Black screen, no sound, freeze [ Edited ]

[MyCatsNameIsMax]

Hi

When I play Sims 4 the screen suddenly turns black for a few seconds in the middle of playing and then comes back with no sound at all on the PC. I then try to exit the game but it freezes as soon as I click the exit button forcing me to sign out of the PC to do anything. This seems to fix the sound problem without having to shut off the PC. However as soon as I start playing again the same thing happens. I can continue to play just fine after it happens, there is just no sound which is why I try exiting the game. I haven't taken notice of what I'm doing every time it happens, but from what I remember it seems to happen mostly in San Myshuno. 

I hope anyone can help as this is super annoying.

Edit: one of the times when I signed out and my programs were closing I noticed a window with a message along the lines of "The instruction at *insert random number* referenced memory at *insert some number*. The memory could not be written. Click OK to terminate the program." or something like that (I copied this on google, but I believe it was this one) however I have no idea what it means. 

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@MyCatsNameIsMax  Hi again.  Your dxdiag lists a couple crashes of your Radeon control software.  Please start by opening it and turning off all the options for Sims 4 the same way you did for Sims 3.  (Be sure to use TS4_x64.exe to create the profile if it doesn't already exist.)  Test a couple times to see whether it helps.

If it doesn't though, the next step is doing a clean uninstall and reinstall of your GPU driver.  The rest of the errors in your dxdiag are all timeouts of the display driver, and they're all newer than the last dxdiag you ran two weeks ago.  Here are excellent instructions for using Display Driver Uninstaller (free download) to do a clean uninstall:

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

Unfortunately, you'll likely need to reset your Radeon software options for both games.  If TS4 still doesn't work properly after you reinstall the GPU driver (again, test a couple of times), please run another dxdiag.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@MyCatsNameIsMax  Hi again.  Your dxdiag lists a couple crashes of your Radeon control software.  Please start by opening it and turning off all the options for Sims 4 the same way you did for Sims 3.  (Be sure to use TS4_x64.exe to create the profile if it doesn't already exist.)  Test a couple times to see whether it helps.

If it doesn't though, the next step is doing a clean uninstall and reinstall of your GPU driver.  The rest of the errors in your dxdiag are all timeouts of the display driver, and they're all newer than the last dxdiag you ran two weeks ago.  Here are excellent instructions for using Display Driver Uninstaller (free download) to do a clean uninstall:

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

Unfortunately, you'll likely need to reset your Radeon software options for both games.  If TS4 still doesn't work properly after you reinstall the GPU driver (again, test a couple of times), please run another dxdiag.

[MyCatsNameIsMax]

@puzzlezaddict Hi again, I'm going to try reinstalling the GPU driver. I tried turning off the settings in Radeon Software earlier and it did not help.

I'll give feedback tomorrow or Sunday when I've tried it.

Thank you so much for helping me again :D

[MyCatsNameIsMax]

@puzzlezaddict  I did the uninstall and reinstall yesterday and have tested the game for a few hours (last night and this morning) with Radeon Software settings on the standard graphics profile (all settings off or on standard). After doing the reinstall Radeon Software says that the game performance is marginal with the average fps being 58 and it suggests turning down the in-game settings (see attached picture). I tried the in-game option to see fps, for a minute or so while I was playing, and it showed it around 30-75. Before doing the reinstall the average was around 150 if I remember correctly. My screen's refresh rate is 75 so I don't know if it matters. 

Edit: after exiting the game and later opening it again (without changing any settings) it now says that the performance is optimal and suggest turning up the in-game settings. I don't know how reliable this is or if I should just ignore it. 

In step 13 of the reinstallation instructions it shows an options window and under the AMD specific options three of the four boxes are checked, however on mine only the bottom one was checked. As the instructions didn't mention anything about those settings I just left them unchecked. I don't know if this has any influence on anything, just thought I would mention it. 

I tried playing with the graphics profile set to gaming this morning, which caused the problem to start again, so I changed it back to standard. However instead of exiting the game and having it freeze, I went to desktop and closed it through task manager, I don't know if it changes anything by avoiding the freeze. I think the reason that changing the settings in Radeon Software didn't "fix" the problem last time is because I might not have restarted the PC after changing the settings and opening the game again. But I have no idea if any of this has any influence on anything, just speculating. I'm not all that tech-savvy.

[puzzlezaddict]

@MyCatsNameIsMax  The low fps could have been a one-off issue, and if it doesn't recur, I wouldn't worry about it.  Changing the Radeon settings without restarting could also have been a problem, although that would be annoying.  Still, if your game is running fine now, there's no reason to mess around with anything.  The same goes for the Display Driver Uninstaller settings you used: if it works now, you're fine.

Still, if you want to play around with the Radeon settings, there's not much harm in doing so.  Just be sure to restart your computer before playing again.  You're not the only person who's reported a conflict of some sort between the new Radeon software and Origin games, so AMD will probably release an update some time soon that makes this a lot smoother.  In the interim, at least you know Sims 4 will run fine with everything turned off, if nothing else.