More Awesome Than You!

I haven't been able to find any prior instances of this problem with any kind of solution. Basically, the majority of my Pleasantview lots the game will freeze at 5:59pm, requiring Ctrl-Alt-Del to close the game. Since the age bars add days at 6pm, I've assumed it's something to do with that. I recently had NPC flooding in a lot, but moved the family out, bulldozed the lot and deleted the extraneous gardeners with SimPE. Other than that I haven't had any major issues in this neighbourhood (excluding those which have been fixed by Pescado and twojeffs). Any suggestions as to what's happening to Pleasantview?

Sounds like something is majorly fuxored. :P

Does it happen on all lots, or just particular lots? In these affected lots, are there Age Transitions that are about to happen? That's the only thing I can think of. 6:00 PM I believe is the typical Age Transition time...

Did you try removing all your hacks and seeing if this issue still occurs? I'd try the ole Clean Installer sweep, hack removal and then gradual replace, test, rinse, repeat cycle. :P

Ste

I'd say there's about fifty inhabited lots, and I've tried about fifteen of them (due to time... damn Uni essays!) - but in none of them is an age transition taking place. I always grow them up the day before, anyway, but I have had age transition problems before (in another neighbourhood, with too many iterations). I'll use Cleaninstaller, etc. and see what happens - though I tend to be quite pedantic about what gets into my game, it's possible something's corrupted/conflicting.

Before deleting with ctrl-alt-del, did you first check the CPU Usage?  If it's stuck on 100%, you could try waiting to see if it comes down to a reasonable level by itself, in which case the game should still be working and the lot unfrozen.  If it stays fixed at 100%, maybe the problem is your CPU itself?

I'll check it, I rarely notice these things. But if it's something to do with RAM and the like, then I don't really understand why it's suddenly happened, since I've had the base game and Uni since they were released. I have a suspicion that the overflow of gardeners may be preparing my game for a fiery explosion, visible from space.

Do you have the daily gardener hack?  I know this caused someone a problem a while back, but I believe it's curable, and so your game needn't become a bfvfos!   You need to fire the normal gardener before you hire the daily one.

Also, I've noticed that, the longer you play a hood, the quicker the RAM gets used up, so although I have 1GB, it's no longer really adequate!  However, the CPU is a different matter, it's what controls virtually everything and if it isn't powerful enough, it can take forever for some RAM-intensive thing to happen.  (The same thing applies to the power unit, the one I used to have just wasn't powerful enough for everything running off it, and my PC just kept crashing, even before Windows had loaded!  Luckily it didn't happen every time, so I was able to save most of the stuff before I got everything upgraded.)

Is the daily gardener hack useful against spawning gardeners? I didn't realise that; when it was first released I thought it sounded good but then forget about it, thinking how many gardeners I'd have to fire... That was lazy of me.

I have noticed that Pleasantview is running much slower than its clone (in the N005 slot), so the CPU could be having an effect. I have 1GB as well, and my computer is 3.2GHz (only a year and a half old, which is nice). I've been thinking of doing a full reset, but keep putting it off because of - again - the laziness factor. The reset is mainly due to blue screens of death plaguing my computer when I connect to the internet (but only if I open Outlook Express before MSN Messenger - which I can't remove because it came installed and somehow locked-in! - has unsucessfully attempted to sign in). Maybe my computer is just clogged from... whatever and really needs the reset.

That's the trouble, there's so much stuff comes with Windows that you never use, but can't get rid of!  And anti-virus programs are another pain, you think,I've pulled the plug on the net, so it's ok to turn the AV off, but although you exit, if you check in Applications, a lot of it is still running and using a heck of a lot of RAM.  So usually, I don't bother to go offline while I play, it isn't worth all the effort just for a few extra MBs!

Are you getting a spam of bartenders as well - if so you could try the nonpcspam fix.

I don't have any bartender overflows, but who knows what the future may bring?  :-\ Since it's an experimental, I think I'll wait until I get the problem.

I have the Daily Gardener hack, right from it's issue - and my game doesn't freezes at all. My first action when I enter a house is, to call service for maid and gardener. So far no problems at all.

But, JM said something about "bomb" ,  when you use pre-made Uni houses. Perhaps this is the problem.

I have built and packaged my own resident house, and I move ALL the pre-made families to this kind of house,  installing it over and over, buldozing their old one. Then I buldoze almost all the houses, or moved them to the lot bin. So far my game runs smoothly very long time. I play with all neighbourhood pre-made characters in Strangetown and Pleasantview - no freezes at all.

