Sims 4 Randomly Quitting?

[MaddieTiddy]

Hi guys,

So my sims 4 game has been great up until now as it keeps randomly closing while I’m playing. The game doesn’t crash or come up with any errors, it literally freezes for about half a second then takes me straight to my desktop. It doesn’t happen THAT often but it’s happened a couple times now and I’ve lost a lot of progress. I have no idea what could be causing this so any help is appreciated, I will attach dxDiag to this for those who want it. 

Thanks  

[puzzlezaddict]

@MaddieTiddy  Your dxdiag crashed and is missing a lot of information, at least some of which may be relevant.  Definitely relevant is that your Windows build is over two years old now.  Is there a reason you haven't updated yet?  At this point, updating through the usual Windows settings interface may not work; there's a more reliable way to do it, but it would be better to see what else is in your dxdiag first.

Please start by running 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

Restart your computer, and run a new dxdiag.  And please let me know if you have a reason not to update Windows.

[MaddieTiddy]

Over two years old?! I did not know that, wow lol. There is definitely no direct reason why I shouldn't have the newest Windows installed, aside from the fact that this isn't my main computer (only used for gaming so maybe I just never bothered to update it?) or the fact that it says that the last Windows update failed. 

I have done the below steps and the message I recieved from  “sfc /scannow” was: 

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

I'm going to restart my laptop and run another dxDiag so I'll post that in a moment. 

[MaddieTiddy]

New dxdiag is attached, although it gave me an error: 

"DxDiag has detected that there might have been a problem accessing the system information the last time this program was used. Would you like to bypass the system information this time?"

Could that be why it didnt give all the information last time?

[MaddieTiddy]

(DxDiag)

[puzzlezaddict]

@MaddieTiddy  The dxdiag crashed in system information last time, so yes, that's why it didn't include all the info.  It's there now though.

While an older build of Windows should in theory be able to run Sims 4 just fine, in practice, this could explain the crashing.  (There could also be plenty of other reasons.)  Your graphics drivers are both very new, the game is fully updated, and a mismatch between the drivers or game and the Windows resources they expect to be able to use can cause problems even on an otherwise perfectly maintained machine.  So the first place I'd start is with a Windows update.

Since you're four builds behind, it's better to do a repair install than just push the update.  It's more complicated, but the end result is a fresh install of Windows, while keeping all your apps and files.  It's still a good idea to back up anything critical, as always when you're doing a feature update, but the repair install was designed not to delete any user data.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

You can use a USB or create an ISO, but don't use the Media Creation Tool.

When it's done, manually run any other pending Windows updates.  Hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.  When they've run, restart your computer and test the game.

To be clear, this is a more complicated approach than some other troubleshooting steps you could take.  But since you don't have any reason to stay on such an old Windows build, you might as well start here.

[MaddieTiddy]

So I may have discovered why I never update windows. I followed all your steps but it didnt work as I revieved an error (photo of said error attached). 

I have a custom gaming laptop that displays a loading screen for the company upon start up. Every time I have tried to update windows, this screen becomes stuck and I am unable to enter safe mode or open task manager so I have no choice but to power off my pc and turn it back on again. This always messes up the update but I have no idea how to get passed it!!

[puzzlezaddict]

@MaddieTiddy  First, unplug any nonessential peripheral devices, basically everything other than your mouse and keyboard.  Disable any third-party antivirus/firewall you have as well.  Since you're not going to be doing anything other than updating Windows itself and essential drivers (provided by Windows), you should be fine.

Run any pending Windows updates that aren't specifically about updating to a new build.  Hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the button to check for updates.  If Windows tries to update straight to 2004 from here, it will likely fail again, but there may be other updates waiting that it would be useful to have.

Next, hit Windows key-X and select Device Manager.  Under each category, click on each entry, then click the black and green icon at the top that says "Update device driver."  Most of the drivers probably won't need to be updated, but check them all anyway.  If there's a warning icon next to any device, please let me know what it is and whether updating the driver helps.

If you still can't update Windows, please link me the site where you ordered your laptop.  I'd like to look for other new drivers you might need as well.

It should also be noted that one of the causes of this kind of error is not having enough hard drive space.  Yours has plenty according to your newer dxdiag, but if that 45 GB somehow dropped below 20 between the dxdiag and now, that would also explain the error.

[MaddieTiddy]

I've just fully disabled all antivirus and firewalls and am trying to complete the first step you gave me about checking for updates. I do not see a button to directly check for updates but it seemed to automtically start installing a Windows update. I've let it do this before, but when it reaches 100% it always tries to restart my PC, that is when my PC freezes on the custom screen.  (Meaning all updates fail) I'm still giving it a go and I'll let you know what happens. I will then try your next step about the device drivers.

My pc is from Scan (3XS Systems) and I've already tried contacting them but they are only able to help me if I can give them the invoice from when the Pc was purchased. I got this laptop a few years ago as a gift and my dad is unable to find any invoice for it so I'm assuming they can't help. But if you can find anything useful the website is here: https://www.scan.co.uk/3xs

As for hard drive space, my main hard drive has 31GB free and my storage one as 314Gb free still

[puzzlezaddict]

@MaddieTiddy  You can skip to the Device Manager portion if the other one is giving you issues.  If that doesn't help with the error, try setting your connection to metered; I think it's under Settings > Network > Advanced.  This usually prevents Windows from automatically downloading any updates it thinks you need, so you can click the button to check for updates and see what's pending.