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How to fix white screen in The Sims 4

7 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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Since its introduction, the latest release of The Sims franchise hasn’t exactly met the expectations. With dozens of glitchy add-ons andlots of bugs, The Sims 4 is far from a well-optimizedgame. In addition, someerrorsare completely ruining the experience. Just like the reoccurringwhite screen, with flashes while in thegame.

The description of the occurrence vary. Some users were met with thewhite screenduring the initial screen, while others were able to start thegame. For the latter, the white screen flashes started unexpectedly and they weren’t able to exit thegame. There are some viable solutions and workarounds for thiserror, and we made sure to enlist them below.

The Sims 4 white screen: How to fix it

1: Make sure you meet the requirements

First things first. Before moving to standard troubleshooting steps, we need to confirm that yourPCindeed meets thegame‘s system requirements. At least the minimum requirements. As a side note, if you are unable to close thegame, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open the Admin menu. Then select Device Manager and terminate the “The Sims 4” process.

Here are the minimum system requirements:

2: Remove mods temporarily

The Sims 4 is the shadow of itself if we remove all interesting available modes. However, some specific mods can occasionally fail to load or slow down the game execution. Since we can’t determine which exact mod is possibly causing the white screen, we need you to remove the mods folder completely.

Follow these steps to temporarily remove mods fromThe Sims 4:

Later on, you can remove exclude individual mods until you determine which exact mod is causing the issue at hand.This toolcalled Mod Conflict Detector should help you in your endeavors.

If you want to learnhow to install mods in Sims 4, check out our dedicated article.

3: Check the installation integrity

Chances are that you’re using either Steam or, more likely, Origin when playing games. In case you’re, you can use one of those two clients to fix the issue at hand. Namely, both include the same utility which checks thegame‘s installation integrity and applies fixes if the need arises.The Sims 4is Origin exclusive, so the Origin desktop client it is in this case.

Here’s how to run it on the Origin client:

4: Update the display drivers

When it comes togamesand screen errors and crashes, we point our suspicion towards thebad graphics card driver. Before we move with additional steps, we need you to confirm proper drivers are installed. An important note is that the generic drivers might work, but that’s a risky doing. Rather, we suggest navigating to official OEM site and downloading officially supported drivers.

Here’s the short list of all 3 GPU OEM’s:

Once you’ve installed the proper driver, restart yourPCand start TheSims 4again.

5: Disable Origin In-Game

The Origin In-Game feature fits in quite nice if you’re playing online with friends. However, since TheSims 4is a single player game, this particular Origin integration is of no need whatsoever. Even worse — it might cause some in-game issues. So, with that in mind, we suggest disabling Origin In-Game while playing TheSims 4.

Here’s how to do it in the client’s settings:

6: Start the game in the windowed mode

There were some reports aboutThe Sims 4bug regarding the fullscreen. Namely, some gamers weren’t able to start thegamein the fullscreen mode. Instead, they tried starting thegamein the windowed mode. That’s what we suggest in this scenario, as well. Of course, you can enable the fullscreen later on in the game Settings or try pressing Alt + Enter while in thegame.

Here’s how to runThe Sims 4in the windowed mode:

7: Start the game without saves

If some of the installation files were corrupted or incomplete, the repair tool from the step 3 would fix them. However, this tool can’t help you with the save game files. If those get corrupted, they are beyond repair. But, let’s not run ahead of ourselves. Maybe this isn’t the issue. Luckily, there’s a simple way to find out. It includes removing temporarilyThe Sims 4folder from Documents and starting thegamewith a blank slate.

Here’s how to do it:

8: Reinstall the game and Origin

Finally, if none of the presented solutions help you deal with the white screen error inThe Sims 4, the only remaining step we can suggest is the reinstallation. To cover all the ground, you should reinstall bothThe Sims 4and Origin and install them back again. Starting from a scratch might help.

With that said, we can wrap up this article. If you were able to resolve the issue, share the joy with us in the comments section. If not, please provide a distinctive explanation of the issue, and we or other readers might offer a helping hand.

How to fix white screen in The Sims 4#

The Sims 4 white screen: How to fix it#

1: Make sure you meet the requirements#

2: Remove mods temporarily#

3: Check the installation integrity#

4: Update the display drivers#

5: Disable Origin In-Game#

6: Start the game in the windowed mode#

7: Start the game without saves#

8: Reinstall the game and Origin#