My game freezes my computer

[SciBirg]

Ever since I got NL my game has become increasingly weird.
At first it was when I moved families to a new home then the game would get stuck at the family screen forever at 3 dots and never get any further. I would move the family to the bin and have someone else summon them with Inge's teleporter and their wants would spin and spin.

Then later, the game would just lock up when I tried to summon the afflicted sim(s) and I would have to turn off the pc because neither alt-tab nor ctrl-alt-del would work.

Finally, when I was playing a family that would load normally the game would just suddenly lock up and I would have to turn off the pc.

I took out all my hacks, ran the game with testingcheatsenabled. I did not get any message from the testingcheats and the game still froze.

I have the groups.cache file as read-only and the size is 201KB.


Please, can someone help me? 

[SciBirg]

Please?

Pretty please with sugar on top?

[SIMplyLisa]

NL is more taxing on your computer, have you checked to see if you have the latest video and audio drivers for your computer? Have you checked too see that all the fans in the computer are running ok and are not full of dust. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Have you put tried the option to take things with them in their inventories?  That happened with one of my sims when I tried to do that between Downtown and Pleasantview, and I included the family car.  I had to move this family to an empty lot, get rid of all their possessions and then Frankie was able to spin his wants and return to normal like the rest of the family, and I then moved them to their new house (I had to Kaching a few times, though, to replace the simoleons they had lost through all this!)

There are problems, I think, regarding cars, and I think it's safest to actually sell the car before you move the family (other people have reported oddities about portals etc. when moving sims to a lot which had a car before (but they always disappear before you move the new family in anyway).  And now I dno't add anything much to the inventories of sims moving from Downtown, though I haven't had problems between Pleasantview and College.  Lilith, for instance, took her complete bedroom with her with no problems at all.

NL is more taxing on your computer, have you checked to see if you have the latest video and audio drivers for your computer? Have you checked too see that all the fans in the computer are running ok and are not full of dust.

If you have problems with your fans, then you'd get a red hot computer and you'd certainly notice that, and you'd also have problems even when not playing the game - you probably would have problems loading the game in the first place.  As to latest drivers - a lot of people have reported that updating their drivers actually CAUSED problems.  This is not the BBS, and really, most people posting here have already tried the obvious!

[gali]

Well, it seems that you need to update your comp to the highest system requirements, or buy a new computer....

I know, that when my game begins to freeze, i.e., the walk of the sims is done with gaps, and the loading is too slow - I have to call the technician, add RAM, memory, update the drivers, etc. When I bought Uni, I was playing on Pentium 3, and had to change it to Pentium 4, with all the latest hardwares.

Just now, because of my many downloads, I begin again to feel the "gaps" in my walking sims, and I think I am going to buy a new comp.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Gali, I don't think this is a technical problem, I think it's a game problem!  I've had the same problems, and it wasn't low RAM or anything else like that.

[SciBirg]

I have not used the inventory function and my game functions just fine until *whammo* everything is frozen.
The CPU is not even working. NL has been working mostly fine for me except for the occasional non-loading family screen so I doubt it is the drivers.

I had recently reinstalled the game before installing NL and had not kept any custom content or old sims.

Next step is to move out the CC and see what happens then. And I had just recently redecorated the houses!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Your CPU must be working!  If it wasn't, you wouldn't even be able to start up your PC!


If my first suggestions about the inventory don't apply, can I ask whether you redecorated the house that you want to move your family INTO?  If it's an older house that hasn't been used since the reinstall, you could try going into it in Build Mode and changing something and then saving, exiting and then trying again with your family.

[SciBirg]

LOL! Of course my CPU works. It just isn't laboring, that is, no happy little sounds from the puter or the little yellow light blinking away saying "hold on! I am getting there!"

With the unloading family screen, I have tried loading an identical house, change something there and save and exit and then trying to load the family. That has helped with some but with others, no dice.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Sorry, I misunderstood.

Have you tried checking in SimPE to see if all your family still have (a) all their details correct and (b) no one has become Unlinked?  If that happens to one of them (and it can, believe me) then your family can't load and your game will definitely either freeze or crash.

If one has become Unlinked, you need to change the number ending 001 back to 000.

[SciBirg]

Ok, but how can this happen? I mean, it has happened with all the families that I have moved from one house to another (no inventory used). If I know how it happens then maybe I can avoid it but not moving any families to another house is a bit too cramping on my playing style...

[ZephyrZodiac]

I haven't a clue why it happens, I only know it does, and it happened oin my previous game until I got fed up with all the glitches and cloned everyone and started them again elsewhere.

My only other thought is, did the house you are trying to move the family into originally have a car?  Because, if you move a family out and leave the car, it causes all kinds of problems.  Now, if I want to move a family with cars, I sell the cars first.  This is mainly a problem if you move the family by inviting them to live with some other family, and then the furniture remains (or if you use the Stay-things shrub) but the car disappears, but as I say, that causes problems.

[Hairfish]

I have the groups.cache file as read-only...

Is that supposed to be read-only? My groups.cache (the one under \My Documents\) file updates every time I play.

[idtaminger]

I have the groups.cache file as read-only...

Is that supposed to be read-only? My groups.cache (the one under \My Documents\) file updates every time I play.

I do believe that objects.package is the file that should be put on read-only.

And can I ask just what your specs are? It could be a game bug, but it could just as well be a system issue.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I agree, and did actually post to say so earlier, but for some reason the post didn't appear (been happening quite often lately!)

[cwykes]

I've read in several places that deleting the groups.cache and letting it regenerate before you play can actually fix problems.  Here on MATY.   So read only certainly can't be right.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I've read in several places that deleting the groups.cache and letting it regenerate before you play can actually fix problems.  Here on MATY.   So read only certainly can't be right.

I must have missed that info, or just ignored it as it wasn't relevant to me at the time..thanks for the tip, I might try that on my broken hood and see if it fixes my jumpy sims!

[SciBirg]

Hmmm.... ok. I will try to take the read-only off on groups.cache then, although I think I may have found the cause of the problems.
It seems it happens at 1pm, just when the school-bus is due to come back. I wonder if it might be a portal problem. I will try crammyboy's portal fix and see if that helps.

[ZephyrZodiac]

That does sound likje a possibility, especially if the house used to have a car.

[SciBirg]

The house has a car right now and even in the previous house the teens never drove a car to school.

[ZephyrZodiac]

That isn't the point.  the point is, that if the previous family had a car, and you then moved them out without first selling the car, then for some reason, although the car appears to be gone like the furniture, somehow it affects the portals.  People have reported various problems with this in houses that had cars in Downtown, but not in ones that didn't, so I think that could be the problem.

[cwykes]

Hmmm.... ok. I will try to take the read-only off on groups.cache then, although I think I may have found the cause of the problems.
It seems it happens at 1pm, just when the school-bus is due to come back. I wonder if it might be a portal problem. I will try crammyboy's portal fix and see if that helps.

Crammyboy has a diagnostic tool and a fix to prevent portals getting deleted in the first place.  You need the diagnostic, but Maxis took onboard his fix in the latest patch, so you don't need it.   If you already have a missing portal - you need another method entirely.  Now Crammyboy is on MATy there's probably info here, but here are the MTS2 links.  Replacing a portal is said to be fiddly and unless you are very attached to the lot, it's easier to move the family and bulldoze. (that's what I did)

portal fix and portal prevention..........
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=83684
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=79045

[ZephyrZodiac]

And whenever your sims move house, sell the car first!