Troubleshooting features of expansions not available

Discussion in 'The Sims 2' started by deleie, Jul 17, 2006.

  1. deleie

    deleie New Member

    features of expansions not available

    Hi,

    I bought the expansions nightlife and open for bussiness last week. So i reinstalled the sims 2 + university. then i installed nightlife and open for bussiness. To play the game i open the icon 'open for bussiness', cos it's the last expansion i installed.
    When i'm in the game, i can switch to the shopping area from 'open for bussiness', but i can't switch to the university, and i can't switch for to the city from nightlife. The buttons on top of my monitor (to switch to an area) are grey, expect the neighboorhood from the main game and the shopping area. I can't press on the button from university and Nightlife, and i'm sure they're installed correctly. When i stand with my cursor for a couple of seconds on the button from university/nightlife it sais that i need to install those expansion packs to get those features. I reinstalled the game now for about 6 times, scanned virusses/spyware, defragmentated the computer and much more, but it didn't work. I also installed all the patches for the main game + expansions but no changes.
    I hope somebody knows how to solve this problem.

    Thx in advance!

    Edit: Also when i insert disk 1 of university it asks me to install it, but it is installed, same with nightlife.
     
  2. Mirelly

    Mirelly Active Member

    Oh dear.

    First let me recap. Correct me if this wrong.

    You reinstalled uni and then installed
    NL then
    OFB
    Yeah?

    Why did you have to reinstall University? This might be the problem.

    I'm off to bed now. :eek: Look through the FAQ's One of them (I uninstalled the game and now I can't reinstall it.) walks you though the process of utterly removing the game from your computer thus enabling a successful reinstall. You shoudl aim to start over with

    The Sims 2 then
    University then
    Nightlife then
    Openm For Business

    If you have a set of houses and sims that you wish to keep then you will need to save a copy of the folder \My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\ somewhere before you start. Frankly though, I would not bother. It is likely that you will have serious and never ending problems if you try to hang on to them. We have all lost big neighborhoods that were full of sims ... it hurts but we'll be here to group hug ... and starting with a fresh, shiny hew neighborhood is such fun :)
     
  3. deleie

    deleie New Member

    i had sims 2 main game installed + all the expansions you named, i reinstalled them all.

    i can't access the features of university and nightlife, but they are installed correctly, like i said before.
    Didn't i say that i reinstalled the game for about 6 times and always got the same problem (Can't get access to the features of previously installed expansions)

    Yes, i installed it in that order many times.

    I don't need to back up then, cos i still didn't have the time to play the game. Cus i can't get access to previously installed expansions, but i can get access to the features of the last installed expansion
     
  4. Mirelly

    Mirelly Active Member

    Urr ... not any clearer about the problem. Once you have installed an expansion pack the only disc and launch icon you should use to start the game is that disc/icon. So for you that would the OFB disc and the OFB desktop or Start Menu item.

    The only thing I can think of is that you have to actually make a university campus and a nightlife downtown before those buttons like the one you use to get to Bluewater Village become available ... but that doesn't equate to what I understand you as say ... :(

    From what you say you believe you are missing stuff from the expansions installed before the last one. I doubt this. When you fist start the game after installing an expansion you are asked if you want to create a new area (college campus or downtown area) for the neighborhood that you choose to play. If you multi-install expansions without playing between that option will likely lapse ... the alternative method is to check the neighborhood chooser screen for options. For example click Pleasantville and instead of clicking OK let's play it look at the bottom of the panel for the college mortar board and the nightlife moon buttons and try them ... you should get a message saying that there isn't a college/downtown associated with Pleasantville ... do you want to create one? You say ... duh :rolleyes: ;)

    If that isn't it then either ...

    Please try the full manual uninstall as described in the link I gave you and then reinstall again ...

    or ...

    post again and tell me why I am so stupid that I don't understand your problem :p
     
  5. Mirelly

    Mirelly Active Member

    Suspect you're at work but after loading up the game to check my answer ... :eek:

    You mention that the sub-neighborhood buttons for Univeristy and Nightlife are greyed out on the neighborhood screen ...

    Well those are buttons you use to create new downtowns for NL and campuses for Uni ... :(

    Problems ... problems

    After thinking again (and assuming you haven't fixed it yet ... ) please try this instead of what I said above ...

    Follow the manual uninstall instructions from the link in my first reply last night. Do that even if you have already uninstalled. You need to do that to remove all traces of The Sims 2 from your registry.

    Next install The Sims 2 and then play it for a few minutes by loading up a family in Pleasantville ... the Broke family is aways good for a laugh :p

    Then install University and again play the game for a few minutes ... you should be asked if you want to "associate a university" with Pleasantville when you load it up ... check that one of the campuses loads OK and play a family there too. Also go back to Pleasantville and check in with the brokes and see if it is possible to send Dustin to college (I think he's a teen ... if not find a teen and try again)

    If all is OK and Uni is present and correct, go on to install Nightlife and again check to verify that it is all present and working properly before going on the install OFB.

