Sims 4 won't launch on my PC

[LadyDiva32]

I have literally tried everything. To get Sims 4 to launch. It was working fine last week and then today I try to open it and nothing happens. I'm running on a PC Windows 10 64 bit. Gaming PC basically. I've tried to switch it to 64 bit in the origin app and still nothing. So annoying at this point

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@LadyDiva32  Just to be clear, you can and should be running the 64-bit version of Sims 4.  There's no reason to try to run the Legacy Edition.

The Sims 4 errors in your dxdiag are almost all related to Nahimic, which is a component of the audio software provided by Dell.  The fastest way to see whether Nahimic is the problem is to kill any entries that mention it in the Task Manager, then try to play.  You'll have to do this each time you restart your computer, since the reboot will also restart Nahimic.

Since your sound driver is already the latest version, updating won't help, and uninstalling and reinstalling may not either.  Nahimic is notoriously difficult to get rid of permanently; Windows will even redownload it if it detects it's missing.  If killing Nahimic in the Task Manager gets too annoying, and you don't have any other uses for the app, let me know, and I can suggest a few steps that might disable it by default, that is until you decide to reenable it, or your audio driver updates.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@LadyDiva32  Just to be clear, you can and should be running the 64-bit version of Sims 4.  There's no reason to try to run the Legacy Edition.

The Sims 4 errors in your dxdiag are almost all related to Nahimic, which is a component of the audio software provided by Dell.  The fastest way to see whether Nahimic is the problem is to kill any entries that mention it in the Task Manager, then try to play.  You'll have to do this each time you restart your computer, since the reboot will also restart Nahimic.

Since your sound driver is already the latest version, updating won't help, and uninstalling and reinstalling may not either.  Nahimic is notoriously difficult to get rid of permanently; Windows will even redownload it if it detects it's missing.  If killing Nahimic in the Task Manager gets too annoying, and you don't have any other uses for the app, let me know, and I can suggest a few steps that might disable it by default, that is until you decide to reenable it, or your audio driver updates.

[LadyDiva32]

Ty yes that worked and I remember the update for the audio when it happened. Yes please tell me how to disable that because if its affecting this game it may affect WoW as well. That will get annoying fast having to end task every time. Thanks so much for responding to me.

[puzzlezaddict]

@LadyDiva32  There are a couple approaches that might work, but I haven't tested them myself, so I don't know for sure.  They're reversible though, in case you see any unwanted side effects.

First, try going through Services.  Hit Windows key-R and enter "services.msc" without quotes.  Scroll through the list looking for anything with Nahimic in the name.  For any entries you find, double-click, select "Disabled" under Startup type, and Apply.  Then restart your computer to see whether Nahimic is still running.  You can check the Task Manager and the Services list—if the TM shows Nahimic running again, I'd be interested to know whether the setting in Services reverted or not.

If that approach doesn't help, try using the Clean Boot method to selectively disable Nahimic:

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