More Awesome Than You!

Hey all,
I"m having a really bad issue right now, and it seems to be directly connected to professors....(i can't be positive)
A few times when a professor enters my home-business lot, my game comes to a screeching halt and I get a blue screen.  Everything completely locks up, but if I wait 2-3 minutes, the game screen comes back and I can play normally. It happens almost every sim day, and each time it happens I check to see who's entering the lot, and several times (perhaps everytime, though I didn't catch it the first few times), it's been that a professor has appeared....  I have no clue why this might be happening, but it doesn't seem too good at all.  It's such a weird thing....it's almost like a crash where it quits to desktop, only the screen comes back up and stays blue for a few minutes....
I removed all of my hacks when this started happening, and it still happened without them...
I wonder if anyone else has had similar issue with OFB and this...It never happened until this expansion pack.
Plus, it scares the crap outta me everytime it happens, because right before it the game sort of flashes and cuts off. lol!
Any advice would be so very much appreciated.
Thanks so much!

The only thing that occurs to me is whether these professors have been played in Uni, or if the game is having to generate them.

I wonder if banning them from the lot would work?

Banning won't work very well as TwoJeff's hack for that isn't OFB compatible.

What hacks do you have in? Did you turn on testing cheats to see if an error message pops up? If you did, did one pop up and if so, what? That information help us get a lot further in finding a solution.

This was happening to me, but I don't think it was Professor-related. It seems to have stopped now I've removed all the MATY 'dirty' hacks, but I also shifted the business in question to another lot... home --> business.

So perhaps it's home-business related.

Well, my EP arrived this morning, but I am getting more reluctant to install it the more I hear of problems!

Maybe I'll just install it and create new game files and see what happens!

I have no hacks installed at the moment, so I'm sure it isn't hack related.
I was thinking the same as you, zephyr, that perhaps the game is taking a moment to generate them...
Perhaps I'll give it some time and see if once all of the NPCs are generated it won't lock up anymore.
Zephyr, I'd definitely keep a backup on-hand of your neighborhood before you install!
Then if you need to uninstall OFB, you can just revert back to your NL version.....I've been noticing a lot of weirdness since OFB, so I'm really hoping that there is a patch out soon!
I had only installed the hacks that were known to be compatible from the beginning....only pescado's.  I don't even have the de-censor in, but once the problems occur I played completely hack free and still had all of the issues. 
I'm hoping it stops happening soon, once all of the un-met professors have been seen on the lots!
Thanks for all of the replies!  I'd be interested to see if there are more people that have this problem once everyone gets the EP.

FWIW, I've seen several professors parading around my home business this morning, no blue screen. It's an old neighborhood, but I just did a deleteall day before yesterday, and it's still constantly generating new NPCs. You could use the debug cheat, spawn the NPC creator and generate all NPCs that way instead of letting the game generate them as it needs 'em. See if the problem persists.


ZZ, don't be afraid to install it--it's fantastic and very complex. I've not had any major bugs on my end, just ignorance. Like when I forgot to move my custom CAS over to the new folder and spent an hour trying to figure out why my game was crashing when I tried to access CAS... :P

At the moment, to be perfectly honest, I hate it!  Things that I'm supposed to be able to do, just aren't working!  It took me ages to sort my hacks out, and I think I still have some that I don't want!

At least, since it is a new install with a new set of game folders, I have no professors, since all I'm running is the base game and Bluewater Village. 

And why, when you use the computer to hire new employees, do you get offered sims who already have jobs, when there are loads of unemployed ones about?  And why can't I seem to get the management option?  And, for that matter, why do sims who already have a business in the family still get job wants?  Do they (the sims) really think they can do both and not drop down dead from exhaustion?

LOL!
I hear you, ZZ, some things have been really hard to get used to, and it's been even harder to understand the logic behind much of it.  Though, as I've played, things are unfolding a bit and I'm starting to get a handle on it (which means I'm liking it more and more.)
I'm still having the blue screen, but not quite as often..
As for the debug mode...I did run it...when I was having the constant blue screen, I was running it the entire time, and oddly, I had no errors at all....
Strange, indeed.
It's happening now only ever few sim days...We'll see if it clears up at all.

