Game only opens correctly every other time

[ajsaccount]

This has been going on since I installed Cats and Dogs many months ago. The issue is that when I first start up my laptop (which is running Windows 8.1) and open the game it appears to be starting normally at first, but then as soon as the music starts the screen gets very small like this: https://imgur.com/a/dANJXYz. Sometimes the maximize window option is grayed out but if it's not and I click it this blank white screen appears: https://imgur.com/a/8S08NXA. It will not close or crash on its own if I leave it like this, it will just continue to play the home screen music but the game is completely unplayable in this state. However, if I force close the game through Task Manager, and then re-open the game, it will open and run normally. If I exit the game while it's running normally, and then re-open it again, the same issue will happen again that happened the first time and this pattern continues until I either log out of Origin or restart my computer, after which the cycle will start over. I do have mods and custom content in my game but I've tested it with those removed and it still does the same thing. I've also tried repairing the game and tried a few other things months ago back when the issue was more recent. I don't remember exactly what I did back then, but none of it did anything and I just gave up after a while. I can still play the game normally as long as I open it and then re-open it again, but it's somewhat annoying to have to do this every time, especially after updates since mods and custom content are automatically disabled, because then I have to open the game a total of four times just to play (the second is for re-enabling mods). I can't help but wonder if it's somehow related to the background music since it rotates between the different tracks each time it opens (I remember noticing when the issue first started, that it always ran the new track that came with Cats and Dogs during the times it was unplayable, but this is no longer the case with the Seasons track also in the mix. I don't remember if that pattern continued all the way up until I got Seasons because eventually I got used to it and stopped paying attention. I also wasn't playing the Sims as frequently during that time). It's definitely related to the Cats and Dogs pack in some way because the issue began the first time I opened the game after installing the pack.

Any help would be appreciated.

[crinrict]

Hi @ajsaccount

could you try turning off origin in game. That's is known to cause all kinds of weird errors.

If that doesn't help, could you post your Computer's DxDiag?

To gather a DxDiag on your computer, please follow the steps here: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

You can attach the txt file to your post directly.

[ajsaccount]

Turning off Origin didn't work. My DxDiag is attached.

[crinrict]

Hi @ajsaccount

your graphics chips is below minimum requirements of the game and your drivers are from 2015 (not sure if there are newer ones for that chip though).

Check the Intel Page: https://downloadcenter.intel.com for newer ones.