More Awesome Than You!

I posted this in my forum, but so far no help, there. I'll copy and paste (and slightly modify) that post here and see if anyone knows what the hell is going on all of a sudden. I have OFB installed on Daemon tools. Never had a problem with it until now.

I had just posted on my forum in a thread about a goofup I made, realizing then that I didn't have the Romance Mod installed. I exited the game, so I could put in that mod. Please note that I am in no way implying this is the Romance Mod's fault. I know better than that. :P

I haven't been able to start the game up again, since. I click "hide" on sd4, the OFB splash screen shows, I hit "restore", then...nothing that I can see. I looked in task manager, and it's not listed in the Applications running. But in the processes, it's there, using 99% of my cpu. So where the hell is my game? I don't see it?!

I've rebooted three times, and remounted the image on daemon. Same story. I uninstalled and reinstalled Daemon. Still no go.

Screenshots in case you just think I'm nuts.

My applications:

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/CJ/cpu2.jpg)

My processes:

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/CJ/cpu.jpg)

So. I check my error log, and find this under application errors. Does this have anything to do with the problem?

I think it's time to do a chkdsk, nuke the cache files, etc., etc. This looks like a more deeply rooted computer glitch than something inherently specific to TS2.

Wait for the ~e5.0001 and Sims2EP3 to leave the task manager.  Once both processes end (don't force them to quit) try again.  I've found this happens more often than not when I have Mcaffee virusscan running in the background.  It slows down TS2 closing for some reason.

Edit: (Or it could be what J.M has just posted heh)

Okay, I just finished the disk check...what cache files do I nuke? Where are they?

Brynne, I think it's something more Windows-related than TS2-related, and that error message in the event log leads me to believe that the culprit in this case is Windows Indexing Service.

The Indexing Service simply creates a list of files based on their content so that file-searching on your computer is a bit more quicker.
What happens is when I.S. is scanning the contents of a file, it remains locked so other applications can't open that file.
And if that file happens to be one of the game user files, then TS2 can't load correctly.

My advice is to disable or uninstall that service.
To uninstall it, go to the Control Panel, open "Add/Remove Programs" and click "Add/Remove Windows Components". On the list of components, uncheck the "Indexing Service" item, and then click Next.

Okay, thanks, Theo. I'll give that a try and report back.

Ugh. Nope, still won't work. I've uninstalled the indexing service, I've done a disk check, I've cleared my cache, I don't know what to do.

Try using ASR (‘Securom Loader’) (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=2) instead of SD4hide. WFM.

Thanks, guys.

Well, it took a total reinstall to get my game running, again. I'll try that link, Jordi. I still want to use the cd image because I really like having my cd/dvd rom free while playing.

That's why I use ASR. It basically is SD4hide on the commandline, so instead of having to manually hide drives before playing and unhiding after, one single shortcut can do this.

Just launch the game as ‘X:\ASRpath\asr.exe -r X:\Gamepath\game.exe’

Why shouldn't you do that and what harm did I miss in my game after I "forced them to quit" several times now?

this seems like an appropriate thread to ask this question ...how do you get the daemon tools and all that to work and play it disc free? I dont seem able to get it up and running. ???

Do you have the mds file? Just mount that on the virtual drive.

Also, you need to download sd4hide.exe.

yes Ive got that.. im not sure on what im doing wrong.. HOw do i get the game to start?

Click on sd4hide.exe, click "hide", then click on your game's desktop icon.

oops... I hadnt unzipped it... thanks.. ;D

Silly Kewian.  ;D

 :P ;D  I thought I had extracted them..

And this is why KEWIANS are STUPID!