Hmm... I don't think that premade houses are the problem, mainly because I've had Uni since it came out and while I've experienced many other bugs, I've never had this one. The only premade houses in my game are ones from the base game, and I used all of them in Pleasantview last September (before I got used to the new building tools). Thanks for telling me, though - I wasn't aware of this Uni house business.  :)

Edit: Whoops, forgot this bit: ZephyrZodiac, I tried again with three different lots and (for whatever reason) I can no longer Ctrl-Alt-Del to get out of the game. It's now a rebootable issue.  :( So if it's to do with CPU, I have no real way of finding out.

Do you know anyone who is into PC specs who could take a look and give their opinion?  I'm lucky in that respect, my friend's partner owns his own PC maintenance and building business, and he does all my upgrades for me now - since he doesn't charge me for his time, and I get the parts at cost, I know he isn't just trying to sell me an upgrade!

Maxis guidelines are useless in this, you look at the back of the Sims2 box and it says you can play it on windows 98 - I had trouble with XP until it was upgraded!  There may be a few 98 systems around that are powerful enough, but not many!

You could still try the nonpcspam fix - it was beta when JM first uploaded it, but it's been around a little while now and loads of people have used it to good effect.  If it doesn't work, or causes problems, remove it.

Well, my computer's pretty up-to-date - I don't really know any extremely technical computer people, I'm fine with the usual stuff (like software) but don't dabble much in the hardware. I think I'll try removing the downloads folder tomorrow as syberspunk suggested, and if it doesn't work I'll reset the computer. Hopefully that'll narrow it down (and maybe it'll work! *crosses fingers*). I'm just surprised it isn't happening in other neighbourhoods; Pleasantview is probably the largest but its only got 500 character files, most of my others are average 300-400 at the moment.

500 should be okay, really.  Have you run a check for unsolicited hacks in your downloads? for instance, from a downloaded lot?

I am just thinking out loud, so y'all can ignore me if you want: Doesn't it get dark in the game at 6:00?  Perhaps your computer isn't able to handle the transition from day to night.  Again, this may be totally off-base, and it probably is, but it's here anyway.

I think that would be easy to check out in build mode, just use the day/night toggle and if everything freexes, then that would obviously be the solution.

Well, Laurenke might be on to something there though ZZ. My game experiences an awful lag changing from 6 pm to the darkness at 7pm, but when I toggle the day/night button, it doesn't lag at all. And the RAM issue is certainly true. Although I only wish I had 1 GB, do have sevenhundred something, (I know they come in 256 increments, I'm too lazy to do math :D), and still the lag occurs when changing from light (6pm) to dark (7PM)

V, from what I understand from Tim who built my PCs, RAM works better in pairs, so if you can afford to change to 2 x  (same manufacturer) 512MD you would probably see an improvement in that lagginess.  I know there was a marked improvement in mine when I moved up to 1GB, and I don't think it was just the extra RAM, it was more than that.

I dunno about the switch to dark, gang, although I thought of that at first, too. I have nearly the same specs on my CPU as Kukes and even less RAM (512 MB), and mine only hesitates for a moment before transitioning to dark. Not trying to shoot anybody down, but trying to generate more possibilities. Kukes, what about your graphics card? What kind and what kind of memory do you have?

And yeah, as ZZ suggested, I would check out usage. If you've put in other software recently, it might be taking more power than you realize by running in the background. Do you close down other power hogging programs before playing?

Okay, gonna shut up now.

Just as an example, I installed the Microsoft Antispy programme, and you wouldn't believe how much memory it was hogging!  And if I let it run a scan, it took about twenty minutes and never found a darned thing!  So now I stick to the Yahoo Anti-spy, takes 40 seconds, I can do it while I'm surfing, and it finds stuff!  But it wasn't easy uninstalling the Microsoft programme and I'm pretty sure there's a whole lot left in my registry!

I have to look into that ZZ. Surely you can never have too much memory. My computer came with McAffee already build in, and boy is it a hogger. It takes a very long time for it to scan my files, and in all the time I've had it, it found one trojan. I'm grateful it did mind you, but if I found security software that works and is smaller I'd sure go for it. I don't know if I could uninstall the pre-installed software though. It came with a pre-installed Quick-Book version, and I can't get rid of it.

Clem, you aren't shooting anyone down, the more suggestions the better. What I know about computers can comfortably fit on the back of a matchbook cover, so I'm certainly always eager to learn. So keep on suggesting, it's called bouncing ideas around; it's actually a good thing :D

I prefer McAfee to Norton, but all Anti-Virus programs seem to hog memory, but even McAfee looks miserly when compared to Microsoft Antispy!  And since I'm on Freeserve, I get a fair amount of protection built into that anyway.  Also, if I go to a new site and find it loaded with dodgy pop-ups and stuff, I tend to steer clear in future.  Maybe I miss some good downloads, but I've got more than I need already!

If the game is locking up at 17:59, check to see if debug mode exhibits a repeating error, probably in an object's main or init routines. If it does, send me the log.

