suddenly having problems, argh!

[jennydeenyc]

So, my Somerset family has been chugging along nicely, and then Nicholas (son of Tianna, shown in my avatar, and father of teen twins Charlotte and Devon) goes and gets himself abducted by aliens and impregnated. Now I should mention that throughout my play session today, I've been experiencing graphical issues, basically amounting to what appears to be my video card "flashing" its resolution. It hasn't really affected my gameplay, since the image reappears almost instantly, but it has been an annoyance. I've tried turning down some of my graphics settings, and updated my video card drivers (yup, nVidia, blech) and installed all updates for Windows XP that were awaiting download.

The real problem occurs when I tried using the FFS Lot Debugger to prevent "firstborn syndrome" on Nicholas' alien baby. The game crashes upon attempting to reload Veronaville. After the crash, I can get back into the game & the Somerset lot fine, but 3 times in a row now I've experienced a crash to desktop after trying to run the sim randomizer function. Anyone have any suggestions on how to track down what is causing this issue? I've run the hack conflict program, but nothing I have has ever conflicted with the Lot Debugger. For now I'm avoiding playing the lot until I can figure a way to get rid of this issue & randomize my impending alien baby properly.

[Emma]

Try loading another lot in the neighbourhood and running the randomiser from there. Then load up the Somerset house.

[J. M. Pescado]

I have no idea why it would CRASH unless bad CC is causing the sim-generator to barf (which may leave debris in your neighborhood files). Reload from backup.

[jennydeenyc]

Well, since I was an idiot and hadn't backed up in several days (and don't want to lose all my game progress during that time span), I'd like to try tracking down the offensive CC first. Everything I added to the game just prior to yesterday's play session (when I started having issues) are in one folder in my Downloads directory, and I can easily disable the new packages with Clean Installer. My main question is: what happens if I disable CC currently in use by a sim? Like a blush or contacts I mean, nothing genetic. Is it better to go into the game and give all my townies "no CC" makeovers before attempting to disable any custom makeup files, or is that a big huge waste of time?

[Gwill]

Makeup just disappear from the sim if deleted.  Clothing and hair gets replaced by maxis content.

[jennydeenyc]

Ok, thanks. I'm going through with Clean Installer and disabling all non-mesh/non-hack files installed in the last 2 days to see if I can't track down the culprit. I already tried disabling everything I installed just yesterday, but still got the same crash, so hopefully it will turn out to be something I installed the day before. Should I be concentrating on BodyShop stuff, since this crash is only occurring when the game tries to reload the neighborhood after running the Rerandomize Sim function of the lot debugger, or could the culprit be a non BodyShop-related file as well?

[seelindarun]

I think it's probably worth your while to make a backup now, and see if it really is a CC issue or garbage in your 'hood files.  Also, if you make a backup you can test as many times as you like with the CC, until you track down the culprit.  Then you can put everything else back into your pristine backup.

[jennydeenyc]

Ok, but if I make a backup now, won't that include whatever garbage is causing the crash? I'm a bit confused about the best way to make a backup (use SimPE?) and then restore using it. So far, disabling everything I've downloaded in the past 2 days hasn't affected the crashing issue at all, so I'm really at a loss how to proceed. Its really frustrating because I wasn't having any issues using the Rerandomize Sim Generator function until yesterday, and I know it worked fine 3 days ago when I used it before the Somerset twins were born. Nothing that was in my game before then should be the culprit, but I just don't know anymore.

[seelindarun]

It's true your backup will be just as corrupted, if it's garbage causing your troubles, but at least you'll know.   Furthermore, you'll know without having to sift all your CC first.  Then you can choose to work around it, trash it, repair it, or whatever.

More optimistically, maybe it is just a problem mesh or some bit of CC.  In that case, you can mangle your game with abandon while looking for it, if you have a backup.  Once you've identified the source of your misery, you can put all your other shinies back into the game and not have to make over the whole 'hood.

As for making the backup, just copy your whole TS2 user folder to your desktop, or some other safe place.  I don't know what the default setup is for the PC game, or I'd tell you where it is.

[jolrei]

Ok, but if I make a backup now, won't that include whatever garbage is causing the crash? I'm a bit confused about the best way to make a backup (use SimPE?) and then restore using it.

No.  Your "garbage" is likely in your Downloads folder, not your Neighborhood folder.  Here's what you do:
1) Back up your hood (in your Neighborhoods folder, numbered something like 0004.somthing) - simply use Windoze Explorer to copy your entire hood folder to a new folder.  ("copy", NOT "move").  You will now have your hood in your game, and another duplicate in another folder.

2) Do your tests.  This will result in all your sims reverting to maxis clothing (if you remove clothes from downloads), and having no makeup, as mentioned previously, but who cares, 'cos you have all that stuff in your nice backed up folder.  No worries.

3) Once you find the file(s) or CC causing the problem, you delete it from your downloads and restore the rest of your downloads folder.  Run your test again just to make good and sure.

4) "COPY" your backed up 'hood back into your Neighborhoods folder - it will overwrite the hood you used for testing, and will still have all your sims' settings intact.  Thus, when you start your game, the sims will be wearing their regular clothing and have all their lip gloss back on and ready to smooch with.  The only stuff that will be missing is the borked CC/mod/object, etc. that you deleted in your tests.

[jennydeenyc]

Alright, I'll give that a try. I dunno if it will do anything, since, like I said, I'd already tried disabling all the content I downloaded since the last time I ran the Randomizer function, but I still got the crash upon re-entry to Veronaville after running the randomizer. Otherwise, the neighborhood & lot loads & plays fine. Everything I had in my Downloads up until a couple of days ago gave me no issues whatsoever, but if it isn't something I added recently, I have no idea where to look. It's just annoying because it takes about 6-10 minutes to reload the game each time, enter the house, & run the randomizer to see if it still crashes, which so far it has done each time I try.

