So I thought I'd install Sims 2 basegame and have a little romp in through the past. I downloaded the "old" FFS hacks, installed, created a pair of sims, moved them into a house, they cannot interact. At all. Period. Select either sim and you can't click on the other. All I get is a tool-tip that says "no options available".

Instead of trying to go through the whole half-at-a-time elimination method, I decided to just go ahead and install Uni and try the Uni Director's cut instead. Couple is still borked. If I remove the entire Director's cut, they seem fine, though I'd rather not play without FFS safety protocols in place.  I don't have time tonight to go through the process of elimination, I may try that tomorrow, but in the meantime maybe somebody remembers enough about Sims 2 to look at one of the error logs (attached) and see if they can tell what's up.

Yeah, it's was cheaty, but it was more fun than kaching. It was amusing to send my little sim crook into the locked stockroom in the basement to admire (View) her questionable merchandise.

Okay, I'll give the cheesecake another shot and a little more patience.

Sucks about the dreamcatcher, it was a handy story shortcut. I guess my crooks will have to open actually dirty businesses. 

I just added Apartment Life and Fun with Pets, and now the Seasons dreamcatcher no longer appreciates from 50 to over a 1000 simoleans (it went from 50 to 52). And the OFB cheesecake is no longer producing automatic twins. What gives? Did EA "fix" these items, or did some modder *cough* sneak fixes into his mods ('cause I know J.M. doesn't like gobs of money for nothing.)

I ask because searching hasn't turned up an answer and I really miss the cheesecake -  I don't often want twins, but when I do, I prefer the old reliable. And I would miss having the occasional dirty dealer in ill-gotten archeological artifacts, with a bunch of kids all in the Life of Crime career, of course.

K, I just read all 39 pages of this thread and I still have a couple questions.

Right now, the only Sims on my computer are from pre-Suckyrom discs (Base Game through my Seasons, minus Pets.) I'm planning to install the Fun with Pets Collection and AL, since Pescado the Awesome says you have to have it to stabilize M&G.

I'm running Win7 x64. All previous Sims EPs were installed from the standard we're-only-pretending-to-take-you-seriously Win7 user account. Do I need to enable the super-sekret Win7 Really Real Genuine Administrator account to install from the SecuRom infected discs to avoid getting the you're-not-an-administrator-ha-ha SecuRom files?

Yeah, discs. Kind of hard to Arr games when you're on dial up. (Yeah, I know. I suck.)

And, at this point, are the patches included on the damned discs or am I going to have to download them all? (By now, I'd hope they were included.)

Also, anybody know if the M&G v1.0 [MULTI16] No-DVD/Fixed EXE from GameCopyWorld is reliable?

Thanks, snoopy, those look promising, particularly the muffler.

jeromycraig, yeah, that's the problem. The Haldir outfit I'm trying to recreate is not faffy, it's dull and boring.

I've been all over MTS and every site I could find that had anything LOTR and haven't been able to find what I want.

I was looking for a Haldir-sim, or at least the Lorien elf outfit he wore in the first movie, the one with the grey cloak wrapped around neck and shoulders. I can probably make a sim-Haldir I can live with, but I have nothing to dress him in.

At this point, I'd be happy to find an adult male outfit vaguely similar for recoloring - trousers instead of tights, shirt or short tunic and some sort of cloak. (Most of the medieval and fantasy stuff I've seen has a tunic down to the knees or features tights or tons of decoration that I probably couldn't remove or hide with my weak recolor skills.)

*nods* The way it's acting, I believe it's a hardware problem, but it never hurts to ask. (I might try a new driver, just on the off chance.) Now, if I could figure out why these things always happen when I'm busy as hell anyway, I'd have all the answers I need. 


Guys who are too socially maladjusted to have a life?

Thanks, Hegelian. All that info will help a lot.

Meantime, I've tracked down the specs for the motherboard. That says, yes, the chipset is GeForce 6150, but that the motherboard "supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards".

The computer is a Presario, vintage 2006. (One of the little stickers on the case says "Designed for Windows XP, Windows Vista Compatible", though of course it was built to minimum specs needed for either.  ) It's still got a little elbow-room for some upgrades, if I can be bothered.

Another question, while I'm thinking of it. Could a problem with the driver (became corrupted, maybe) be causing these crashes, or would that cause even worse problems than the ones I'm having? The random crashes tend to happen only when doing graphics intensive stuff, such as using IrfanView, or starting a game like Sims 2 or Fable. As of now, I've been surfing and reading stuffs for several hours with no crashes.

