More Awesome Than You!

After installing Sims 2 and University things worked fine. Now Ive installed Seasons and I'm getting an error message after the first splash screen. Can anyone help?

Not without any clue what the error is.
My crystal ball broke, so I can no longer magically see your screen.

You are running from the original Seasons disk I assume?

lol it doesnt say what the error is

The Sims 2 EP5 has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Yes Im running the original disk

i have Pets also that I never reinstalled. Im doin that now so maybe that will fix things

If the game is crashing at startup or while loading your first step should always be to remove My Docs/EA Games/The Sims 2/groups.cache

If that doesn't stop the problem, your next step should always be to see if removing all of your downloads to a location outside of My Docs stops the problem. If it does, then you should follow the standard "half method" to identify the problem file(s), as well as testing for hack conflicts.

If you've tried those two steps (if not more) and still no change, that's when you want to start asking for help. If you haven't done both of those things, then try them both out and see if either of them helps.

i hadnt downloaded anything, i hadnt even been able to play. i tried this tutorial but that didnt help either. so then i installed pets but as soon as i had to put the seasons disk in i got the same message. so i uninstalled seasons and im able to play pets

By chance did you check to make sure you have sufficient space on your hard drive?  And that your rig meets the game specs?

The EP5 system requirements were pasted on the box.

Someone told me I dont meet system requirements for Pets or Seasons but I have Pets installed and thats running fine. I have nothing on this laptop except Sims so I should have plenty of space.

=System==

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)
Processor:Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2250@1.73GHz (2 CPUs),~1.7GHz
Memory: 1014MB RAM
Page File: 486MB used, 1959MB available
DirectX Version:  DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Dell Model Number:

==Display==

Name: Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip Type: Intel(R) Calistoga Graphics Controller
Approx. Total Memory: 128.0 MB

Main Driver: ialmrnt5.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.4436 (English)

==Sound==

Name: Realtek HD Audio output

maybe you could tell me what theyre talkin about? I really appreciate this lol clearly I'm not as computer savvy as I thought :)

Ouch, an Intel onboard videocard. There's your problem.

lol so what should i do? can i just download something better or i hafta buy it?

Since a video card is a physical object that you can hold in your hands, it's going to be a few years yet before you can download that. ;)

/me downloads amber a brain.

Amber, if TS2 Seasons won't run, you will need to buy and install a proper videocard. Anything ATI or Nvidia less than 2 years old *should* do the trick.

*pokes Jordi* It's a laptop.  ;)

Sorry Amber, but you don't meet minimum specs, and that makes a huge difference with Seasons more than any other EP, because of the weather.  And because you're on a laptop, you can't replace the video card.

^^ that blows!! lol so basically Im just stuck? I just got this laptop in november and 75% of what I do on it is play Sims.

Well thanks for all the help, let me know if anyone is lookin to buy a brand new copy of Seasons :)

It's very difficult to find a laptop with a video card that is actually good enough to run the game well, because TS2 requires a much fancier video card than any non-gaming application, and laptops are usually not designed with gaming in mind. (You don't need anywhere NEAR the same video processing power to do college classwork or run typical business applications -- the two major markets for laptops -- as you need to allow games to produce dynamic 3d animation in real time.)

Not much help if your video card really won't run seasons at all, but do make sure you have enough ram and hard drive space available. My game'll crash with that message in right about that spot if my kids load a buncha stuff and take up all the available space (the computer isn't very big, nor very good). It might be that your laptop can run it (tho probably not well) but all the expansions and downloads and backups and whatever else is on there (music?) is taking up all the room. Anyway, it's worth a try before you sell the disk.

I doubled the memory on my laptop to 2Gb and that has made an enormous difference to how the game loads and unloads. The only time I suffered a crash on loading after installing an EP was my fault as I'd left the download folder in when I installed. I simply reinstalled then copied my saved downloads minus incompatible mods back across. You mentioned you haven't downloaded anything, does that mean nothing in your download folder, or that you have only installed sims2pack files e.g. lots from the exchange? Sims2pack files can contain extras that you don't want. The weather effects for Seasons are very graphics intensive so it wouldn't surprise me if it caused you problems, though I would expect EAxis to handle that gracefully with a proper information dialog on running explaining that your system doesn't meet the minimum spec. The game boxes do state that the game only supports nVidia and ATI chipsets.

