TS2 still freezing after SecuROM

[Telcara]

Alright.. so, I posted on the BBS and someone told me to ask for help here instead but I placed the thread in the wrong area, here it is anyway:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11518.0.html

Been told to remove SecuROM which has been done but I'm still having the EXACT problems. This with all expanions up to Bon Voyage and the stuff packs family fun, glamour life, H&M and my original game is the Holiday Edition.

Computer:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon (tm) 64X2 Dual
Core Processor 6000+
2.99 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM
PAE (Physical Adress Estention)
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Memory: 512 MB


Very disapointed at the moment. Those games are worth more than 2000 SEK, which is about 333.45 U.S. dollars....


My brother thinks he's got rid of it all the SecuROM stuff and I'll try and make him check it one more time but I kind of trust him in such things... What else might the reason be?

Note: Tried it a second time by setting the processor affinity manually which appearntly didn't work as the game froze anyway but I noticed that the game was lagging quite a bit. (in choose neighbourhood in the beginning and during loading

[J. M. Pescado]

Not sure what this "physical address extension" business is, seeing as you only haz 2 GBs of RAMs anyway, but check your drivers, because I had a very similar configuration of computer which ran just fine.

[Telcara]

I'm sorry but which drivers do you mean? (showed your reply to my brother and he didn't get it)
DirectX and the graphics are updated. 2nd edit: sound and video is also updated.

I tried assigning one proccessor to the game, closing the process ctfmon.exe, boolprop usershaders off and also autopatch off but not sure if I got it into function (read now somewhere where it says its autoPatch off - as much as I remember its case sensitive. Would autopatch make a difference?). I tried the Monty Family in Veronaville and the game worked fine so I thought that had fixed it. Went to make a sim but when building his house the game froze.. might have just been lucky fo a while I guess.

Edit: That SecuROM is really gonehas been confirmed. Came out that the wrong no CD crack had been installed. I have the patch for BV so I'm going to install the patch version to see if that does any difference. Don't think it will but meh, desperate.

[Telcara]

Got the correct patch (third one from gameburnworld) and assigned one proccessor to the game, closed the process ctfmon.exe and used boolprop usershaders off (still saw fish in the pond though, thought that would disable it?). My game survived for quite many sim days and froze on a community lot compared to usually froze just after a few game hours. Damn it, thought it was working normally.

[Telcara]

Apologies for kind of spamming this thread...

I found that I had old stuff from the sims left on the C hardrive (my game was on D). The C harddrive is from the old computer... just thought that was strange as it allowed me to install the game anyway, even if it already existed on the computer? Anyway, I got rid of that... I knew it was from the old one because Celebration was included but not Seasons and BV. That didn't make any change to the game.

Went on a search for the groups.cache file and found it on C when it was supposed to be on D. Realized that was the leftovers from the old installation and got rid of the entire folder. Just before that, I had opened the game and changed the settings. I started the game and noticed that everything had been re-set and my test house was gone. I suspect that the game was using the files on C, it was really weird. Still didn't solve any problems.

Decided to get rid of EVERY sim thingy on the computer, was unable to uninstall BV and the original game and simply deleted them because I fear I'm too stupid to uninstall manually with the registry key and all (bet just doing like that wasn't that clever either). Installed the original game only and now it required to install some additional MB on C even if my brother had moved the My documents folder to D. Its still there but Mina Dokument (My Documents in swedish) is on C and it that's where those additional MB are located.

Started with the original only and game froze after a few sim days as usal. Should have tested it completely the first time, at least now its confirmed that it can't run any sim 2 game.

The main folders are and have been in the previous installs on harddrive D with 90 GB of free space. The additional stuff are on C with 8.9 GB free space.

Any possiblities that it can be related to the little space on C? However, that should be enough for the main game only, right?

