Wow! Weird graphical artifacts

[idtaminger]

But my old drivers I installed ages ago, and I don't have the d/l package anymore. I don't even know which driver it was. Isn't there a roll-back option somewhere?

[witch]

Yep, I'm going to get me a new card - by hook or by crook. I'm even going to the extent of paying as many bills as possible this pay - so maybe I can swing it next payday.

Good. Which one are you getting then?

Gecube Radeon 9600 XT 256MB 8XAGP if I can find it for sale. I need to do some more hunting. idtaminger reckons there's a platinum version too.

My game crapped out again last night, with 78.01 installed, at a commercial lot, when the servos are there, my sims start walking round with their arms stretched out to the sides, then their heads keep leaving their bodies behind.

I'll try the newest nvidia driver today. 81.98 was no good, neither is the 78.01. I started out on the 84.21 driver, it was the worst of all for me.

Edit - strikethrough that comment - I don't know what driver I started with... I think it's the latest anyway so I couldn't have started with it.

[vilia]

The transcripts for the chat reckon a patch should be out in the next week or so.  Fingers crossed that might help solve some of the problems - or at least provide us with some amusing new ones 

[witch]

But my old drivers I installed ages ago, and I don't have the d/l package anymore. I don't even know which driver it was. Isn't there a roll-back option somewhere?

You can download older drivers from the archives at nvidia - these are the archives for windows 2000/XP:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

78.01 is what some people are having success with
? ? ? ?   whatever I started with is what gave me the pics at the top of this thread
81.98 gave me blue screens
84.21 is what I'll try next

Edit: except jsalemi says the blue screens still happen with 84.21

[crazi_aboutu]

 I  have a NVidea 6800 GS with beta driver 84.12 and haven't had any problems in my game, upgraded froma 5200 and also never had any problems with that.  Good Luck witch

[DrBeast]

Good. Which one are you getting then?

Gecube Radeon 9600 XT 256MB 8XAGP if I can find it for sale. I need to do some more hunting. idtaminger reckons there's a platinum version too.

Nah, go for the XT. Even the Pro I have is good enough, and I've overclocked it to XT speeds, so essentially I have an XT 
What could make a difference is different kind of memory or number of pipelines, but since all 9600 series cards have the same type of memory and number of pipelines, the difference is only in their core and memory frequencies, which is easily overcome by overclocking.

Actually, I tried the 84.21 drivers, and the blue screen problem still occurs.  Took longer than it did with the 81.98 drivers, but it's still there.  So the 78.01 drivers are still the last stable ones for TS2.   

I just have the plain 6600 (PNY version) -- I used it in my since replaced computer, and kept it around as a 'backup'.  I'm about to pull it out and put the ATI X700   Pro back in -- I had a lot less problems with that one.

Yah, switch back to the X700. I installled the latest drivers yesterday and no problems whatsoever (not that I had with the older ones, but I got the new set just for the heck of it).

[jsalemi]

The X700 is back in the computer, and no problems.  However, I've had problems with some recent versions of the ATI Catalyst application -- my desktop locks up right after it finishes booting, so that I can move the mouse but not click on anything.  Taking Catalyst out but leaving the ATI drivers in solves the problem.  Don't know if it's a conflict with something loading at startup or not, but I have a message in to ATI to see if they have any suggestions.

Where do you find utilities to overclock the ATI cards?

[DrBeast]

The X700 is back in the computer, and no problems.  However, I've had problems with some recent versions of the ATI Catalyst application -- my desktop locks up right after it finishes booting, so that I can move the mouse but not click on anything.  Taking Catalyst out but leaving the ATI drivers in solves the problem.  Don't know if it's a conflict with something loading at startup or not, but I have a message in to ATI to see if they have any suggestions.

Where do you find utilities to overclock the ATI cards?

Maybe .NET framework related? You do have .NET framework, right?

Get ATItool here: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Edit: try uninstalling your drivers first with CATALYST uninstaller (found here ), then reinstall. I'm lucky I guess, I just installed the newest CATALYST and drivers on top of the old and it works! Played yesterday for more than 8 hours non-stop with the new drivers (v6.3), not a hiccup!

[idtaminger]

You can download older drivers from the archives at nvidia - these are the archives for windows 2000/XP:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

I actually have an ATI card - Rad X850XT. Does anyone know the best Sims2 drivers for the ATI range?

[jsalemi]

Maybe .NET framework related? You do have .NET framework, right?

Get ATItool here: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Edit: try uninstalling your drivers first with CATALYST uninstaller (found here ), then reinstall. I'm lucky I guess, I just installed the newest CATALYST and drivers on top of the old and it works! Played yesterday for more than 8 hours non-stop with the new drivers (v6.3), not a hiccup!

Yea, I do have .NET installed.  I'll try that uninstaller and see if that solves the problem.  Other thing I plan to try is to take everything out of my startup folder and see if it still locks up, and then run the startup stuff one by one to find the culprit. The only downside is that if it's something else causing the lockup, it's such a pain to recover from.

