DxDiag

[WallFlower26]

Here is the DxDiag on my laptop:

[puzzlezaddict]

For anyone else reading, this person gets a white screen when trying to launch Sims 4 and has received both the unrecognized video card and can't launch with the video card in this system errors.  Despite this, the config.log confirms that the card is recognized, or at least was recognized the last time the game launched.

@WallFlower26  Your dxdiag lists a few system errors not related directly to Sims 4, but since they're Windows errors, it's a good idea to run a couple of checks on 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

If one or both scans fail to run to completion, or sfc says it found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them, stop here and let me know.  Otherwise, the next step is to update the drivers for your graphics cards.  However, I'm not sure whether you have the newest drivers for either one.  If I remember correctly, you bought from PC Specialist?  If so, login to the site, then go to your account, and then to the Downloads section (or something similar; I can't see it because I don't have an account.)

Let me know the dates on the drivers for both the Nvidia 1660 ti and the Intel 630.  How to install, or reinstall, depends on whether you have the current versions already installed.  The graphics drivers may be listed under driver: graphics, or under VGA drivers, or something similar; but you're specifically looking for the Nvidia driver for a 1660 ti.  You'll find the Intel graphics driver there too.

[WallFlower26]

It's not when I try to launch it, it's either when I come back to it after the laptop has been on Sleep Mode, when I start Sims up and load a game from the Main Menu of Sims or when I come back to Sims having used the laptop for something else with Sims minimised – but doesn’t always happen.

It did all that this evening when I turned my laptop on from it being shut down and loading a Sims game.

They both scanned fine; the second one found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.

I'm having trouble finding what I need to find on PC Specialist.

[puzzlezaddict]

@WallFlower26  Okay, if you restart your computer, open Sims 4, and try to play, what happens?  If you want to minimize the game, first put it in windowed or windowed fullscreen mode in game options; don't try to minimize it while in fullscreen, as this can often cause problems.

And just to be thorough, please repair the game in Origin: open your game library, right-click on the Sims 4 icon, and select Repair.

If you still get a white screen and crashing, I'll try to help you with the driver situation.  But it's difficult for me to know what you should look for without having access myself.

[roberta591]

@WallFlower26  The nvlddmkm.sys is throwing errors. This is part of the graphics driver. Your Nvidia driver is about year old. Nvidia releases new driver versions frequently. Updating the Nvidia driver might help. Nvidia has a driver dated 3/10/2020.

[WallFlower26]

@puzzlezaddictSometimes it plays ok and sometimes it does all the business or just goes straight to the error messages.

Ok I’ll do that in the future.

I’ll do the repair later today.

PC Specialist have online chat service so I’ll see if someone on that can help point me in the right direction.

I didn't post the message/s here I received after doing the scans.

[WallFlower26]

@roberta591 How is the driver a year old? The laptop is new.

[roberta591]

@WallFlower26   A new laptop will probably have some out of date drivers by the time you purchase it. Sometimes gaming graphics drivers are updated monthly possible to correct an issue or to support new hardware that was released after your laptop was packaged. If you are not having issues then you probably don't need to update your drivers BUT if you are experiencing issues one of the things you need to do is check your device drivers especially the graphics drivers. Graphics drivers are written for performance and usually cover many of the manufacturers products.

[puzzlezaddict]

@WallFlower26  To clarify a few things:

First of all, your dxdiag does list some errors related to your graphics card drivers, likely the driver for the 1660 ti.  Since you're having trouble locating the driver downloads on the PC specialist site, I suggested trying other steps first, because they're simpler.  But if those other steps don't help, the driver issue does need to be addressed.

You have a laptop with dual graphics cards: the powerful 1660 ti for gaming, plus the Intel integrated chip for everyday tasks.  For most laptops with dual cards, the manufacturer of the laptop will tweak the original drivers released by Intel and Nvidia so that they work better with each other and with the hardware in that particular laptop.  So it's best to try to use the drivers offered by PCSpecialist, rather than just downloading a new one from Nvidia.  If the newest drivers you can get from PCSpecialist keep throwing errors, you can try installing a driver from Nvidia directly.

If you do not have the newest drivers that PCSpecialist offers, you can merely download and install those drivers.  If you do have the newest drivers already, you'll need to do a clean uninstall of at least the Nvidia driver and then reinstall that newest version.  I can help with that, but the first question is whether it's necessary.  That's why I was asking about the driver dates.

Please try again to find graphics drivers on the PCSpecialist site.  If you can't figure out where they are, you could also post on that site and ask.  I can offer you an example of what to post there, if you want.

[WallFlower26]

@puzzlezaddict I reset Sims last night - what’s that do? I phoned PC Specialist but don’t think I got what I asked and wanted.