Won't load beyond the initial loading screen.

[evzahh]

Hi, for the past week or so I've been trying to fix my game. I launch it and it's stuck on a white screen for a few minutes, not responding, and I'm unable to tab out or anything. It's in the wrong resolution but eventually, it gets to the first screen that says "The Sims 4" and then the first loading screen with the plumbob. At that point I'm able to tab out and such, but no matter how long I wait it doesn't load past there. I've tried the basic troubleshooting; removing mods and CC, taking out my saves folder, deleting files, repairing through Origin, etc. I've even tried moving the game and uninstalling and reinstalling a few times now. This last time I even removed all of the files in the Program Files x86 > Origin Games > The Sims 4 folder and the Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 before reinstalling, and only chose to install the base game. My PC isn't having any issues when trying to load it, both GPU and CPU remain under 30% and my ram under 70% while still having some things open like spotify and discord. Since I've changed anti-virus since the last time I played I even added the game to my anti-virus exception. I'm not really sure what other steps I can try so I would appreciate any help! Thank you!

[puzzlezaddict]

@evzahh  Try disabling Origin in-game: hover over your username, select Application Settings, then the Origin in-game header, and disable the option at the top.  If that alone doesn't help, try disabling any other overlays you have running: Discord, Steam, etc.

If that doesn't help either, please run a dxdiag and attach it to a post.

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

[evzahh]

Thank you! I already had Origin in-game disabled so I went ahead and disabled my NZXT and Discord overlays as well, but unfortunately I'm still having the same issue. Here's my dxdiag file (:

[puzzlezaddict]

@evzahh  Try playing in a clean boot, with nothing else open: not Twitch, or OBS, or anything else aside from Origin.

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

You'll also need to go through the Task Manager's background processes list and kill any task that doesn't absolutely need to be running.  These days, a number of unnecessary apps still start in a clean boot, for whatever reason.

If that doesn't help, please try disconnecting your second monitor.  It's using a different display driver than your primary monitor (as in, not the Nvidia graphics driver), a very old one that might not work well with Sims 4.

If that doesn't help either, the next step would be doing a clean uninstall and reinstall of the Nvidia driver; there are a couple of errors in your dxdiag that describe an error with the driver.  But since the error could also be caused in theory by something else, it's better to try the easier steps first.  If you do need to do a clean uninstall of the GPU driver, here's how:

Spoiler

Download Display Driver Uninstaller from here:

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

Download a fresh copy of the latest Nvidia driver here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/167753/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 see whether the game works normally.  If not, let me know.

[evzahh]

Thank you so much for your help @puzzlezaddict (:

Unfortunately after following all of those, I was still having the same issue. Ultimately I just decided to reset my PC (both to fix the game and for storage). I'm keeping a running list of files I'm downloading and so far everything was fine until installing NZXT's Cam program. When I would launch the game I would have the issue of an unresponsive white screen like before, but the loading time wasn't anywhere near as long as it was a couple days ago (it's now back to < 1 minute with and without Cam). In case anyone else comes across this thread with the same issue, disabling game hooking in Cam's settings menu has fixed the white screen after launching! I'm going to continue noting down all of my downloads until I have all of my games and programs reinstalled so I'll be sure to update my post once I can find either if there are other issues or finalize that the game is working ahaha.

[puzzlezaddict]

@evzahh  Sorry, I should have clarified that CAM is definitely an unnecessary program that should be disabled when you try the clean boot.  All these monitoring apps are.  They might purport to improve game performance or "enhance" something, but they're neutral at best and can prevent a game from working at all at worst.

Anyway, that's useful information to have.  Does the game pause on a white screen (albeit while eventually resolving) even when CAM is uninstalled and totally cleaned out?  Sometimes telling an app like this not to open lets it still run in the background to some degree, or mess with a game's graphics options, or any number of potential other issues.

[evzahh]

No need to apologize! I had actually disabled it and every other non-windows programs for the clean boot but I was still having an issue with my loading time when I did so, reaching 10+ minutes. I totally agree with you ahaha; unfortunately I use the software for a lot of the RGB in my PC. Otherwise I would totally just uninstall it to save myself the hassle.

Considering the long loading time I was having yesterday after doing the clean boot, I figure there must have still been an underlying issue, whether with some files I had or maybe even my anti-virus (Bitdefender) as that was overriding me disabling it and launching anyways. Going to go ahead and continue writing down anything I download just to keep tabs on everything in the case the game does begin having issues again, so I can have an idea of what batch of programs to start messing around with to figure out the problem.

As for CAM, I do think the issue was just it's game hooking feature that allows it to add the data it tracks to its "Games" tab. The game launches the same while having that feature disabled as it does while the program's uninstalled (no white screen)!