Please tell me I don't have to reinstall my pc (sims does not start)

[JeanMaas]

ok, i'm in a panic, i really hate reinstalling my pc.

yesterday everything was fine, today my sims-game don't start. when i click the icon the cd-drive comes to life, the white intro screen appears and dissapears again and the cd-drive stops.

tryed all the shortcuts i could find, also the .exe on the HD and the CD. cleaned my HD and did a defrag. Checked the CD, whitch is brand new, well, just a few days. Oh, and rebooted my pc.

the latest news i got, is that windows lost it and that i have to reinstall it.

hope that there is somebody out here who can help me.

Thanks in advance.
Jean

[ZephyrZodiac]

Do you mean that Windows itself is corrupted?  If so, unless doing a System Restore to an earlier time will fix it, I can't see what you can do BUT reinstall Windows.  However, if you are still able to load windows, you might be able to save your game files to CDs or a dvd or two first.  At least, then, if you reinstall Windows and the game, you will have the files from your game and won't have lost your hoods and downloads.

However, it might be that Windows is not the reason for your game not loading.  You could try deleting the groups.cache from your Sims 2 folder and see if the game will then load.

There might also be a problem which is actually related to the CD drive itself, in which case, if it's a new CD drive, you should be able to get something done about it.  If it isn't new, then they don't actually cost that much now so it shouldn't be too expensive to replace.

[JeanMaas]

I don't know if windows is corupted for sure. But it sure is a good idea to delete the groups.cache, just took a look a it, it's 1MB! Anyway, windows works good enough to backup my nhoods, so that's a releaf.
Don't know about the CD-drive it's not new but it seems to be fine, but i'll ask my son about it, he knows about these things.

Thanks ZZ

[BlueSoup]

Wow, if your groups.cache is that big, that may be your entire problem right there.  I get freaked out when mine hits 275K, which it does every time I play.  So I delete it right before I load my game, every single time.

[nectere]

Yep, I have noted that if my cache gets about 700k it will soon start crashing. I just wish I knew what causes the dern thing to become corrupted so often. The only thing I have figured is massive amounts of custom content since when I had way less I didnt have this issue.

[BlueSoup]

It must be custom content.  When I was testing the terrains issue on that game, I only ever amassed about 10K of group.cache, and I had no custom content apart from the terrains themselves.

[JeanMaas]

Yessss, it worked! it started without trouble. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Had to empty the thumbnail-folder a few days ago coz CAS was doing strange, stupid i forgot about this one. LOL, after loading the first lot now my groups.cache is only 14 kB.

Erm, I do have a lot of downloads (15,200 files, 4,7 GB), no terrains or lots though. Stupid again, coz i suspected that cc let those files grow out of proportion. I just didn't know that it could result in starting problems. I'm going to follow your advise BlueSoup and delete that file every time.

thanks again, you really saved my day.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Wow!  4.7 GB!  No wonder your groups.cache was so big!  And I'm so glad you didn't need to take any kind of drastic action!

[JeanMaas]

yeah, i'm terrible, need to delete stuff, but haven't found the currage yet. oh, the game is running so much better now, it takes ages to start, but after that everything goes fine.

thanks again.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Why not split your downloads into two sets, and install a second set of game folders?  then use one set of downloads in each.  That way, at least you'd cut down the loading time.

[JeanMaas]

that is a great idea. it's just that i don't know how to split them. i'm playing two hoods, witch have different themes, but not in terms of style, more in terms of story-line. so i live with it, i'll take a shower and do other stuff during the half hour it needs to start up.

btw, after playing once my groups.cache is 563K, i guess i have to delete it every time.

thanks zz

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'd say yes, delete it every time.  But if you have two themed hoods, presumably they basically use different kinds of custom content?  If so, Rename the current sims2 folder to Sims2 A, load the game and create a complete new set of game folders.  Copy one of your two neighbourhood folders over to that set, which is The Sims 2 B. 

At this point you will have no downloads, saved sims or packaged lots folders, but just create them.  Add first all CEP and any hacks you can't live without into the new Downloads folder. 

This is when you have to start being a bit ruthless.  You have to start moving stuff from the A Downloads folder into the B downloads folder, according to which you think you use most in that game.  You will obviously have to let go of some things and accept that when you enter the game you will find some default objects, but these can then be replaced with other custom content that fits your theme. 

You can't, obviously, do it all at once, but eventually, you should end up with two smaller (though still not small) Downloads folders, one in each game.    (And don't put any new custom content in either for now, save anything you can't bear to let get away into another folder for the moment and then use it in a third installation.

In order to play the game in The Sims 2 A, just remove the A.  To play the game in the other set, Rename the first set back to The Sims 2 A and then remove the B.

Honestly, it sound a lot more complicated than it is.  Since I first told you to COPY one of the games over, you can now, if your game B is working fine, delete that game from folder A.

Uses a little more hard disk space, obviously, but should speed your load time enormously - maybe just time for a cup of coffee!