Strange Crashing

[Starpoo]

After installing Pets (from the Library; 'cuz I'm cheap, and I have Seasons), the game would crash when loading large lots (only UI showing, sound), making a second sim, saving (haven't tried exit to neighborhood/quit), even loading a neighborhood. I look at the disk and it is scratched to hell.   If only I...(IF!  ) I'm on a laptop with Intel GMA X3100 (that 9xx chipset family). Now, the strangeness is that the game would run wonderfully on this machine before Pets. After uninstalling Pets, the problem still persisted. Reinstalling the entire series, still there. Patching, no help there. However, if I had debugging on it would save. And before I forget, sometimes it would reset the neighborhood, no Uni, DT, or shopping district. Should I go all out and reformat the hard drive, or is there a less drastic action?

Pets ruined my Sims experience  

ETA: Of course I didn't reinstall pets. Seeing how this is the third time of trying to edit (probably using the wrong button) just ask if you need more details: I proved my theory that you have to double click the picture for the neighborhood in order for it to load properly, and it seems the neighborhood would reset if I just inserted the disk instead of using the shortcut. That same day I installed Steam/Portal, but IIRC, the crashing was still occurring before that. I could have used system restore but a previous act had only left a restore point 4 hours too late. Also, if I have it on fastest it could cause crashing but this doesn't happen as often and I only need to be careful about what I do. Seeing how there are views but no replies...this seems like quite the problem. Oh dear...

Does anyone have any ideas? Any?

Way to go, I have now taken this problem to....TECH SUPPORT.

[Starpoo]

Now I know I shouldn't really post twice, but it is not part of the original problem.
Tech Support suggested I update my graphics driver. I downloaded the driver, installed it, it says it successfully installed, but when I check on DxDiag, it still says 7.0.14...(which if you ask me doesn't make much sense, you can't have a decimal decimal 1.5.6 doesn't make sense it's 1.56) anyway, I have restarted, still does not change.
What should I do?

[Tarlia]

Uh-huh...

Um, what driver version are you trying to install, then? And did you uninstall the one you already have first?

Also, version numbers aren't decimals. They're version numbers. 7.0.14 means the 14th version of 7.0.

[Starpoo]

YAY! A response.
So how do I uninstall the driver? I'm trying to install 8.2.0.1014. I just thought it would be like updates, it just overwrites the files or whatever.
Thanks for the clarification. I should Google that...

[Tarlia]

YAY! A response.
So how do I uninstall the driver? I'm trying to install 8.2.0.1014. I just thought it would be like updates, it just overwrites the files or whatever.
Thanks for the clarification. I should Google that...

You install and uninstall drivers through the device manager... Assuming that you're running Windows. Which version of Windows do you have, what (name of) driver are you trying to install? It shouldn't be necessary to uninstall first if you are upgrading to a newer version, assuming that you're doing the installation correctly.

[Starpoo]

I have Vista (Home Premium 32-bit), I'm trying to install Intel GMA driver 8.2.0.1014 from 7.14.0010.1437. I shall uninstall the drivers then install the new ones first...

ETA: Okay, this is not going well, I uninstalled the driver, the screen goes all non-native resolution, install the new drivers and nothing is different. Now I have to go all System Restore...

EATA: Something went wrong at Acer, they don't have the newest driver, and it also is broken (I thought the installation was too quick, along with the file being small..). I'll have to look at Intel.

[Tarlia]

I have Vista (Home Premium 32-bit), I'm trying to install Intel GMA driver 8.2.0.1014 from 7.14.0010.1437. I shall uninstall the drivers then install the new ones first...

ETA: Okay, this is not going well, I uninstalled the driver, the screen goes all non-native resolution, install the new drivers and nothing is different. Now I have to go all System Restore...

Uh, there should be a rollback feature in the device manager... Just put the old driver back, system restore is a bit much.

And it really sounds like this new driver you've got isn't working. Try redownloading it from a different site, or getting a different version.

[Starpoo]

Sorry, I didn't see this post, it didn't load quick enough ( ) See my previous post.

ETA: Okay, now that's fixed , I'll have to see if it fixes The Sims now. It installed 7.15..., so Acer has something wrong but Intel had 15.... but 7.15... in parentheses, oh well, it's a different...build(?, it's not an entirely new version, is it?)I hope this works.

ETA: It seems to work, the family that never loaded, loaded. I'll truly find out in CAS...

[Starpoo]

Extensive play testing reveals that everything seems to work! YAY!
Too bad it still resets when started from disk, but I don't care, I cancel when UAC asks me and it's in my drive all the time now.
ISSUE FIXED! (for now...)