Unawesome one seeks help

[cheshire_cat]

Hi all,

I hesitated to make a new thread here for so long, but my game got almost unplayable, so here I am Please bear with my unawesomeness, my silly english and my searching skills.

The problem:

I get random game freezes. Everything gets stuck, mouse and keyboard stops responding, the sound keeps playing, then it stucks too. The only way out of it is rebooting, thus losing all my progress. At first, it was happening only in neighbourhood view, very rarely, but it's getting more and more often, and it's happening in residential lots too. Well, to be honest, I mostly play one lot and it's a beach lot (default smallest one). I haven't tested other types of lots, 'cause I'm assuming it would happen there as well (actually, I played through one semester at the EAxis Sim State Frat House, and nothing happened, but I guess it might if I kept playing). When I say 'random game freezes', I mean really, really random. It freezes in a completely empty test hood, in EAxis hoods, in my custom hood (sparsely decorated, with only one household plus one unoccupied residential lot) and in my self-made merged EAxis hood, when the game is just idling and when I go mad with scrolling and rotating. On said beach lot it's also completely random, as in, not affected by sim actions, number of sims and visitors on lot, seasonal features or the number of objects on lot (the lot is quite empty). One thing though, it only happens when I'm moving or rotating the view, not when the screen stands still, and not when I'm zooming in/out. All of this started after installing BV, and, as already mentioned, it's getting worse.

My attempts of solving the problem:

1. This is not related to my downloads because it's happening in a completely clean game too. But anyway, my downloads folder is only about 360MB in size, I have a bunch of hacks, HCDU doesn't show any conflicts except for the ones it should show (I'm guilty of using the Kitten Killer and the inteenimated hacks). I also have hacks that could be outdated, namely:
Squinge's Increased Bills
Jordan M.G's noinheritseasons
Avadon's real-Sickness
godknowswho's Slower Skills
I couldn't find any information about their up-to-date-ness, or I was just plain lazy. So shoot me. Or don't, because I don't see how they could become outdated, and I don't see how it can be related to the freezing problem.
I'm using GunMod's Camera Mod, but I've been using it forever without problems. It didn't suddenly became outdated, right? I'm also using HystericalParoxysm's Seasons Atmospheric Tweak.

2. Since all of this started post BV, SecuRom seems like an obvious reason. I always play from cracked .exe but I followed the cleaning procedure from the stickied SecuRom thread just in case. And, behold, I had the suckers. I have no idea how I got it, guess I did use the damn launcher at some point. Anyway, I cleaned it properly (regedit doesn't show it, and there's no SecuRom folder in my Application Data, is that it?). But no, my game still freezes.

3. Finally, the graphics card. Hardware is where I'm most unawesome at. So updating the drivers was my last resort. I think I've done it properly - I uninstaled my old drivers and cleaned the mess with Driver Cleaner, then I installed the new drivers. The results are unsatisfying.

Best case scenario - Instead of complete lock up I get messed up graphics, mixed up textures, whatever. Example pics below are unedited i.e. huge, so click only if you're really interested

Example Pic 1 - The Hood

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j246/___juju___/untitled.jpg

Occupied lot gone white. Also notice swan-like things where road turnings are supposed to be.

Example Pic 2 - The Lot

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j246/___juju___/untitled2.jpg

UI gone wrong. No description needed really. This happened while bying a bed, picking the covers to be precise.

This problem sort of fixes itself after a little while and that's all fine and dandy. But no, after I exit the game, my desktop resolution goes from 1024x768 to like 40x30 and I get nVidia error and have to restart OR I get BSOD and have to restart.

Worst case scenario - I start Pleasantview. The flying-over movie thing starts, then it freezes a bit, then the textures go wrong, the game struggles for about a minute, then I get BSOD.

Epilogue - I rolled back the drivers.

My specs (from DxDiag):

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E6750  @ 2.66GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 258MB used, 3680MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 8600 GT
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0402&SUBSYS_22861682&REV_A1
   Display Memory: 512.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
          Monitor: SyncMaster 703(M)s/ 753(M)s/750(M)s/753(M)v, MagicSyncMaster CM173A(M)
  Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
      Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0011.5819 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 4/12/2007 17:44:00, 5433216 bytes                   

(That's the driver I rolled back to. The new driver setup file I downloaded is called "175.16_geforce_winxp_32bit_english_whql.exe". Is there anything else relevant?)

TS2 is installed in default location. Drive C has Total Space 39.0 GB, Free Space 15,7 GB

I have all EPs and SPs up to Kitchen and Bath. My entire game is ARRRed, and I hadn't experienced any problems before this (except for the flying skunk and weird penguin walking but that's really no biggie). I haven't applied BV patch 2 (don't know why I would do that now, FT installation didn't ask for it), and I never applied the sucky FT patch 1. I'm waiting for the cracked .exe to be released to apply FT patch 2. Also, I'm using Numenor's AnyGameStarter. The freezage occurs in 'Full Game' as well as in 'AnyGame' so I'm guessing it's unrelated.