RabidAngel, I'm absolutely no computer geek but the past few days have had my nose buried in a ton of info on building a PC.  Could your blue screen perchance be being caused from your game pulling too many resources?  Of course if you have a screamin' machine that wouldn't happen, and of course I have no clue whether you do or not, but thought of it when reading about your problem.  If your game is generating sims I'm thinking it would be pulling more on your system resources (like possibly too many things trying to work at once and pulling down on your power supply).  I know mine comes near to a screeching halt for quite a while when sims are generated.  I won't even install OFB on here.

I nearly broke my brain today reading all that stuff! LOL

Edited to add:  I realize the profs seem to be buggy in OFB, but since this has been happening so badly and you weren't getting error messages thought it might be something else.

If it doesn't have errors, it must be yet another feature!

I get errors for servo and professors when they visit. I play with testingcheats on so I get the error box not a blue screen. Something is broken with them. I got it before I put my hacks back in the game.

I wonder if the NoMeetingProfessors hack would stop them coming in the first place?

I've just come from a fascinating game session, which culminated in a bluescreen lockup and forced reboot. As I'm fairly certain RA and I are having the same problem, here are my observations:

1) I'm still not convinced that it's Professor-related. It might be Elder-related, though.
2) Contrary to what I initially believed, it happens on both home and business lots.

3) It may be resource related - it happens more as the number of people on the lots increases. However, my computer matches or exceeds every requirement on the back of the OFB box. Specifically:

OFB processor requirement: 1.0 GHz. I have a 2.67 GHz processor.
OFB RAM requirement: 256 MB. I have 1 GB.

My graphics card should also be above par - it's a GeForce 6600, though I can't remember the exact stats.

I know that running OFB, NL, Uni and the base game takes up more system resources than just running TS2 and OFB, but I can't believe it's that much more. I am forced to conclude that it's a bug, and possibly Elder-related.

Well, none of the elders in my game have had problems like that so far.  However, I haven't loaded a college or a downtown, so I don't get professors or the downtown elders.  It definitely doesn't seem to be either any of the new OFB elders or the original ones that are causing the problem.

No, you're right, ZZ.

Update (again):

I reduced my graphics options down to mediums and lows, with only a few exceptions (I refuse to play without reflections on, for example). All tihs seems to have achieved is that the game now blanks out without hanging for a few seconds beforehand - it's crashing more smoothly ::)

Also, I have now twice had it blank on me while I was in Build/Buy mode, when it could not possibly have been generating townies or anything else. Both times, I had not yet had a chance to place items. It also seems to like blanking out while I am transitting between floors (with the camera, not stairs/elevators), which is in my game often accompanied by a pause.

And it seems to be doing it more frequently, too. This is nothing short of gamestopping.

Well, Charamei, your specs and mine seem fairly similar, but maybe it's because I haven't loaded a downtown or a college in this game that I'm having none of these problems.  Have you considered renaming your present game folder, and then letting the game generate a new one, then playing a new game and also ignoring the college and downtown?  This would at least point to whether it's a computer problem or a memory issue.  I mean, if the game plays fine when you don't have a college or a downtown, it may be that having them uses too many resources.

I can certainly try with other neighbourhoods that have less connected to them - I'll give it a go in the morning :)

Hope that works!  I'm thinking of uninstalling OFB on this PC anyway, and just having it on the smaller one which just has the base game - I think in many ways there's just too much to cope with if you have all your popularity teens wanting to own businesses and go to college as well!  Gets so that just playing one family for one generation would take about a year(Real time!)

Just a thought: Has anyone who is having this problem checked to see if maybe they have unseen guests on the lot? Could that cause a blue screen to go up because the game is adding more characters, that is, more charactors you can't see.