Kukes,

This is also the time that all the lot lights come on before it gets dark.  Do you have lighting in or around your house, including pool lights that could be contributing to this, in conjunction with your game performance settings?  You could try different combinations of settings and lights and see if this helps.

You're lucky, if this was the official site, the EA techs would be telling you to do a manual uninstall and then reinstall the game without hacks or mods and only after updating your video drivers. ~wink~

There is a programme you can run named winxp lite. I used win98 lite for years, it cut IE out of the core operating system. (IE was only added in to the OS core because MS wanted to dominate the Internet when Netscape was a threat.) I assume winxp lite works pretty much the same. I'll have a hunt for some links later at home. That might be worth a go. It makes a stripped down OS.

I have 1Gb RAM but still like turning winxp services off before playing games, I just like a faster response. Some services you can turn off permanently. My next project is to make a batch file sort of thing, to turn off all the services I don't want in one hit. Have to get the b/f to show me how but am willing to share this knowledge once acquired, if anyone is interested. ;)

Norton Antivirus 2005 & Norton Internet Security & MS Spyware are all system resource hogs and don't play well with other programmes in the playground. Particularly Norton. I have been using AVG free antivirus tool for months and am very satisfied. No Norton, no more.

I know the sims 2 hates being fragmented on the hard drive, sometimes just a good defrag will help. Have you got much room left on your hard drive? Over a certain percentage full and you'll get 'thrashing' as the windows swop file tries to move data around and put it on the hard drive temporarily.

Witch, you made me think of something related to what you have said. 

Kukes,

Do you have any scheduled programs that run at this time?  Spyware, automatic Windows Updates, Anti-virus scanners or other maintenance programs?  If you do or are not sure about a schedule, disable them like Witch suggested just before you start your game.  You won't need these if you are only playing the game and you can reenable them later.  If you have McAfee's virus scanner, it will restart itself after about an hour, depending on your settings.  if you have AOL installed on your machine this is also a problem - it's files are spread all over the computer.  Since I mentioned AOL, disable all IM's, too.

All of these things can seriously hinder the performance of your game and any time cut-scenes or other special events take place, it puts an extra burden on the memory.  I also restart/reboot my computer right before I disable everything, to flush the memory.

While you are at it, check your Teleport folder, too.  There should be nothing in there once the game is started and everything pending in this file has been loaded.  Sometimes there are bits of things left behind that don't belong to anything there.  If there is anything in this file after the game is loaded, then you should delete anything left behind.

One more thing, I also reboot my machine after I have used Body Shop or HomeCrafter Plus.

Wow. Thread explosion. So many ideas for me to try...

LK: I didn't even think of the day/night transition. I'll go and check it out ASAP, but I've noticed it doesn't freeze at 7am (but it could definitely be something to do with night and aging happening at the same time, and my computer dying from the strain). The only thing is, it's happening in Pleasantview only, no other neighbourhood has this problem.

clem: my graphics card info (128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9800 Pro) - and yes, I recently got some Anti-spyware and ad-ware programs. I'll disable everything and see if it works.

JM: I'll go and try to get an error log now.

Bane~Child: That's another good idea. I'll disable/remove all the lights and see if it helps. And I do have one file in the Teleport folder, called (strangely) familySegmentForUpload.sims - I've never uploaded or downloaded a family.

witch: I defragged about a month ago, but I'm about ready for another. The drive Sims2 inhabits has nearly 30 gigs free, but possibly there's a lot of fragmented Pleasantview files.

Thanks everyone! Now to go and test out the game...

If you have a family segment in your teleport folder, it's probably come in a house you've downloaded, and you're best off without it!



I think the 5.59 referred to is 5.59 in the game (sim-time) not 5.59 real-time!

Kukes, it might also be worth running Chkdsk before you defrag.  Also clear out your caches and generally do everything you can to (a) increase your hard-drive space and (b) to make sure your PC is as healthy as possible.

The groups.cache file is a database sort of file, lives in the sims2 folder under mydocs I think. One of the Maxoids said this could be safely deleted as it can become corrupt. I have safely done this a number of times. The game just generates a new groups.cache at start up.

I have read that the objects.package can become corrupt, I don't know if there's a way to fix that.

Creating a new sims2 folder and copying your neighbourhood over might also help.

I think you would have to replace the objects package file in that case.    I always tell myself, next time you reinstall, make a copy of all those sorts of files and keep it on the other HD, then it's easy to replace any time I need to  - but do I remember?  You bet your boots I don't! 

Thanks for that tip about the groups.cache file, useful to know about!