Please don't dismiss laptops out of hand, although mine has now passed its second birthday, it still runs the game fine with all 5 EPs and 2 SPs installed, not to mention ~1.7Gb in my download folder. I also run it with the mesh/texture/fx detail turned up and suffer the jaggies. It does have a 128Mb Radeon X300 in it, but I knew I was going to play games when I bought it so chose the spec and paid the extra pennies accordingly. Frame rate is fine even when I'm running it windowed and other apps alongside, my only self-imposed gameplay limits are a max 3x3 lot size and 12 sims per house. The latter is more for my sanity - see my sig for in-game pics of what a 2 year old laptop can do.

My laptop runs Sims 2 fine, but it took tweaking to get it to do so, and it still barfs if I get too cocky with running ram-hoggy apps at the same time.

It is technically possible for me to run firefox, trillian, various antimalware apps, illustrator or photoshop and the sims at the same time, but I can't do it well.

I have onboard intel video card on this laptop, and I run seasons just fine, even with shaders on. Then again, this thing cost me a ton of money, so I assume it's got a high-end intel onboard video card...? In any case, it's only rarely showing much graphics glitching (though by the time sims 3 comes out i'll probably have to move to the desktop I just put a new radeon in)

It looks like the very latest onboard Intel graphic cards do support hardware T&L though they haven't released a driver as yet so are relying on it being done by the CPU.

yea, this laptop isnt even paid off so theres no way ill be trading in. I should have plenty of room bcuz this laptop crashed and the only things I reinstalled was Windows, Microsoft Office,Aim, Sims 2 University and Pets. It's weird that it cant run Seasons and like I said its like a Microsoft error message coming up. I dunno. I'm gonna try deleting some stuff to get it up and running. Let me know if any1 else has any ideas

If it doesn't meet the system requirements, it's not weird at all.

How latest? Mine's a year old thinkpad. I've got a "Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family". I have a little issue with snow once in a while, and shaders do slow things down, but I can turn them on and see fish, and I can run seasons without crashing (usually. Other things break it, naturally). I've got a dual-core Intel CPU (2xT2400 @ 1.83ghz) and a gig of ram...

@kuronue Yours don't support hardware T&L, they rely on doing it software (using the CPU). It just means that it's slower and puts a bigger hit on the processor. Given a fast enough processor that doesn't matter. It also looks like you've got the same onboard graphics as amber which suggests amber's problem might be something other than the graphics card.

The other thing I forgot to ask is... amber have you patched your game? There is a maxoid thread on the BBS which is worth a look at if you have problems installing the latest Seasons patch.

Deleting isn't going to do a darn diddly thing. It's your video card that's stopping it. I ran TS2 up to Nightlife on a laptop that didn't meet the posted requirements....for RAM, not for the video card. You can have all the RAM and harddrive space in the world, but it won't do you any good if your video card simply can't display the proper graphics (T&L, dedicated memory are your main issues).

Unfortunately, you're kind of screwed. In the future, make sure that your first priority in a computer is a good-to-fantastic graphics card. That should keep you covered with most games that come out in the next two years. 'Cause let's face it, after two years with a laptop, you pretty much have to trade in...

From a former laptop junkie, once you go desktop, you'll never go back. My baby is running great for now and prolly for the next year. After that, I will probably have issues with not meeting requirements for the shiniest games, but desktops are pretty easily upgradable.

I said it was weird because I shouldnt be able to run Pets but I can. I also sed it was weird because someone else has the same video card as me and is able to run it. I must have downloaded the patch bcuz it says Im up to date on everything after install.

I have a desktop downstairs but its pretty old, as much time as I spend playin I LOVE the comfort of a laptop :)

It is quite possible Seasons refuses to run where Pets did: Seasons has once again significantly raised system requirements, like the expansions before it.

Does Seasons say you're up to date after installing? Then you're NOT patched. Seasons installs the unpatched version of Seasons, but checks if the base game is patched. /That/ is what it reports about. Get the patches for all expansions you have from http://www.thesims2.com/ and install them.
I don't think patches will make a real difference though. Rather, if someone with the same system as you /can/ play it, I'd look at device drivers, and running software. Turn off malware like Norton or McAfee to free up resources before playing.

Its working!!! Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! I tried them all so im not sure which one worked lol. Thanks again!