Happened to me today playing a new business in Bluewater Village.  The screen froze for a short while and then a Professor walked by.  He didn't come in to by, just walked past with a wave.  A female Prof had walked by earlier, but as I recall the game didn't freeze then, just slowed-down a bit.  I don't know why the Professors are walking by if they're not going to come in and buy, because they can't be greeted only spoken to or whatever.  It must be peculiar to the neighbourhood, because they walk by Downtown lots and that doesn't affect gameplay at all.  Both these Professors were ones that had been in the game all along, not new ones, so they weren't being created at the time.

Ancient, do you have the nomeetingprofessors mod?

No Zephyr, I don't have that mod.  As I said, there's no problem when they walk by Downtown lots, so quite why the game would freeze when they walk by Bluewater lots I have no idea.  I didn't get a blue screen or anything and everything carried on as normal afterwards.  The fact that neither professor attempted to enter the house, just walked by and waved, seems odd in itself.  Why bother sending them just to walk by? 

Well, ancient, I added sim state, but no professors have walked by any of my lots, so I'd suggest you try the mod.  It's one of Two Jeffs, and it's really useful, and you don't get any of the professor spam either!

Charamei, You and I have the same Graphics card....I have come to an almost certain conclusion that it's my graphics driver in conjunction from OFB so, it doesn't suprise me that you happen to have the same card.
I still have the issue, though not as often.  Just once or twice during a gameplay session.
AND, it happened to me, same as you, while transitioning between floors!
I have the latest nvidia driver...I hope they update it soon.

Im having the same problem but I have a recent GEForce graphics card (6800 or thereabouts). Could it still be what's causing the problem? I had thought I'd narrowed it down to somethong amongst my huge number of downloads mucking things up. The only thing that seems common to every occasion of the blue screen of death is that I am playing at triple speed. And my supposed IT genius boyfriend didnt suggest the graphics drivers once.
I am beyond frustrated with this arsing game now. It's been one problem after another since installation. Typical that it should be the most interesting of the ex packs as well.

ETA - looking at the link danisja provided it would appear that its definitely a graphics card related issue as I was experiencing the neon pillow problem with Nightlife. Dammit dammit dammit.

I'm getting error messages when professors appear on lots with a home business, and I have an ATI card.  When the errors come up, if I hit the Reset button twice, the professor appears on the lot and then immediately leaves.  It's happened with both of my home businesses but never on my community lots.

Never mind - my issue is with the Visitor Controller hack.

Oy!  Now that's a scary thought!  I have an NVidia 6800 Xtreme card in my new machine.  After installing the game with Uni and NL I had the neon pillow issue.  I downloaded an updated driver yesterday, then installed OFB.  The pillows are right now.  (The neon thing affects also the Medical career reward object and it seems to me the Elixir of Life--may actually be more than just those.)

I've only had one prof walk past a home-based business and there were no problems.  I did have one weird lock-up while these two sims were still at Uni, though.  I have no clue what caused it--just they were getting ready to go take a final when at first the screen froze and I could still move the mouse, then the mouse froze stiff.

Oh, another really weird thing happened later.  One of the Dormies went ghost-like in appearance.  He was still a Dormie but was transparent.  The next day he used the toidy and everything was set right again. 

I'm starting to freak out with all these mentions of nVidia 6600+ cards.  My machine, which is booked in to be fireballed & rebuilt from start on Wednesday only has a nVidia 5200.  If you're all experiencing problems with better quality video cards then mine then a migraine and heartache are probably on the cards.

Back when my computer wasn't crashing every couple of minutes - only once every hour and a bit - I was trying to play OFB and I got the black screen for a few moments before it was able to load the neighbourhoods.  The game crashed quite a bit but I think that was computer problems and not anything else [fingers crossed that a complete rebuild will save it].  Watching your little computer (btw mine is called Delia 'cause it's a dell) get sicker and sicker without being able to help it is just hard :'(

Maybe nVidia will work on a fix as EA is a pretty big company and we can get back 'real' bugs 'cause goodness knows there are enough of them.  btw I checked out the BBS and there are no bugs with the game only minor 'glitches' :P

