Help my game keep crashing

[puzzlezaddict]

@LouisaW2002  The error in this particular minidump is different from the two BSODs I saw in your dxdiag, and while it's very clear what happened to cause this error, it's unfortunately not clear why it happened.  (The minidump states that it can't identify the driver.)  On the other hand, all three types of errors can be caused by the same underlying problem, so we can try to address the short list of problems that would cause all of these errors.

While troubleshooting, please play in a clean user folder, to cut down on the complicating factors.  Move your entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, and when you launch the game, a clean folder will spawn with no content.  Don't add anything to the folder; just start a new save and do whatever you'd like.  If you happen to create something you'd want to keep, it's easy to combine the content from your old and new user folders, but leave that for later.

The first thing to try is playing in a clean boot:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

When you reboot, please also check the Task Manager's background processes list for anything that doesn't absolutely need to be running.  (You need to be in detail mode to see this list.)  For example, the Nvida driver needs to be running; MSI Afterburner or RGB software does not.

If you get another crash, please run chkdsk on your C drive, which I'm guessing has Sims 4 installed on it.

• 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, use this guide to find the results
• Attach the report to a post here

Please also look for more Minidumps after a system crash or BlueScreen.  If you don't get any, that's fine, but if you do, I'd like to read one; hopefully a new one will have more useful information.  You can also look for a MEMORY.dmp file in C:\Windows and upload that if you find one.

[LouisaW2002]

I didn't have anymore minidumps created but the sims did crash after the clean boot however the game stayed on for a little bit longer than usual before it crashed. I ran the chkdsk /f /r c: in Poweshell Admin like you said this was the message I got,

TimeCreated : 19/02/2021 13:44:08
Message :

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
568832 file records processed.

File verification completed.
28347 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
251 reparse records processed.

690230 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.

251 reparse records processed.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 3649 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 3649 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 3649 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
60700 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
39210784 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
568816 files processed.

File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
46551441 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

233319977 KB total disk space.
46295704 KB in 187315 files.
128068 KB in 60701 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
690437 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
186205768 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
58329994 total allocation units on disk.
46551442 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 ae 08 00 da c8 03 00 c9 56 06 00 00 00 00 00 .........V......
7c 00 00 00 7f 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |...............

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

[puzzlezaddict]

@LouisaW2002  The chkdsk scan didn't turn up any problems, which is great.  On the other hand, there's no new information.  So maybe it's time to cast a wider net.

First, please look for a Sims 4 crash dump.  Click Windows key-R and copy and paste this:

%LocalAppData%\CrashDumps

When you hit Enter, a folder will open with crash dumps from applications; these are different from the system .dmp files you've been looking for.  If one of these is from Sims 4, please upload it to a third-party filehosting site (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it here.

If there is no Sims 4 .dmp file, you can enable them:

• Hit the Windows key, type "command prompt" in the box, right-click on Command Prompt in the search results, and select Run as Administrator
• In the window, paste "reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\devenv.exe" /v DumpType /d 2 /t REG_DWORD" without the outside quotes into the box, and enter
• Launch Sims 4 and wait for it to crash (whether you can play at all or not)
• After it crashes, wait for any crash dialogs to finish
• Then hit Windows key-R and paste "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" without quotes into the box, and enter
• Upload the last .dmp file and link it here
• When you want to undo the auto crash log dumps, open Command Prompt as before, paste "reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps" /f" without the outside quotes, and enter.

At the same time, so you don't need to repeat anything, please do some hardware monitoring. Download hwinfo from here:

https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

You don't need to install anything if you don't want to; just choose the Portable version, unzip it, and launch it from Downloads or wherever you want.  (If you would like to install, be sure to click the green button, not the orange one.)  Restart your computer, and don't open any other apps.  Launch hwinfo, choose "sensors only," and click the icon that's a sheet of paper with a + sign to start logging.  Save the file to your desktop for easy access later.

Wait five minutes, then launch Sims 4 and play until it crashes.  Click the same button to end logging; if your computer crashes too, or if you have to force a shutdown the log should still be intact up to that point.  Then upload the log and link it here.  Please leave it in .csv format, or if you use OneDrive to share, please compress it in .zip format instead.

During all of this, please continue to use a clean Sims 4 user folder, just so that there aren't any complicating factors.

[LouisaW2002]

hi, first searching for %LocalAppData%\CrashDumps when I hit enter it said Windows cannot find C:/User/Louisa make sure you typed the name correctly and try again, I enabled the sims .dmp file like you said then i launched the sims and it crashed again so I had to manually turn my pc off, then the second time i searched %LocalAppData%\CrashDumps it came up with the same message. I donwloaded Hwinfo saved the file and i also saved the file for after the sims crashed, i have tried to attach them here but it says it is an unsupported file and i cannot send them message when they are attached

[puzzlezaddict]

@LouisaW2002  The hwinfo log needs to be uploaded to a third-party site, just like a crash dump would be.  You can post the link to the upload here.

Please open a File Explorer window, click the View tab at the top, and click the box next to "Hidden items" on the right.  Then click This PC in the left panel, double-click the C drive, and open Users > Louisa.  You should now see a grayed-out folder called AppData.  Open that, then Local, then CrashDumps.  If any of these folders is missing, let me know.  If any of them says you need admin permission to open it, grant the permission.

[LouisaW2002]

Hi, here are the links to hwinfo logs, what is the box next to hidden items called as when i click view in the file explorer it just has a tickl box saying hidden items and the box next to that is greyed out and it says hide selected items.https://wetransfer.com/downloads/01fc7a53085fb58bcb773bad160daa3c20210222144507/0702fe45b316dac8800f...

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/3cf43ab23ebd3ab4c5a7ea3036cb9b0820210222144451/54d05e656c1e9b591dc4...

[puzzlezaddict]

@LouisaW2002  Those logs don't show any obvious issues, but they're also only a couple minutes long each, not nearly enough time to rule out the kinds of issues I'd want to look for.

For the hidden items, here's a picture:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/show-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-vista/

Once hidden items are showing, please follow the earlier instructions exactly as written, and let me know if any of the named folders aren't present.