Game Locking up with no error report

[theisz]

I have been having issues with my game locking up at random intervals.  It hard locks and I have to push the reset switch on my PC.  I have everything up to Pets installed, but not the patch.  I did have the patch but it caused so many issues I reloaded Pets and didn't patch it again.

I have removed everything out of my downloads folder and it will run fine, so I know it has to be a hack or object.  Unfortunately I have assloads of CC installed and really would go "crazier" than I already am if I have to go through it all.

I did run a scan using the Sims 2 Hack Conflict Detection Utility, but I don't know if all of the conflicts are true.  I've attached the scan file and if anyone can see any obvious reasons for the lock ups I'd be very grateful.

I've also attached my config file.

[Giggy]

having had a look at it I've come up with something
"Remove the inteen" (Optional)
"Remove s2g_movie_career.package or imacloud_wildlifecareer.package, these two carreers have serious conflict issues" (Critical)

Hoped I've helped

[theisz]

Thanks, I'll give that a try and see what happens.

[tIIsuggas]

Before removing custom careers, make sure any Sims in those careers are not at work, and are home.

[Hegelian]

Hard locks are usually due to hardware issues. It could be a failing component (such as the motherboard), overheating, or some other hardware problem.

If the computer freezes, or shuts down or restarts unexpectedly, do the following to check for and replace outdated or damaged hardware:

Disclaimer: Adobe doesn't support hardware and provides these tasks as a courtesy only. For further assistance, contact the hardware manufacturer or an authorized reseller. If you troubleshoot hardware problems yourself, you may void the computer's warranty.

-- Contact the computer manufacturer for an updated BIOS and for help to determine whether you have damaged hardware, such as CPU chips or the motherboard. If you use a laptop with an ATI video chipset, contact ATI for an updated chip. Some ATI video chipsets overheat, causing errors in Photoshop.

-- Make sure that RAM DIMMs are installed properly and are not the cause by changing the order of the installed DIMMs. If the problem persists, remove all but the minimum number of DIMMs needed to run Windows and Photoshop, and test to see if the problem persists. If it does, replace the DIMMs you removed and remove the others, testing again to see if the problem persists. If it doesn't, one or more of the removed DIMMs are the cause. For assistance, contact the RAM or DIMM manufacturer.


Additional Information

System-level errors, such as a freeze, program error, or blue- or black-screen crash, can be either software-related or hardware-related. Software-related system errors include program errors and blue- or black-screen crashes. These errors indicate damaged or outdated software, such as video adapters, other hardware drivers, or Windows system files. Hardware-related system errors include unexpected restarts or shutdowns and system freezes. These errors indicate damaged or defective hardware, such as a damaged RAM chip, CPU chip, or motherboard. Hardware-related errors can also be caused by a defective or outdated BIOS.

Some Sony VAIO laptops include damaged hardware drivers. Errors that occur when you use Photoshop on a VAIO are often both hardware- and software-related.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=327708

[theisz]

Hegelian, my PC is brand new.  I spec'd out what I wanted and built it. I can't get that much more bleeding edge without going broke.     If it were hardware/driver issues my other games like Doom 3 and Oblivion would crash or lock up also.  I have a temperature gage on the hard drive and motherboard and they are ok.  The video card I have monitors the temperature and it's in the green, even when I am running Doom 3.  I have the most current drivers for everything and the current bios update which I did last week.

No other programs are having this issue which leads me to believe it is specific to The Sims and a hack or CC I downloaded causing the conflict.  I'll bet the custom careers are the culprit.  I am in the middle of going through all of my peeps in my neighborhoods and changing their career to Maxis ones before deleting them.   I backed up my neighborhoods prior to doing this because I can just see a great fiery explosion happening. 

I am also getting flashes of blue artifacts recently. They are the color of the sky.   I am wondering if they stem from the shiny floor overlay done by, I cannot remember who, but I get the artifacts even on lots that I am not using them.  They do not harm anything, they are just annoying.  My game runs like a top and is very fast and smooth until it just hard locks. 