[seelindarun]

No.  Your "garbage" is likely in your Downloads folder, not your Neighborhood folder.  

It could be both.  It might have been bad CC, an interrupted save, or some random hardware flicker that caused the game to crash the first time.  However, it's known that game crashes sometimes shred 'hood or character files in their wake, so even if that wasn't the cause of the first crash, it could be causing problems now.  

Since the OP doesn't have a backup, we can't know the definitive cause of the first crash, but I maintain that it's worth making a backup and loading a CC-free game to see if that family behaves normally.  It's possible that the corruption is subtle, and only detectable with SimPE, but this would be a reasonable first step.

I dunno if it will do anything, since, like I said, I'd already tried disabling all the content I downloaded since the last time I ran the Randomizer function, but I still got the crash upon re-entry to Veronaville after running the randomizer. Otherwise, the neighborhood & lot loads & plays fine. Everything I had in my Downloads up until a couple of days ago gave me no issues whatsoever, but if it isn't something I added recently, I have no idea where to look. It's just annoying because it takes about 6-10 minutes to reload the game each time, enter the house, & run the randomizer to see if it still crashes, which so far it has done each time I try.

Make your backup and take out all your CC.  Load up the problem lot, and see what happens.  If it loads and plays normally, then you'll know that your 'hood and character files are probably not corrupt, and you'll know it right away 'cause the game will load much faster without any CC.

If that goes all right, then do a binary search on all your downloads, but start with an empty dl folder, and only put in the un-tested portion.  That way, you'll never have to load more than half your downloads each time you restart.

[jennydeenyc]

After some further experimenting...

First, I made my backup, and just for giggles, re-enabled all the CC I recently downloaded. I entered the Somerset lot, and immediately exited back to the neighborhood. No problem there. Then I entered the nearby Marlowe lot, which I haven't played in about 9 months or so. Ran the re-randomizer from there, and Veronaville loaded fine. Went back to the Somerset lot, tried the re-randomizer, got the crash. So, I'm not sure it's a CC issue at all - since the randomizer worked on another lot, but perhaps rather a file corruption issue with the Somersets? If that's the case, is the lot just totally screwed? Is there a way to track down file corruptions & fix them?

Or...

If I can successfully run the randomizer on another lot in the neighborhood, would it affect babies born on neighboring lots during the same play session? If its my only option, I guess I could live with saving the Somerset family during pregnancies, going over to the Marlowe lot & running the randomizer there, sigh.

[maxon]

If I can successfully run the randomizer on another lot in the neighborhood, would it affect babies born on neighboring lots during the same play session? If its my only option, I guess I could live with saving the Somerset family during pregnancies, going over to the Marlowe lot & running the randomizer there, sigh.

Yes, it randomises the personalities per playing SESSION not per lot.  I have no idea about your possible lot or family corruption though. 

[jennydeenyc]

You know, I now have a sneaking suspicion that the corruption on the Somerset lot is a result of using the Wizards of SimPE Wardrobe Cleaner, with a more recent version of SimPE than my installed expansions warrant. Its the only lot that I used that plugin on. I've now downgraded to v. 0.62.1 of SimPE (for Seasons), and downloaded the appropriate Wardrobe Cleaner plugin for that version. I have to head out for a few hours, but when I get back I'm going to try re-cleaning the Somerset closet and see if that doesn't help with the apparent lot corruption issues. If not, at least I can do the randomizer on another Veronaville lot as a workaround, I guess.

[Solowren]

I have a quick question relating to this problem:

Could a crash to desktop every time an attempt was made to Grow Up townies with the playable Sim be caused by the same corrupt CC issue being discussed here?

[jolrei]

Could a crash to desktop every time an attempt was made to Grow Up townies with the playable Sim be caused by the same corrupt CC issue being discussed here?

I would not rule it out.  Back up your hood, remove CC and try growing up townies.  If it works, you have your answer.  Could also be a hack conflict.

[Solowren]

Okay, I found the CC file that was causing my problem. I have no idea what it is. Would someone More Awesome Than Me mind taking a quick look at it?

http://www.mediafire.com/?jfohht4gmdm

[Gwill]

That package is a sim.  Can't tell you more than that.

[Solowren]

Weird.

Well, whoever it is was messing with my aging-ness. So I destroyed them. 

[maxon]

It's possibly a sim you imported when you imported some clothes off the Exchange - you know they come in sims2pack files and a bodyshop sim has to be dressed in the clothes in order for them to be packed.  They will appear as custom sims in Bodyshop and the sims bin in CAS.  The thing is, you don't need to keep them, as some people seem to think, because the clothes are a separate file and will remain in your downloads folder when you delete the sim in question.  You might want to run Bodyshop and delete any sims with an asterix that you didn't make yourself or particularly want to keep.  I usually move custom sims files to SavedSims and stick them in sub-folders (where the game won't read them) until I want to use them.  I don't leave custom sims in Downloads but if you install the sims2pack file with either the Maxis installer or Clean Installer, the sim file will get put in Downloads.

[Kazzandra]

Well, that's a might bizarre. I've heard of imported Sims making your game crash before loading, but not allowing aging to happen? How on earth did a Sim cause that?

[notveryawesome]

If you use Clean Installer, you can un-tick the box next to the sim file, and thus avoid adding an unwanted sim to your Downloads.

[Solowren]

Back in the day I downloaded the Valentine's Day stuff from the Exchange, but I burninated those Sims long ago. I suppose it may be one of the Sims I have sitting in the bin. I'll remove them as well.