Help! What am I missing?

[Moi]

I have looked and looked for an answer to my problem and haven't found a thing, so I'm hoping maybe you could help me, please.

My game won't start. It worked fine untill a week ago. I went to load my game and got a strange little white box with a red circle with an "x" in it and the word "Sims" and an "ok" button.

I updated my drivers, took the Cache, Group, and one other file (forgot name) out and took my Downloads folder out and the game started right up.

From there I started to load my downloads back in. I opened a new downloads folder in my owner/documents/ea games/the sims2 folder and filled it with the first gb of custom content from my old downloads folder and ran the game. No problems. Took out that folder, started an other downloads folder in the game, loaded it with the next gb of CC and ran the game again. And again, no problems. I went thru all my CC the same way untill I had no CC left in the old folder. every time the game started with no problems. I loaded all my CC in a brand new Downloads folder in the game
file and started the game. I get past the splash screen to the Sims 2 screen and it won't load any farther.

I close all unessessary programs running in the background everytime I start the game. I have oodles of memory, quad processor and am running vista.
I've had non loading issues before and have been able to work them out, but am out of ideas on how to fix this one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you! 

[Bleached]

It could be too much CC, or maybe the fact that you're running Vista, which is made of SUCK.

[Moi]

Yes, gb means gigabytes and I bought the computer last April with Vista installed.  I guess I've been lucky I haven't had any problem running the game or any of the Sims2 programs I've downloaded (Sims PE, Clean Installer,Sims2 Robo Maid 3000, ect.) with Vista.  

When I add custom content to the Downloads folder I put it in a sub folder with that days date to make it easier remove if corrupt.  I removed any CC I had downloaded the last 3 days before my game took a dive.  I've been running the game with allmost 6 gb's of Custom Content for quite a while now with no problem, so I've ruled out the size of the CC as being the problem as I've read there's no limit to the amount of CC you can have in the game.

To the Compressor I go!  Thank you, Bleached.  I'll give that a try and get back to you as to wheather that worked or not.  As I said the game has been running with about the same amount of CC for a while now, but who knows.  I'll give that a try!

[Emma]

Not if your rig is strong enough. I've never had one problem with Vista. And I will shout this from the rooftops because I'm tired of seeing everything blamed on Vista. I run all EPs, SPs and 2 gigs of CC, flawlessly. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Agreed. I had more problems with XPsp2 than I have with Vista. It ain't the devil, ya know.

[cenoura]

From there I started to load my downloads back in. I opened a new downloads folder in my owner/documents/ea games/the sims2 folder and filled it with the first gb of custom content from my old downloads folder and ran the game. No problems. Took out that folder, started an other downloads folder in the game, loaded it with the next gb of CC and ran the game again. And again, no problems. I went thru all my CC the same way untill I had no CC left in the old folder. every time the game started with no problems. I loaded all my CC in a brand new Downloads folder in the game
file and started the game. I get past the splash screen to the Sims 2 screen and it won't load any farther.

Sounds like you might have conflicting downloads? Have you tried the hack conflict detector?

[Moi]

I compressed my downloads to less than 1/2 the size they were and took out the 'group.cache' file as directed, but am getting the same response from the game.

Thank you, Cenoura.  As per your suggestion I will now try the Hack Conflict Detector.  See you soon with an update! 

[morriganrant]

If it is a conflicting object causing the problem and not a hack then the HCU will not find it. Better to put 1 section of downloads in and then steadily add them back in batches until l it stops responding. When that happens, test only the Folder that was last put in and the first folder. If that works, then test the last one and the second, and so on until it stops responding and you have narrowed it down to the two batches that are causing the issue, once you do that, you start the %50-%50 method with both sets.

[ritaxis]

I know! I know!  I had this problem.  It was the old caches and thumbnails thing.  I hadn't hardly played but once or twice since the last time I deleted them so I didn't think to try it.  In case you've never done this action befre, you open the Sims @ folder in Documents and ypou find some combimnation of groups.cache, accessories,cache, and cigen.cache (I'm not sure about that one, it hasn't regenerated since the last time so I may have its name not exactly right).  They are all safe to delete.  I do it all the time now, and don't wait for problems.  I think the reason I have to do it all the time is not so much the hige number of items I have in my download folder as the fact that I'm always moving things around in there.  I think this creates a discrepancy between what the game thinks it's supposed to be accessing as it loads versus what's actually there. But other people know more about the actual inner workings of the thing.

Another thing I delete all the time is everything in the "thumbnails" folder.  I believe there are small drawbacks to doing this, but I don't know what they are.  I think it does help deal with the discrepancy issue which I believe to exist.

I may be confused as to the real reason why all this works, but deleting the caches is pretty well necessary at least from time to time, and more often depending on how actively you mess around with your downloads folder.

[Moi]

Hi, everbody!

I'm back from deleting all my hacks (I can allways reload them).  Game still doesn't work. 

