Similar crashing as others have described, tried solutions, not working 1. Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz 2. Memory: 1024MB RAM 3. Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254) 4. Free Hard Disk Space: 75.7GB 5. Total Hard Disk Space: 127GB 6. DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) 7. Display Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 8. Display Driver Name and Version Number & date: Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll Driver Version: 6.14.0011.6218 (English) DDI Version: 9 (or higher) Driver Attributes: Final Retail Driver Date/Size: 6/29/2007 00:43:00, 5690624 bytes 9. Display Memory: 256.0 MB 10. Game Detail: Sims 2 Retail CD (with patch installed), no expansion packs and no downloaded objects/files. 11. Nature of problem (more details the better Occasionally when the Sim is at home, and regularly when on a community lot, the game will either freeze (less common) or display the message "The game has crashed" (more common). I have updated directX, video drivers, and deleted the "Groups.cache" file found in mydocuments/ea games/the sims 2/. The computer has onboard sound so I tried turning off hardware acceleration on the "sound" tab within dxdiag but all that did was make the sound incredibly choppy. One community lot in particular will not load whatsoever. When you try to visit that lot, during the load screen, the load bar does not make any progress and after about one minute the "crashed" error message appears. Also, I am experiencing some graphics corruption on the neighborhood screen. Not as severe as some other people have had; the best I can describe it is the grassy fields appear to be diseased. In random splotches, they glow a yellow/orange color. What more can I do with the existing game to fix this, and if it is not fixable, is it possible to save a lot and sim separately and import them back into the game if I need to reinstall?
p.s., The exception module that is indicated is not a display driver--it specifically says sims2.exe. This is a pretty common excerpt from the Sims 2 log file when this happens: Exception time: 08/18/2007, at 14:04:38. Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION. Current thread ID: 3492 (0x00000da4). Version information: Application/module path: C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSBin\Sims2.exe Application/module version name: The Sims 2 Application/module version: 1.0.0.1022 System version: Windows NT 5.1 System memory: 1024 Megabytes total, 292 Megabytes free. Application/module configuration: ReleaseSRT-P Extra Exception Data: Shutdown: 0 HostName: ANIA MemoryUsage: 299984K Neighborhood Name: Veronaville Neighborhood Prefix: N003 Lot Name: 431 Globe Street Extra Exception Data End: Exception module: C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSBin\Sims2.exe. Exception address: 0x00caba26. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x008aaa26.
There are times when a neighborhood is just too broken to continue. There are many reasons for this, but the most common is a simple bloat caused by too many sims. What is the number of characters in Veronaville? Right click the folder \My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N003\Characters\ and choose Properties - the file count is the total number of characters -- living and dead. If you have only the base game, more than 800 is bad. One thing that can mask the bloat is if you have moved sims in and out of neighborhoods, because of complex sim memory issues which cause multiple copies of sims (who exist only as as memories eg: Jack got an A+) to be created. My advice would be to drag the folder: \My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\ to your desktop and reload the game, which will make brand new, neighborhoods, all prisitne and untouched. See if they work without causing error. If they do then resign yourself to saying goodbye to your old sims and say hello to the new ones. If the new neighborhoods cause crashes, too, then report back and we will investigate further. Please state what, if any expansion pack you have and, Whether or not you have a Downloads folder in \My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\ and does it contain any files? How many?
There has never been an excess of people in the neighborhood, I'd say there were fewer than 220 (total, including npcs). I have no way to verify this because I have completely started from scratch and I see there are about 185 that the game starts with. I haven't moved any characters in or out of the neighborhood. Before I get started, yesterday I corrected the only issue I thought may be related to a deficiency in my hardware: I bought a Sound Blaster Audigy soundcard. I'm not using any expansion packs, and have never downloaded *anything* into the game. It is really, a virgin copy of the software (except being well-played). I started over on everything. Complete uninstall and reinstall, deleted all old neighborhoods and started fresh ones, patched the game before playing it, and none of the previous problems exist except the graphics problem relating to the diseased-looking grass: The defect on appears when the camera isn't moving. When moving about the map, the defect blends into the green grass and "blooms" when the camera becomes stationary again. I also notice a problem with the transparency engine. When you mouse-over any of the available lots, a transparent green highlight *should* appear on that lot. Except on my computer, it is not transparent. It's an opaque green. This happens for some lights in community lots, also, but it's not consistent. Within the community lot, streetlights mainly do this. Their light "cones" randomly become opaque as you move about the lot. I've just noticed also, that some windows within building lots randomly become opaque (problem with transparency again), see upper center window: Closer: As I'm typing this, I've discovered it really is a problem with transparency within the game as shadows, glass, lights, and sometimes water (pretty much anything with transparency) experience this problem at times. Do you have anything else I could check to fix this problem? Any specific settings with the graphics card maybe?
Well, since no one has replied, i'll post my progress in case anyone here has a similar problem. I tried to duplicate this problem on my other computer, which has the exact same specs as above (same graphics card, memory, graphics memory, similar hard drive space) except for the processor; it's an AMD Athlon 64 3500+. I did not have the same problem. So, that led me to believe the actual hardware--probably graphics card--on the original computer was failing. On a lark, I went out and bought Nightlife, installed it, and it FIXED THE PROBLEM! The graphics card could still be on its way out, but perhaps there were some changes made with the Nightlife expansion pack that changed the way the game handled graphics--or perhaps transparancies? Anywho, installing Nightlife fixed the problem (at least temporarily).
