Troubleshooting Graphics glitch

Graphics glitch

Well lately when I enter a neigborhood (especially Veronaville) there are quite a number of glitches. Lots start to change colors and flicker and in places where there is a large river or other body of water, the water sometimes appears to "flood" the neigborhood and then disapears into the river/lake.

Also, I've noticed my Sims are becoming quite slow, loading time is taking longer, and the pixels have become boxy (though texture is set to high and square pixels are turned off). These problems seem to get worse over time, and I'm starting to believe it has something to do with the custom content that I've downloaded.

**These glitches occur no matter how i set the graphics. The Sims move extremely slow no matter how low or high the graphic quality is.

Here are some pictures of the faulty graphics:

LOT FLICKERING


SQUARE PIXELS


If someone could help me fix these glitches, it would be most appreciated

 

How do I do that??

 

Intel Celeron CPU 2.7GHz
502 MB RAM
XP
1080 MB *total*
149 MB *being used*
DirectX Version 9.0c
Intel 82845G/gl/ge/pe/gv Graphics Controller
ialmrnt5.dll version 6.13.0010.3510 (English)
64MB
Sims 2 DVD, NL, Uni

 

Hi meebob.

You are at the extreme minimum for running The Sims 2 with the Intel 82845 Integrated Graphics controller

There are a number of reasons why your system may be slowing down and you are correct to wonder about downloads.

Try the following advice in order:

1. FIRST Check your hard drive is not overfilled. This is most important!
   1. Click the Start button
   2. Click My Computer
   3. Your main hard disc (where Windows and Programs (including The Sims 2) are stored) should be: Local Disc (C) unless you have renamed it. If your not sure double click it to find out whats there ... look for Windows and Program folders.
   4. On the My Computer window, with Local Disc (C) highlighted look in in the left-hand panel for Details (click the ^ button to open the details if need be
   5. The details tell you how much free space is on your disc and what it's total size is.
   6. You should aim to keep at least 20% (1 fifth) free space to give Windows room to move around ... sounds silly but it's important.
   7. If you have less free space than that consider deleting unwanted files such as music, pictures etc. Best option is to burn stuff like that to CD/DVD
   8. If that doesn't give you enough free space move on to uninstalling programs and games you do not use. (Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs - it shows you how much space you recover by removing each item before you do it)
   9. Afterwards run disk fragmenter (see here)
2. SECOND Run the game with all downloads removed. This will check to see if your downloads are causing a problem. Since NL came out the game checks each download as it loads it. This takes time so the more downloads you have the longer the game takes to load. That applies to everyone regardless of how fancy their computer is. A bad download will still screw up your game. Top take the download out temporarily:
   1. Use My Computer to locate C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads
   2. Resize the My Computer window so that you can see a part of your desktop
   3. Click and drag the Dwonloads folder out of the My Computer window and drop it on the desktop.
   4. You can put it back when you are ready (just don't delete it by mistake! )
   5. Try the game now. It should load very quickly

Right that sorts out your computer and game. If that doesn't fix your graphics problems then you need to consider some upgrades.

First: RAM. Is that 502MB supposed to be 512? If you've really only got 502 then something is wrong and you need to REPLACE your RAM. If you actually do have 512 you should consider adding another 512. Don't forget that your 82845 integrated graphics adapter is using 64MB of whatever you do have.

Second: graphics. It isn't worth spending a lot on a graphics upgrade unless your motherboard has an AGP or PCIexpress slot. But for around $50 you can get some half decent PCI graphics cards that might improve game performance ... though you'd need to take expert hands on advice (or post a lot more tech details here) before spending money on graphics upgrades.

Try the simple stuff, first, huh? And get some more RAM anyway. It's cheap, easy to install and makes a massive difference.

 

Thanks Mirelly!

I'll look into getting more RAM