More Awesome Than You!

I have been so frustrated with the Sims 2 lately.  I can't even play because it takes about 5-10 mins to even load up the stupid game (that's just to the neighbourhood selection screen btw) and then when I finally manage to get into a lot, I can play for maybe 5 mins and then one of 4 things happen:
1. I get "The application has crashed.  The application will now terminate"
2. The game just "blinks" out of existance sending me back to the desktop with no popup or anything, just the game closing itself for no apparent reason.
3. I get the Blue Screen of Death and have to restart my entire computer
4. My computer simply restarts itself, skipping the BSD entirely.

Today I was at my wits end, so I decided to try to see if CC was the problem, even though I was pretty sure it wasn't.  I have been having this problem forever, it just gets worse sometimes.  So I was pretty sure none of the hacks were at fault, but maybe some really old clothing or hair mesh was?  So I took my entire Downloads folder and put it on the desktop, then put a new empty downloads folder where it used to be and moved only the 100% Awesome AL approved hacks (including the newest version of AL fixes) into that folder.  So I had no custom hair/clothes/objects or anything.  Not even simple recolurs of Maxis stuff.

I started up the game.  Timed it, btw; 5 mins from clicking "play" on the launcher until it finally got to "OMG u haz Hax in Ur Game!!11" (you know the pop-up I mean; the one that asks if I'm 100% sure I want to allow this CC to be enabled and all that).  I went into a lot I was building, had to chagelotzoning to res from apt, exited the lot and didn't even get to go back in because #2 happend (see above).

Now, obviously, I am not awesome, so I could be wrong, but from this test I concluded that none of my CC is at fault since the only CC in my game were Awesomeware and the stupid game is still bork.

Can anyone help me or at least point me in the right direction?

ETA: Here are my computer's specs

It has 2 gigs of RAM.
AMD Athlon XP 2200 processor
Nvidia GeForce 7600 ST video card
1 80 gig and 1 250 gig harddrives
eta (again): I'm using Window's XP Service Pack 3

It sounds to me like your game isn't the problem, but your computer trying to handle the game IS.

I'm not awesome, so I can't tell you WHICH part of your computer...

Could we maybe get some specs?   Anyone who could help you here will certainly need them.

ETA:  If I'm not mistaken, the minimum specs were raised with AL.

That would make sense; it's been so much worse since installin AL.

My husband is the computer geek; I really know very little about computers.
This is what he says:

It has 2 gigs of RAM.
AMD Athlon XP 2200 processor
Nvidia GeForce 7600 ST video card
1 80 gig and 1 250 gig harddrives

That's all he says.  If I need to give more info; I'll have to pry it out of him since even getting that much was difficult.   :P

NVIDIA = BSOD.  That's one thing.  I also hear tales about Win XP SP3 having problems?  But I don't think I ever had SP3 so I can't confirm.  I shall search.

ETA - general discussion of SP3 here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11859.0.html) but no mention of Sims problems.

Something that might be more likely here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12575.0.html).

Is this not the nVidia crasch bug, then?

Just guessing, but seeing as the game crashes, and you have an nVidia card...

Next time you get the Blue Screen of Death, make sure to note down the error message. It might tell you what is wrong, or at least what your computer was doing before it died. Remember to turn off auto-restart (ask hubbs for help or google how, I don't know it by heart) so you actually have a chance at reading the BSoD.

To stop the automatic restart, do this.

Start---Control Panel---System
Advanced Tab
Under "Startup and Recovery" click Settings
Last checkbox, uncheck "Automatically restart"

Could it be an overheating issue? I'm no expert, but I assume it's worth considering.

Ok, did that.  Thanks for the step-by-step.

I hadn't heard of the nVidia crash bug.  Apparently neither had my husband.   :-\

I suppose it could be overheating.  We had problems during the summer with both computers (my husband's and mine) overheating quite regularly (we don't have air conditioning in our apartment).  Since it's been fall, though, I guess I wasn't thinking of that.  Not sure how to solve it if it is; in the summer, we just turned the computers off during the hottest parts of the day and hoped for the best when we did use them.

Open the cases up and blow out any dust.  Dust caused some crashing problems I had a while back because it meant the fan couldn't work properly - not quite the same as yours though.

Here's info on the NVIDIA crash bug: http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:nVidia_Blue_Screen_Issue

Generally if it's an overheating problem, you won't get the "application will now terminate" or the random vanishing of programs in use, only the BSOD or shutdown depending on your motherboard. (I live in the desert, I've been through overheating issues on a wide variety of systems at this point.) That suggests to me that either a) it's not overheating or b) you have multiple issues going on. But a can of air and a thorough dusting is an easy fix and a good thing to do anyway.

That said...

