Blue Screen of Doom

[virgali]

Hi all,

I haven't been simming for a long time but recently started again. Before my long period of total simming break, I used to play on and off and I had this problem too. I think the problems started after a while of playing pets, but since it's been a while I'm not sure.

The problem

After x amount of time of running the game, it freezes and I get the "Blue Screen of Doom". The last one I had was last night and it said: that the system was stuck in an endless loop or something and had to be shutdown. That either the drivers weren't properly installed or something else I forgot sorry. 

*There's not a fix amount of time for this to happen. I could be playing the game for a long time while doing other things e.g. chatting before it happens or I could be playing for as lil as 20 mins.
*As my poor memory recalls, everytime this happened was while I was playing a family. I cannot recall if it happened while I was just building lots.
*Last time it happened I was playing in full-mode. While the day before I was building lots in windowed mode while chatting and surfing the net, downloading stuff, talking on skype for several hours whitout getting the BSoD. I cannot recall wether I had it happen while playing families in windowed mode, but it may be probable since I hardly play in full mode anymore.
*I believe that's all the info I got. I'll just write down my system specs and hopefully someone will have any idea what could be going wrong.

System Specs

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Processor: Intel Pentium D CPU 3.00 GHZ (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Videocard: NVIDEA GeForce 7300 LE
Videocard Memory: 256 MB

That's all I can think of atm. I really hope someone's able to help me out.

Greets and such from me.

[jrd]

There is a known crasher bug with (pre-8) Nvidia cards and TS2.

Put the following in your userstartup.cheat file:

Code:

boolprop useshaders false

The downside of this is, you will lose the fish in the aquaria and pools.

Another way to prevent the crashes is to play in windowed mode, but keep in mind this is more heavy on the system. Your specs show your system should be able to handle it, though.

[SaraMK]

Another way to prevent the crashes is to play in windowed mode, but keep in mind this is more heavy on the system.

Is this actually proven to be true?

For me, the game always runs more smoothly and with less lag when I play in windowed mode. Also, if you are playing full-screen, leaving the game to do something else (edit pictures for custom paintings, look at something online, etc.) causes a blue waiting screen to appear when you return to the game. The blue waiting screen can keep you out of the game for several minutes, which is why I would never play in full-screen mode.

[jrd]

Not sure if it is proven, but when I was running TS2 on my GeForceFX 5900XT and suffered from the crasher bug, running in windowed mode allowed me to play with shaders on without the crash every 30 mins or so.

Windowed mode plays more smoothly for me as well, but you can see the system take more resources. If your system can barely run Seasons as is, windowed play might not work.

[virgali]

Thank you Jordi,

I'm pretty sure it's already written somewhere on the forum but I'd be glad if you could give me instructions how to put it in the userstartup.cheat file? I'd hate to miss out on the fishies but I can always change it briefly to take pictures and or make movies. My previous puter had an ATI card with only 64 MB of memory but I never had problems with it running TS2, I only had to update the drivers to be able to see the entire cinematics (I could only see half of the screen, the other half was black) Also Sara, it's true I got that blue waiting screen, the first time it happened to me I totally panicked thinking my card esploded. This NEVER happened with my ATI card!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm very unpleased with my current card and will update to another as soon as I got the funds. What's the best card I could get to run TS2 with? That's also compatible with my system?

Thank you so much for the help.

[jrd]

I'm sure there's a tutorial somewhere for userstartup.cheat, but I can't find it now.

Snotty Sims has a basic one you can download: http://www.snootysims.com/cheatsindex.php?id=userstartup
Just place this in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config and then edit it in Notepad.
I have a large userstartup.cheat with many aliases and cheats in it, but my ISP's homepage server is down at the moment so I can't point you to it. which I have attached here. Review before using -- I've documented everything in it. You'll want to uncomment the last line (# at the start makes a line a comment, which is ignored by the game).

I have the testing cheats on by default, and also the faceBlendLimits are set to off. Additionally I use boolProp unevenTilesFloorable true to build on uneven floors, and floatProp tvVolume 0.1 (quiter TVs) and setHighestAllowedLevel 50 (building trick).


One more thing to add, just to be sure -- anything marked an "alias" is a shorter way to use a cheat. For example if I want to enable moveobjects, I go to the cheat console, and type "m". To disable, I use "m-". This is shorter than typing moveObjects on/off.
Additionally, since these aliases have help text defined, the y appear in the console if I type "help" should I ever forget them.

[Lorelei]

Easy-peasy.

1. Change the name of userstartup.cheat to userstartup.cheat.txt

2. Open with Notepad

3. Add the cheat you desire to activate on startup of game

4. Save

5. Close file

6. Rename file from userstartup.cheat.txt back to userstartup.cheat

The end!

