Sim stops short of doing any task

[andprosper]

Problem: After a time in gameplay, my sim will simply stop doing tasks. They will sit in their queue and the sim will go over to the place of the task, but not do it. For example, I tell my sim to play chess, they walk over to the chess table and stand there. Doing nothing. They don't appear frozen. They'll seemingly be stuck in a loop when they get there, doing a singular gesture, like turning their head, moving their arms, sighing, etc. And they'll do that singular gesture repetitively. I cancel the chess table and let them go to the next thing in their queue. Sometimes the cancelled action will cancel and the sim will go over to do the next thing, only to stand there and do nothing. Sometimes the action will not cancel.

This happens progressively sooner and sooner in gameplay. For example, when it first started happening, I could go about an hour without it affecting gameplay. Then the issue would crop up. Now the issue crops up within minutes. If they are doing an action when the issue starts, they will be stuck in that action, repeating one singular motion over and over. If there is a progress bar, it stops progressing, but does not cancel. For example, if my sim is painting, they will be stuck in a repetitive motion of bringing their brush up in thought and bringing it down slightly. The painting will not change. The progress bar in the queue will not progress further. Sometimes they freeze with one action in the queue. Sometimes with many. Needs still decline with time. Clock still runs. Sims outside of my sim's lot still move around as normal. I have tried this with a few different households, but all of them were single households. Haven't seen if a household freezes all at the same time or if it affects a single sim. 

Resetting sim does not work. Reset Object (debug) does not work. It appears to happen also to NPCs who come over to my house to visit (after my sim has greeted them). I can't be certain because I can't see their actions queue, but I've had two sims get stuck that I had to reset and they walked away. 

I have my game updated to the latest patch. I have all expansion packs and game packs, but none of the stuff packs. 

This began at the beginning of July. I've had Eco Lifestyles installed since the release date. 

What I've tried:

Resetting sim

Playing a different family

Restarting Sims

Removing all mods/custom content

Restarting my computer

Changed graphics from 'very high' to 'high' to 'medium'

"Repair" option through Origin

Clean uninstall with uninstalling all sims games/expansion packs while also deleting sims 4 folder in documents

Starting from scratch (not using any mods or saves)

System restore through Windows 10 to before the problem began occurring

Uninstalling everything, removing mods and saves, and not reinstalling Eco Lifestyle.

The Simulation Lag mod patch

Specs:

Acer Aspire A515-43

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

RAM: 8GB

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U

Graphics: Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx 2.19 GHz; x64

500 SSD

[puzzlezaddict]

@andprosper  That's quite a lot you've tried.  Just to be extra thorough, have you in fact tried playing in a completely fresh Sims 4 folder also without adding anything back?  (It sounds like you probably did, but just in case.)  If you've only been removing content from that folder, or creating a fresh folder but adding back content, please instead move the entire folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, then run another repair.  Don't add anything at all to the new folder that spawns; just start a new save and see how it goes.

If that doesn't or didn't help, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

[andprosper]

I believe I did that during the uninstall and re-install, but I can't honestly remember, so I've been trying it again just to be sure. The error occurred about two hours in. Let sims generate the folders itself and didn't add anything back. 

[puzzlezaddict]

@andprosper  There are a number of Windows errors in your dxdiag.  So it's a good idea to run a couple of basic checks on your Windows system files.  Here's how:

• 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

If sfc reports that it found corrupt files and was unable to repair some of them, please let me know, and stop here.  Otherwise, restart your computer, then manually run any pending Windows updates: hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.

Your dxdiag also lists a few errors related to an element of the Acer User Experience Improvement Program.  So before you launch the game again, please find any tasks with that name (or similar) and End Task.  Then see if it makes a difference.  If you're looking, the exact faulting module is AppMonitorPlugIn.exe, although I'm not sure what you'd see in the Task Manager.

[andprosper]

No errors during restore health. Completed successfully.

During sfc scan now, here is the message:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Giving you this update right now before I try restarting and handle any of my Acer User Experience Errors. 

Thank you

[jeni2810]

Ah ha! I have found someone else with the exact same problem as me.

I started a new save game, in Strangerville, with a single sim, adopted a dog. A few hours into game play, my sim and the dog just seem to be standing around, not frozen, but standing on the spot, the dog wags its tail. The next action doesn't drop in to active, if I cancel the current action, my sim may move to the next object but just stand there and doesn't complete it. Game time moves on. The neighbours continue to walk by, as much as a Stangerville neighbour can!  If NPC visitors are hanging out, the same happens to them.

My go to solution was to travel and come back, which solved the issue for a while. But it has been happening progressively sooner and sooner too. And to top it all, it went and happened just as they would most likely have defeated the mother!

So I haven't tried as many things as OP, but I tried repairing through Origin. 

I checked out my graphics and made sure my dedicated card was selected. - I had wondered if all the extra effects in Strangerville were the reason!

I tried an old save but not for long, as it seemed OK, and I was thinking it was my new save game.

My game was playable ish! until all my efforts to solve the Strangerville mystery were then thwarted!

I may be wrong, but now I have found another player with the exact same issue, this doesn't feel like a hardware issue, though I am more than willing to be proved wrong and find a way of solving this.

Specs

Lenovo Ideapad 510

Intel Core i5 6200U  CPU @ 2.3Ghz 2.4Ghz

RAM 8GB

64bit windows 10

Graphics Nvidia GEforce 940MX

[puzzlezaddict]

@jeni2810  Does it make a difference if you play this same save in a clean user data folder?  Move your entire Sims 4 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop, then launch the game to create a clean folder.  You can quit at the Main Menu.  Go into the saves folder inside the Sims 4 folder you moved, and copy your most recent save.  (You can tell them apart by last modified date.)  Paste the save inside Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves, and you should be able to load it from the Main Menu.

[andprosper]

Okay! So I found a solution (so far!)

Sorry for taking a while to get back, but I wanted to play for a while to make sure it didn't happen. 

I did the following: 

https://help.ea.com/en-in/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

And I had no problems playing 8 hours yesterday. It might be a combination of the above and the solutions already worked through, but this was the final step that seemed to fix it so far. 

Oddly enough, my problem also originally cropped up in Strangerville, but followed me around to other neighborhoods when I went to see if it was a neighborhood problem (tried Brindleton Bay and Newcrest.) 

[jeni2810]

Ooh Nice! Interesting it was Strangerville too. At first, as it was my first proper save game there I wasn't 100% it wasn't supposed to be a gameplay thing!

I'm currently in 3rd hour of playing a previous save game, no problems. And hence thinking of workarounds so as not to have to start a new save, which was my current theory! 

Clearing the cache makes loads of sense! I shall go and do that now.

Fingers crossed, as having invested in all EPs, GPs and Stuff Packs in the last 3 months I was going to awfully disappointed if I now had a laptop that no longer coped really well! Thank You

Clearing!