More Awesome Than You!

What a wonderful reason to stop lurking... to complain.

A few months ago, my computer crashed. So, like a good little person, I went and got a new one.

Well, now that I've installed my game (and one ep, due to the fact that I can't find the effing manuals to Uni, OFB, and Pets, yay, a month's worth of food money wasted) on my new computer and replaced everything in my downloads folder, the game does not want to start. In fact, once it hits the damn loading screen, the whole thing goes kaboom and I'm stuck pressing Ctrl Alt Del over and over again, only to realize Task Manager does not automatically pop up in Vista.

There are several reasons why this could have happened, at least from what little I know:

A - The kitten killer. So, sue me. I downloaded it.
B - The abundance of CC I have.
C - Default replacements and other purely cosmetic crapola.

Halp plz?

[Edited because of unintentional butchering of the English language.]

You installed Vista. That's a problem right there.

I hate Vista. But because of my extremely high patience, I didn't even bother to try another OS and bought the first computer I saw in Circuit City.

Reformat, reinstall XP.

Thank you, Awesome One, for putting up with my lack of technical wisdom.

Now to find those goddamn manuals and go through my hacks...

That's basically where I'm at,too.   No matter what fixes I've tried, Vista still blows. ::)  I actually started to install XP on my new computer, but it has the newer Serial ATA disk.  XP didn't play well with it & I didn't have the drivers to preload.   

Of course, I couldn't help but open up the new box & have a look around.  I noticed it had the older style ATA connector on the motherboard.  I just found out by experimenting that I can hook up my old ATA disk with XP already on it and it will boot off that disk.   I'll have to muck around with my hardware profile, but with any luck I can start using XP without a complete reinstall.  gnarly...

Oh, sounds like loads of fun.  ::)

My old computer is somewhere in Goodwill, so the chances of getting its old serial are pretty slim. Plus, I was a fucktard when booting it up, and neglected to make backup disks. Actually, if I made backup disks, I would still be using XP.

Until I gather up the information on reformatting and all that lurvely crapola, and actually find time from work to fix this shit on my computer, I'm going to have to make do with Vista.

Maybe this is a stupid suggestion, but I just took a look at the back of my BV case, and compared it to the back of the Sims2 case, and of course, one mentions Windows vista,the other naturally doesn't since Vista was then only a twinkle in Microsoft's eye.  So, my suggestion is, install BV and see if that solves the problem...it's create others, but if you are a simmer, you're used to that!

It doesn't really seem like too bad of an idea, but with all the wonderful things I've heard about Securom, and the fact that I'm dirt poor right now... that'll have to wait, even if I do try it. Thanks anyways. :]

In other news, I've tried out the game without hacks and without all those crappy Peggy meshes stashed in my DL folder.  Fail.

So, all the blame goes to Vista.

Well, it's just that the older ep's and base game are incompatible, as they are bound to be since Vista wasn't around then.  Since I have the downloaded version of Seasons I can't check, but if you have it, look at the back of the case, just below the Video Card requirements to see if Vista is mentioned.  Pets would be too early, and doesn't mention it.  If Seasons mentions Vista, then try to install and play that.  If you still haven't found your manual, and it's the serial number you need to install the game, then I'd start hunting.....

I'm going to the mall sometime this weekend with friends, and will look through Best Buy's games section and see if Seasons is Vista compatible. If not, I'll try to get BV. Either way, I probably won't have a new EP anytime soon with my lack of funds...

And as for the serial numbers... yes. I need the manuals to install the games. Fortunately, OFB's manual was lurking under my bed, so that's one less to look for.

Thanks for all the help.

You could probably find that info at TheSims2.com.  Then it's a matter of saving your pennies! 

I guess I'm a bit confused here. I bought a new comp a few months ago and re-installed Sims2 and all the EPs. To date, other than the laggy stuff and the SecuRom issues (which I haven't been victim too yet), the games play great - and I have Vista.

My confusion is this, exactly what is it in the Vista OS that is causing problems with running your Sims games?

In that case, you have (as do I) great cause of thankfulness.  Problems are inconsistent seemingly dependant on your computers:
1) specifications
2) loaded software
3) anti-virus/spamware
4) configuration (whether you loaded on an administrator or just a user account)
5) status with relation to the internet during play (I always play with internet disconnected)
6) mood at the time.

If you have no serious problems and your game runs fine, you should do the thankfulness action appropriate to your religious/philosophical tendencies (i.e. pray, light candle, wave hands in air, chant, sacrifice small animal, sit back and smile smugly, have nice cup of tea, other).

I personally refuse to wave my hands in the air, but have moved through most of the others and have settled on tea.  I will someday (probably) get secuROM off my system, but have no intention of ever loading Vista.

It's interesting.  I was just at another forum and just finished reading a post that had a virtually identical title.  So I clicked on this thread -- turns out it's a very similar problem, that was solved.

Check here (http://www.thesporum.net/smf/index.php?topic=1702.0).  You don't have to be a member in order to read it.

ETA: The post is by someone who has both Vista and BV.

I think you've supplied some very helpful info Phyllisp, and I'm sure it will make a difference to a lot of people - it at least gives them a place to start!

I still tend to think that part at least of Anasthesia's problem has to do with compatibility issues between Vista and earlier EP's and the base game itself, since these were around before Vista.  Unlike XP, which is a direct descendant of 98 and Me, etc., I understand that Vista is very different - maybe I'm wrong, though, as, since I don't have it and have no intention of doing so if it can be avoided, I can only go by what I've read, which is little enough really. 
However, deleting any file which regenerates itself is always a good idea since the new filewon't have got corrupted.

As for needing the manuals.. I do believe I have them on my site. Or, at least the part you're looking for.

..but I wouldn't try to have the EPs phone home.

I have Vista Home Premium and had it before Bon Voyage was released ,my computer had no issues playing all games up to and including Seasons. The only thing that was  even off center was the easy-info which of course said my OS failed since it did not recognize Vista. The critical isssue appears to  be RAM availability since Vista is quite needy and greedy when it comes to gobbling up RAM.
   The Video card is also critical in operating Bon Voyage,I had to buy an Nvidia Card to meet the game requirements in order to play without crashing ,the onboard graphics weren't good enough and I kept getting the application will terminate until I bought and installed a vide card that was on the list of requirements to play the game.
Games prior to Bon Vogae will play on Vista.

Well, I said I thought Seasons would, but have you tried earlier EPs?

I have. My old pc went down, and I ended up getting a new one about a week after vista came out, yay me  >:(. Had a little trouble when installing uni, but cleaning the disc fixed that. But I installed the ep's up to pets, and the game ran fine with a radeon 9250. I now have all ep's and sp's along with an 8600 gt card, and still not problems with the game and vista.  :)

Again, thanks for the help, everyone. I really appreciate it, and it definetly contributes to other people's knowledge who are having the same problem.

Unfortunately, I've deleted userprops.xml and checked the system requirements several times with no avail. I have the specifics needed for gameplay.

In addition my internet has been down for the past few days, which just added to all my computer problems.

And Strangel, you really do have the needed codes on your website? I love you. Seriously. :D

Yup. Go down to Paper Dolls, then Poke With Sticks and click on the sticky! :)

Did I mention I love you?

x3

I'll take that as "I found them!"