Sims 4 ts4.exe error and/or activationui.exe (0xc0000142)

[SRP03]

For the last 7 days Sims 4 has been failing to run on our Windows PC.

After installing Cats & Dogs it worked for a day and then produces either ts4.exe won't start correctly or activationui.exe Application Error.

Both say:

The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142).  Click OK to close the application.

Tried:

Re-installation of Sims 4, Origin, Visual Studio 2005-2015, including re-installing only the base game.  No joy

Cache has been cleared, clean boot tried, pretty much everything bar a re-installation of Windows 10.  In the middle of last week here was a major Windows 10 update, which I hoped would resolve things, but no joy.

Graphics Drivers updated.

Sims 3 fails exactly the same way as well.

DxDiag attached.

Windows logs seems to point to MS Virtual Studio 2010, which has been uninstalled and re-installed:

ActivationUI.exe

4.10.0.680

55e4b711

MSVCP100.dll

10.0.40219.325

4df2be41

c0000005

000290b0

6c

01d367951870db82

C:\PROGRA~2\ORIGIN~1\THESIM~1\Game\Bin\Core\ActivationUI.exe

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\MSVCP100.dll

e15aa7ce-8961-402a-8f26-dbf445f96d8f

Any pointers welcome

Thanks

[SRP03 · Accepted solution]

Finally got Sims 4 running for my daughter again.

Reinstalled Windows 10 etc... on top of everything else and no joy. However, when trying to install Sims 4 again after this, it came up with an installation error:

The VC++ Runtime Redistributable package was not installed successfully. Setup cannot continue (536870913)

Uninstalling and reinstalling all the VC++ files failed to achieve anything, but I found this post and followed the instructions.

https://help.ea.com/en-gb/help/origin/origin/your-vc-runtime-package-has-not-installed-correctly-err...

It didn't work, but when I located the VC++ 2010 files in the Sims 4 installer folder and tried to run x86 from there, it said the file is corrupt, even after I then reinstalled VC++ again.

So I manually replaced the 10.0.40219.1 VC++ files in that folder with the fresh 10.0.40219.325 files already downloaded and installed.

Voila. It's finished installing and loaded.

[jpkarlsen]

The Cats & Dogs expansion requires 64 bit. so In Origin change from 32 bit to 64 bit. Your Windows is 64 bit so you wont have problems with this change. If you use a shortcut to ts4.exe change it to point to ts4_x64.exe instead.

[SRP03]

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately already tried that and ts4_x64.exe has the exact same crash.

Should add that have tried both 32-bit and 64-bit in Origin options.  Was already on 64-bit before the crashing started (I think).

[jpkarlsen]

Did you get a new version of the Origin client from origin.com or was it an old version you reinstalled?

[SRP03]

The latest version from Origin.com

Showing as version 10.5.6.6235

[jpkarlsen]

You are currently running a preview build of Windows 10. Try upgrading to the released Fall Creators Update and see if that helps.

[SRP03]

Will do thanks. 

Once that's done I'll update the thread.

[jpkarlsen]

Also try the troubleshooting steps here:

[Edited by EA_Mai: link removed]

[SRP03]

Thanks.

Tried most of those steps already and running a full chkdsk /f /r /x the other day helped clean things up so SFC now scans without finding anything.  Didn't help Sims mind you.  

Had a look at a regedit suggestion the other day, but I'll check the one in the link, which may be different.

Also going to try reverting to the 17.1.1 AMD Crimson driver because the latest driver appears to have had some issues with the Windows 10 build you highlighted earlier.

[SRP03 · Accepted solution]

Finally got Sims 4 running for my daughter again.

Reinstalled Windows 10 etc... on top of everything else and no joy. However, when trying to install Sims 4 again after this, it came up with an installation error:

The VC++ Runtime Redistributable package was not installed successfully. Setup cannot continue (536870913)

Uninstalling and reinstalling all the VC++ files failed to achieve anything, but I found this post and followed the instructions.

https://help.ea.com/en-gb/help/origin/origin/your-vc-runtime-package-has-not-installed-correctly-err...

It didn't work, but when I located the VC++ 2010 files in the Sims 4 installer folder and tried to run x86 from there, it said the file is corrupt, even after I then reinstalled VC++ again.

So I manually replaced the 10.0.40219.1 VC++ files in that folder with the fresh 10.0.40219.325 files already downloaded and installed.

Voila. It's finished installing and loaded.