I have pretty much the identical stats, including the same graphics card, and I've been having the blue screen problem too.  After the third or fourth blue screen, it usually crashes completely, forcing a reboot. And I'm only playing home and regular community lots right now. In my case, it also seems to happen either with rapid camera moves, or if two or more sims go into an animation at the same time (i.e., one changing to shower while another is changing for bed).   I got this nVidia card as a 'temp' replacement for my ATI X700 Pro that I had to send back for warranty repairs; I'm hoping the ATI card shows up soon so I can put it back in this machine and see if it solves this problem.  The game is pretty unplayable otherwise.

Villia, it sure could be a problem with the 6600 card.  You don't have to get that card, though.  I have the 6800XT and with the exception of the aforementioned problem with my game just froze solid (not sure whether that was graphics related or not), the transparent Dormie and the neon pillows, haven't had any graphic issues.

One thing that struck me yesterday is the thought that maybe people are installing OFB then installing a new video driver.  It's been my experience in the past this absolutely will not work.  The driver needs to be installed BEFORE the game (or at least before the x-pack) for the game to pick up the changes.  I learned this shortly after TS2 came out.  I had issues that needed an updated driver for resolution.  Only after re-installing the game after installing the driver did it work.  It happened then again with this computer.  I installed the game, Uni and NL, then installed a new driver after I saw the neon pillows.  Again, the problem persisted.  Once I installed OFB, the graphic changes were picked up and everything was put right.

I took a chance and checked the BBS, and it seems this is a common problem with the latest nVidia drivers. The suggestion there was to back down to the 78.01 version -- I got that version off the nVidia website, installed it, and haven't had a blue screen since in over 2 hours of play. I've even put the Radiance mod back in to see if the older drivers also solve the 'triangles' problem. But so far so good with the older drivers.

Ahhh, and suddenly it all makes sense...

I can definitely believe that it's graphics-related. I have neon pillows, neon newspapers, and Teens' faces sliding off their heads left, right and centre.

Grr... I really hope they fix it soon. I got NVidia for the simple reason that my old card (4400) was compatible with absolutely everything, except when it was lacking in some new-fangled feature. Now just about every game I have is acting out.

That is so weird!  I guess I'd just best not let this machine know it's running the bad set of drivers or it may decide to quit working.  I'm glad you're able to play.  I know what a pain it is to have technical problems and not be able to sort them out.

Someone on  MTS2 tried the 84.20 and it seems to work but this version is only a beta

Yea, I played for hours last night on multiple lots with the Sept. 05 drivers (the 78.01), and not a single crash.  I even put Gunmod's Radiance mod back in, and no funky triangles, either.  There's definitely a problem with the latest nVidia drivers (81.98) and the 6600 cards at least -- with those drivers, I would get two or three blue screens and then a big-time crash to reboot within a half-hour or so.

No it's not Professors which crash my game but being on the Community lot for too long.  A BIG fan of testing cheats, I leave my Sim in her business for 3 days, and then without fail my game crashes and it don't come back without me reloading it.  I have tried it a few times with different Sims, and it is an ongoing thing, not just a one off.  God I hope this isn't normal and it's a Maxis bug and they'll fix it soon! :-X

Ah, well it seems like more people are having this problem than I had imagined.  Since there are so many people, I'm really hoping it'll be addressed for all us poor nvidia users.  I've been using the older drivers, and they're working much better, however it doesn't handle the graphics nearly as well as the newer driver.  The newer driver was much faster for me, whereas the version 7 driver stutters and staggers under the weight of the game.  It also crashes once in awhile, but not nearly as often as the version 8 drivers.  So, for now, I'll settle for slower frames so that it's possible to actually play the game for more than a few minutes.  I do think that, since there are so many users experiencing this problem, it should be addressed sooner than later.  I tried writing to nvidia, but I couldn't seem to find my registration number for the graphics card..Does anyone know if it is on the actual papers that come with the card, or is it something you get via email once you've registered? Once I find it, I'll write and make a formal request for a fix for this issue.
Maybe if anyone else has the means to contact them (ie, still has their registration number for the graphics card), we could all try try to gang up on them and beg for a solution. :)

My problem may not have anything to do with the game after all;  BUT.....my game is currently using over 560,000KB of memory.  Tell me, is that normal?  I have messages popping up annoyingly often now... ???