Here are my specs.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600
CD/DVD: SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model SH-S182D
Video: BFG Tech BFGR88768GTXE GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
MEM: CORSAIR XMS2 DOMINATOR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
SOUND CARD: CREATIVE|X-FI XTREME
ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI x 16 ATX Intel Motherboard

[Hegelian]

I am not going to sit here and say that 100% of system lockups are the result of hardware problems. However, I think it's safe to say that the overwhelming majority of lockups are caused by defective or dying hardware. That your PC is new is no guarantee that some component is not defective. Furthermore, a hardware problem might not be due to an actual defect, but rather to incorrect settings in the BIOS for things like RAM timings, or to an inadequate power supply (although this is more likely to cause spontaneous reboots rather than hard locks).

Note that quite a few problems have been reported with TS2 and some nVidia driver releases, although I don't think hard locks are one of them.

I do not think we can automatically assume that games stress all systems in your PC, or that all games stress the same systems. When I had my motherboard failure a few years ago, it did not become symptomatic until I started running Photoshop a lot. It turned out that Photoshop places more stress on the data-transfer systems in your PC more than most other consumer-level applications. The 3D games I was running at the time (Unreal, Half-Life) did not trigger lockups. However, eventually even Word would provoke a lockup, at which point I RMA'd the motherboard (after discussing the problem on Adobe's Photoshop forum). FWIW, the problem with my motherboard was a known design defect in the north bridge of my Asus P2B-S (440BX chipset). That motherboard also supplied out-of-spec voltage to the AGP slot, which would result in burned out graphics boards if those boards were not tolerant of non-compliant voltage (I burned out two 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1 boards before switching to a Matrox).

Flashing blue artifacts in the game are generally the result of a missing mesh for a custom object. Lots with objects/recolors missing meshes will flash when in neighborhood view (more correctly, the objects will flash so that the flashing will appear to be coming from the windows if the obect is inside).

[stormygsa]

I was having the same type of problem and it turned out to be one of Jordi's costume hiders - I think it was the christmas one.  I just removed it and everything's working fine now.

[theisz]

I'm sorry if you took what I said personal.  It wasn't meant to be.  I am not a novice when it comes to troubleshooting and repair.  I did it for over 9 years as my job.  I understand about BIOS settings and driver issues and the like.  I've been building PC's for over 13 years so I have a very good understanding of hardware and software.

If I can run Doom3, with the settings cranked, with no issues then I have serious doubt that it is a motherboard, memory or hardware issue.  Doom 3 is way more resource and hardware intensive than The Sims.  I can also run and work out of Adobe Photoshop without incidence.  I can even open up Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Photoshop, Firefox, SimPE, Bodyshop all at once and still not have any issues. 

The blue artifacts are not the flashing dark blue missing meshes of objects.  I know what those are.  The flashes I see are baby blue in color and streak and flash across the whole screen.  It hard to describe, but it is not the missing mesh flash.  It happens on an empty lot.

Thanks for the help, I'll figure it out one way or the other.

I don't have Jordi's hiders.  I am still going through my millions of sims changing any custom careers to Maxis ones.    I'll be here all night doing that. 

[Giggy]

I'm taking a guess:
you've got a driver that doesnt work with the game (AKA maxis/EA had screwed the pooch, LITERALLY)
Nvidia and maxis/EA are trying to fix it as soon as possible but they recommend a cheat which disables some of the nice graphics
(I can't remember it and I want to go to bed so someone fill it in)

[jrd]

I have my hiders and no crashes :p

If you're using a hider for an XP you do not have, you might run into this problem. If you lack either XMas pack, don't use the hider for it, as the game will try to load meshes it can't find.

[Hegelian]

I'm sorry if you took what I said personal.  It wasn't meant to be.

I didn't.   

I was careful to not say it absolutely has to be a hardware problem, but that the likelihood of it being one is high.

The blue artifacts are not the flashing dark blue missing meshes of objects.  I know what those are.  The flashes I see are baby blue in color and streak and flash across the whole screen.  It hard to describe, but it is not the missing mesh flash.  It happens on an empty lot.

Hmm. If they are streaks, they're probably not related to water leaking through the surface texture (like when you place a lot containing a slope near a coastline). My partner has a problem with lines radiating from objects on a lot, which disappear when she rotates the camera, but it seems this is also not what you are describing (her Windows install is near death anyway; I think the imminent clean install will fix this, since I did not have that problem with the graphics board she is now using). I'm thinking you may wish to try a different release of your graphics driver—if you search MATY you can find discussions of which nVidia drivers work well with TS2.