Whew. Thanks for reading through all of this. I tried to include every possibly relevant piece of information. I have no idea what to do now, so, awesome people, I will greatly appreciate any kind of help! *kisses buts*

Extra Question - How do I found out if HyperThreading technology is enabled on my PC?

*starts to madly refresh this page*

[SnootCB]

This *might* be the dreaded nVidia bug.  When you say your game "freezes" or "locks up", do you mean that it goes to the game's blue screen with the game's hourglass and sticks?

The reason I thought this might be the case is that you mentioned it started after installing BV; between Seasons and BV nVidia realeased a driver that solved this problem, but BV broke it again and it has not been fixed since.

Try this: enter the game and, before doing anything else, open the cheat box and type boolprop useshaders false in it.  You will not be able to see fish or use the snow x-ray thing, but it may help the crashiness.  If you find that it does help, it is mostly likely that your problem is the nVidia bug and I would recommend putting that cheat in your userstartup.cheat file.

[Zazazu]

My entire game is ARRRed

2. Since all of this started post BV, SecuRom seems like an obvious reason. I always play from cracked .exe but I followed the cleaning procedure from the stickied SecuRom thread just in case. And, behold, I had the suckers. I have no idea how I got it, guess I did use the damn launcher at some point. Anyway, I cleaned it properly (regedit doesn't show it, and there's no SecuRom folder in my Application Data, is that it?). But no, my game still freezes.

Then you shouldn't have SecuROM. Are you doing that weird mounty thing or are you running from cracks? Either way, SecuROM should have been stripped.
 If you had SecuROM on your system, you got it from another game. The launcher doesn't give you SecuROM. Think of the launcher as a kiss on the cheek and the standard game .exe as a rough fuck with a barbed-wire cock ring. You aren't going to get SecuROM from the launcher, just like you aren't going to get AIDS from a kiss on the cheek. The other, well...

Do get BV patch 2 & then the new no-CD crack. I don't think BV patch 1 got rid of the NPC spawn bug, though if you have antiredundancy from here that makes no difference. However, there's this

Periodic Events Controller will no longer loop twice per hour through each neighbor which was causing extreme lag on certain machines.

Some of your UI issues are ones I've never, ever seen. You have skin files displaying over your UI. I've never heard of this issue with the NVidia bug, nor seen the oddities to your 'hood terrain like that before. Honestly, I'd try a fresh reinstall from basegame on. Crazy and annoying...try Snoot's bandaid first.


noinheritseasons and GunMod's camera mod are working perfectly in my game, which is all EPs, H&M and K&B SPs.

[cheshire_cat]

Yay!

When you say your game "freezes" or "locks up", do you mean that it goes to the game's blue screen with the game's hourglass and sticks?

No. No blue screen. No hourglass. It just sticks to wherever it was. The cursor doesn't change. The sound keeps being normal for a few more seconds, than it goes DRRM DRRM DRRM. Mouse and keyboard don't respond.

Then you shouldn't have SecuROM. Are you doing that weird mounty thing or are you running from cracks? Either way, SecuROM should have been stripped.
 If you had SecuROM on your system, you got it from another game. The launcher doesn't give you SecuROM.

Hmmmm. Well I'm doing the mounty thing with Deamon Tools v4.10 AND running from cracks. Not that I fully trust my memory, but I don't think I EVER started the game from original .exe. Other newish games I played are Black and White 2 and Stronghold 2, and boyfriend installed Football Manager 2008 recently, which is my prime suspect. Doesn't really matter anyway 'cause I cleaned it, wherever it came from, and the game still freezes.

Do get BV patch 2 & then the new no-CD crack.

Will do so. I do have antiredundancy but that Periodic Events Controler fix sounds interesting.

Some of your UI issues are ones I've never, ever seen. You have skin files displaying over your UI. I've never heard of this issue with the NVidia bug, nor seen the oddities to your 'hood terrain like that before. Honestly, I'd try a fresh reinstall from basegame on.

That's with the new driver that I uninstalled. I'll be perfectly happy with occasional UI mess-up that fixes itself, but no, the PC has to be restarted anyway. The driver part is where the help is most wanted. You see my current driver is quite old, and the new one causes such UI issues. Perhaps there's something in between that would solve the problem. I really don't know a thing about drivers
I had simmilar UI issues with my old driver in Castaway Stories. *headdesk* Add that to the list of games I had installed on my computer. But no freezing, restarting, just the mess-up.
Fresh reinstall - ouch! That will be the last resort. I'll try Snoot's shaders thing first, then do everything that could be done to my video card, because this really looks like hardware issue to me.

