Cant reinstall University Life & Best of Business

[pinkpunk]

Hello. I'm hopeful this forum can help me with a problem.

I had this installed:

Sims 2 Double Deluxe
University Life Collection
Best of Business Collection

Up until 2 days ago, when I installed Seasons. Seasons appeared to install correctly. When I tried to play the game, Seasons would load for about a minute, then I got an error message "The application will now terminate" and it did. So, I went to the EA games site and found that to fix this problem, I would have to do an complete uninstall and reinstall of all four expansions. The un-installer that came with the games would not work. I tried to uninstall from the add/remove panel and that would not work. So, I then found instructions on how to do a manual uninstall. This I was able to do, I deleted the games from my hard drive and removed the registry entries.

I was able to re-install both Double Deluxe and Seasons and both work fine on my computer. BUT When I tried to re-install University Life or Best of Business, I get an error message "All packs are already installed."

I've been trying to find an answer on how to get Uni. Life and BOB back on my machine, but my search is leading me nowhere. I've tried CCleaner, un-installing securom, copying the disks to the hard drive and installing from it (also didn't work.)

Any help?

[Zazazu]

Retry in order. I'm assuming that by "University Life" you mean University, and by "Best of Business" you mean Open for Business. Do Double Deluxe, Uni, then OFB, then Seasons. You shouldn't need to do that, but it doesn't hurt to try.

I'm almost wondering, though, if there is an issue with your Seasons copy.

[GelatinousSubstance]

Are you installing Seasons before Uni and Business? This may be why you're having problems installing them, considering that Seasons came out after those two.

You could try re-installing them in the date-of-release order, EP-wise and see if it helps.

The date-of-release order for these games (the ones you have) would be:

Double Deluxe
University Life
Best of Business
Seasons

As to why you had problems in the first place, I'm unsure, unless it has something to do with your computer not being able to handle Seasons.

[Mootilda]

Sims 2 Double Deluxe
University Life Collection
Best of Business Collection
Seasons

According to EA:
Sims 2 Double Deluxe contains: The Sims 2, Nightlife EP, Celebration SP.
University Life Collection contains: University EP, IKEA SP, Teen Style SP.
Best of Business Collection contains: Open for Business EP, H&M Fashion SP, Kitchen & Bath Interior Design SP.

I can't tell from their web site, but it appears that the release order might be:
Seasons
Sims 2 Double Deluxe
University Life Collection
Best of Business Collection

As well, I believe that they may surreptitiously install the Store EP (99) with some of the above (University Life and Best of Business).  So, either the Store Edition or Ikea would be the latest released pack.  Can you confirm whether you have EP99 installed?  Does anyone know which EP is associated with Ikea; I know that some of the stuff packs used code from Pets, and that Mansions and Gardens uses the Apartment Life code, but I'm not so sure about Ikea.

I know that this doesn't help with your problem, but it may help the people who are trying to help you.

[GelatinousSubstance]

I'm not sure what's associated with what, but Ikea is SP8.

Should the stuff packs make that big of an impact though?

[pinkpunk]

Ok, just to clarify: Yes, I have the two collections that just came out.

Yes, store version came with University Life Collection and it is EP99.

The only version currently installed is Double Deluxe.

I deleted the files for University Life, Best of Business, Seasons, Store version and all the related stuff packs.

I also removed the registry entries for all the above, except Double Deluxe.

I'm really thinking that it is not my computer's problem,power-wise or memory wise,  but I think that there is something hidden on the Collection files that is not uninstalling with the rest of the files.

Thanks for the help tho.

[Zazazu]

It wouldn't be surprising if it was an intrinsic issue with the collections. Hasn't that happened before just when people had Double Deluxe?

[GelatinousSubstance]

I've used Double Deluxe in the past and had no issues with my other EPs and SPs. The Holiday Edition that I'm using now seems to be fine too. But then again, that was only one collection used at a time. I'm wondering if using more than one collection starts to get dodgy and cause conflicts - it theoretically shouldn't though, despite that it's only theory.

@pinkpunk: You say you did a manual uninstall before, right? I'm assuming if you did this, you managed to get a little familiar with the registry.

Try uninstalling the game again (everything), as well as the EADM if it's present and you aren't using it for anything else. I'm assuming it may have been installed if you have Store files present.

Then take a look around in the registry at the HKLM\Software for anything to do with the EA store (again, if you're not using it for anything else) and/or the EADM and delete those keys as well as any game-related keys that you come across. Also, take a look through the HKCU\Software for the same thing.

It doesn't hurt to poke around in the registry as long as you make a backup and don't alter or delete anything you don't understand. Basic rule of thumb is: if you don't know what it is, don't touch it.

You can also right-click and export a single key to save it before you delete it, so that you may restore it should deleting it turn out to be a mistake.

After that, take a look through your ‘C:\Program Files' (there'll be an additional x86 in the title if your on a 64-bit OS) and delete any folders related to the game and the Store that may have stayed behind - this also includes anything EADM-related. It doesn't hurt to double-check your ‘My Documents' (just ‘Documents' for Vista/7) and make sure that everything game-related is removed from there as well.

Once you've taken a look through everything in your Program Files and documents, do the following:

Vista/Windows 7:
Take a look through your ‘C:\Program Data' files for anything game or EADM-related and remove it - once again, if you're not using it for anything else. Another area you may want to check is ‘C:\Users\username\Application Data\Roaming' - this is from memory and I won't be able to double-check this location until later today, but I'm fairly sure it's close to accurate.

Windows XP:
Take a look through your ‘C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data' and do the same as directed above. Another place you may want to check is ‘C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data'

This should, hopefully, clean everything up, give you a good idea of how your computer and programs work (and the mess they can create), and give you a clean slate.

After all that, I'd go ahead and try to install everything again, and cross my fingers while cursing under my breath.

Best of luck to you.

[pinkpunk]

Thanks! I found the problem thanks to your instructions.

The instructions on the EA web site left out a line in regards to the registry editing. I found the problem under HkeyLocalMachine > Software> Microsoft > Windows > Current Version > Application Data. I cant remember what the files were called, but when I scrolled down to 'the sims' section, there was several entries about University Life and Best of Business. Once I deleted those, the games re-installed just fine.


Thanks again for all the help.