BLEARGH!

Really?! Me too!

Professors crash my life!  >:(

I think the registration # is the serial number, which is actually on the card itself, as well as on the box it came in.  So if you don't have the box, you can just pull the card out quick and write the numbers down.

Just to let people know, I've tried the latest nvidia driver (version 84.21) and there's still no change....Still get the blue screen, however it doesn't seem to last as long as before....Now it only crashes for a minute or so, where it was nearly three minutes with version 81.98...
Still waiting on a fix.....:(

Well, this Nvidia problem has existed since NL - it just seems to be worse with OFB (actually causing crashing, instead of glitchy graphcis).  Nvidia knows of it but they simply don't seem to be interested in fixing it.

It's convinced me to buy ATI the next time I buy a video card.

Maybe I'm just lucky? I have always had an nVidia card and I wouldn't switch for anything. ATM, I have the 6800 Ultra, never seen a blue screen, no artifacts and no crashing. I DO deliberately use ancient drivers--61.77.  I've never understood why the first advice in troubleshooting is to "update the drivers" when it seems like my old drivers are much more stable and shiny than the ones since 77.77. *shrug*

MokeyHokey,
Have you tried any of the newer drivers before reverting back to the version 6 ones?  If so, did you notice any difference in the handle of large lots and such?
I'm very tempted to try out your "ancient" driver version ;), but if it brings the fps to a crawl on larger lots, I wonder if I should just wait until they hopefully update it.

Installing the new drivers has made the problem even worse for me! Tried to play again last night and within 15 minutes the blue screen of death appeared, the flashing began and the only way out was to reset the pc. Am seriously @!?*ed off with it now. Had a look at the read me file that came with OFB and it states that Maxis are aware of a graphics conflict with 6 series Nvidia cards.So they were aware of the problem before the game out came out then. So what exactly is being done about it?!

Grrr, that really sucks!
I didn't know they had known about it previously....That definitely should have been addressed ahead of time since there are TONS of nvidia users....
I'm really surprised....

One of the things maxis suggested in the readme was turning off hyperthreading - have you tried this? 

No. Mainly because I have no idea what/where/who it is. And although my other half claims he does know what/where/who hyperthreading is he's been singularly unable/unwilling to explain it to me and won't entertain the idea of turning whatever it is off. So I can't play the game until someone either at NVidia or Maxis fixes this. I'm amazed that this problem isnt all over the BBS but I really havent seen many folk complaining.

If it helps anyone, I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 / 256MB with driver v. 78.01, and I have no problems whatsoever (knocking wood till knuckles bleed). It says it's the English version, if that makes a difference.

I have all EP's, and haven't noticed any performance degradation since installing OFB. It's not fantastic, but it's not crap, either.

The OFB read me file says its a problem with the 6 series cards specifically and I use a GEForce 6800 GT. I have heard that using older drivers improves things slightly but the game still crashes in the end, it just takes 15 minutes longer to get to that point. I had graphics problems with Nightlife so I don't know why Im even vaguely surprised by all the trouble OFB is causing me!
I've decide that Im going to admit defeat and wait for my copy of Elder Scrolls Oblivion to arrive and play that instead. Damn Maxis and their crappy game to hell I say. ;)

I don't know if this will help you but I also have a Geforce 6800. I discovered that these cards cause overheating sometimes. I pulled my computer out of its niche in my desk and vacuumed out a lot of dust (and cat hair). I have not had a problem since them. I do have this graphical jittering and I have to occassionally go to the neighborhood screen and back into the lot but no crashes. I have 4 fans on my case so never thought it was overheating. I also checked the temperture and did not get a warning..so I was surprised when this turned out to be the problem.