More Awesome Than You!

 Hello everyone...

A few weeks ago my family bought a new computer:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon (tm) 64X2 Dual
Core Processor 6000+
2.99 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM
PAE (Physical Adress Estention)
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Memory: 512 MB

I installed The Sims 2 with all the expansions up to Bon Voayge and the stuff packs Family Fun, H&M Fashion and Glamour Life. My original Sims 2 is the Holiday Edition. I don't have ANY Custom Content.

I ran the game and was very exited to see how Seasons and Bon Voayge would be like. I've had computer problems for some time and have not been able to play The Sims for months and it has basically been a nightmare and I was really looking forward to when I was able to play it again. With the new computer the graphivs were improved a lot compared to what I used to have before. I choose a neighborhood and added all those places the sims can visit and then proceeded to make a family. Spent some time there, perhaps an hour or so (had to look at all the new stuff) and moved the family (or rather, the sim) into a pre-made house. I changed floors and bought furniture (checking what new stuff had come, perhaps an hour here too) and was ready to play. I was able to play until the nehbours came to visit. The game suddenly froze with a DRDRDRDRDR sound which lasted for a few seconds and disappeared, leaving me with the frozen game and no sound. I was not able to get out from it and had to shut the computer off by holding in the button...

So, a very upset me tries the game two more times. The freezing now also occurs in buy/build mode and not only in play mode. I looked around a little on these forums and saw that many people had problems with Bon Voayge so I tried to launch the game without the internet thingy that connects to this site and deleted the task etfmon.exe. That didn't work, game still froze. Also tried boolprop usershaders off and nothing there too, game was still freezing. Realizing that it all could be Bon Voyage's fault (and hearing that many people have out it on the shelf due to the problems occurring), I un-installed everything and re-installed the original only. I ran the game and created a sim and moved him into a house and was able to play for some sim days - no problems. I thought it was okay and then proceeded with installing everything up to Seasons. I ran the game again but the game froze just as when Bon Voyage was installed. I'm not 100% certain that the game was running well with just the original as that would've taken a few hours to be sure of but as the freezing occurs in the beginning of the game (before the neighbours come) I took the chance and thought it was okay and that something was wrong with Bon Voayage.

Sooo... Now I have no clue what to do. I really want to play The Sims. I know my old computers could run all I installed on the new computer except for Seasons and Bon Voyage as I didn't have them at that time. The new computer being new.. there's not that many games on it but Disney's Cars and Age of Mythology + the exp The Titans (you are allowed to mention other games here, right?) had a similar problem but after we got patches to Age of Mythology and The Titans the game is no longer freezing (it froze and there was no sound - not even the DRDR-sound). First time Cars was tried out on the new computer it crashed and a blue screen came up. Second time it froze exactly the same way The Sims 2 did - DRDRDR and no sound and the only option was to shut down the computer.

Any help is highly appreciated.
Is it some of the expansions or stuff packs that are causing this problem? Or is it something with the computer?


NOTE: I made an exact thread on the BBS forums and someone adviced me to ask here instead.  Got a few tips there but...
-setting the processor affinity manually didn't work when I had Bon Voyage included but I will try with everything up to Seasons so I can rule that one out.
-there seems to already be a AMD Dual Core Fix on the computer
-I have all the patches for the expansions and stuff packs I have

Well, first, wrong forum.

Second, the drive fault sounds suspiciously like SecuROM. Were you using a no-cd crack with BV? If not, you should have been.

Sorry about the wrong forums. Its kind of hard to find as there's no real forum descriptions...

Nopes, no CD - crack. Will look into that. Thanks.

Nonsense. You broke it, so it goes in 'Oops! You Broke It!'.

Right... well, I suppose I can't movbe threads on my own and it wouldn't be seen as good to make a double post...

Could you please link me to site where I can get a hold of a CD crack? Can't seem to be able to find anything at the moment. Would a CD crack solve the freezing problem?

Removing SecuROM will fix the drive problem. Using the no-CD crack will keep you from getting it again.

Alright. How can I remove SecuROM, any good links?

Would also appreciate a good link to some CD crack site...

Follow the instructions in "Remove SecuROM...NOW" thread.

oh.. damn.. Was right above my thread, sorry. Not a forum person =S

Thanks a lot for your help, I hope it will work. Just tried again with setting the processor affinity manually, closing down the process ctfmon.exe and using autopatch off to no use at all.

CD crack link included in "Remove SecuROM...NOW" thread. Awesome..... ^^;;

There's more expansions having SecuRom on them.. I'm sure its listed somewhere.. but er.. yeah.. help appreciated? =]

I have FreeTime coming soon, unless it was lost in the mail... and I want to have the Teen stuff pack and Celebration as well. What steps would I need to do in that case to prevent SecuROM from appearing again? (if that is the cause to my freezing problem, which it better be)

Just use a no-CD crack for the most recent EP and you should PREVENT getting SecuROM back on your PC. You will need to get RID of it first.

That simple then.. great! My brother is getting rid of it now for me. Thanks for the help!

Another thing I figured I'd add, as it's rather crucial if you didn't glean it from Jelenedra's posts:

When you install Free Time, because I'm assuming that'll be the last one you'll install, get the no CD crack IMMEDIATELY. Run, do not walk, to your nearest torrent site or wherever you choose to get one. If you run the game even once from the .exe that it comes with, SecuROM will be installed on your computer.

I understood it but thanks for being so clear. I'll see if I can disable autorun to prevent it accidentally being run (you never know with younger siblings and better safe than sorry).

What I thought of now that you say last install and cd-crack... Kitchen and Bathroom interior stuff will come out soon, what if I installed Free Time first and then installed the new stuff pack, I'd be running the game from the stuff pack. Is there a no CD crack for stuff packs too? (sorry for the newbie questions but as I've never had problems with any game before I know nothing of such things). I'll most likely wait till that stuff pack comes out and then install FT but there seems to be coming out some more stuff packs later?

Last I checked, the game only runs from the exe in the latest EP, and not from stuff packs.
But I'm not certain.

Nope, I've been running it from the stuff packs. Put in the CD for the last expansion I installed and it required a stuff pack CD.

Alright, my bad. I thought I read somewhere that it was the other way around, and I couldn't check it for myself as I don't have the stuff packs.
Sorry!

Actually, it depends which CD you have to use (EP vs SP) on which is your latest EP.  For example, if you don't have BV, Seasons, or FT and install Teen Style Stuff, you'd use the TSS disk.  If you have one of those EPs, though, they have a later version of the game engine so you'd use the EP CD.

The manual that comes in the game box usually spells out which disk you need to start it.  Of course, with a no-CD crack, it's a moot point. :)

Really? Didn't know that as I just got Seasons and BV now and waiting for FT. Installed the stuff packs first as I hate to be running the game through one of those stuff pack CD's... looks prettier when you have a exp CD case lying around but that will be no problem now, I hope ;)
Haven't noticed anything in the manuals about that.. will check.

Can't give an update on if SecuROM is the cause of my problems yet as my brother still hasn't got rid of it. He's lazy and I'd probably mess something up real bad it I'd try myself.