Game will not open after the last update.

[YeOldSimmer]

The game will not open after the last update.   Custom Content was removed before attempting to load.  Also ran a game repair.  

[YeOldSimmer · Accepted solution]

Yup it was the external drive.   I just redownloaded it to my internal hard drive and it loaded perfectly.  Thanks so much for your help puzzleaddict!   You were awesome!

[puzzlezaddict]

@YeOldSimmer  Try disabling Origin in-game: hover over your username, select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header, and disable the option at the top.

If that doesn't work, please move your entire Sims 4 user data folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop.  When you launch the game, if it launches, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add anything to this folder yet; just see whether you can start a new save and play for a bit.  Let me know either way.

If you can't open the game even with a clean folder in place, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

[YeOldSimmer]

Didn't work.  I already had the Origin in game off. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@YeOldSimmer  Your dxdiag lists a couple of Sims 4 errors that are most likely related to your graphics driver.  You can download the newest standard driver from Nviida here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/160350/en-us

or if you want a nonstandard driver, choose from the categories here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

However, the other errors in your dxdiag suggest that your laptop has more issues than just not loading Sims 4.  It's a good idea to do a bit of a checkup.  If you're interested:

• 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

Unless sfc reports that it found corrupt files and was unable to repair some of them, you don't really need to worry about the results.  It's also a good idea to run chkdsk:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste "chkdsk /f /r c:" without quotes, and enter
• You'll be asked to allow a restart; say yes
• When the scan is done, hit Windows key-X again, and choose Command prompt (admin) or Powershell (admin) again
• Copy and paste this command without the outside quotes: "get-winevent -FilterHashTable @{logname="Application"; id="1001"}| ?{$_.providername –match "wininit"} | fl timecreated, message | out-file Desktop\CHKDSKResults.txt"
• A .txt file with the chkdsk results will appear on your desktop.  Please attach it to a post.

[YeOldSimmer]

Hello, 

Thanks for the tips!

I did everything suggested.   It did not give me the chkdsk results however using the prompt you gave me.  There were also no messages from the other operations other than everything was repaired.  I am concerned because I recently updated my drivers and the fact that I needed to do it again was interesting since I was able to play it just fine before the update.  I did update the graphics card but it's still not opening.  

[puzzlezaddict]

@YeOldSimmer  Here's another way to look for chkdsk results (option one):

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/40822-read-chkdsk-log-event-viewer-windows-10-a.html

For the game itself, please look for recent related entries in the Reliability Monitor.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "perfmon /rel" without quotes.  You'll see a list of errors and updates, with a column for each day.  (Today is all the way on the right.)

For any errors from after you ran DISM and sfc (please try to launch the game a couple of times at least), click "View technical details," then copy the information and paste it into a text document.  (Notepad is fine.)  You can attach the file to a post as you did with your dxdiag.  Sometimes the Reliability Monitor doesn't update right away, so if you don't see any new errors, be sure to check back an hour or two.  The timestamp can also be off by up to an hour, so that's not an entirely reliable metric.

[YeOldSimmer]

Here's the error report from the reliability monitor. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@YeOldSimmer  Okay, that error probably doesn't have anything to do with your graphics driver.  One of the causes of this kind of error, although there are plenty, is a problem with the hard drive.  So I'd still like to see chkdsk results.  It would be a waste of time for you to keep trying other fixes if it turns out the hard drive itself is the issue.  So please look for those results, and if you don't find any, run chkdsk again and see if you can find the report.

Just checking, but do you have Sims 4 or any related content installed on your external hard drive?  Let me know, and if not, please disconnect it and try to play again.

[YeOldSimmer]

I actually do which may be the problem now that I think about it.  I may have to redownload the game to my regular hard drive.  

[YeOldSimmer · Accepted solution]

Yup it was the external drive.   I just redownloaded it to my internal hard drive and it loaded perfectly.  Thanks so much for your help puzzleaddict!   You were awesome!