Starting the game sometimes stalls the whole pc [ Edited ]

[Zasz_Zerg]

I start the game, it loads the main menu, I hit the play button, loading, selecting lot, loading, playing. All fine. Later the same day I start the game again and as soon as the main menu is visible it essentially stalls my entire pc, music in the background stops, the clock stops because I can see the seconds not ticking anymore (two screens), windows arent responding anymore... Its like someone hit the pause button for my machine.

On patch day its the worst because I need to start and close the game quite often and this happens at random. I noticed that the freeze seems to be related to the time until the main menu news are loaded. Once they are fully loaded and my system is partially responding again, it goes away completely. Or when I switch to the packs "tab" quickly it reduces the freeze effect and it goes away faster.

It happens with and without mods.

It happens with and without enabled anti-virus.

And this started with the new menu system.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Zasz_Zerg  So, to be clear, this issue never happens if you're using the mod that restores the load Main Menu screen, but it often happens if you're not?  Does it help if you put Origin in offline mode and take your computer offline before launching Sims 4?  I realize that's not a sustainable option, but it would be useful to know whether it makes a difference.

If you use any programs that include overlays (Steam, Discord, etc.) while you play, please test without those programs running.  Be sure to check the Task Manager's background processes list for any related entries and kill whatever you find; Discord in particular can leave a process running in the background while it's supposedly closed.

[Zasz_Zerg]

I stopped using that mod because its no longer compatible with another mod. But as I said, even when I moved ALL mods out of the folder this problem still occurs.

Yesterday I put the origin client into offline mode, tried to access the gallery, went online with origin, resumed my gallery search and it instantly stalled my system.

I have discord but no overlay and its using only a fraction of my system resources. And the fact that this problem only occurs with sims 4 demonstrates that discord has no part in this. Unless starting sims 4 somehow triggers discord which is still the game's fault.

I assume this problem occurs when the game starts to request data through origin. I dont know why it would need to do that every day when the main menu shouldnt have anything that can stall a decent gaming machine. But this can happen in a similar but weaker manner when I access the gallery because opening it instantly make the game request data for gallery items.

A fix on maxis' end would be to put the news tab infront when opening the gallery so it doesnt automatically request data unless the player goes to the public gallery tab and starts a search.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Zasz_Zerg  If this were a problem on EA's end, we'd see a lot more reports.  So it's likely something on your system, perhaps an antivirus that objects to the connection to EA servers or a setting that prevents the game from writing data in a particular location.

It's always a good idea to try playing with nothing else running in the background, whether the other apps work fine in other contexts or not.

[Zasz_Zerg]

My antivirus hasnt changed in a year. The documents folder is an exception to prevent any interference. If it were my antivirus it would cause this problem every time I start the game. But it usually only does this the second time of the day I start the game. After that its random until I restart my machine.

My hardware hasnt changed in over a year. Occasionally I update my graphic card drivers but they didnt affect sims in years.

It also doesnt matter what runs in the background.

I occasionally delete the localthumbcache.package because its suggested we do that when we update certain mods or on patch day.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Zasz_Zerg  Programs can update, including your antivirus, and Windows will automatically update drivers along with everything else if you don't block it.  And again, if this were purely a Sims 4 issue, as opposed to an interaction between the game and your system or another application, there would be more reports than just yours.

Please try playing in a clean boot, with no other programs running.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-...

I realize that this is inconvenient, but it's important to know whether the problem happens in a clean boot environment.  Either way, that narrows down the cause by a significant amount.

Please also run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

And let me know whether you use OneDrive.

[Zasz_Zerg]

I know these things. Thats why I came here. And its a new issue. The amount or lack of reports doesnt indicate anything. This "blame the user first" isnt helping.

Its not my antivirus because even with it disabled the problem occurs. It would also affect other programs which it doesnt. And both sims folders are on the exeption list.

Nope to the clean boot because I dont know if I can restore the system. There arent that many background programs running because Im very careful about these things.

Dxdiag attached.

I dont really use onedrive. Its active but since its not uploading anything I just disabled it completely to not start with windows again.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Zasz_Zerg  Your dxdiag lists one Origin error, so it's a good idea to do a clean uninstall and reinstall of Origin:

• Quit Origin, then right-click on the Task Bar and open the Task Manager.  Scroll through looking for Origin entries.  If you find any, click on them and End Task.
• Clear Origin's cache.
• Download Revo Uninstaller (the free version is fine) from here.
• Launch Revo, select Origin from the list, and click Uninstall.
• When it finishes uninstalling, select "Moderate" under "scanning modes," and click Scan.
• If Revo finds any remaining registry entries, select all, delete, and click Next.
• Revo will display "Remaining Data and Folders."  Select all of them except for the "Origin Games" folder, if it appears.  (This is where Sims 4 and other Origin games are installed by default.)  Delete the rest.
• Close Revo, and restart your computer.

Next, download the full Origin installer and run it.  Here's the direct download link:

http://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe

Be sure to run both the installer and Origin itself as an admin: right-click on each and select "Run as Administrator."

If that doesn't help though, the clean boot would be the next step.  This doesn't involve messing with your system settings, just temporarily disabling all non-Windows services.  Undoing it is as simple as checking all the boxes again and restarting.  And if you already have certain services disabled and don't want to accidentally reenable those after the clean boot, you can make a list or take a couple of screenshots so you remember which services to leave alone.

Several antivirus programs flag Sims 4, and apparently only Sims 4, at least among applications people who post here use.  A number of them started blocking the game in November, and one in July.  And one of those had settings that still blocked Sims 4 even when the antivirus was allegedly disabled.

I'm not "blaming the user first," I'm saying that in a game that literally millions of people play, it is clearly not entirely broken or we'd have hundreds of reports as we have the other recent times it was broken.  But we don't.  So the question becomes why it's broken on your system and not most other people's.

[Zasz_Zerg]

I suspected something like that when origin crashed while my pc was experiencing the heavy lag. I will work through it later today. Thanks.

Finished reinstalling origin. It caused my game to forget that I own all packs. Had to repair the game.

[Zasz_Zerg]

Did some mod testing yesterday and today for a creator. I noticed that it doesnt matter if I go offline in origin. It reduces the problem when it occurs slightly, visibly, Sometimes it crashs origin. In that case origin pops up as a minimalist version of itself but it broken, cant be interacted with except for the X to close it.