After dusting, things I would check: (Or get your husband to check, if you don't know how and he's the resident tech)

1. Make sure your memory and video card are seated properly. It's an easy fix, and if either of those are ever so vaguely out of their slot, it causes wierdness.
2. Make sure your video drivers are up to date.
3. Run a memory test to check for bad sectors. If part of your memory is bad, the system will run with no indication of a problem until it tries to write to that bit of memory, then BOOM, BSOD. Then it'll restart quite happily and leave you scratching your head.

It's weird, because BSOD/Shutdown/Reboot behavior is usually hardware based, but phantom disappearing applications? That I'm less sure of but it sounds more like software issues. Which if it was me and my luck, I would immediately say there's more than one problem here.  ::)

Now to go check out this "nVidia crashing bug" thing, as I have an nVidia card and have never had an issue with crashes... hmm...

Is your card still listed as being supported?

My old video card was an ATI 7500 series card. It worked great for the base game and University. However, when they released Nightlife they dropped support for the 7500 series. It took me a while to figure out what exactly the problem was too.  ::)

I had a similar problem several EPs back and it was my power supply.  Make sure it's sufficient to run everything you have.  Could be something worth checking anyway.

Or the problem could be strictly related to game stoop1dn3ss. No, really:

worker dude 1: *making discs* I'm Bored! *whines and pouts*
worker dude 2: Heh heh! Start borking disceses! Then we can reads about its on teh internet!
worker dude 1: YAYz! Dats teh Goodest idea! *Writes random code about a flying purple hamster onto the AL game that you happened to get*


Seriously, would anyone be surprised???
I had a Sims 1 Complete edition disc with a that-disc-only glitch where everything could burn. By everything I mean walls, wallpaper, flooring, windows, ceiling lights, and already-burned-ash.

Trlaavh: All you need now is the fire-breathing toddler!

I only get a BSOD while using bitlord.  Bittorrent and Limewire freeze my system to a standstill.
The Sims on the other hand, works fine.

For safety, I suggest getting an external HDD that is equal or greater than the space of your current HDD system.  Do regular backups onto the external so that if your computer DOES die in a spectacular way, you still have your backups.  Save all your iso's and no-cd cracks onto it in case something happens. 

Also, in event of fire, external portables are easier to grab than the whole box.

:D

In the event of fire, the last thing you are going to be worrying about is your computer. Trust me.

Haha, yeah, except for that I meant that the walls and stuff of my sims' homes could burn. Not mine! Gah, that would SUCK!!! lolz.

They left they're computers, and just screamed at the flames.

And I was responding to Yecats, not you.

Thanks everyone for your advice.  So far, my husband and are are pretty sure it's not the nVidia crasch bug, since that apparently goes to an empty bule screen, but my BSOD always has writing on it.  We updated our drivers anyway.

We also did a full defrag of both harddrives and then ran a test for bad memory sectors.  That memory test took all day and all night because it kept resarting once it was finnished.  Eventually, we just exited out of it, because it was just going on and on forever with no end in sight.  Not sure what it means, but it had found over 700 errors when we finally stopped it.   :-\

As hilarious as that post about random disk borkeness is, I'm not sure if that could really be my problem.  My husband downloaded the cracked version of Sims2 and all EPs/Sps, so if we have a randomly borken version, then so does everyone else who downloaded that same cracked version, right?

Anyway, I was just running the Sims 2 and was in CAS.  Got a BSOD, and what it said was total gibberish to me, but maybe it means something to some of you?  After the same speell it always says about restarting your computer and safe mode and stuff, it said this:


That's the only part of the BSOD that ever changes, so yeah.  Didn't mean anything to me or my husband.

Try googling just the string of numbers, or even just the middle two groups, or one of those at at time. Often this will lead to a Microsoft knowledge article or other useful internet links. These are codes that mean something and you can search them.

PS I don't like the look of all the disk errors, sometimes the things have a few bad sectors and it stays that way for ages, then they suddenly start cascading throughout your hard drive. If I were you, I would be devoting my day to making sure you have a backup of all your essential data onto an external hard drive or DVD or whatever. Especially drivers.

PPS On re-reading your post, I'm not sure whether you are referring to a disk scan - for hard drives, or a memory test - for RAM. If it was the disk scan for hard drives, then what I said above applies. Backups are always a good strategy anyway, when a machine is playing up, it's saved my butt on more than one occasion.


My NVidia crashes did not go to an empty screen. I used to get errors like yours with the hex numbers. Often they had dx (I think it was dx, it was a while ago) somewhere which usually indicates video issues. Just upgrading the driver isn't always the answer to NVidia problems either, sometimes you have to go back a driver or two to find one that works.

