The Sims 4 is one of the most liked life simulation video games of all time that offers a streamlined character-building mode, custom in-game gallery & content, neighborhoods, and a lot more. Just like other video games, The Sims 4 didn’t go well in terms of the bugs or errors. Even after a couple of years of release, the game is still having some issues with multiple errors, crashes, and even the white screen or blank screen issue. If you’re also one of the victims who get white screen quite often, check out this troubleshooting guide to Fix The Sims 4 White Screen Issue.
Also Read: How to Fix The Sims 4 Save Not Loading
According to several reports on the EA forum, plenty of players are getting white screen issue during the initial game screen loading up. Meanwhile, some of the affected players are simply unable to see anything on the screen and literally can’t start or play the game whatsoever. Sometimes the white screen starts flashing unexpectedly to several players and they won’t be able to exit the game too. Quite strange! Even some of the players are saying that they didn’t go into the fullscreen mode before closing the game and it basically shows a white screen.
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Fix The Sims 4 White Screen Issue
Luckily, there are a couple of possible workarounds mentioned below that should fix the white screen issue for The Sims 4 game on your PC. This troubleshooting guide includes all the common and possible methods like checking the game requirements, removing the game mods, checking game files, updating graphics drivers, updating Windows OS version, disabling Origin in-game overlay, etc. So, without getting further ado, let’s jump into the guide below.
1. Check System Requirements
It can possible that maybe your PC configuration isn’t compatible with The Sims 4 game requirements to run properly. Therefore, the white screen issue or even crashing issue can occur quite often or randomly. Make sure to cross-check the system requirements of the game to know whether your machine is capable to run the game at your configured display resolution or not.
Minimum System Requirements:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: 64 Bit Required. Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10
- Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 4000+ or equivalent (For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 or equivalent)
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 128 MB of Video RAM and support for Pixel Shader 3.0. Supported Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better, ATI Radeon X1300 or better, Intel GMA X4500 or better
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 17 GB available space
Recommended System Requirements:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: 64 Bit Windows 7 (SP1), 8, 8.1, or 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5 or higher, AMD Athlon X4
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 650 or better
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 18 GB available space
Also Read: Fix: The Sims 4 Stuck on Loading Screen
2. Try Moving Game Modes
As players use a lot of custom mods in their game to make the simulation game much better, the chances are high that some of the specific mods can cause multiple issues. Game mods may possibly cause a white screen issue that you need to move from the mods folder completely. Once moved to a different folder on a temporary basis, you’ll be able to run the game properly in most cases. To do that:
- first of all, simply exit and close The Sims 4 game.
- Make sure to close the Origin launcher > Restart your PC/Laptop.
- Once done, go to the C:\Users\: Your Username:\Documents\Electronic Arts\Sims4 folder on your PC. [If you’ve installed your game to a different drive, go to that location]
- Simply select the Mods folder and move it to the desktop. Don’t keep the mods folder in the installed game location.
- Finally, start the game and check whether the white screen issue has been fixed or not.
- If not, try moving mod files individually into the installed game location (inside the Mods folder) until you find the culprit.
However, if you’re unable to do this task or can’t find the culprit, try using a third-party tool called ‘Mod Conflict Detector’. But if nothing works for you, try another method.
3. Repair Game Files
Well, checking the integrity of installed game files and repairing them automatically from the game launcher is a pretty easy task. It basically scans and repairs any kind of missing or corrupted game files on your PC via the game client itself. So, you don’t need to worry about re-downloading or re-installing the game again in most scenarios. However, not everyone knows how to do it. Here we’ve shared the steps to do it.
- Launch the Origin client > Go to My Game Library.
- Right-click on The Sims 4 game > Click on Repair.
- If prompted, confirm the task > Wait for the process to complete.
- Once done, close the Origin client > Reboot your computer.
- Finally, open the Origin client again, and run The Sims 4 to check whether the white screen issue appears or not.
While the Steam client users can follow the below steps to repair the game files.
- Open the Steam Library by logging into the account
- You can find The Sims 4 game
- Right-click on the game and click on Properties
- Select the Local Files tab
- Then click on Verify Integrity of game files
- Wait for the process and then restart the game to check for the issue again
4. Update GPU Driver
It seems that multiple issues on the PC games can appear due to the outdated GPU driver version. Make sure to check for updates and install the latest one to run video games without any lags or white/black screen issues.
- Click on the Start menu > Type Device Manager and click on it from the search result.
- Double-click on the Display adapters to expand the list.
