Buying/Planning Outfit Crash Problem

[ilikefishfood]

All of a sudden, without downloading any new clothing, my game has started to crash while buying/planning clothing. Sometimes, when I click on an item of clothing, the body of the mannequin in the display window appears all black; the clothing itself and the hands, legs....and all exposed areas of skin. Whether I select the item or not, the game usually crashes immediately. No hang up; I get the "this application has crashed and will now terminate" deal, and bam!! It's back to the desktop. Once in a blue moon, if I cancel the box, I can continue game play for a few minutes, but then the game will crash again.

As long as I don't buy/plan clothing I can play the game without problems. I'd go into BodyShop, and find the offending item of clothing and delete it. Though it displays properly in BS and doesn't cause a crash. I have tried removing all my bodyshop files, and slowly loading them back into the game. Just when I think I've licked the problem, and play for a few days or a couple of different lots buying and planning and then suddenly......I'd go to buy/plan an outfit and out of the blue the prob is back.

However, sometimes if I don't delete the item in BS, and just re-launch the game and go to the same lot and trace the same steps: shopping/planning again, the same item of clothing displays fine, and causes no problems. So I've kinda figured out that it's not the actual item of clothing itself; as the same item does not always have a corrupted display nor cause a crash.

Which leaves, what? Is it possible that the buy/plan clothing option has gone screwy? Should I be re-installing the whole game? Has anyone else had this problem?

I saw someone descibe the corrupted clothing display window with the black mannequin in an old thread here, but they didn't have the crash problem; as for the thread, it died without a resolution.

So has anyone else seen this prob or figured out what's causing it?

I'm playing NL (patched) with UNI, BTW.

[ZephyrZodiac]

It could be that something like your objects.package file has become corrupted (you need to make them ReadOnly before you start to play a new install.)  I'd suggest that you take everything out of your Sims2 folder and uninstall NL, then reinstall so that any data that has been corrupted in this way is corrected.  Then before you play, make sure that the objects.package file is Read Only. There may also be other files that need to be made read only too, but I don't know of them, maybe someone else could help with that.

[sunkitten]

It could be a low memory problem. I've had the same problem, but not in a while, and it was always with specific items of clothing; I posted in another forum about it and received no response.

But I have an app at the top of the screen that shows memory usage, and if I'm playing a Sim (especially on community lots or downtown) and the memory gets below 40% free, my game crashes. It could be that specific items of clothing are causing the problem.

[ZephyrZodiac]

40%  I mean, 40%  of what memory exactly?    I mean, 40% of 512MB RAM is a possibility, but 40% of IGB still leaves a heck of a lot of available memory.  Oh, and having something that shows memory usage will actually be using memory (have you seen how much Windows Manager uses?) and could in fact bring your memory down just low enough to cause the crash.

[ilikefishfood]

Thanks for the tips guys!  I've re-installed (did a clean uninstall complete with registry sweep), and have reinstalled all the way up to NL.  I'm about to patch it, but am quivering in fear as my probs began with the patch.*sigh*, nonetheless, I'm about to take the plunge.

I don't think it's a memory prob, Sunkitten.  I've got reasonable specs: Pentium 4, 2.6 Ghz processor, 2GB RAM and two hard drives (an 80 & a 40GB) and a Radeon 9800 XT graphics card.  And I've gotten into the habit of completely disabling my anti virus software; I even disconnect from the net most times when I'm playing, and rarely have anything else open.  Oh, and I also religiously delete the groups.cache before every launch.

Zephyr....I'm intrigued by this latest tidbit of info on the objects paakage; hadn't heard o' that one before.  I did a search for the elusive package and found one in each of my TSData\Res folders for the core game, Uni and NL.  Should I make all three read only?

I'm gonna go install the patch and I'll just go ahead and do all three, and see what happens.  Then, I'll gradually start re-placing my downloads.  Will keep you guys posted.  Thanks for the help!

[cwykes]

Please forgive if this is obviously stupid, but is it possible something in the clothing has the same guid as a downloaded object or something maxis?  If the game doesn't always do the same thing, you might get intermittent problems. 

When you run cleaninstaller, it only looks at stuff in one place at a time and doesn't check against maxis at all.  I have a couple of downloads overwriting maxis recolours that I can't be bothered to track down.  I also moved my clothing files out into saved sims and missing a conflict between something there and something in downloads is a possiblilty that worries me.

[ZephyrZodiac]

ilikefishfood - I made all three objects.packages read only.  Thing is, every time you do a reinstall of NL or put in a new EP or patch, the installation itself appears to change them so you need to check each time before you load the game again.

cwykes, if you use SimPE to check your clothing files, it checks the GUIDs against Maxis.  I've just been through all mine which were, apart from a few recent dls all lumped together under skins, and I've separated them now into files like Eyes, Clothing, Makeup, etc., and apart from the clothing files, checking is very quick - clothing obviously is the biggie, and takes forever to load!  But the great thing is, I now know I have no duplicate GUIDs, and I've also removed some old favourites which were up to 16 - 17,000 kb each!  My Download folder has shrunk!

[ilikefishfood]

Well, it seems as though it's my neighbourhood that's flummoxed.  After a fresh install (and making my objects.pakages read-only) and replacing all my downloads, I had no problem in any of the default Maxis neighbourhoods.  But upon replacing my backed up original neighbourhood, the problem cropped up again.  It's defintely not the actual bodyshop files, because on one lot they'll appear all black and crash the game, and on another they display fine and can be purchased/planned without problems.  So at this juncture I can only surmize that somewhere along the line, I managed to corrupt my neighbourhood's clothes buying/planning feature.