I googled because I am bored.  Stop: 0x0000008E errors are most likely RAM-related.  If you were receiving umptimillion errors while doing a memory check...then...yeah.  But go ahead and google for yourself, there are many hits, and many different causes/solutions; research to find which best suits your situation.  Oh, and I would definitely heed witch's advice.

Yeah, memory test for RAM should throw no errors at all. Have you recently added to your RAM, or replaced a stick or changed the config in any way?

Usually I run a memtest for 24 hours and expect no errors if the RAM is OK.

I know. I was responding to both, and applying my situation to Gastfyr's, and stating how much better my situation had been.  :D

Also AMD + SP3 = evil. Can you roll your windows back to SP2 at all?

Sorry for the confusion.  It was a test of RAM, not the hardrive that came up with 700+ errors.

My husband looked up that error message as you suggested and found some forum posts where someone suggested a program called RegCure, so he decided to try that.  It came up with over 1000 errors in the registry when he ran that program, and it said it fixed those errors too.  Anyway, it didn't fix my problem, or at least didn't fix all the problems, sicne I just loaded up the Sims 2 and tried to do a little building (I am still working on the same freaking apt lot, since I never can get it done before some crash or other inturupts).  I was actually thinking, "Wow, this seems to be letting me actually do stuff and it hasn't crashed yet," when I got a "The aplication has crashed..."  :P

So anyway, my husband thinks we need to buy more ram.  He seems to think more ram might fix the problem entirely.  Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me, since I don't think it's possible to have "too much" RAM.  lol

The weird thing is he has the exact same Sims 2 game (exact copy of the same CDs) on his computer and it never crashes.  I mean, maybe once in a blue moon, but nothing either of us remembers.  He has different computer specs, of course, but the same amount of RAM.

You can't just willy-nilly buy RAM. One of the reasons I asked if you'd changed your RAM configuration is because you can have mismatched RAM. Different speeds, types between RAM sticks can conflict. I suggest you take your current RAM into the shop and tell them what your motherboard is, before you purchase any more RAM. Although this is risky as a lot of salespeople don't have any idea.

In fact, you could look up the specs online for your make and model of motherboard, see what RAM it takes and how much RAM it can handle. Better to go armed with the knowledge yourselves.

RAM can also go bad, you might have to throw away your current RAM.

Yeah, that's what my husband was saying.  Sorry for not being clear.  He said the computer has all the sticks of RAM it can fit, but he's going to throw away the two oldest ones and try putting "bigger" sticks in the same slots.  Something like that.  I have heard about the whole mismatched RAM thing; my one brother tried to explain that to me once.  I hope my husband understands it better than I do.  lol  Research like you said is a good idea; considering how much money all this computer stuff can cost, there's no sense spending money on stuff that won't work.

As to if we've changed our RAM configuration recently, I'm not sure.  Well, I'm not sure how recently counts as recently.  One of the RAM sticks is newer than the other 2.  The newest thing, though, is the video card; my husband replaced the old one so he could run Obilvion on this computer.  Of course, at the time, he didn't know about any nVidia crasch bug.  I honestly don't remember if the Sims 2 crashing has been worse since he changed to nVidia for the video card, because I know it used to crash anyway.  It's been an ongoing problem that just seems to get progressively worse over time.

your problem sounds way over my competence level - backing up now sounds critical to me too though!  

DK if this will help much, but I just wondered whether you had other stuff running while you were trying to play sims.....   If there is anything running that you can close down, you might gain some playing time before that BSOD hits from other causes.  It's not just closing applications you know are running like virus checker, e-mail, msn etc, but using Ctrl Alt Del just before you load the sims to clear out less obvious stuff like quicktime,  msoffice quickstart etc...  Clearing stuff out of startup is a good move if you play a lot of sims and then there are the Windoze services you don't need.  Black Viper's list of what they all do is the one I know.  Then there's the question of paging files - size of file required and available contiguous HD space are both issues.  There's a "how to" at MTS2 and Paladin has a more advanced set of instructions at SimWardrobe.  

Zazazu:  I have years and years of photos on my externals, along with music, movies, important documents, university lectures and other stuff that I need for future reference.

 In a fire, I wouldn't have time to carry my huge heavy computer out to a safe place, but I can fit both hard drives into the pockets of my jacket and run.  They're insured, but that can't bring back the memories.

Yup. Memory errors. Thought so.

The "mismatched RAM" thing is this: Your motherboard has (from the sound of things) 4 slots to put RAM sticks in: A B C D. They are grouped into pairs, AB and CD. If you put just two sticks of RAM total into your system, you need to use AB, not AC or AD, and the two need to be identical. If you put four sticks total, then the pair in AB need to be identical, and the pair in CD need to be identical. Most of the time AB can be different from CD, in my experience, but there's a possibility of buggeration if AB and CD are not identical to each other as well. (Note that AB and CD are not necessarily the two slots next to each other on the board. Often it's the first two of each pair, and the second two of each pair. Your motherboard's manual will tell you which two need to be used together.)

