Game randomly freezes, doesn't crash; PC becomes unresponsive

[tinyastrogeist]

It doesn't seem to be contingent on what I'm doing--I've had this happen in CAS/Build/Live mode, with zero warning, although I can usually play for half an hour to an hour before it happens. It happens with and without mods installed. This is a new PC with a fresh game install, so cache and whatnot shouldn't be an issue. All of my drivers, Windows, and the game itself are up-to-date, and I've already tried repairing the game. My PC hardware is pretty high-end (Ryzen 3950x CPU/RTX 3080 GPU; see DXDiag), and I've heard that since TS4 is moreso optimized for lower-end specs, sometimes this can cause problems. If this is the root of my problem, can I do anything to fix it? (I play in 1080p already, all max settings.)

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@tinyastrogeist  Your dxdiag is full of video driver timeouts, so the place to start is with installing a new driver.  This is the newest one from Nvidia:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/190348/en-us/

Run the installer as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."  Choose the custom (not express) option and check the box to perform a clean install; restart your computer when it's installed.

If you get another freeze, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the graphics driver, as described here:

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

Another step you can try that might help is running your monitor at a lower refresh rate, for example 120 Hz rather than 144.  While it and your GPU should have no issues at 144 Hz, I've seen a couple other players that needed to lower the refresh rates on their monitors to keep Sims 4 stable.  Right-click on your desktop and select Display settings > Advanced to access the setting; restart after changing it and before trying to play.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@tinyastrogeist  Your dxdiag is full of video driver timeouts, so the place to start is with installing a new driver.  This is the newest one from Nvidia:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/190348/en-us/

Run the installer as an admin: right-click on the download and select "Run as administrator."  Choose the custom (not express) option and check the box to perform a clean install; restart your computer when it's installed.

If you get another freeze, please do a clean uninstall and reinstall of the graphics driver, as described here:

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

Another step you can try that might help is running your monitor at a lower refresh rate, for example 120 Hz rather than 144.  While it and your GPU should have no issues at 144 Hz, I've seen a couple other players that needed to lower the refresh rates on their monitors to keep Sims 4 stable.  Right-click on your desktop and select Display settings > Advanced to access the setting; restart after changing it and before trying to play.

[tinyastrogeist]

Reinstalling my drivers seems to have worked--thank you!