My last hope is, I have a back up of my neighbourhood from my pre-NL install (just uni).......I'm going to do another uninstall; reinstall....replace my uni neighbourhood, and if it runs clean, I'll leave in my little un-corrupted Simies and then reinstall NL.  It means I'll have to re-build all my garages and driveways, but if I can save my neighbourhood it'd be worth it.

I've been playing Plesantview since September '04.  I've got a ridiculous number of Sims living there.  Perhaps my probs are related to over-population.  Well.......I guess I'll find out soon enough.  I hate giving up, so I'm off to try the above as a last resort.

Thanks again guys for your advice.

[Bangelnuts]

you could have a saved sim causing the problem dont give up til you chect that folder.......I had a corrupted saved sim causing an issue in one family every time  I clicked on her jpb desk to find out what time she had to go to clas my game crashed to the desk top. it  urned out the hat that sim was wearing  had become corrupted. so I deleted the saved sim item  went back into the game she was there and worked finee san her hat and hair. went saved exited and reloaded the mesh . stuck her hat back onher and she has been fine ver since then.

[Kyna]

There is a Maxis bug to do with clothing.  I don't know if this is your problem, but Crammyboy has a fix for it here

[ZephyrZodiac]

If your neighbourhood has become very large, there are some things you can do.  For one, you can get rid of any townies that haven't interacted much with your sims.  Just make a note of who they have a relationship with in SimPE, then delete those memories from the sims concerned in Neighbourhood Memory, then delete the relationships in the relationship section by making them all unknown and 0/0, then delete the relationship itself.  Then you can safely remove the townie from your character folder.

Also, if you haven't used the NoAPlusSpam hack, or the No Family Reunion hack etc., your sims will all be overloaded with these memories.  Put these hacks into your game, then before you play a family, check out all their memories in SimPE and delete all but the first Aplus, Family Reunion, Made Dean's List etc.  If you check the size of the character file for those sims, you'll find that they are smaller after you've done that.

[Bangelnuts]

inmy custom hood my Sims werent allowed to interact with the townies so I went into Sim Enhancer and deleted the townies from my hood.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Really you need to do that first, as otherwise they will interact with them whether you like it or not!  they meet them at work and at school!  If not, you do need to check out all those relationships, and it's the number of them that helps (along with all the other superfluous memories) to make the character files extremely bloated.

[Bangelnuts]

Really you need to do that first, as otherwise they will interact with them whether you like it or not!  they meet them at work and at school!  If not, you do need to check out all those relationships, and it's the number of them that helps (along with all the other superfluous memories) to make the character files extremely bloated.

I did but as I have the new version of sim pe you cant delete the character files entirely with it so I use sim enhancer to delete the entire townie and file that goes with it

[ZephyrZodiac]

I always use the Classic version (It's still there, go look in the SimPE folder in Programs) and there's a shortcut you can stick on the desktop.  I prefer to do all the messing about myself, and then delete the file from My Documents personally - that way I know it's definitely GONE!

[Bangelnuts]

I always use the Classic version (It's still there, go look in the SimPE folder in Programs) and there's a shortcut you can stick on the desktop.  I prefer to do all the messing about myself, and then delete the file from My Documents personally - that way I know it's definitely GONE!

after I delete a file in the enhancer I go back into SimPE and double check to make sure said  townie is truly history .since I have  guid #'s written down prior to any deletion and instance #'s after a thorough run through of sim pe I check the character files in my documents  to make sure the file is gone .So Far all of the deletions have been complete with no remannts of the townie left.I do leave ghost files alone as they tend to be tiny and vital to the game.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I believe that JM has warned MOST strongly about deleting ghosts!  For which reason I've never deleted the duplicate ghosts, just in case.....

I think my way is quicker!  and at present I need to upgrade my SimEnhancer, and I'm not sure whether just installing the new version will do that.

[Bangelnuts]

I believe that JM has warned MOST strongly about deleting ghosts!  For which reason I've never deleted the duplicate ghosts, just in case.....

I think my way is quicker!  and at present I need to upgrade my SimEnhancer, and I'm not sure whether just installing the new version will do that.

I made the mistake of deleting ghost files when i had uni and had to do a total reinstall to correct thhe mess I had made

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think, actually, all you would have to do would be to remove that neighbourhood from your game after uninstalling uni, then reinstall Uni and the new neighbourhood would be fine.  In fact, if it was a custom hood, just removing it would be enough, but I assume it wasn't, since there were a lot of ghosts.

[cwykes]

cwykes, if you use SimPE to check your clothing files, it checks the GUIDs against Maxis.

Are you really sure?  I don't think it can be or I wouldn't have 2 maxis recolours overwritten without any pink highlights coming up when I run cleaninstaller.  Also The help thread on MTS2 about why aren't maxis items appearing in game tells you that you have to find this by trying out your downloads a few at a time until you find the problem.  Since this was written by an MTS moderator,  I rather took that to mean SimPE didn't do it....

[ZephyrZodiac]

Maybe I'm wrong, then, but I thought that was part of what it did.  But again, if you have something that has overwritten a Maxis object, then that would probably confuse the program.