Game crashing after 4/16 update - troubleshooting inside

[adultfiendfinder]

Hi. I've been working with EA chat support and EAHelp on Twitter now for the last 24 hours trying to get my game issues solved. Ever since the update on 4/16, my game has been randomly crashing my entire PC, forcing it to restart without warning. This usually happens after I load into a lot to play or build, but once has happened to me during the Create-a-Sim when starting a brand new household on a fresh install. Between EA chat support & Twitter, I have tried tons of troubleshooting, only to be told they don't know how to help me and that I should post here so that other people who don't work for EA can try to solve my problem :/ So here I am.

Here are my desktop specs:
- Windows 10 Home 64bit

- Intel Core i5-8600K CPU

- 16GB of RAM

- Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU

Here are the troubleshooting steps I have tried:

- Removing ALL mods & cc. completely removed the mods folder and uninstalled my reshader mod.

- Updating my drivers, including my graphics driver, and removing old drivers I don't need anymore

- Windows Update (I had one that I hadn't done yet, it's done now)
- Repairing the game through the Origin launcher
- Completely uninstalling/reinstalling the entire game, including a time where a rep changed my account's region to India for some reason and then removed & readded the game to my account for me to reinstall again.

- Deleting the cache files & folder from My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4

- Cleaning my computer/registry with CCleaner
- Adding The Sims 4 & Origin both as exceptions to my anti-virus and firewall (which is just Windows Defender)

- Doing a clean boot with all services & startup services disabled
- Running as administrator or on a new administrator account, did both
- Resetting the game to factory settings without reinstalling
- Launching the game in Offline Mode

And this isn't really a troubleshooting step, but for further information this is the only game that does this. I've been playing Rainbow Six: Siege and modded Minecraft (using shaders, it takes like 7GB of RAM to run so no issue there). Also, this is happening even when I start a new game, or load an existing save.

[jpkarlsen · Accepted solution]

When you got a new Graphics card did you then also get a new PSU? Newer Graphics cards also need more power 700W or more is what you should have.

[jpkarlsen]

A BSOD like you describe here is best dealt with in a Windows support forum where they will tell you how to collect a crash dump (mini dump) that can be examined to find the cause. 

[adultfiendfinder]

I'm not getting a BSOD, though. That's the problem. I can't even try to record what is happening in any way because it immediately just shuts off my computer. No blue screen, no black or white screen, nothing. Just shuts off. Power back on, event viewer says it didn't shut down correctly, and that's all I can get. And given that only The Sims 4 is doing this, and only since the update, I doubt they'll be able to help me.

[jpkarlsen]

By default a BSOD shuts down the computer. In most cases you wont see the blue screen.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/69012-enable-disable-bsod-automatic-restart-windows-10-a.html

If you use one of the mentioned methods you can see for sure if it is a BSOD as it no longer will shut down by itself.

If you have a laptop it may also be overheating due to blocked air intakes.

[adultfiendfinder]

I'll give it a shot, but as stated in my first post, this is a desktop. Not a laptop.

[adultfiendfinder]

More relevant information: Yesterday they had me try running it on my administrator account to see if it still worked. It did, no crashing. Today I went to play on the administrator account, and I found out why it wasn't crashing. I hadn't gotten the 4/16 update yet. Today it forced me to update before playing, and what do you know, within 30 seconds of starting the game it crashed again. Something with this update is causing it, and Windows support isn't going to be able to tell me what.

[adultfiendfinder]

I checked in my settings to enable BSOD. My computer is already configured to automatically do a memory dump on crashing. But no dump file is being made when Sims 4 causes it to crash. Additionally, I did run a memory check and it returned no errors.

EDIT: Also, I just disabled auto-restart for BSOD, and it's still restarting, no BSOD. Just immediately my computer shuts off and restarts.

[jpkarlsen]

Please post a DxDiag. https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/
You can attach the txt file directly to your answer.

[adultfiendfinder]

In case you didn't see my previous edit because I edited at the same time you replied, I did disable auto-restarting upon BSOD, and it's still restarting when it crashes. Just turns off then back on immediately. Here's my DxDiag

[jpkarlsen]

You have an MSI I see. Please check if you have Nahimic installed. If you do disable or uninstall it.

You also have a problem with Nvidia control panel please uninstall and try reinstalling the drivers.