I wish I could afford to put together a new PC!   

Current specs:

Intel D845PESV motherboard, socket 478
Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (Northwood); 533 MHz FSB
RAM:  1.5 GB PC2700 (Crucial)
Graphics:  Sapphire Radeon X800GTO AGP unlocked to 16 pixel pipelines and slightly overclocked in BIOS, w/ Arctic Cooling Silencer 5 VGA cooler
HDDs:  Three 10K-RPM U160 SCSI drives on an Adaptec 29160N controller (two Fujitsu, one Quantam)
Case:  Cooler Master Praetorian; Power Supply:  PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 ATX
Optical Drives:  Plextor UltraPlex PX-40TS CD-ROM (SCSI); Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4012S CD-RW (SCSI); NEC ND-3550A DVD-RW (ATA)
Tandberg NS20 Pro tape drive (SCSI)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card
Zoom V.92 PCI faxmodem
A whole lotta fans!

My current installation of WinXP Pro dates from December 2003.

 

[J. M. Pescado]

I wish I could afford to put together a new PC!   

You know, maybe if you weren't in the habit of constantly wasting money, you'd be able to. It's not like PCs are expensive, you know. I mean, if you have a job, you surely make plenty every month. What could you possibly be spending that on, given the fact that you're a complete loser?

[Hegelian]

I wish I could afford to put together a new PC!   

You know, maybe if you weren't in the habit of constantly wasting money, you'd be able to. It's not like PCs are expensive, you know. I mean, if you have a job, you surely make plenty every month.

Well, no. Most jobs don't pay "plenty".

What could you possibly be spending that on, given the fact that you're a complete loser?

Um, a mortgage, insurance, maintenance and repair. . . .?

[theisz]

Well, I spent the evening in SimPE changing all my sims careers over to maxis ones and then deleted all of the custom careers.  I also went through my hacks and just deleted any that I really didn't need/want anymore.

I played the game for an hour and it didn't lock up.  I also for some weird reason did not get the flashing blue streaks, but that is intermittent so that doesn't mean anything.  I'll play the game some more tonight and hope it goes ok.  I hadn't thought about it, but the houses I was playing had sims with custom careers.  When I was in SimPE I looked at the last sims I had been playing when it locked up and they had unknown for their career.  I don't know which custom career they had, so I just deleted them all. 

The funny thing in all this is in two weeks I'll be clearing out all of my hacks for next EP.    

Hegelian, I hear you on the mortgage, utilities, insurance, groceries and gas.  I wouldn't have been able to get this PC built if we hadn't done a refi on our house at the end of last year. 

Thanks again for the help, I do appreciate it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Um, a mortgage, insurance, maintenance and repair. . . .?

Maybe you shouldn't buy crap like that, then. I never did, and this is why I never have such money problems. Just think about all the pointless spending you actually do and stop doing it. Of course, I have an advantage here, in that parting with my money actually causes me physical pain, so naturally I resist doing it.

Hegelian, I hear you on the mortgage, utilities, insurance, groceries and gas.  I wouldn't have been able to get this PC built if we hadn't done a refi on our house at the end of last year.

I keep hearing all this jabbering about "mortgages". Ever since I was a kid, I knew this was a bad thing that people do when they're going to go bankrupt real soon. Why do people do this? The very idea fills me with stabbing, searing agony. Such an act would be unthinkable. No wonder you don't have any money, what with your habits of spending beyond your means. And this "insurance" is nothing more than a fraud designed purely to INSURE that you remain POOR.

[miros]

My partner has a problem with lines radiating from objects on a lot, which disappear when she rotates the camera

My puter does something similar.  It happens more often when the partition with the swap file on it is getting full.  It progressively gets worse until I save the lot, go back to the hood, then back into the lot.  Eventually it still gets so bad I have to quit and reload the game.  Then it behaves for a while.

I keep hearing all this jabbering about "mortgages". Ever since I was a kid, I knew this was a bad thing that people do when they're going to go bankrupt real soon. Why do people do this? The very idea fills me with stabbing, searing agony. Such an act would be unthinkable. No wonder you don't have any money, what with your habits of spending beyond your means. And this "insurance" is nothing more than a fraud designed purely to INSURE that you remain POOR.