Thanks for the link to the ATI Tool!

[blubug]

Well I've tried 67.03, 81.98, 77.72 and the original one that came on cd with the card, all of them cause similar problems. the "not digitally signed" seems to worry me, like it's more of a windows compatibility issue. I get so many problems since I got the 6600GT, blue screen, f***ed up images in game, shakey images (also known as the infinite loop) or the computer restarts itself, totally out of control. But the OFB has made stuff worse, I'm thinking of a full format, I don't know how else to fix this, I don't remember what other driver I could have installed to make this happen. I hate having to  grit my teeth every time I exit a lot or try to enter one, which causes most of these problems. Off to try the 78.01. (By the way, the problems stopped for a while because when they happened in game, I lowered the refresh rate or if it was low, I raised it. Now I know that's not a reasonable fix ) 

[yetyak]

I've had no problems whatsoever with the Nvidia 77.77 drivers on three different cards, if that helps anyone.

[witch]

It may well help me. So far I have tried ...

66.93 (2004) - currently trying, on the theory that if my card is older, most of the driver changes tend to relate to newer cards, so I might get away with it by going right back. I was building last night, the driver worked fine for that, but I need to try it in play.

77.77 is next on the list to try, then I'll try 81.95

78.01 is what some people are having success with - I didn't
? ? ? ?   whatever I started with is what gave me the pics at the top of this thread
81.98 gave me blue screens
84.21 also gave me blue screens and gliding headless or bodyless sims (depends which way you look at them )

[DrBeast]

You can download older drivers from the archives at nvidia - these are the archives for windows 2000/XP:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

I actually have an ATI card - Rad X850XT. Does anyone know the best Sims2 drivers for the ATI range?

Last time I had driver problems was more than a year ago. I've updated my drivers everytime a new one was available and I never had any problems, both with my old 9200 and with the new 9600 Pro. So anything from 5.02 and up has worked fine for me.

[idtaminger]

Last time I had driver problems was more than a year ago. I've updated my drivers everytime a new one was available and I never had any problems, both with my old 9200 and with the new 9600 Pro. So anything from 5.02 and up has worked fine for me.

I downloaded the newest one right before OFB came out, b/c I was getting driver crashes sometimes when playing TS2. The newest ones work ok except for the fact that when I spend a long time placing large lots, it'll go weird on me, w/ white patches and invisible patches. I have to enter a house to fix it. I really dunno if its a driver issue, a card issue, or an OFB issue.

[trancejeremy]

The really ironic thing is, right now Nvidia and Maxis are having a movie making contest right. Make a commercial for nvidia using the Sims and you can win a computer. Yet as this thread shows, nvidia cards, at least some of them (I also have the 6600 GT and have to use the 78.03 drivers) run the game very poorly or problematically.

[witch]

Well, so far, the 66.93 nvidia driver is working for me. It's dated Sept. 2004. 
I've played live lots as well as building, I haven't had any oddities for the last few days. Go figure.
I'm still buying a new video card. 

[vilia]

I'm glad it is finally working for you witch but I can't believe you have had to go back to 2004 just to get one that works - v. dodgy!

I was hoping that the patch would fix or at least limit some of the graphics problems but we may have to wait for the next one.

btw my computer was completely fireballed and rebuilt from the ground up and it is still crashing irregularly so it looks like it might be the motherboard.  Now I just have to convince Dell that there is a problem with it so they will fix it - thank goodness it is still within warranty.  My dreams of playing OFB are moving further and further into the future but I am keen to limit my problems once it is working.  I am investigating a new graphics card and if I eat two minute noodles and cereal for a few weeks, I might just be able to get a decent one.

[DrBeast]

I'm glad it is finally working for you witch but I can't believe you have had to go back to 2004 just to get one that works - v. dodgy!

I was hoping that the patch would fix or at least limit some of the graphics problems but we may have to wait for the next one.

btw my computer was completely fireballed and rebuilt from the ground up and it is still crashing irregularly so it looks like it might be the motherboard.  Now I just have to convince Dell that there is a problem with it so they will fix it - thank goodness it is still within warranty.  My dreams of playing OFB are moving further and further into the future but I am keen to limit my problems once it is working.  I am investigating a new graphics card and if I eat two minute noodles and cereal for a few weeks, I might just be able to get a decent one.

Hmm...I was going to suggest a way to find out if it's your m/b or not, but it involves opening the case and removing hardware, and I guess that voids the warranty. Oh, and good luck with acquiring a new video card! If your main reason for getting one is The Sims 2 however, you might get it done with an older (and cheaper) one. Check out the ones I recommended to witch a few posts up.

