HELP! Can't Reinstall NL!

[Ancient Sim]

HELP!!!

My neighbourhood.package file became corrupt (again) and when I put my (almost a week old) backup in, it wasn't working properly.  I think the main reason was that I mucked-about with the objects.package file.  Anyway, I decided the easiest way round the problem was to reinstall NL.  Unfortunately, I can't.  Whenever I reach 55%, it tells me that it "cannot read ijl15.dll from the media".  The same thing happened when I tried a manual install (copying the disks to folders on my hard-drive and installing from those).

I think the problem may be because I created a separate User Account to play TS2 and disabled a lot of functions in services.msc to free-up more RAM.  Whether I have disabled something essential to this file being copied I don't know.  I've re-enabled the vast majority of them, but still it isn't installing.  The disk is in mint condition and installed perfectly the first time and also when I reinstalled it before.  I am presuming when it says "the media" it means the disk - I don't have this ijl15.dll on my hard drive, although it is available for download.  Unfortunately, I don't know where to put it so haven't installed it.

I've contacted EA Support, but I don't hold out much hope.  Last time I did that they said my pc wasn't up to scratch for running the game (so why does it work so well?!) because my graphics card is unsupported (yeah, yeah), so they wouldn't help me.  They'll take my money, of course ... so, I am hoping someone here can throw some light on the problem. 

[Motoki]

When it can't read the  ijl15.dll from the disk, does it give you a prompt to browse for that file in an alternate location? If not, I suppose you could try copying the contents of the CD to the HD and replacing the original with the downloaded one, though I'm not sure what file that one is in. Compressed.zip maybe? 

[Myth]

Hi Ancient.  I don't know the complete answer but maybe this will start you on a better path.  I did a search of that dll file on my computer and there are copies in the following folders:

C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSBin
C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSBin
C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 University\TSBin

 
Also I have a separate user account and the game never gave me any problems installing.  I've honestly have seen so many people have problems on reinstall that I usually recommend that they delete the Sims 2 folder from the EA Games file in the My Documents folder and let the game regenerate it's files before trying a reinstall.

If you have a separate CD or DVD drive try putting the disk in that and installing, or putting one disk in the top drive and the other in the second and that way there is no lag in the install because of switching disks.

I really don't know if any of things will help, I just know that they are things that have helped my self or others in the past.

Good luck!

[MissDoh]

What I usually suggest that work sometimes is to delete the c:/programfiles/eagames folder.  In your case since you seem to be able to install Sims 2 and University I would suggest you delete the c:/programfiles/eagames/sims2nightlife folder, empty your recycle bin and restart your computer and then try again to install.  If I misunderstood and you cannot install TheSims 2 either then delete the eagames folder assuming you don't have any other eagames install except Sims2.

[LK]

Have you made sure that file is Read-Only?  Apparently, NL (assuming you have NL) causes files to become un-Read-Only.

[Ancient Sim]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I've actually sorted it now.  I discovered that the file also came with Uni and was on my hard-drive in that section, so I tried another manual install and copied the Uni file over, which worked thank goodness.  I also had to copy another file in the same folder as that wouldn't load when I did the manual install, so I had to mess about quite a bit.  Quite why this file should suddenly decide not to install is beyond me.  I didn't try installing from scratch to see if it worked, so I don't think I can ask for an exchange as it's probably not the disc that's at fault.

I noticed that several files are duplicated in all the folders; why is that?  Do we really need 3 copies of the same files taking up space on our hard drives?  Why can't we just have the one? 

Oh, and here's a weird thing.  When I reinstalled (and also when I made my User Account) I noticed that the game had taken it upon itself to alter my cheat file, something I didn't realise could happen.  It changed my testingCheats Enabled true to false on both occasions and in the case of the User Account, changed my 8 Visiting Sims to 6.  When I reinstalled it left it at 8.  How peculiar and what a nerve!