However, I am not familiar with mismatching RAM sticks (as I do not do it) and I don't know if memtest would throw errors because of it. From what I've learned the system should just not load at all, or work very poorly (windows only running for 4mins at a time, or some such), rather than you only having a problem when running a memory intensive game. It suggests much more strongly that there is a serious problem with one or more of your RAM sticks.

Replacing sticks is a good idea, but it isn't necessarily the old RAM causing the problem.

You can diagnose the problem by removing the two new ones and running memtest to look for errors, then removing the old and putting in the new and testing for errors.

Or, you can remove all 4 and replace them with new, which, while costing more money, is far less of a headache.

I think what Zazazu means is that, depending on where you are in the house, and what time of day it is, and how far advanced the fire is when you notice it and have to flee, you may not be in any position to take hardware with you, regardless of how much you might miss the photographs.  If I'm asleep and the fire alarm goes off, that means that the fire is already advanced enough to create significant smoke (dangerous) and may be burning quite well.  I'm thinking I would likely grab the people and kitteh and just go.  It's sad to lose the memories, but I'd rather be alive to miss my photographs than the alternative.

Actually, it is possible to have too much RAM. Each version of the Windoze operating system is capable of seeing and handling more RAM than those that came before but has its own limits. I think it was Win98 for example, that could only see/use a maximum of 768MB (I think) of RAM. I'm not sure of the limit for WinXP. (And too lazy to google). Each OS also needs more RAM. Vista is touted to run best with 4GB RAM.

Precisely. Get out of my head, Jolrei! I have personal experience with this.

I have the win32 version of XP and mine seems to be capped at 3GB of RAM. I know 4GB is installed. It doesn't hurt to have too much RAM, but if you're over what the system can use it does you no good. :)

This link details why you can't use more than four gigs of ram with a 32 bit operating system (not CPU). VERY interesting read.

http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

The actual reason this occurs is not that the RAMs need to specifically be identical, but that different RAMs have different timing characteristics. If the RAMs are timed wrong, they will fail to function correctly. The computer's BIOS normally autodetects these timings, but when your RAMs are mismatched, they may read the timings from the "fast" RAMs. The slow RAMs cannot keep up with this rate, so they fail. The solution is to pull up the BIOS and set your RAMs to the speed of the slow RAMs. Of course, finding out what those timings *ARE* is an adventure in itself, and not for the dumb. :P

Sometimes they're printed on the RAMs themselves, sometimes they're available from the manufacturer's websites, and sometimes you just have to plug and pray. :P

I had a stick of RAM go bad on me recently.  So here's what I would do:

1:  Download Memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/#downiso) and burn the ISO to a cd.
2:  Reboot computer with the cd in the drive.  This may require you to go into the BIOS setup and set your cd drive to boot before the hard drive.  (get techy husband to do this.  you don't want to mess willy-nilly with the BIOS)
3:  Let the test run for a few minutes.  If you see errors pop up then you have some bad RAM.

Now comes the fun part:

4:  Open your case and take out all but one RAM stick.
5:  Turn computer on again and let Memtest run for a few minutes.  If you see no errors take out the RAM stick and put another one in.
6:  Repeat step 5 for all of your RAM sticks.
7:  Take the RAM stick (or sticks) that had errors and throw them in the trash.  Put the RAM sticks that didn't have errors back into your computer and close the case.
8:  Enjoy your game with slightly less RAM.

Crucial.com will scan your computer and tell you exactly what kind of memory is compatible with your motherboard.  Other than that, follow the advice of installing your RAM in pairs that match and do not install more than your system will recognize and utilize.  Never mismatch your memory.  If you replace one stick, replace the other.  Remember the rule of two.  Way oversimplifying, I know, but it works.

Don't do that. That program is way too small to fit on a CD. You would waste an entire CD doing that!

I would've put it on a floppy if, you know, I had a floppy drive.  :/

Besides, I have a mountain of blank cds and nothing to do with them.

Not only that, but unless the app itself is also 64-bit it won't use more than 2GB.  Even with a 64-bit CPU+OS, TS2 only uses half of my available RAM.  The rest is available for OS overhead, and other apps like browsers, chat, music players, etc.

Well, we did this, but the Memtest86+ program found no errors.  Which is weird, since the thing we used before which my husband says is called "MemScope" came up with 700+ errors.  Now I have no idea what to believe.   :-\

I do know my game still crashes whenever I try to play.  lol

What about with all of your RAM in together?

We tried with all the RAM together, and then each stick individually.  It showed no errors either way.