Well, I got rid of the familySegmentForUpload.sims file - it was a whopping 273 megabytes, but it didn't cause the game to malfuction when I ran it again. There was no error with boolprop testingCheatsEnabled true, the game still froze (and, just in case it did have something to do with the video card, I put all the in graphics/performance on Low - which made the game look dreadful but had no effect with the problem). I'm currently defragging, but since most of the fragmented files are from My Documents, it's possible that could be the issue.

Oh, and Zephyr - yes, 5:59pm is referring to game time, not real time.  :)

witch: I need to format my computer, so maybe that will fix it (but it's quite possible something has corrupted within the neighbourhood, since no other's are affected... well, I'll just have to start over).

When the defrag is over, I'll disable all my hacks and have another go.

If all else fails, don't give up on your neighbourhood.  Move the whole Sims2 folder to your desktop, then uninstall/reinstall Uni, then move your sims2 folder back into EA Games and let it overwrite the new Sims2 folders.  Believe me, it can work!

Oh, darn you caught me.  Actually, I just meant programs in general that may have been running at the time this happened.  Just trying to think of all possibilities - they got run together - vapor lock from this retched migraine. 

I did think of something else though - The mouse and keyboard drivers that you install from the manufacturers CD.  Unless you have functions that allow for a physical handicap or you require features as a programmer or other IT professional, that the drivers installed and updated regularly through Windows are sufficient.  The CD installed drivers are redundant and are huge memory hogs, too and can be removed without consequence.  This was a solution passed on to me from a MS certified tech site.

I'm tenative because what I know about computers fits only a notebook page. :D I don't want to look like a total idiot. A partial one will do.


Your card sounds fine; I'm running on an Nvidia 5200 and all the graphics set to high without trouble.

Let us know if you manage to fix it. What's the computer doing--just sitting there, no spinning of disc, no "thinking" light? And just how many people do you have growing up/aging? Not that that should really matter, I guess. Just thinking aloud here.

Clem, you are so darn cute with that mouse.  I could not read without stopping to look at him and yes, your ideas are certainly welcome, as much as anyone here.  It is hard enough to figure out why these things happen to one person and not another and brainstorming can be a saving grace.

So darn cute, he looks like he is waiting for a treat.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up yet! There's too many fantastic sims to lose - Pleasantview was my first neighbourhood, and I have very fond memories of Dina's many aspiration failures in the Goth house (Alex having to raise his half-siblings, practically), Don's many marriages and offspring, Cassandra's constant twins and I really don't want to lose the family trees (and plans for future intermarriages) that I have now. When I reset I'll have to copy all my other neighbourhoods anyway, so I won't leave Pleasantview behind.


I think it's got to be something to do with the neighbourhood - none of the other neighbourhoods in the game have this problem, they're all passing 6pm with no issues. In another neighbourhood I had a grow-up "too many iterations" issue but I don't think this is related, since it's simply when days are ended in the sim's lifespan, not a change in life stage. I tried defrag, no solution. Now I'm trying to disable my hacks with the CleanInstaller to check if that's the issue. The computer itself is silent - no whirring sounds indicating any activity, or lights from the CD-drive. When I tried after defragging I almost got it to Ctrl-Alt-Del again to close the program (it popped up but was inactive, so I couldn't End Program Sims2), but no other changes.

There's actually no one growing up on these lots - I've tried with medium sized families (two adults, two children; two adults, one child), larger families (two adults, four children), and even single member family lots. Though I haven't tried every house, the fifteen or so I've tried are all descendants of Maxis-made Sims (Brokes, Oldies, grandchildren of Cassandra/Darren, Alex/Angela etc.). I think I'll try with a totally unrelated and new family before testing out my hacks.  :)

That sound like a possibility, a family with no memories clogging up everything!  Also, if you try with aging off, that would prove once and for all whether the adding on of a day to everyone's life is what is causing the problem!

I didn't even think of that! Great idea, I'll test it out ASAP.  :)

Well, I hope it does do what I think it will, and that if your game works fine with aging off, at least then you know for certain where to look for a solution!

IT WORKED!  :o The clock ticked over to 6:00pm, and I kept playing until it reached 8:00pm just to be careful. This was with aging off, so it must be something to do with the aging, rather than graphics/CPU etc. At least it's narrowed down, which is good.

3 times "Hurray" for ZZ!!! 5 benes + 5-star SP...:).

And 5 star uploads of course! ;) I'm so glad I know what it is, and at least I can play Pleasantview again and use my hacked painting to add days to their lives. Thanks Zephyr!

Blushes in confusion!  It's nice to be right occasionally - I'm so often wrong!

No you are not. On the contrary, you are often right on the money. I for one am very appreciative of your help, I couldn't use SimPe without you, remember? :D

Thanks for the vote of confidence!  (You may be interested to know that my Pleasantview, which JM said would be irreparably damaged after I changed some character file numbers, is still going strong!  I may break the rules, but so far I've been lucky!)