Sound is gone

[SoakAToa]

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? 1.74.80.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All Expansions as of 1/28/2021, Outdoor Retreat
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? On startup if it's affecting your game
What happens when the bug occurs? The sound is gone
What do you expect to see? I expect sound
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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The sound is completely gone, as though muted though I haven't changed anything in the past few days. I checked the in-game volume, my out-of-game volume mixer, I updated my audio devices, I did a clean reinstall of Sims 4, I rebooted, and still nothing. My audio is fine for other games and anything else on my computer. The Sims 4 sound was fine just a few days ago. I have changed no settings whatsoever since then.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@SoakAToa  I meant what kind of sound device is supposed to produce the sound itself, e.g. Bluetooth speakers, headphones connected via jack, etc.  Sometimes the "active" device, at least as far as Sims 4 is concerned, is one you've unplugged or disabled.

Anyway, the more obvious issue is that Nahimic has been crashing.  Try disabling it in the Task Manager (under Background processes) before you open Sims 4.  It will restart the next time you reboot your computer.

It may be unrelated, but your graphics driver is also crashing.  Since you already have the newest Nvidia driver, it's a good idea to do a clean uninstall and reinstall.  Download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3403

Get a fresh copy of the newest driver here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/170313/en-us

Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe.  Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract.  If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window.  Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode.  Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog.  Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:

Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again.  For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting).  Once you login, you'll see this:

In the blue box, choose GPU, then Nvidia if it's not already showing.  Then click Clean and Restart (red box).

Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the driver install .exe in custom mode.  Select "perform a clean installation" and install ONLY the GPU driver and the PHYSX software.

Reboot again, go back online, and test the game.

[puzzlezaddict]

@SoakAToa  Just checking, but did you ever tell Origin to run the game without sound?  You can check easily enough: open your Origin game library, right-click on the Sims 4 icon, select Game Properties > Advanced Launch Options, and look for a -nosound entry in the command line box.  If it's there, delete it and save the change.

Otherwise, try removing options.ini from Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4.  You'll need to redo all your in-game settings, but if the original file is corrupted, you'll need to replace it anyway.  If that doesn't help, you can delete the new options.ini and put the old one back instead of changing your settings, if you want.

If that doesn'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/

Please also let me know which sound device(s) you've been using.

[SoakAToa]

Hi @puzzlezaddict , unfortunately I found nothing in the advanced launch options and deleted the Options.ini, restarted, and still the same issue occurs. Attached is my dxdiag, and I assume I'm using the Realtek High Definition Audio, as it's the only speakers in my Device Manager.

I just checked reddit and it looks like I'm not the only one experiencing this mysterious new problem.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@SoakAToa  I meant what kind of sound device is supposed to produce the sound itself, e.g. Bluetooth speakers, headphones connected via jack, etc.  Sometimes the "active" device, at least as far as Sims 4 is concerned, is one you've unplugged or disabled.

Anyway, the more obvious issue is that Nahimic has been crashing.  Try disabling it in the Task Manager (under Background processes) before you open Sims 4.  It will restart the next time you reboot your computer.

It may be unrelated, but your graphics driver is also crashing.  Since you already have the newest Nvidia driver, it's a good idea to do a clean uninstall and reinstall.  Download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3403

Get a fresh copy of the newest driver here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/170313/en-us

Next, take your computer completely offline—disable wifi and/or pull the ethernet cord—and double-click the DDU.exe.  Take note of where the file will land, and click Extract.  If it's easier, you can copy the path and then paste it into the address bar in a File Explorer window.  Open the folder and then launch Display Driver Uninstaller.exe, and you'll get a message that you're not in Safe Mode.  Click OK, then go to Options and enable Safe Mode dialog.  Here's a screenshot of what your options should look like; make sure the box in red is checked:

Close options, and the DDU, and then open the DDU.exe again.  For launch options, choose "Safe Mode (Recommended)," and then click Reboot to Safe Mode (you'll need your password, so find it before rebooting).  Once you login, you'll see this:

In the blue box, choose GPU, then Nvidia if it's not already showing.  Then click Clean and Restart (red box).

Once your computer has rebooted, now back in normal mode, run the driver install .exe in custom mode.  Select "perform a clean installation" and install ONLY the GPU driver and the PHYSX software.

Reboot again, go back online, and test the game.

[SoakAToa]

Ah, right on the money! It was Nahimic, disabling it fixed the issue. I've restarted Sims 4 several times now to check and it works reliably. Thank you very much @puzzlezaddict 

[Rumplestiltsim]

Hello i am having this same problem but i dont think i have the same drivers or information as OP. I have attached my dxdiag if theres any insight you could provide. thank you in advance @puzzlezaddict 

[puzzlezaddict]

@Rumplestiltsim  You're right, there's no sign Nahimic on your computer, and it usually doesn't come pre-installed on Asus laptops.

The immediate concern is that your dxdiag is full of errors that suggest an issue with the hard drive (or possibly RAM).  The first thing to do is to clear more space on your C drive—7 GB isn't really enough for Windows to maneuver, especially while you're trying to play a game.  20 GB free is a good goal, but 15 should at least eliminate free storage as a cause of this issue.  Your Downloads folder might have some files you can trash.

Next, please run chkdsk on both drives:

• Hit Windows key-X
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
• Inside the window that appears, copy and paste "chkdsk /f /r c:" without quotes, and enter
• You'll be asked to allow a restart; say yes
• When the scan is done, use this guide to find the results
• Repeat the above, this time entering "chkdsk /f /r d:"
• Attach both reports to a post here

[Rumplestiltsim]

Hello thanks for the speedy response but I am having trouble following the instructions every time i run the command chkdsk /f /r c: it says something about the drive being locked but that it can run next time i restart the system and i clicked yes as requested and then restarted it. the first time it took like an hour and then when i followed the instructions on how to see the results of the scan it shows the picture below which shows nothing. I did this process like 2 or 3 times it took less time the more I did it. I dont know if this means there was no scan or im clicking the wrong thing but I am following the instructions on the website to the T so i am confused here. I will try for the second drive but I am not hopeful.

i attempted to run the command for the d drive and the message it shows is below. I am unsure what dismounting the d drive means exactly but my game is installed on the d drive so i dont know if thats useful information or what I am supposed to click here. Thanks

[puzzlezaddict]

@Rumplestiltsim  You can try not filtering the logs in Application instead.  Look for anything that was written around when chkdsk finished.  There will probably be a pile of trivial reports from the reboot, but if you scan the Source column, you should be able to pick out the wininit and chkdsk logs, if they're there.  If you see an error from when the log should have been written, please post that info instead.

You can also try running the command listed in the guide to create a chkdsk.txt file on your desktop.

Edit:  I just saw your new edit.  The error happens when you have something running from the drive in question.  When the drive is C, you need to reboot to let chkdsk do its thing; otherwise, it should be enough to close all programs (including File Explorer) that might be using data from the other drive.  If you can't figure out what that might be, try rebooting your computer and not opening anything at all except for Powershell.

[Rumplestiltsim]

Okay thanks for the help ive got the files. @puzzlezaddict