Sims 4 Sounds cut out, can't exit game and mouths don't move

[Anarchy9009]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.50.67.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Cats & Dogs, City Living, Get Famous, Get to Work, Get Together, Seasons, Outdoor Retreat, Parenthood, Spa Day, StrangerVille, Vampires, Backyard Stuff, Bowling Night Stuff, Cool Kitchen Stuff, Fitness Stuff, Kids Room Stuff, Laundry Stuff, Luxury Party Stuff, Perfect Patio Stuff, Romantic Garden Stuff, Spooky Stuff, Vintage Glamour Stuff.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Playing the game normally, no mods installed and custom content disabled. This will happen at any time randomly, sometimes 10 minutes into gaming or after 2-3 hours gaming.
What happens when the bug occurs? The sound will suddenly cut out whilst playing, I am able to tab out and test the sound it outputs at and all sounds work except in The Sims 4. I cannot exit if I choose "Exit Game" and therefore have to use CTRL+ALT+DEL. I cannot go into another program (for example, I can't go and use Task Manager even though I've launched it and it appears on my taskbar), which then leads me to sign out of my computer, then sign back in. A way around I've found to not sign out is to tab out of the game before I go to "Exit Game", then open Task Manager and End Task on The Sims 4.
What do you expect to see? Once the sound cuts out, the sims mouths will not move when they're supposed to talk, almost like as if they're glued shut.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure 

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Hi all. So I've been experiencing a really awful bug on my game. Basically, I know that some of you have had the problem of the sound suddenly cutting out from your game, and I've tried what other forums have said. All of my drivers are up to date, I've removed all mods and custom content, i've even gone nuclear with this by reinstalling the game over. I've done everything possible to sort this mess out, but nothing works. PLEASE can someone help me? I'm getting frustrated. I've attached a video I took of what happens when the sound cuts out, like the sims mouths stop moving as if they're glued shut. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76hPfjnOVoA&feature=youtu.be

[Anarchy9009 · Accepted solution]

Hey guys. Thanks for the help and everything. I've updated my sound driver to the latest one now, but that still turned out to be a dead end. HOWEVER, I feel pretty confident that I've FINALLY found the solution. 

I think that it's not any of the games on Origin, though it was affecting my Origin games mostly this glitch, nor was it the update of my sound driver. I've noticed this notification turn up on my PC saying "you've plugged in an audio device" spring up, then suddenly disappear. So looking online, I've found some have said that you can disable this notification, though I think it's because it annoys them when their PC makes a noise and gives you a notification whilst your busy. Not only that, but I've plugged my speakers into the front port now instead of the back to see if that would make a difference. So possibly one of the two solutions were found and I hope it may help someone else who has said on here they've experienced it. 

Solution 1: The PC notification interrupted my gameplay and caused instability (before on my laptop, if I got a notification about my antivirus software or my PC needed to restart, it would pull me out of the game and require immediate action). Because it couldn't pop me out of the game, or tell my whilst I was in game, it threw a wobbler and decided "NO SOUND FOR YOU!". I've only noticed it does this with all my Origin games. My Steam games stop for a brief moment and then continue as normal but it was enough for me to question if something was wrong with my PC's hardware or even software. 

Solution 2: There's possibly a problem with my audio jack at the back of my PC that has been causing these glitches. Switching over the port to another audio jack may solved this issue, though I didn't test this out after disabling notifications about the audio device.

I can play for hours on end now and there would be no glitching, but I'm still a little suspicious about whether or not this has worked. Feel free to label this as an accepted solution if you think it has worked out too. If it doesn't work out... I may go nuclear on my PC and restart everything from scratch! 

Shoutout to Crinrict for your help! 

Happy gaming, guys and girls! 

[crinrict]

HI @Anarchy9009 

moving this to the tech forum for troubleshooting

Are you using head phones or speakers ? If you have both, do you get the issue on both ? Do you have any background programs running ?

You're video link doesn't work for me unfortunately. 

[Anarchy9009]

Hi Crin

I'm using normal speakers, the sound is set to "Stereo" on audio options in game. As far as I know for background programs, all I have running is Origin to launch the game. 

Apologies for the video link, I set the video to "Private" when it was supposed to be "Unlisted". It should work now. 

Thanks for the response

James

[crinrict]

Hi @Anarchy9009 

Try resetting your user files as described in the factory reset described in this post: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4/FAQ-Troubleshooting-Steps-amp-Known-Issues/m-p/3621199

You won't loose anything. Just make sure to not delete any files  and make a backup.

After renaming, repair your game by right clicking on the game in Origin.

Try on a new game with nothing added back first (start new game). If it works, put back your save game and try again. If it still works, you can start putting stuff back.

• Options.ini (or just re-set all your settings manually)
• Tray Folder
• Screenshots/Videos/Custom music
• Rest of the save games (leave out slot_00000001.save which is the autosave and no longer needed - if you still have it)
• Custom content like clothing, hair, skins, make up ....
• Mods (one by one, making sure they all still work)

The rest does not need putting back, cause they are mostly cache files that recreate or log files that are not needed for the game.

[mh4515]

This has happened recently to me as well, sound disappears after a while and sims mouths do not move.

Other interesting things to note is that the game disappears from the windows sound mixer, when attempting to shut down the game it will crash and not respond.

Update: Following the advices from other posts, deleting config.log and options.ini in the sims4 folder in my documents seems to have fixed it.

[Anarchy9009]

Hello! 

Sorry for not replying to you both, but I think I've found a solution.

I haven't replied to anyone because I've been extensively trying to find a solution. While I did what Crin said, the problem still occurred. Even uninstalling any mods at all, reinstalling the game from scratch proved nothing worked. I think the problem starts when loading between screens (CAS, Map view, locations). 

I'm fairly positive that since I played The Sims 4 from my SSD, problems started to arise, possibly with loading causing bugs and such. I'm no hardware expert, but I believe that my SSD has caused this glitch/bug to happen. I've just put the game files back onto my HDD and played for a good hour or so and there's no sound cutting out at all. 

Although SSDs are famously known to cut down loading times, I think some games aren't compatible. Hopefully this would work for anyone else who like me installed their game on an SSD. That is to say that NOT all SSDs are to blame, it might be mine alone but it's a solution that seems to have worked. 

Anyway, happy gaming, Simmers! 
James 

[crinrict]

HI @Anarchy9009

glad to hear you were able to solve this.

[Anarchy9009]

Hi again Crin

Unfortunately, the problem still exists. But I think I've narrowed it down. It seems to trigger while or after I've gone into CAS, is there any possible fix for this at all? 

Sorry for jumping the gun, I should've done an extensive test first. 

James 

[crinrict]

I've seen reports like this before but I kinda can't remember what helped, especially as I'm really bad with sound issues.

Could you post your Computer's DxDiag?

To gather a DxDiag on your computer, please follow the steps here: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

You can attach the txt file to your post directly.

[Anarchy9009]

Hey Crin 

Hope this sheds some light on the situation. 

Thanks 

James