More Awesome Than You!

Just curious if it's just me or if anyone else has experienced this.  My Sims game minimizes whenever it feels like it.  When it's loading, while I'm playing, while it's paused.  I've not been able to find any particular action that seems to cause this or found any posts with anyone else talking about this.  I think this started after installing BV.  I don't get to play very often, but I'm sure it was happening before I put FT on.

Probably another app. I get this when my antivirus starts its weekly scan, despite being told when I actually want it to scan. Also, at least once a week, Apple pushes an iTunes update I don't need (another thing I turn off, but which doesn't stay off.)

If you don't see another app open when it minimizes, either it's a slow-starting app that's even slower because The Sims has to unload a bunch of crap, or there's something in your systray that's notifying you of something.

Also, pay closer attention to what keys you press immediately before it happens. You might be doing alt-tab, ctrl-esc, or the Windows key by accidentl

Get rid of Apple's automatic update program.

Kill all unnecessary background processes and services before you load the game.  Mind you, that likely means your internet is offline as well, but then, no updates of anything while you play.  Also frees system resources for the game, which may improve some aspects of game performance.

I do disconnect my internet connection when I play as well as snoozing CA antivirus.  I've killed all the Apple and HP software from starting up with the operating system with CCleaner.  I've weeded through the task manager and can't see what I have open that could cause this.

I'm running on a core 2duo with 3gig ram, so I don't think it's low resources.  I think there is a poltergiest in my Sims game.  Probably from having BV installed when I have had nothing but trouble with that ep.  But I don't want to give up the extras that it adds to the game.

It's probably not a resources issue, but windows minimizing is more of a system-level call than an app-level call. You can try the same procedures you would use to troubleshoot a hack conflict, but I doubt it's the game itself.

Try making a new shortcut to the game. Does the new shortcut do the same thing?

I take it you play full screen?

I had weird things happen like this with BV, but I my be the only person to say this, but it all went away with FT.  I was able to put all my specs back to high and haven't had an unexplained crash or minimize since.  First time a new EP actually made my game better running than worse.

I play off a no CD crack, but I will try cutting a new shortcut.  Easy enough and couldn't hurt.

Yes, I do play full screen.  Love the big game on the 22" monitor.  I'm not even sure how to play windowed, but if it would stop this, I would gladly change.

You can make a shortcut to the noCD crack, too. In fact, try that, then try it without the noCD crack. Is there a difference? If it just happens with the noCD crack, it's that crack. Get a different one.

To run the game in windowed mode:

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.

This was happening to me for a while - I'd start it loading, go do something else, and then find that the game had minimized itself and my new monitor was giving out a "can't run 3d" type of error. I would maximize it again and it would run fine, and it never did this while I was actually playing. I finally discovered that it was my screen saver popping up during the load time - or trying to, but failing - so I set it to pop up after 45 minutes instead of 4 minutes, and I haven't had it happen since.

I suspect the firewall is complaining that the game is trying to phone home.

Starting the game in windowed mode seems to have fixed the problem.  Still working on getting the size to where I want it, but the game no longer disappears.