More Awesome Than You!

Ok, I'll attempt to explain the problem I'm having and hopefully someone will have an idea of what I'm talking about and what's going on. 

Lately I have been having a major problem with the game crashing (not uncommon from what I've read here) BUT, I started the game up today and while playing, at random times, the blue screen will pop up and the cursor turns to the spinning hourglass. (like it does when you're loading).  After about a minute or so of doing that the game will resume. As if that wasn't annoying enough the last time it did that my monitor shut off during the blue screen.  The only way it would come back on was to reboot the computer.

It only does this while playing Sims so I'm not sure what the problem is... software or hardware. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this problem because I'm completely at a loss on figuring this one out.   :-\

What are your system specs? (processor, video card, ram) and have you ever updated your video drivers?

Well I'm running the game on an old spare computer I had sitting around so the specs are pretty bad. lol

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
NVidia GeForce 6600 GT
1GB RAM

I only use it for Sims and it's played fine until recently.  Hmm but now that you mention it, I did update the video drivers a few days ago.  Is that possibly the problem?

Yes, it definitely could be. Try rolling back to older drivers. Your computer isn't great, but it should be enough to run the game without your video card crapping out.

Ewe need moar rams?

Not the NVidia BSoD problem?

Maybe not - I get the same thing every now and then and I have an ATI x700 mobility card.  Haven't updated the drivers (cos I can't find an update for them and everywhere I look tells me I have the latest drivers).  I'm gonna look into the moar ram, I have a 2G celeron processor but only 1G ram.

I get the spinning hourglass/blue screen every few hours or so of playing. It sits that way for up to about three minutes and then play resumes. I have an nVidia GeForce 8600M GT in my laptop. Invariably, once I finally exit the game, I have a little message saying that my video driver crapped itself and then restarted. It's mildly annoying, but not fatally so. Drivers are up-to-date. It doesn't bother me too much. I just make sure I save frequently.

I could deal with doing it only every few hours but I get it every few minutes.  I'll just go back to the old drivers and see if that helps.

It definitely sounds like the problem you get when you install newer NVidia drivers. I had this until I changed back to the old driver.

I get the same blue screen problem with my ATI Mobility Radeon X1400. The more CC I use, the more often it happens. Stripped down, the game doesn't do it barely at all. I actually had to stop using custom cars because they put to much strain on the system. I know what's causing my problem: the drivers. If this problem gets too serious it crashes my computer, blues screen of death-throws style. The blue screen tells me my atiblahblah.blah driver has crashed.
I can't really do anything about this problem, but I thought it might help someone else to hear about it. And as advice to those of you having a similar problem: watch the CC. Poly counts are a bitch, apparently.

That and the fact that you are running off a laptop, which means your processor may overheat if you don't do some extra cooling.  This could also cause slowdowns and crashes.  Your card's specs suggest that it should run the game in any case.

I'm on a Dell, which is a warranty replacement for a previous computer that had major overeating problems (I don't seem to have as many problems with this now). The Dell part means that Ati won't support the drivers, and the warranty replacement means I didn't choose it. I know it's not the best thing ever, but it's not like I can impulse-replace anything, being a college student. The Sims is the only thing I really ever have a problem with. I only have one computer, after all.

It definitely sounds like the Nvidia problem.
I have that video casrd, too.  My system does that hour glass thing all the time. 

I found if I put TS2 in a window, it wouldn't crash my computer, which it did often.

As far as I know, that's the only solution.

Well rolling back to my previous drivers seemed to fix the blue screen issue. But it's hard to tell because unfortunately I don't get to play long before it crashes.  >:(  I never thought about playing it in a window instead of full screen, I'll try that next and see if it helps.

Thanks everyone  :)

OK, sorry if this is a stupid question and feel free to point and laugh if you must... but I'm not seeing an option to play it in a window instead of full screen.  Is it there and I completely missed it or is there a trick to doing it?

Not stupid.  It's not a regular option. :)

Right click on the shortcut for the game, and in the Target box, after the final quotation mark,  add a space and then -w

Right-click on the shortcut to the game and select "Properties". Add "-w" without the quotes to the end of the Target line so that it reads "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2EP7.exe" -w, or wherever your game folder is located. Make sure there is a space between the "...exe" and the -w.

Ahh ok, I got it. Thanks so much  ;D

 :-[ Forgot that whole "select properties" step. LOL

Maybe it's just me being inept, but I can't get beyond the final quotation mark. Would it work if I replaced the quotation mark and then added the space and -w? I don't want to break my game...(well, more than it already is)

Yes, that would work. Don't worry, you won't blow up the game. I found out when I mistyped something to avoid the launcher, it won't let you point it at someplace that doesn't exist.  :D

Hee!  :D