I killed two games tonight. I must be speshul!

[basticat]

My Sims 3 went bad on me, so I decided to uninstall... I have a crap video card, so I figured that I'd just play Sims 2. After the uninstall(of Sims 3), the Sims 2 will not load at all. My monitor goes black for a second, and just kicks me out to the desktop. I tried removing all of my downloads, uninstalling everything and re-installing. After several hours tonight, I figured that I'd try Sims 3 again. I installed, and when I try to start it up, my computer immediately reboots. I don't even have World Adventures. I don't have any mods, or custom content. It was just the base game...

I guess I just want to know if anyone has had any of these problems...

And at this point, is it worth it to take a drive over to Dell, or just give up on EA?   

[coconnor]

Is your computer still under warranty from Dell?  If so, I would take it to them.  It does not sound like a software issue.  And, if you didn't get the software from them, I don't think they'll support it.  However, I once had another issue (also involving something happening on the computer while playing Sims 2) and their tech actually took control of the computer remotely and played the Sims 2 for awhile to see what was happening.

[KawaiiMiyo]

     I agree it definitely sounds like a hardware problem! For what it's worth, I too was playing with a horrible video card, didnt even meet minimum specs, or even come close to it. I still played TS2 and TS3, but just had everything set to lowest settings, turned on square pixels, things like that. I have to say my computer never did anything like that. It would freeze/lag on large lots but thats about it.

     And I cant help but ask, you mention you were going back to TS2 because your video card wasnt good enough for TS3? o.O Is there really that much of a difference? Like I mentioned I had an awful card as well. Even on TS2 had to have square pixels and lowest graphics. Yet I couldnt resist trying out TS3, so installed it anyways, but I noticed there wasnt so much of a difference, and it was still playable as long as I kept the graphics down low. My computer was pretty good, only the video card bad, so maybe that had something to do with it.  The only thing that seemed hard to deal with on TS3 with my old video card, was waiting for the cas textures to load.

[basticat]

I don't have a Dell yet, but I want to get one of their Alienware thingys! I am on an Hp with Windows XP, and my video card is an Nvidia GeForce 6150. That's why I really couldn't play Sims 3. I don't know... It's all just crapped out.. I was making the joke last night with my husband that I could make it to Redwood City in just under two hours to dump all of my games at their doorstep!

I think I'll just proceed with the plan to get the new computer rather than trying to upgrade and fix this one...ugh...

[KawaiiMiyo]

     Alienware is so expensive, there are sooo cheaper gaming computers elsewhere. And it doesnt really take the $2k for an alienware to run The Sims and other games pretty decently. Lol I admit,  I'm cheap. ^_~  I usually wait until the $1k computers come down to $250-400 in price before buying one

     My computer right now, I got for $250, has a dual core processor with 2.1gb ram. It came with an integrated Nvidia card in the 5000's series  I just bought a new video card for $80 that had 1gb ddr3 ram... and I'm able to play the sims with graphics on the highest settings, with very little to no lag.

[Narmy]

I don't have a Dell yet, but I want to get one of their Alienware thingys! I am on an Hp with Windows XP, and my video card is an Nvidia GeForce 6150. That's why I really couldn't play Sims 3. I don't know... It's all just crapped out.. I was making the joke last night with my husband that I could make it to Redwood City in just under two hours to dump all of my games at their doorstep!

I think I'll just proceed with the plan to get the new computer rather than trying to upgrade and fix this one...ugh...

Alienware is overpriced for what you get.

I built a computer for $550, but was disappointed with the graphics card so bought a top-of-the-line one for $170 a few months later. I can run every single game on highest settings for less than half the price of a comparable Alienware.