Thank you both for your help! I'll get back later to inform you of the shaders thing.

[myskaal]

The noises you describe, the type of freezes and those particular graphic glithces actually sound like your vid card is fried. How new is it? If it's still under warranty I'd take it back and grab a new one. If it's not... try yanking it out and examining it. Although without an eye that nkows what it's looking for it might be hard to tell if it did blow somewhere.

Not saying it is but from past experience with fried cards what you describe sounds just like it.

[Zazazu]

Then you shouldn't have SecuROM. Are you doing that weird mounty thing or are you running from cracks? Either way, SecuROM should have been stripped.
 If you had SecuROM on your system, you got it from another game. The launcher doesn't give you SecuROM.

Hmmmm. Well I'm doing the mounty thing with Deamon Tools v4.10 AND running from cracks. Not that I fully trust my memory, but I don't think I EVER started the game from original .exe. Other newish games I played are Black and White 2 and Stronghold 2, and boyfriend installed Football Manager 2008 recently, which is my prime suspect. Doesn't really matter anyway 'cause I cleaned it, wherever it came from, and the game still freezes.

Yuppers, Football Manager 2008 and Stronghold 2 have SecuROM according to some support site posts I glanced at a moment ago. I doubt B&W 2 would out of the box, it was published before EA started using SecuROM. Patches might, but a quick search didn't give me anything.

Honestly, a good rule of thumb from now on might just be to get no-CD cracks for everything. They make life easier, anyways. Oh, and quit supporting EA financially.

[cheshire_cat]

The noises you describe, the type of freezes and those particular graphic glithces actually sound like your vid card is fried.

Oh no! Well it's quite new but it's not under warranty any more I have no idea what to look for, so I'm not going to touch it yet. Is there by any chance an easy, "software" way to find out if the card is fried or not?

Anyway, I applied BV patch #2 and I turned off the shaders.

The results:

I played for 6 sim days on said beach lot and no freezes, yay!!! Not very long, I know, but I'm quite optimistic about this. BUT the ocean goes all wonky:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j246/___juju___/wrongsea.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j246/___juju___/wrongsea2.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j246/___juju___/wrongsea3.jpg

The ocean is normal in NH view, but some of the NH deco pine trees are black. Sigh.

Fly-over movies in all EAxis hoods went just fine, no freezes.

Game closes normaly. No errors or BSOD or anything.

Ocean goes back to normal when the shaders are turned back on.

So, I guess I'll just stick to the shaders solution. The sea is ugly but it's better than not being able to play the stupid game. Thank you for all your help! If there are more ideas about this, I'd be really happy to hear them Cheers!

[SnootCB]

The thing about the ocean is odd, though, because my ocean looks just fine w/ shaders off.

[Lum]

Just to throw this out there:

My game, up to BV and KB (no FT, no Petz) has been slowing down and freezing up too. (Image freezes, controllers don't respond and I reboot, just like you do.) Eventually, I figured out it happens on a custom lot I downloaded, which I placed on an Uni lot and moved in 8 sims. I graduated them all out of there and hasn't frozen since.

If all else fails, maybe you can take out the custom lots and reduce the numbers of sims in a house. Couldn't hurt.

[cheshire_cat]

Lum, this is going to sound very wrong, but I'm kind of happy that I'm not the only one with that kind of freezing problem But custom lots are not the problem here. My beach lot is all mine, it's just a boxy trailer built on default maxis beach lot, with only 3 sims in it. Also, the game was freezing up even when there was just a single sim living in it. It's not loaded with objects, nor landscaped, and there really isn't anything special about it. Also, on-lot freezing started like couple of weeks ago, before that it was happening only in neighbourhood view. I *do* have downloaded lot in this particular hood (one of the messie messlot houses from MTS2) but I never played it.

Where did you get that freezing lot of yours? Is there anything special about it? Thank you!

Snoot, yep, it's odd. But it's working! I played some more today and no freezing, yay! I could just turn the shaders back on if I suddenly feel the urge to snap a pretty pic. Thanks again!

[Lum]

My custom lot is called Peaceful Apartments, which I grabbed from right here at MATY by someone whose name I can't remember. Nice clean lot, but I did heap abuse on it my adding lots of crap.

Thinking about it some more, though, it very well could be a video card problem. I have a Radeon 9600, which is pretty outdated, but I can't afford a new one and it's good enough for my needs, save that annoying glitch. It's never gotten as bad as you describe it, though, so maybe your card is in a worse state than mine.

Mind you, I am but a sad unawesome one. Better to wait for more advise to come in before doing anything rash.