Windows XP SP2 Media Center
Nvidia GeForce 6150LE

Computer crashed randomly during normal operations. Computer crashed repeatedly on Windows boot up, requiring repeated attempts to get Windows to start. It didn't crash in Windows Safe Mode; after awhile in Safe Mode, it booted Windows in normal mode just fine.

I've narrowed this down to the graphics card, via PC Doctor. All other diagnostics turn out fine; attempting to run PC Doctor test on the graphics card causes the computer to crash as soon as PC Doctor's test animation starts.

Okay, so I need (probably) a new graphics card. I'm not surprised, this machine isn't exactly new.

(I'm curious, though, exactly why this is happening--what goes wrong with a graphics card that makes it start shitting the bed?)

But what I really need to know is HOW do I find out what new graphics cards are compatible for this machine? What info do I need about the machine? What info do I need about a potential new graphics card? I'll probably be ordering a new card over the internet, rather than taking the machine to a computer repair shop or something like that, so it'd help if I know how to get these infos myself.

In the meantime, what can I do to reduce crashes with the failing card? (I need to back shit up, which might be kind of hard with the computer biting the big one at random moments.)

Nope, no mostly finished plates. This I know because that house is yer basic box on one level with very little furniture (this is the farmer family and they don't get to have extraneous decor and furniture), and I took a good look around, because that seemed weird.

Hm. I think I'll give this kid thing some serious investigation for a change, and report back.

If I pull food out of inventory and drop it, kids can eat it. And it's often mac-n-cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches in inventory.

Today, though, I intended to tell an adult to Macro-Garden for an adult, but didn't realize that I still had a kid selected (there are seven sims in the house now, heh.) Macro-Eat was present for the child--despite the fact that her hunger bar was completely full and green. However, when I let her go down to about an eighth-full, Macro-Eat was not present. One adult and one teen had food in inventory; grilled cheese and chef salad, repectively.

How do I check for subtly broken foods? Uhm, I have no custom foods at all, if that makes a difference. And foodeatsyou is installed on both lots.

But I doubt that's it. Macro-eat has been consistently absent for child sims on two lots (other lots are non-spawn lots. Not many kids in the neighborhood yet.) The one lot has four adults who rotate having inventory food, yet macro-eat never turns up for the kiddilies.

Macro-Eat is not showing up for children. Ever. Even when a kid is in the red for hunger. (I really miss it, too, since it's means keeping fridge leftovers available just for one kid in houses where the other residents can all grub from inventory stash.)

I really should come around here more often.

This.  In December, I picked up 2GB of RAM from New Egg for $25, after mail in rebate.  And yeah, it makes the game run better.

I've got InSim, most of the Director's cut from here, and tons of new CC. My computer doesn't even hiccup.  I've been able to download CC that I wouldn't have dared put in the game four months ago, for fear of freezing and lag.  The computer, of course, also runs other apps more smoothly.

Get some more RAMs. You won't regret it.

Ditto. For serious.

Does the sim have enough active points to have the Run Here option?  It may correct if you tell them to run somewhere.

Or Force Error - Reset.

I didn't mean to be a "complete fucking asshole", I simply stuck my foot in my mouth by being far too abrupt, probably because I was half asleep.  Half asleep or not, I'm sorry.


At this point, I've basically given up letting kids put homework on the desk.  Actually, I gave it up a long time ago.  I stick a computer and something decorative on the desk.  They drop their homework on the floor near the desk and sit on the floor to do it.    At least I don't have to go in and out of buy mode to place their homework where they can reach it.

Sic.  The word you want is sic, not sick.  Sick is what that misspelling makes me feel.

I remember having the same problem in base game only.  In the first house I built, I put a desk in the 12's room.  The little bastard would put the homework on the left, then claim he couldn't get to it when I told him to do it.

I believe that is indeed the problem, because I remember grumbling over that behavior when I had nothing but the base game.  Was not tight pants, because I was barely aware that hacks/mods existed at that point, and I certainly didn't have any.

So, we have learned sims are too dumb to figure out the desk-homework conundrum.  Anyone going to do anything about it?  *eyes Pescado*

Because furry pervs are pervs?

I find myself thoroughly disturbed by the wolf-rabbit crossbreed. (I keep thinking wobbits.)

Try downloading another CC terrain (apparently you already have some, but try with a new one).  If that looks good, try making your own over again.  You may have screwed up is some small way without realizing it.  I've done that a couple times. 

Cool. Thanks for the link, btw; I just spent all evening doing some long overdue backups and sorting out old crap to delete, so it wasn't at the top of my priority list tonight.     I'll look into the startup business tomorrow and see what I can find.

If I knew how, I would, but alas, that is beyond my current skills.