I allready removed my downloads folder, divided it, created a brand new downloads folder in the game and loaded a batch at a time, started the game (which started each and every time), exited the game and started the whole process over again for each batch.  When I had tested all the batches, I created a new downloads folder loaded all my downloads into it and started the game.  Again, I got the same response, It would go only so far and stop running.  I also deleted the three folders Ritaxis mentioned above each and every time, Except the last two times I tried to start the game.  The last two times the three afor mentioned files didn't regenerate.

I'll cut and paste the thumbnail folder to my descktop and start the game to see if that will work.  Thank you, Ritaxis!  I'll be back in a little bit with an update.

Again, thank you to everybody who has taken the time to help me.  See you soon - with good news I hope!

[morriganrant]

Hi, everbody!

I'm back from deleting all my hacks (I can allways reload them).  Game still doesn't work. 

I allready removed my downloads folder, divided it, created a brand new downloads folder in the game and loaded a batch at a time, started the game (which started each and every time), exited the game and started the whole process over again for each batch.  When I had tested all the batches, I created a new downloads folder loaded all my downloads into it and started the game.  Again, I got the same response, It would go only so far and stop running.  I also deleted the three folders Ritaxis mentioned above each and every time, Except the last two times I tried to start the game.  The last two times the three afor mentioned files didn't regenerate.

I'll cut and paste the thumbnail folder to my descktop and start the game to see if that will work.  Thank you, Ritaxis!  I'll be back in a little bit with an update.

Again, thank you to everybody who has taken the time to help me.  See you soon - with good news I hope!

....read my last comment again on testing the batches. You have files conflicting with each other. These files are in separate batches, aparently. Just testing the batches on their own will not work, you have to test the batches with the conflicting objects. This is why when you just do them on their own it's fine, but with all they crash. There are two files(or more) that when being used together, cause crashing.

Also, you can just delete the thumbnails. You do not need to move the folder. The only draw back is that it may take a little longer to load the catalog because the thumbnails are regenerating.
Cigen.package only comes back when you run bodyshop.

[Moi]

I removed the thumbnail folder, but that didn't work either.

I agree with you, Moriganrant.  I'm going to redo the downloads.  I'll divide them up into batches, make sure each batch works seperately, then put the batches together in different combos untill I find the combo that created my problem with the game and narrow it down from there, going first and last (individual download) as you suggested.

Again,  I'll be back with an update.  Thank you!

[Moi]

Sorry about that, Morriganrant! 

It got confussed.  I reread your comments and understand what you're saying to do.  I'll let you know what happens!  Thank you.

[mistyk]

This is why I now subfolder my subfolders. I had random weirdness like this, where it would crash trying to enter a hood. I took out subfolder by subfolder and it was not a hack/mod causing the crash it was actually CM clothing. Then it happened again, trying to load the Monty lot in Veronaville, removed each folder and it turned out to be a toddler girl I had downloaded.

[J. M. Pescado]

Agreed. I had more problems with XPsp2 than I have with Vista. It ain't the devil, ya know.

That's your heated seat talking, Emma.

[svic]

I had the same problem today, but deleting the groups.cache and accessory.cache in the My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 folder solved my problem.

[Moi]

Hi, everybody! 

I've been going through my downloads folder using the 50/50 method (sort of!).  I added the first batch of downloads, started the game, added the second batch, started the game, ectera.  Well, I'm half way through my downloads folder when I came across two files I had taken out of my game early in the process of finding the offending file or files.  I put these files back in my download folder and sure enough the game wouldn't load.  Took them out and loaded the game just fine.  Then I tried loading the game with each file seperately, and both times the game wouldn't load.  I'll continue redownloading the rest of my custom content a batch at a time and get back to you when I'm finished

P.S.  I don't know what the files are.  I just haven't taken the time to find out, yet, but will let you know.  The file names for both files are one of those really long number names if that helps. 

Again, "Thank you!" to everyone who has helped me with this!  Without my 'Sims 2 fix' I'de be a basket case of nerves and stress - I have 3 teenagers at home - one being a 16yr old girl!  With Sims2 I can create all the teenagers I want, turn off free will and they will do everything I tell them to do!  LOL!  If only real life was so easy!   

[jolrei]

I put these files back in my download folder and sure enough the game wouldn't load.  Took them out and loaded the game just fine.

P.S.  I don't know what the files are.  I just haven't taken the time to find out, yet, but will let you know.  The file names for both files are one of those really long number names if that helps. 

Rule of thumb:  If they have a stupid number filename and you don't know what they do, and your game loads fine without them, you don't need them.  Burninate them out of there.

[J. M. Pescado]

Always delete stupid number-name files. They should never be there.

[maxon]

Those long numbery filenames came in with a lot or sim you installed without Clean Installer.  It's the Maxis Installer that renames them that way.  This probably means they are relatively old and out-of-date hacks are known to sneak in that way.  So, yeah, unless you know exactly what they are (and you can have a look at them with Clean Installer and see if you can work it out), delete the buggers.  I still have some of those kinds of file from right back when the game was first released and I didn't know any better.  They're skins and continue to work just fine but I do know exactly what they are - you can also rename files like this without problems.

[miros]

Or worse... A file you inherited from someone who installed it with the Maxis installer!