[anelca]

i keep thinking i need a new laptop with better and upgradable graphics cards in
but
reading about all these problems here and elsewhere is beginning to make me think otherwise. i have a maxis unsupported radeon 7000, admittedly with omega drivers, and have had no problems whatsoever with it. ok maybe the quality isn't topnotch but it works.
the only graphcs anomoly i had occur after installing NL was solved when i installed OfB
if it ain't broke etc.....

[jsalemi]

Maybe .NET framework related? You do have .NET framework, right?

Get ATItool here: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Edit: try uninstalling your drivers first with CATALYST uninstaller (found here ), then reinstall. I'm lucky I guess, I just installed the newest CATALYST and drivers on top of the old and it works! Played yesterday for more than 8 hours non-stop with the new drivers (v6.3), not a hiccup!

Yea, I do have .NET installed.

And I got to poking around further, and found that while I did have .NET installed, it wasn't set to automatically startup on the machine when it boots. Once I started it and set it to automatically startup, Catalyst runs fine. So now I'm happy as one of those flying pigs with my X700 Pro...

[vilia]

Hmm...I was going to suggest a way to find out if it's your m/b or not, but it involves opening the case and removing hardware, and I guess that voids the warranty. Oh, and good luck with acquiring a new video card! If your main reason for getting one is The Sims 2 however, you might get it done with an older (and cheaper) one. Check out the ones I recommended to witch a few posts up.

I don't want to void the warranty - it is Dell's problem so I want them to fix it.

I'm quite keen on getting a card that is not nvidia, given the problems I was having before the everything went kaputski so I will have a look at what you recommended and hopefully I can then be one of the smug individuals that has no graphics problems with the sims lol. 

[blubug]

Well, nvidia sent me a reply telling me to install the latest drivers (DUH) But I did that anyway, and tried something else. I loaded a fresh game with only recolors (22,000 files, I didn't sort out new mesh recolors, just all recolors and maxis items, so needless files) and the game ran smoothly for hours until I decided to quit. So I'm thinking, either the ram or the processor just isn't enough to run nvidia drivers with my normal game of 9GBs (almost 45,000 downloads), or something I've downloaded just f***s up the system (which makes no sense to me).
If anyone thinks the first option is totally ridiculous or irrelevant to the matter, please say so. If this can be fixed by buying more RAM than getting rid of my downloads, I'm prepared to go forward. By the way, here are my specs:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
Processor: Intel (R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 Ghz
Memory: 1022 MB RAM
Page File: 270MB Used, 2654 MB Available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Motherboard: ASUS P4V8X-X
Hard Disk: Maxtor (80GB) + Western Digital (80 GB) = 160GB total

==Display==

Name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 6600 GT
Approx. Total Memory: 128 MB

Main Driver: nv4_disp.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.8421(English)

Power Unit: 450W

[vilia]

Well, nvidia sent me a reply telling me to install the latest drivers (DUH) But I did that anyway, and tried something else. I loaded a fresh game with only recolors (22,000 files, I didn't sort out new mesh recolors, just all recolors and maxis items, so needless files) and the game ran smoothly for hours until I decided to quit. So I'm thinking, either the ram or the processor just isn't enough to run nvidia drivers with my normal game of 9GBs (almost 45,000 downloads), or something I've downloaded just f***s up the system (which makes no sense to me).
If anyone thinks the first option is totally ridiculous or irrelevant to the matter, please say so. If this can be fixed by buying more RAM than getting rid of my downloads, I'm prepared to go forward.

9GB of downloads is quite impressive.  Why don't you try running CleanInstaller through your downloads to make sure no nasties have crept in?  It will identify all suspect files i.e. those that change behaviour, rewrite code etc so expect Pescado's & TwoJeff's to show up in red - you might want to check for these types of files that you have the latest update.  It colours duplicate files in pink - with that many downloads you might find that you have quite a few duplicates so that would help.

Essentially this will help you eliminate at least one possible cause of your problems.

I'm not sure if you already have Clean Installer but it can be found here http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/



EDIT: I read the readme file (as mentioned on another thread) and it suggests trying to turn off the hyper-threading as this may cause graphics problems.  Has anyone tried this to see if it works?

[DrBeast]

I don't think blubug's processor is hyperthreaded, unless I'm mistaken processors at 2.4 GHz didn't have this technology. If I'm correct that means her processor is a Northwood, and she can easily overclock to 2.7GHz without a hitch. I know I did and I haven't regretted. Anyway, to answer to blubug in person, your specs seem fine, in fact your configuration is pretty similar to mine with the exception of the m/b and the video card, and my game is almost glitchless, Of course I have only close to 1 GB of custom content...you really should try and get rid of some stuff you know. 9 GB is a HUGE amount!

Footnote: to find out if you have hyperthreading, pay attention to the POST screen (when you boot up your computer). It lists processor type, amount of RAM, storage devices etc. If your processor has hyperthreading technology, you'll also see a line that says Hyperthreading technology enabled. If not, you're lucky, you have one of the last great Intel processors! Overclock without fear!