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you have stuff left in your registry, that would quite likely be the problem, it never, ever, pays to delete Sims games, or uninstall them through the Control Panel.  I'd suggest you uninstall everything you can, then download the trial version of jv16 Power Tools (which will work fine with two processors) run the complete registry clean option, and then use the Registry Manager option to make sure there are no Sims entries left, after which anything else that failed to uninstall can be deleted manually.  Then, when you reinstall, it would be worth doing it in stages, and checking that first the base game and then each EP is working as it should.

[Telcara]

Thanks Zephyr. I removed two things I found for BV and couldn't find anything else Sims-related. Didn't solve my problem though.

I'm currently only having the base game installed on D with the My Documenst folder moved to D. No other changes done to the game. Takes about 30 mins or so for the game to freeze, and no one seems to know the problem...

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I have the same graphics card as you, plus the same amount of RAM, and I'm not getting these problems, although there are others, but this is a new PC and therefore a completely new install.  Out of interest, what AV and Firewall are you running?  When I got this PC it had AVG and Zone Alarm installed, but I couldn't stand them, I kept being brought back to the desktop every time AVG decided to update, and since it was the free version of both programs I couldn't configure either of them.  So, I removed them and went back to using Avast! which never gives me these sort of problems, plus Windows Firewall - nothing nasty ever got through when I was using these before, so I shall just keep my fingers crossed that this is still going to be the case!

The one problem I do seem to have is that if I save a lot and then try to exit the game, it occasionally crashes on exit, but so far it hasn't caused any problems with my sims' files so I shall just wait and see if something hits me between the eyes and tells me what's causing it - it seems to be a memory problem of some kind, and I think probably I just try to exit before everything is properly saved.

I've also occasionally had a freeze, but I think that's due to the mouse that came with the PC, I've had to install it in the USB slot, so maybe it's something to do with that, but it won't work in the normal mouse connection, whereas my old mouse works fine from there, so I think I'll just put the old mouse back if it keeps happening.

If you are still having problems with just the base game running, then I think there may still be stuff left over somewhere from either your original install, or from SecuRom.  I'd suggest you check yourself to make sure, just in case something has been left in. 

[Telcara]

No AV and Firewall, so that can't be the problem. The old computers I used to play on had Zone Alarm and when disabling it the game worked faster.

I always save at the same time as when I exit, not before and then exit... Does saving when exiting make your game crash as well?

Well.. as I can't go to the desktop its def not the mouse, everything is simply non responding.

I've checked the stuff in the registry just as you told and took away all Sims related I could find. Everything has the name Sims included in the file name right? I'll make a check for SecuROM leftovers.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Yes, I'm pretty sure there's only one registry entry for each EP = Base game and if you use a registry editing program they should display the full name of that EP etc.  One thing I will say about EAxis, they don't clog your registry with half-a-dozen different entries for each one.

I think I will try your suggestion of saving and exiting at the same time and see if it makes a difference - I tend to think it's due to the graphics card memory being overloaded, though, as when I've checked just minutes before, I can still have about half my available RAM still available! 

Have you tried reinstalling to your C Drive, and just keeping My Documents on the D Drive?  I don't know how big your C Drive is initially, but maybe there's stuff there that you don't use that can be cleared out.  Also, provided your PC isn't throwing any non-sim-related problems, it might pay to use diskclean to get rid of most of your restore points if you haven't done so already, as they can use an enormous chunk of a small hard disk.  Also, you can save a little more space by checking for useless other language files in programs that you use that may not have given you the option of whether or not you needed them (Sims included! - and in every single EP too.  I've removed them in the past and never had a problem from doing so, just so long as you leave in the files for the language you are using.  You can also move part at least of your paging file to the D drive.  Making it non-dynamic also helps, as you don't get lag every time Windows decides to increase/decrease the size of it.  Paladin has a tutorial which includes how to do this, plus some services that can be disabled etc., over at www.simwardrobe.com which I found very easy to understand.

[Telcara]

Alright, then they must be gone.

