Troubleshooting Expansion Packs Won't Load in Game

Expansion Packs Won't Load in Game

What I have:
I bought the following at the computer store this morning:

• Sims 2
• Nightlife
• University
• Open For Business
• Pets
• Seasons
• Family Stuff
• Glamour Life
• Happy Holiday

The Problem:
When I play Seasons, none of the options from previous expansions are available. ( ie: When I hover over the other menu icons they tell me that the feature will become available once I install their respective expansions ) The thing is, not only had I already installed all of the expansions but, I installed all of the expansions in order they were released and then the stuff packs, just to make sure I would avoid all of these kinds of problems.

At first I only placed the Seasons no-cd in the Seasons directory and got the problem above. The problem persists even after I install all of the no-cd patches in their directories. I tried running the original Sims 2 base game and had no options for expansions either, just as I expected. ( But I had to be sure ) But during base game play, suddenly there was a new neighborhood ( the one you get with seasons ) but it was named "weather" and when I opened it, about 75% of the way through loading it crashed Sims 2 base game.

When I open Pets, I can play the base games with only the features of the Pets expansion. When I open Nightlife, Seasons, etc the same thing happens. The only difference is that the newer the expansion pack I load is, the more features it tells me that I should be able to use ( because I have them installed ) but can't. So you can imagine how annoying that is.

Questions you probably want an answer to:
I'm going to save us all some time and answer some stuff you might think about asking ahead of time. It seemed easier to read through in this format instead of huge paragraphs with horrible grammar, punctuation and spelling *smirk* Plus, it looks pretty.
Q: Is this a legitimately bought game?
A: As for whether or not this is a legitimately bought game, because I know someone will ask.. I live in Suriname ( a small northern coastal South American country ), there is no way for me to buy licensed software here, as no one sells it. There are no piracy laws here unfortunately. Unless these were bought by the store and then copied ( I have no real way of knowing ), I would have to say they were downloaded and mass produced in China to sell to 2nd world countries in Chinese shops. So yes, I legitimately bought this software and it cost me $165, no it isn't licensed, no there isn't any way for me to buy licensed versions and I would really appreciate some help.

Q: What hardware are you running?
A: I don't believe this is a hardware based problem but to humor you..
Dual Core 1.7GHz
1GB DDR2
And it's obviously not a graphics issue, so I'll leave the rest out.

Q: Why don't you try re-installing?
A: I did.. twice. 3+ hours and I don't plan to do it again if I can help it.

Q: Why don't you install the official patch?
A: Because that's a whole different problem in itself, it won't update. Asks me for Disk 4 from the base game and when I insert it it acts like nothing was done and keep asking for it. I had to trick the installer into thinking I let it check for updates, just to get this far without it uninstalling every time it reached the end of an Expansion Pack.

Q: Have you tried not using no-cd patches?
A: Yes.


I've been looking on google for a few hours now and can't find anyone with the same problem, perhaps the search terms were too broad or something. Hopefully someone here can at least point me in the proper direction. Thank you in advance

Groeten,
PixieMeat

 

I also just noticed that some of the expansions when loaded individually don't have neighborhoods and do not allow me to create one..

University loaded and I started and saved a game, then went to Seasons to see if that helped anything and it told me I had "Un-installed Seasons", any game play past this point would erase my saved University game and it would delete my University, students etc. I had the option to quit instead, so I did.

Looks like it doesn't even recognize that other expansions are installed, any ideas?

 

OK, that's really strange. To me, it sounds like the game you got is a pirate copy. I've heard similar things happen to pirate games. It sounded like you don't know if your game is an illegal copy or not (I apologize if I'm wrong).

What I'd do, if I was in your situation, is to go back to the shop and get your money back. Then I recommend that you order your games off internet sites like e-bay or Amazon - they'll have legal copies there (Amazon will at least, I don't know about e-bay 'cause I never buy my stuff there but I presume that it's the same).

Hope this helped!

 

Or it could be that you haven't installed all the disks properly because you had to trick the installer into thinking that it updated your previous games - which it didn't. When it checks for updates it ads all the features from your current games onto your new disk so that you can use them (if I'm not very much mistaken). So you need to let your installer check for updates, I'm afraid and I can't think of any other way to do that than to uninstall your games. :(

 

Hi muffin
Quote When it checks for updates it ads all the features from your current games onto your new disk so that you can use them .

I don't think it writes to your disks. If it did that it would have to burn the info on. I could be wrong, but I dont think so. Maybe Hard disk.?

regards moon

 

Yes. I am truly, sorry for you, Pixie. You have been ripped-off, if you have been sold the game without support. There may be ways to fix your problem but if there are I don't know of them. I suggest you take up the issue with the people you paid the $165 dollars to.

Was that 165$ SRD? Because the maximum cost of the items you bought would be around US$ 190 ... but that would be over 500 SRD.

 

HEH The Chinese don't know what "getting money back" is. There's no such thing as a return here.

And Amazon would be nice and all if I wouldn't be paying out $150+ SRD for each expansion (money here is only 2.85 to the USD and we make about 800$ SRD a month, about $150USD) and you know.. the having to wait 9 weeks for it to arrive, which is how long it would take

I would love to let the thing check for updates. Infact I downloaded the updater for the base pack for the sole purpose of trying to get it to recognize I had a disk in the drive. Any clue why it would keep asking for Disk 4 over and over without any sort of Virtual Drive tool running, errors or anything of the like. It's not even trying to read the drive to see if there's a disk in it. Almost like it's trying to read a different drive letter for the disk, perhaps D or something similar.

Thanks for everything
Groeten,
PixieMeat

 

Yeah, I had that disk problem too - but with a different disk. I can't remember how I solved the problem though. *racks brain for ideas* If I remember some time, I'll tell ya.

Here's an idea though (but you've probably already tried it), clean the disk and blow a bit in your CD drive. It could work. That's all the help I can offer at the moment, I'm afraid.

 

Hi I have a part of a solution for your problem

Ok first I hate to see people who don't know what they are talking about saying stuff like buy original version blablabla... I bough a new computer and I need to reinstall all my expansions and it asks me for disk 4 also. The solution I used to have is that I found a disk 4 image that I used with <edited> and it worked like a charm... I backed it up on a cd that is now scraped so I need to find it again. It is called <edited>. Well I found a torrent but there's not enough seeds. I also remember that you can <edited> but I don't think its a really good solution cause the game doesn't work 100% good after.

So there's a solution ! I just need to find this disk 4 again if you find it b4 i do just tell me