1) Most people don't have enough money to buy a house outright and never will.  Long term, having a mortgage is cheaper than paying rent every month.  I know, you just brought in a concrete mixer and built your bunker on someone else's property and have enough guns to keep them off your back, but most people don't have that option either.
2) Over the course of your life, if you put all the money you pay in insurance premiums in the bank and never touch it except to pay for the stuff that insurance would have covered, you'll come out ahead.  However, a) most people would spend it on something else (better computers, Sims expansion packs, etc.) and b) if the bad stuff happens early in your life, there won't be enough money in the bank to pay for it.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Sheesh, Pes.  Many of us prefer living above ground rather than in some homesteaded bunker with a dirt floor, surrounded by exterior mud walls. 

[J. M. Pescado]

1) Most people don't have enough money to buy a house outright and never will.

That would mean you'd never be able to have a house at all, since borrowing money is always MUCH more hideously expensive. That means you're going to be stuck living out of a trailer for awhile.

2) Over the course of your life, if you put all the money you pay in insurance premiums in the bank and never touch it except to pay for the stuff that insurance would have covered, you'll come out ahead.  However, a) most people would spend it on something else (better computers, Sims expansion packs, etc.) and b) if the bad stuff happens early in your life, there won't be enough money in the bank to pay for it.

See, there's that "irresponsible spending habits" problem again. And who cares what happens early? You haven't invested enough in it for it to matter, so what difference does it make? It's like playing against people who always just rush. You figure either you survive it and you'll have satisfying late-game, or you won't, and it'll be over quickly.

Sheesh, Pes.  Many of us prefer living above ground rather than in some homesteaded bunker with a dirt floor, surrounded by exterior mud walls.

No pain, no gain. If you're not willing to suffer in the short term, you'll never do well in the long term.

[Giggy]

1) Most people don't have enough money to buy a house outright and never will.

That would mean you'd never be able to have a house at all, since borrowing money is always MUCH more hideously expensive. That means you're going to be stuck living out of a trailer for awhile.

2) Over the course of your life, if you put all the money you pay in insurance premiums in the bank and never touch it except to pay for the stuff that insurance would have covered, you'll come out ahead.  However, a) most people would spend it on something else (better computers, Sims expansion packs, etc.) and b) if the bad stuff happens early in your life, there won't be enough money in the bank to pay for it.

See, there's that "irresponsible spending habits" problem again. And who cares what happens early? You haven't invested enough in it for it to matter, so what difference does it make? It's like playing against people who always just rush. You figure either you survive it and you'll have satisfying late-game, or you won't, and it'll be over quickly.

Sheesh, Pes.  Many of us prefer living above ground rather than in some homesteaded bunker with a dirt floor, surrounded by exterior mud walls.

No pain, no gain. If you're not willing to suffer in the short term, you'll never do well in the long term.

*thanks himself for living in a nice fancy house*

[theisz]

I've suffered enough.  I've been homeless on a couple occasion and lost all of my belongings save a suitcase full of clothes several times as well so I'm done with all that.  I'll take the debt any day to have a nice house in a nice neighborhood to live in.

I've been playing for hours and no lock ups.  I did notice something though.  When I place Inge's automatic curtains up the weird streaking blue things started up again.  It stopped after I took them down.  That could just be a coincidence.

[J. M. Pescado]

I've suffered enough.  I've been homeless on a couple occasion and lost all of my belongings save a suitcase full of clothes several times as well so I'm done with all that.  I'll take the debt any day to have a nice house in a nice neighborhood to live in.

See, if you had invested more in defense, you wouldn't have lost your stuff. If you can't afford to invest in defense, you can't afford stuff anyway.

[theisz]

What, defense against myself?    That was when I was young, dumb and full of myself and made stupid mistakes. Now I'm older, smarter but still full of myself. 

[notveryawesome]

Some of us aren't satisfied with just having a roof over our heads. We wish to be surrounded by beauty and a relative lack of crime. Besides, if you do things correctly, you can build up equity (in some markets this requires little to no work, as the property values automatically rise with increased demand for housing), refinance after a couple of years, get lower interest rates, and often have extra money to pay off other bills, leaving you with minimal monthly expenses. Beats the hell out of renting.

[Giggy]

heck in NZ one radio station offered 4 people to live rent free!
true story
http://www.zmonline.com/WhatsOn/Competitions/Detail.aspx?id=1606