C drive is bigger than the D drive (298 GB compared to 136).. Its full though. Just about 8 GB left of free space. Nothing there is mine, only my brother's stuff and the computer's own stuff. Would it make a difference if I would place it on the C drive? I've asked my brother to clear some of his stuff but he refuses and claims that it will not make any difference.

Thanks for the cleaning tip, I'll talk with my brother about it as I'm sure I'd mess something up. I checked for SecuROM but couldn't find anything related to it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Whose computer is it, yours or his?  If it's yours, give him a separate account, and then limit the size of that account to 25% of the space.  And I can't see that he is such a computer whiz if he thinks that tiny percentage of space is enough!  If he has loads of music files and videos then the main HD is NOT the place to store it - tell him to go buy himself an external HD and save that stuff on there.

Personally, I hate it when I have less than 40% free space on my main drive, everything runs at snail's pace.  Even on my laptop I never go below that limit, and if I do, I clean stuff out straight away.

Oh, and if the My Documents folder is moved to the D drive, then all the music and stuff should get moved too.

One other thought, if it is YOUR computer, and your brother is downloading questionable material, you can be held legally responsible if it is discovered by the authorities (at least, here in the UK you can) so I'd check and see what exactly he is so bothered about - but then I've been around a long time and I've learned to be suspicious.

[Telcara]

Its a family computer, or in other words- my mom's. Wish I could tell him that but I'm afraid I just can't do.I'll simply ask him to clean it in that case but I think he'll still deny me to install Sims on the C drive as he continues to say that won't make any difference. I don't like the lack of space either but I'm in no power to change that, him being older than me doesn't help at all... I'll just have to talk with my mother about it, she's surely going to try an convince him as she's bought some of my expansions. =P

Why should those filed be moved if My Documents is moved?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Basically, if you move My Documents onto your second HD, then everything in it will move, including the My Pictures and My Music folders.  So if your brother keeps stuff in those, it will move with My Docs and be just as accessible as it was before.

I think I'd get your mum to create different User Accounts for each of you (and unless your brother PAID towards the computer, I don't think age should come into this at all!  I'd say it sounds more like rampant sexism on your brother's part!)  and then set herself up as the administrator.  Then, there is a way of only allowing a certain amount of space to each account (I'm not sure how it works as I don't have your problem, but I know it's an option on my Vaio laptop - it may not be a Microsoft option, maybe it's some other program that allows you to set the limits, but I'm sure someone here would know).  You can then password-protect your account so your brother can't get in (he can do this too) and yet your mother as administrator would still be able to check what is being downloaded by each of you, and unless your brother is meticulous about cleaning up his internet activity, she would be able to check up on that too - not so much prying as simply if someone doesn't clean up all the stuff that gets in, you soon have bloat everywhere!  One example is that a lot of downloaded programs come with an installer.  You install the program, and either delete the installer or save it to your second drive, but the installer has also installed a copy of itself within the program files, so there are two identical installers on your system where you only need one - and it makes sense to keep these on your second drive, or to write them to a disc, so that if you have to do a complete System Restore you don't have to go all over the place to find the stuff you've lost.

And I think you should make the point that any program runs better from the main drive than from the second, some won't run at all if they aren't installed in the Program Files.

[morriganrant]

Random shot in the dark, when was the last time that a virus scan, disk clean up, defrag and a program to remove spyware was run? My grandparents had all manner of oddities happening on their pc, including drag, I can never convince them to run adaware unless I do it, last time I was there they had over a 100 data miner's and similar crap which was causing their pc to slow down and lag in programs. They had gotten someone to remove my games from it, thinking it was my stuff taking up too much space, after their removal there was no change.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Since Big Brother is the one with so much stuff on the HD, it does sound to me that you may be right, Morriganrant, and it certainly points to the suggestion that he is not the computer whiz he thinks he is!

After running Ad-aware, I'd also suggest something like the trial version of jv16 Power Tools to clean up the registry and compact it.