    The trouble here is that rapid serial installation of expansion packs is not something that many of us have much experience of ... we're learning the hard way ... you do all the painful tests ... we volunteer "experts" get to exercise our brains creatively and our typing talents ... :rolleyes:
     
  6. deleie

    deleie New Member

    Well, to start the game i click on the icon from OFB and the disk from OFB is inserted, i can start the game. Now i uninstalled the whole game with expansions again, Then i installed sims2, after that i installed the sims university and i made a campus for a neighboorhood. After that i installed nightlife, i opened it and got a message that the created campus wasn't available anymore and that i couldn't create a campus anymore because it said that university wasn't installed anymore (wich is still installed), then i made a downtown for the same neighboorhood. After that i installed OFB again, i opened it now and i got the message (like the one i got, when i opened nightlife) but now it said the same thing about the downtown.

    To create add a downtown or campus to a neighboorhood, you have to click on the button on the top right?
    Well, i made a screen from the buttons, and you will see that i am not able to click on them.

    http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=expansionproblemlm8.jpg
     
  7. deleie

    deleie New Member

    When sims 2 and sims 2 university, WITHOUT nightlife and OFB, are installed, i can use the features of the sims 2 university (creating a campus and that kind of stuff) But when i install The sims 2 nightlife after that i don't have the features anymore for the sims 2 university. Now the game sais that university isn't installed anymore, but it is. The features of The sims 2 Nightlife are now available and i can use them. Then i instal OFB, now the features of OFB are available and i can use them, but now the game sais that nightlife isn't installed to. So when i open OFB i can only use the features from OFB, cos it sais that the other 2 expansions are not installed.
     
  8. Mirelly

    Mirelly Active Member

    You know, I've been kind of hoping that you weren't going to say that, Deleie. :(

    I have a pretty fair grasp of what your problem is. I think I always did have. You explained it very well and my pushing you to clarify was vain attempt to get a different explanation.

    I am afraid that I can make no sense of what is going on at the present time. I am utterly in the dark. So in the time honored tradition please bear with me as I poke around in the dark with silly suggestions. Please take each one seriously ;)

    1. Confirm that you own each game expansion pack and have registration codes and manuals etc. (I feel sure you have but confirmation helps eliminate potential problems)
    2. Confirm that you are installing the game and expansions by the self-starting disc autorun and that you are NOT intervening to install the game to a different hard disc location.
    3. Confirm that you have not got any disc image emulation software installed (eg Alcohol 120% or Daemon tools - wiki about emulation)
    4. Confirm the installed components of the game by:
      • Listing the contents of the folder C:\Program Files\EA GAMES ... (If you have installed expansions to OFB then the following folders should be both present and chock full of subfolders which should NOT be empty.)
        • The Sims 2
        • The Sims 2 Nightlife
        • The Sims 2 Open For Business
        • The Sims 2 University
      • Each of those folders should contain the following sub-folders
        • CSBin
        • Support
        • TSBin
        • TSData
        • a text file called filelist
        • plus the uninstall program and launcher executables
    5. Attach a copy of the filelist.txt from one of the inoperative explansion pack folders ... assuming there is one (you'll need to put it in a zip archive ... right click it to do that.
    Oh ... too hot! :eek: ... That's enough to be going on with ...
     
  9. deleie

    deleie New Member

    1. Yes, i have them
    2. yes, i insert disk 1, then autorun comes up and i install it
    3. i don't have such programs.
    4. Yes those folder are in c:/program files/ea games and i have those subfolders and other files.
    5. i added the filelist from university

    Edit: I also had another weird problem with installing the sims 2, i uninstalled manually like in your guide. Then i installed the sims 2, with the right cd's. And at the end of the installation (with - open readme, - launch the game and - close this window) it has an image on the left from the sims 2 university :s
     

    Attached Files:

  10. Mirelly

    Mirelly Active Member

    OK your filelist is not missing anything. I'm stumped.

    The mystery of the University logo is down to the game using xml which accesses your PC's cache of temporary files so. I can't recall offhand the location but if you delete it the game is forced to generate a new one ... but it doesn't matter.

    I am well stuck for answers. I suggest you try posting the problem on MATY, where you find a better grade of geek. Here's the link:

    http://www.moreawesomethanyou.net/smf/index.php

    Post as much information as you can describing what you have done to try fixing it (to avoid going old ground). I lurk there so I'll be interested to see what answers get thrown up. I am mystified :rolleyes:
     
  11. deleie

    deleie New Member

    Ok, thanks for trying to help me, i hope they can solve my problem their, now search the right section to post it.;)
     
  12. Mirelly

    Mirelly Active Member

    LOL Start with the Child Board: Ooops You Broke It or the Podium
     
  13. deleie

    deleie New Member

    Yes, i already had found that section :p
     

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