I get an email from EA customer experience to say there has been irregular activity on my account and to set up a call but the links they send just direct me back to either a blank page or a list of my cases on EA 

 

Sorry but I have been dealing with this for weeks now and EA customer help is rubbish! 

Message 59 of 160 (1,181 Views)

Re: freezing, crashing, & graphics issues after last patch

@SherwoodSpirit

Yay! Hopefully the El Capitan and Sierra issues will be fixed........

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Message 60 of 160 (1,168 Views)