Sims 2 - Installs and won't run - outta ideas Hi - This is my first post - have been trying to get Sims 2 to run and cant'. Install went fine. Here is my system: 1) CPU (MHz/GHz) Anthelon 1.2GHz 2) RAM/Memory - How Much (MB/GB) 768 MB 3) Free Hard Disk Space 21GB 4) Total Hard Disk Space 28GB 5) Graphic/Video Card Nvidia GeForce 5200 FX 128 MB memory 6) Graphic/Video Card Driver Version 4.14.10.6086 4/26/04 7) DirectX Version 9.0 just installed from Sims 2 CD 8) Operating System (Windows? Mac? Etc) Windows 98 9) Sims 2 CD or DVD Version Not sure box says CD/DVD - whats that mean? 10) Nature of problem (more details the better) First some history. I installed the game on the above machine when it had an ATI Rage all in wonder 128 Pro card with 32 MB of memory. It actually loaded and ran. It ran slow and choppy, and would crash after about 10-15 min of play pretty consistently. So my kids saved up and got an XFX card with Nvidia GeForce 5200 FX with 128MB of memory. Now the game tries to start (Sims 2 square comes up on screen) and the windows background starts to refresh (like maybe 15 lines of refresh) and then the machine freezes. I tried shutting down all background tasks, tried reloading Direct X 9.0 (off the Sims 2 CD), and tried reinstalling Sims 2 - still same result. The diags for the NVidia card say the 3d accelerator works fine. BTW - the Sims (original) works fine, Sim City 2000 works fine, and Sims theme park works only in SW rendering mode (makes machine freeze - black screen when in 3D mode). Note all these worked fine with prior video card - theme park in higest rez. The video card came with some game demos, like F22 Lightning - they work find in 1024x768, 32 bit color, with the 3D accelerator enabled. I'm assuming I have the right CD/DVD version of the game because it at least ran before. I have 2 CD RW drives in the PC. So I'm stuck and have an audience back here waiting to see how to fix this. No pressure. Can't wait to get it running so I can ask even more questions. Thanks in advance for your ideas Ken
You might want to double check the dxdiag or the EAsy Info to make sure that it is reading as Direct X 9.0c. It most likely is, but you still might want to check. It's not available for Mac so it would be Windows. It says both? The box should say either PC DVD-ROM or PC CD-ROM on the box between the T ESRB and the EA Games Logo on the front side at the bottom left. You can also tell by how many discs are in the box. The CD version has 4 just for the game and the DVD version has one and a bonus disc. You didn't mention which drivers you added when you put in the FX5200. That card is notorious for being unhappy with some of the drivers that are available. It doesn't like 61 76 and 61 77. But the newest driver from NVidia should correct those problems. (The 56 72 is the driver which preceeded the 61 76/77 and worked. To get the newest driver go to: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp ) The drivers that ship with the cards are rarely the newest ones. They were the correct one when the card was first made, but there are usually several driver updates a year, which they don't go back and add. Hopefully this helps you get going again.
Sims 2 loads - won't run - driver ideas KatAnubis Thanks for the ideas - heres the latest. I ran DxDiag - 9.0c is definitely loaded . All the test diags passed ok. I found the PC -CD logo on the front of the box - Duh - I was looking at the side of it. Yep - I have all 4 disks - one less thing to wonder about. The drivers for the Fx5200 came from the CD that came with the card - the version is 4.14.10.6086 4/26/04 - the 6176 you are referencing - is that the last 4 digits of the version? I went to the nvidia web site - the newest version is 6176. The one before that is 5664. My version isn't up there. Your post indicated "it doesn't like 6176" - so should I load that one? Or the 5664? When I looked at the app notes for 6176 there was no mention of any fixes for the FX 5200 card. Guess I am hesitant to put the 6176 in there if there are probs with it or if there isn't anything in there for my card? Which driver should I load and what should I expect? Or should I leave the 6086 in there? I couldn' find the 5672 you referenced. I hate loading video drivers - it never seems to go right the first time! Let me know what you think thanks Ken
Updated 5200 FX drivers - still no good I downloaded the 2 latest nvidia drivers from the web site and neither worked. I now have 6176 installed. I noticed that if I started the game in 800x600, 16 bit color, the Sims 2 square comes up when you start the game, then after a few seconds the whole screen goes blank and machine freezes. If I start in 1024 x 768 mode, only the top 1/8 of the screen updates to black, then it freezes. I tried starting with the shortcut with -w and -nosound - no difference. Also tried setting all refresh rates to 60, and then to adaptor default - no difference with either setting. Any other ideas? thanks Ken
Yes, the 6176 stuff is last 4 digits. The problem that people were having was that it wouldn't work with some of the flat screen monitors and a couple of other glitches. They had more information on this on the SimCity4 site. If you have access to it, you should do a search for FX5200. (Unfortunately, it's not working for me. It doesn't like my password this morning. I suspect the automatic one it has for it was changed. But that means I have to look for what I made it to be, because I don't remember what it is now.) Hopefully Manager Josh or JMP will give a look in. I've run out of ideas at this point.
...and if 66.93 don't work, go to www.guru3d.com and download beta drivers at will. Or try the omega drivers at www.omegadrivers.net. And download 3dMark03 off www.futuremark.com. Don't download 3dMark05 - I shudder just thinking about what it could reduce your system to. Anyway, try running the game tests and everything. Do the tests run?
Fixed It!!! All - thank you for your replies. The problem has been resolved. I have 768MB of memory in my machine running Windows 98. I went from a 32 MB to 128 MB video card. I had to limit the memory that Windows 98 was using in the SYSTEM.INI file, line added is: [vcache] MaxFileCache=524288 (524288 is 512 MB in KB) This prevented conflicts between the video card and Windows 98. I do not think this is a problem for Win 2000 and up. Two other things I learned along the way - I had a 300W power supply - bare min for the NVidia 5200 FX - it wasnt' enough - I went to a 500W (I have 3 memory sticks, 3 PCI cards, 2 USBs, 2 hard drives, 1 floppy, 2 CD burners, 4 fans, including dual processor fan in the system - IWILL motherboard KK266with 1.2G Anthelon), and I made sure all refresh rates were set to 60. On the motherboard, I had also tried setting the AGP aperature size to settings other than 64MB, set the AGP port to 1X, 2X, 4X (4X is my fastest), tried different shadow settings, none of these changes had an effect. The 6176 drivers are the newest drivers for Win 98. Anything beyond that will not help Win 98, but will help if you have Win 2000 and beyond. Frankly, I reverted to the 5304 driver as I had sparadic freezes with the 6176 and since everything works with the 5304, I'm staying pat. Sims2 loads pretty darn quick, the graphics run really smooth, there is no choppyness at all, all the people move around quick and smooth, scrolling across the neighborhoods is fast, the details are neat. Hope this helps someone out. Now the real fun starts. thanks - until the next surprise! Ken
