Forever loading screen

[Morana]

Hi to all! I just installed University, and played a little bit. One of my Sims wanted to buy new clothes, so I went to Community Lot.

But I couldn't reach it. It was loading and loading and loading without end. And you know that little red light on your computer which shows computer usage or so? When it lights I know the game works, but this time it was turned off. The game was not responding.

It seems like I broke it in half an hour! Please help...

[Charamei]

First things first: did you try rebooting your computer and trying again?

[gynarchy]

You could try running the game with the testing cheats enabled and see if an error pops up. Then you could reset or delete any offending objects that may be preventing it from loading.

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you installed notowniechildren when you were running the base game, make sure you have removed it, as this was the cause of the exact same problem in my game.

[Morana]

I rebooted it three or four times. As for the testing cheats, no error showed up. I was able to load the lot when I removed my Downloads folder, so the problem must be there. But I don't have this notowniechildren hack. I think I have some stuff that are only for The Sims 2 base game, so I'll try to find and remove them.

Thanks for replies and help, you're all great. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Hope you find the problem, it certainly seems like a hack causing it to me.  And, if you don't do so already, once you've sorted all your hacks out, put them together in a subfolder so it's easier to see what you have got.

[MistyBlue]

I'm having the same problem with one of my comm lots, too. I can go to all others, but one of them is in a state of perpetual loading. I've done several things to try and fix it, but nothing seems to be working. If it is a hack and you do find the culprit, please let me know what it is.

[ZephyrZodiac]

If it's only one comm lot, it doesn't sound to me that it can be caused by a global mod.  I think I'd be looking for either a hacked object that is on that lot and no other, or, which I think is more likely, a portal problem with that lot.  Have you tried moving the lot in order to reset it?  Also, delete your groups.cache file from the game folders and let the game generate a new, clean one.

[J. M. Pescado]

Does the lot error when loaded in debug mode? Doesn't mean anything if you don't have debug on.

[MistyBlue]

No, there aren't any errors in debug mode, just loading forever. I removed everything that I thought might be the problem, the restaurant podium and restaurant stove, but that didn't do anything. I removed the lot, placed it again, didn't work. Removed it, deleted it, reinstalled the packaged version, placed it, still didn't work. There shouldn't be anything other than the podium and stove that could cause problems. The other stuff is EAxis and not hack type things.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Can you enter the lot in Build mode?  If so, you could try removing the custom podium and stove.  If you can't enter in Build mode, then try removing those custom objects from your Downloads folder.

[MistyBlue]

I can enter in build mode and the podium and stove aren't even custom. I just thought they might be the problem because I had trouble with them back in the Nightlife days. I removed my downloads folder and it hasn't had any effect, I think the lot is just FUBAR now.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Sounds like there could be a broken portal on the lot.  Is the lot one you built yourself, a download or an original Maxis lot?  If it's a download, you could try getting it again, if it's original Maxis then find an unused copy if you have one in another set of game files and just replace the file in the LotCatalog.  If it's one you made yourself, did you keep a copy of the original lot before it got glitched?

[MistyBlue]

I built it and I packaged it before I ever attempted to take a sim there. I tried reinstalling it, but it still didn't work. I think I will check on the portal thing by moving a wall out of the way. I built one wall to the sidewalk, though I've done that before without problems. Perhaps I blocked the portal with a window or a sign.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Anything's possible.  There is a way of replacing broken portals over at MTS2, at least it used to be there, so it might be possible to save your lot if it is a portal that's damaged in some way.