Unable to open Sims 4 in Windowed Mode

[Kazuzi3]

I posted this as a reply to someone else, but I figured maybe I should post it again in case I'm having a different issue to them.

I typically play Sims 4 in windowed mode, but have been unable to open the game in windowed mode for about two months now (an on and off occasionally before that, but especially after the November 17 update). I will go to open it, it will show the Sims 4 logo and then just go to a blank white screen after sort of minimizing itself. After a lot of attempts to fix it, I've realized it has to be related to windowed mode. I can open the game every time in full screen mode, but very rarely in windowed mode (possibly also related to night light on the computer, but I don't think it's necessarily limited to that).

I've found somewhat of a work around so I can still play the game. I open the game in full screen mode and then go into game options and change it to windowed and play; I then make sure I go back to full screen mode before exiting the Sims so that I can reopen the game. It's functional so that I can play, but also fairly frustrating to have to go into game setting every time I want to play. I'm really not sure what the fix or issue is to that.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Kazuzi3  Laptops come with manufacturer-provided software, most of which is specific to one or two companies, so what gets installed on a Dell might have no overlap with what's installed on an Acer.  Whether you consider these programs "bloatware" or not usually depends on whether you can identify any redeeming value in them, which is not always possible.  So you can get an idea of what's installed on your Dell, here's its download page:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/g-series-15-3590-laptop/drivers

Most laptop manufacturers also tweak the Nvidia/AMD/Intel-created graphics drivers to work better on their laptops.  While this is a good thing in general, one of the changes might have unintended consequences, like for example not being able to play a game in windowed mode.

I'd still suspect the other Dell software though, either alone or in conflict with something else you have running, especially because your laptop is popular enough that I'd have expected to see more reports of this problem by now.  So try disabling any Dell software, e.g. the Alienware Command Center, in the Task Manager before you play.  Worst case, if something essential stops working, just reboot your laptop, and the process will restart as well.  And don't run any other overlays (Steam, Discord, etc.) either.

A more thorough intervention would be a clean boot, but you'd still need to go through the Task Manager's background processes list and close anything that didn't need to be running.  Some software ignores the clean boot, for whatever reason.

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

[puzzlezaddict]

@Kazuzi3  If you'd like to troubleshoot the issue, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

If you ever forget to switch back to fullscreen, you can set the fullscreen value to 1 in options.ini, which is in Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4.  It'll switch back to 0 when you change to windowed mode in-game.

[Kazuzi3]

I've attached the DxDiag. I think it might be worth pointing out though that this is the second computer I have had this issue with. This computer and the computer where I also had the issue are both made by Dell (I can't access the other computer anymore to get any information from there unfortunately). I also ran the Sims 4 on an Acer laptop in between running it on the two dell computers and never had the issue with the Acer laptop. Don't know what's different about those two, but it might be something that could help.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@Kazuzi3  Laptops come with manufacturer-provided software, most of which is specific to one or two companies, so what gets installed on a Dell might have no overlap with what's installed on an Acer.  Whether you consider these programs "bloatware" or not usually depends on whether you can identify any redeeming value in them, which is not always possible.  So you can get an idea of what's installed on your Dell, here's its download page:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/g-series-15-3590-laptop/drivers

Most laptop manufacturers also tweak the Nvidia/AMD/Intel-created graphics drivers to work better on their laptops.  While this is a good thing in general, one of the changes might have unintended consequences, like for example not being able to play a game in windowed mode.

I'd still suspect the other Dell software though, either alone or in conflict with something else you have running, especially because your laptop is popular enough that I'd have expected to see more reports of this problem by now.  So try disabling any Dell software, e.g. the Alienware Command Center, in the Task Manager before you play.  Worst case, if something essential stops working, just reboot your laptop, and the process will restart as well.  And don't run any other overlays (Steam, Discord, etc.) either.

A more thorough intervention would be a clean boot, but you'd still need to go through the Task Manager's background processes list and close anything that didn't need to be running.  Some software ignores the clean boot, for whatever reason.

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

[Kazuzi3]

@puzzlezaddict I don't think it's Alienware related because my other computer didn't have that, but I wouldn't doubt it is something Dell specific. I just had to uninstall something preinstalled by Dell the other day because it kept causing my computer to crash. I'll have to do some messing around and see if that changes anything. Thanks.

[Kazuzi3]

Ok, so I did some playing around and decided to try to uninstall some of the preinstalled stuff from Dell. I tried it first without uninstalling anything just to pretty much test that the problem still existed, and it did, but what I did notice this time was that the audio was still playing despite the screen being blank; I usually play without audio, so I never noticed this before. The first thing I uninstalled was Alienware Command Center. The startup issue still occurred after uninstalling Alienware Command Center, so I know for sure that wasn't the issue. The next thing I uninstalled was Dell Cinema Guide. Somehow, that fixed it. I even tried closing and restarting Sims several times since sometimes it would open and sometimes it wouldn't. It ran every single time. So for whatever reason, Dell Cinema Guide seems to have been the culprit. I have no idea why though.

[Kazuzi3]

Ok, Scratch that. The problem is still occurring even now that all of the preinstall Dell and Alienware items have been remove from my computer.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Kazuzi3  Did you try playing in a clean boot with nothing else running in the background?  It's still worth trying.

[Kazuzi3]

It worked with the clean boot, but then again it also worked after I reenabled all of the same things I had enabled before and restarted my computer after the clean boot. It's not really a consistent thing, which is why I'm finding it so hard to figure out what's wrong and probably why I still haven't figured it out after multiple computers. I might play around with it some more, but I can't always guarantee I find what fixes it because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

[puzzlezaddict]

@Kazuzi3  It's possible having some other program open interferes, but only sometimes, for example the Discord overlay could be finicky to work with.  If you're interested in continuing to poke at the issue, it might help to keep a list of everything that was running, and any relevant settings or open windows, from each time the game didn't open.  And since you can just edit options.ini to launch in fullscreen mode, it's easy enough to get around the problem at any given moment.

If you do ever figure out what's causing this, I'd be curious to know.