Odd Splash Screen Freezing Issue Okay, prepare for a fairly long post. I've been having this problem for awhile now, and I've tried not only everything I can think of, but everything EA Support has come up with as well. Processor: Celeron 2.7Ghz System Memory RAM = 1024MB Windows XP ~10GB 40GB DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) Ati Radeon 9250 ati2dvag.dll (6.14.0010.6614) 5/3/2006 11:51:00 128MB Video Memory Sims 2 DVD, Nightlife, Open For Business Game Freezes at Splash Screen. First off, I know the video driver is not ATI's latest version, but the drivers I have are the last drivers updated for the 9250. When I did download and install the latest ATI drivers, I got a graphics driver error every time I tried to run any game, so I went back to the latest for the 9250 series. I know my computer more than meets the requirements to play, and I have tried running with the absolute minimum backgrounds tasks running, I've uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times. I've tried running the game with and without the official patches. I have no mods of any kind installed for the game either. If I run the game without any expansions installed, the game runs perfectly every single time. The problems suface once either of my expansions or both of them are installed. Immediately after installing the expansions, the game will run just fine. No problems whatsoever. I'll exit and reenter the game, and it will still work fine. But, whenever I turn off my computer and go to bed, when I turn on my computer and try to run the game, it freezes at the splash screen. At this point the only way I can get the game to run again is by uninstalling the expansions, and reinstalling them so that I can run the game right after installation. When the splash screen comes up, my hard drive light comes on and stays on steadily, aka it doesn't blink at all, it just stays on. My cd light blinks for a few seconds then stops. Oh, I have a CD-R/DVD-Rom combo drive. Also, if I turn on my computer with the Open for business cd already in the drive, when I run the game it gives me the error, please make sure the Open for Business cd is in the drive, hit ok and restart the application. I simply have to open then close my drive tray to get it to finally 'see' the cd. I have not had this problem with any other game, but the most confusing part of it all is how the game runs perfectly immediately after installation, but after my computer has been off for awhile, it will freeze at the splash screen. P.S. just to make sure, I have tried disabling anti-virus programs, I've tried using different combinations in compatability mode, I have tried everything I can think of short of formatting my computer and starting from scratch(which I seriously don't think I'm going to do). Any help would be much appreciated. Also, this is the first place I've been to where I've actually seen others with very similar problems.
Do you have something Sonic or some or some other burning suite? Many of those use a feature called "DLA" (stands for Drive Letter Access) which is part of the instant readiness to burn a disc in the desired format (this is peculiar to DVD/CD combos that may be asked to burn in any number of formats from music CDs to DVDs via picture discs, data discs and oh loads more. You'll need to turn off DLA for the DVD-combo ... sorry :( You'll still be able to burn discs but you'll need to choose the burning format yourself ... *yawn* ... it's a drag but hey, waddaya gonna do?
I have no cd burning software except for what is part of Windows itself. But I have disabled the CD-writing thing listed under the recording tab of my cd's properties. I'll try the game in a little bit, and report back. EDIT: No change.
Can you get into bodyshop every time or is the same problem happening there too? I only ask because bodyshop has an error log when something goes wrong.
Yes, I can get into bodyshop, but then again, it doesn't require the CD to run. Here's a thought. Could the problem somehow be related to memory addresses? Meaning perhaps it can't find a correct memory address or something? Could changing my paging file/virtual memory in any way have a possible effect? I've tried disabling the page file once. I then restarted my computer to make the changes take effect, and the game worked...until I turned off my computer and tried to run the game the next day. My uncle gave me a series of things to do in order to solve the problem, the first step being to disable the paging file. I forgot what else he said I needed to do, since I thought the problem had been fixed. Would anyone know what line of thinking he was going on? He's been busy lately so I haven't been able to speak with him lately, else I'd ask him again.
Turning off the Page File is not a good idea. It is the area of the hard drive that Windows uses as overflow temporary RAM. It is invariably best to let Windows manage the page file allocation, but in general the page file needs to be 2 and a bit times the size of the computer's physical RAM (in your case around 2.5GB). Best solution here, is for you to: (a) Make sure you have all game discs and serial number codes to hand (b) make a back up of any saved neighborhoods and then (c) perform a full manual uninstallation (this will include a manual edit of your Window's Registry to ensure all traces are removed) - See the FAQs for a thorough walk-thru of how to do that. (d) Check C:\Program Files\EA Games\ has no TS2 related folders in it (e) Check My Documents\EA Games\ has no TS2 related folders in it (f) Defrag your computer (g) Restart it (h) Install TS2 & play test it. (i) Afterward install any expansion packs you own in the following orderUniversity Nightlife Open For Business Pets Seasons Remember to install them one at a time and play test after each is installed. Do not carry on if any problems appear. Report back immediately NOTE You should not seek to restore saved neighborhood game files until you have installed all the expansions that those saved files would expect. Remember that each expansion changes the game's files and those files will not work without the appropriate expansions.
Actually, I had already done the manual uninstall before posting here. That was the last thing EA Support suggested I do. It made no difference.
I hate it when this happens. All I can suggest is to run through these: http://forums.worldsims.org/showpost.php?p=93052&postcount=3 http://forums.worldsims.org/showthread.php?t=2929
Praise God!!! I found the solution to the problem!!!! I needed to install the latest drivers for my CD/DVD-ROM drive! That fixed the problem I was Having! Now, for those who have a similar problem, do the following: 1. Go to my Computer and right-click on the cd/dvd rom drive and choose properties. 2. Click the hardware tab and write down the model name of the cd/dvd drive. 3. Go to www.driverguide.com and search for the model you wrote down. 4. Download the latest drivers needed and install them! Thanks to all of you who helped me on this issue.