Optionally, backup the original userstartup.cheat file and sock it away somewhere. You can do this by adding ".bak" to the copy of the file and leaving it as it is.

MTS2 has a tutorial on various things the various cheats do, if that is of interest to you.

[virgali]

Oh THANK YOU soooo much you guys! 

Yes, Lorelei, I'll be checking MTS2 soon for those tutorials. Thank you for the tip. I sometimes tend to forget MTS2 has that kind of stuff too. (I mainly go there for Bodyshop type downloads) Also thanx for the back up info, even if I wouldn't have forgotten about it, I wouldn't have known about chaning it to .bak.

Many thanx Jordi for your personal startup.cheat file ^^ Especialy the "alias feature" will be very handy. 

Greets and such ^^

[Lorelei]

Not a problem, I was glad to help!

[Hook]

And welcome back, Virgalibabe!  Long time no see!

Hook

[phyllis_p]

I noticed a post by Maxoid Sam on the BBS announcing that Nvidia has a beta driver that's supposed to fix this problem.  I haven't decided whether I'm going to try it or not. The thread is here.

[msalwaysright]

I'm using the new beta driver & haven't had the BSOD since I installed it.

I should add that I also recently upgraded my memory to 3gig and I used the advice in this post for dual core pc's: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7748.0.html.

The driver change is the most recent, but I'm unsure if it should get full credit.

[virgali]

OMG! That Necromancy pic is soooo freakin'cool I'm concidering to do a LOT more! ^^

Well Hi all.

I know I already made this thread and I think it's stupid to start a new one for the same prblem so here I go...
I just downloaded the new Nvidea drivers that's supposed to fix the crashproblem tho I haven't tested them yet and I still have the settings that makes it unable to view fish in the cheatstartup file.

Tho I did this just now because I didn't play much once again (grew totally bored with gaming in general) but I'm totally hooked on BV atm so I wanted to give it a try. I played for several simdays and spent some time decorating lots and so far no crashes. (that's just with the cheatstartup file thing not with the updated drivers)

My problem is that apparantly with the arrival of BV the crashing seems to be start happening again. Someone posted at the end of Sam's thread eventhou he requested it to be locked? Either ways. Was wondering if you people knew more about this?

[magic cookie]

I have the same issue.

The latest NVIDIA driver had fixed the problem but with BV the infamous blue screen of death issue has returned.

EA really sucks at life, I cannot understand how they wouldn't check on one of the most largely known issues before releasing their latest EP. I'm tired of giving money to this inept firm.

[virgali]

oww! this sucks! And I waited til the last moment 'cause they said the new drivers were a beta version anyways! I hope they release a solution soon tho. I'm so bummed I couldn't get this pc iwth an ATI card!

[Lorelei]

*sigh*

I wonder if my built-in NVidia laptop card is going to finally go tits up with this new EP. Joy. :/

[B]

By way of contrast (and perhaps reassurance), I have been running BV using an Nvidia card for the past five days with no issue.  I'm using the latest beta drivers alongside two 8800GTX in SLI. 

[ZiggyDoodle]

B, your avatar looks hung over.

[virgali]

B, your avatar looks hung over.

I don't have that card so I'm not sure what good that piece of info is to me, tbh. 

[J. M. Pescado]

If B spent half as much time TAKING HIS DAMN TURN as he did on his stupid avatar, he could FINISH DYING FASTER.

[B]

If B spent half as much time TAKING HIS DAMN TURN as he did on his stupid avatar, he could FINISH DYING FASTER.

If your server didn't keep crashing my game, I could take more turns!  Anyway, I just played two, and am inches away from death.  Unfortunately, I'm looking at houses for the next few days, so I'm not sure when I can play again.

[SnootCB]

I'm having the Blue Screen of Doom again.  I've got a nVidia GeForce 7800 and the most recent drivers for it.  And all other system specs are at or above requirements.  I can play for 40-50 minutes at best. *throws tantrum*

[B]

I'm having the Blue Screen of Doom again.  I've got a nVidia GeForce 7800 and the most recent drivers for it.  And all other system specs are at or above requirements.  I can play for 40-50 minutes at best. *throws tantrum*

CHeck your temps to make sure overheating is not the culprit.  Also, try the beta drivers if you're not using them already.

[SnootCB]

I'm having the Blue Screen of Doom again.  I've got a nVidia GeForce 7800 and the most recent drivers for it.  And all other system specs are at or above requirements.  I can play for 40-50 minutes at best. *throws tantrum*

Check your temps to make sure overheating is not the culprit.  Also, try the beta drivers if you're not using them already.

Temp is well below maximum.  The driver I'm using is the final-release one than was posted as being the fix for BSoD previously, and it did fix it.  Is there a new beta driver out already, or are you referring to the beta of the pre-BV BSoD fix?

[B]

I'm using the BETA released yesterday which can be found on this page.