- Now, right-click on the dedicated graphics card > Select Update Driver.
- Choose Search automatically for updated driver software.
- The system will automatically search for the latest drivers. If available, it’ll automatically download and install the update.
- Wait for a while and your system will reboot automatically.
- Finally, run the game and check for the issue.
Alternatively, you can directly go to the respective graphics card website and download the latest graphics driver version for your PC/Laptop. So, if you’re using the Nvidia graphics card then update the GeForce Experience app on your PC from the Nvidia official site here. But if you’re using the AMD graphics card on your system, then update the latest AMD Drivers from here.
5. Disable Origin In-Game Overlay
The Origin in-game overlay system or application on your PC can easily ruin the gameplay experience. It basically runs in the background and takes up a lot of CPU/Memory usage which will eventually slow down the system performance. In the end, your PC and its games will start lagging, with plenty of stutters, white/black screen issues, etc. So, all you need is to simply turn off the overlay.
- Launch the Origin client on your PC/Laptop.
- Now, click on the Origin menu from the top left corner of the interface.
- Go to Application Settings > Click on More.
- Select Origin In-Game > Click on the toggle to Disable Origin In-Game.
- Next, you can also right-click on the Origin menu from the top left corner and click on Go Offline.
- Close the Origin client > Reboot your PC/Laptop.
- Finally, open the Origin client > Right-click on the Origin menu and select Go Online.
- Now, you can try running The Sims 4 game to check if the problem is fixed or not.
6. Disable Steam Overlay
So, if you’re a Steam client user and playing The Sims 4 game via Steam, just turn off the Steam in-game overlay option for your PC.
- Open Steam on your PC/Laptop.
- Go to the Settings > Click on the In-Game.
- Click on the checkbox to disable Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
- Once the checkbox mark is removed, click on OK.
- Finally, restart your Steam client, and check if the game receives a white screen or not.
7. Start The Sims 4 in Windowed Mode
These days plenty of affected PC gamers have mentioned that several video games do have some issues with the borderless screen or fullscreen mode. So, even if you have a powerful gaming computer, try launching The Sims 4 in windowed mode rather than a fullscreen mode to check if the problem appears or not. Obviously, you can go to the fullscreen mode once the game started completely by pressing the Alt + Enter keys or from the game settings menu. So, you may ask how to open the game in windowed mode initially. Follow the steps below.
- Launch the Origin client > Go to My Game Library.
- Now, right-click on The Sims 4 game > Go to Game Properties.
- Click on Advanced Launch Options > Type -w in the Command line arguments field.
- Finally, click on Save to apply changes > Run The Sims 4 game to check for the white screen issue again.
However, if this method didn’t work for you, try removing the -w command from the respective field and save the changes again.
8. Try Removing Saved Game Folder
It can also possible that maybe your previously saved game data is causing issues with the game launch or running it properly. Either the saved game data is corrupted or missing due to some unfortunate reasons and your game starts crashing or displaying a white screen right from the beginning. As completely removing the saved game data or progress isn’t a good idea, you should try moving the saved game folder to a different location temporarily to cross-check the issue.
- First, close the game and the Origin client.
- Make sure to restart your PC to refresh the background tasks or glitches.
- Now, head over to the C:\Users\: Your Username:\Documents\Electronic Arts\Sims4 folder. [If you’ve installed your game to a different folder, go to that location]
- Simply select the ‘Saves’ folder from the installed Sims 4 folder.
- Next, cut and paste it to the desktop for a while.
- Finally, run The Sims 4 game via Origin or directly via executable file to check for the issue.
If none of these methods worked for you, try the next method.
9. Reinstall The Game and Origin Client
It seems that by reinstalling the game itself and the Origin client, some of the PC users have fixed their white screen issue completely. Sometimes a corrupted game installation or Origin client issue can ruin the gaming experience. If you don’t want to bear the problem further, just try reinstalling both the game and client to check whether the issue has been solved or not.
- Click on the Start menu > Type Control Panel and click on it from the search result.
- Now, click on Uninstall a program > Search for The Sims 4 game.
- Right-click on The Sims 4 > Select Uninstall.
- If prompted, confirm the task, and complete it.
- Once done, do the same for the Origin client too.
- After deleting both the game and client, reboot your PC.
- Download and install the latest Origin client again on your PC from the official website.
- Once installed, log into your profile > Search and install The Sims 4 on Origin.
- Enjoy!
That’s it, guys. We assume this guide was helpful to you. For further queries, you can comment below.