Downloads Cleanup = Oi!

[Renatus]

You search for it in windows explorer, click on it, and then press the delete key.

No, really.

[flowerchile]

OK smarty, I get it, but heres another tricky one Renatus, what is group.cache?

[Renatus]

OK smarty, I get it, but heres another tricky one Renatus, what is group.cache?

*L* What does that have to do with anything? You asked how to delete the file, and I told you. Why do you want to delete it if you don't know what it is? 

[ZephyrZodiac]

If your game is slow and choppy with only 64MB of downloads, I don't see how it can be downloads or groups.cache or anything like that.  (Easiest way to find it, open up MyDocuments/EAGames/TheSims2 and there it is.)

Have you possibly put a downloaded (or one of your own) houses into the game without Using Clean Installer?  If a house is one with sims in, you get every sim they've ever met along with the house and it slows everything down to a crawl!

Has it always been like this, or is it a recent occurrence?  If it's been like this from the start, I think I'd suggest you uninstall everything and reinstall.  Then, before you start to play, find the objects.package file in the program files and make it read only.  If you have Uni and /or NL, you need to do the same for their objects.package files too.  These are easiest to find using the windows search engine, but be sure to make the correct ones read only - they are the three large files.

If it's recent, and your game played fine when you first installed it, then I'd check for a download of some description that's causing conflicts in your game.  Run your downloads folder through Clean Installer - items in red are hacks, make sure they are all compatible with the EP you have. Pink items mean they have a duplicate somewhere in the folder.  You need to find the duplicate and remove it (usually they have long file names with .001/2 etc. at the end.)

[flowerchile]

No need for the holier than thou attitude Renatus, Im not that stupid!!!  Thank you ZZ for your nice non-sarcastic explanations

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think a lot of tempers are frayed at the moment, which is a pity, but there it is.  I'm just glad to help, and hope something I've suggested works.

[BlueSoup]

Meh, everyone should just be as bitchy as I am right now. 

[flowerchile]

Tempers wouldn't be frayed if some members didn'think they were superior to others and yes ZZ I'll use your advice, let u know how it goes.  I went a bit download crazy so i probably have some dodgy ones.

[myskaal]

At the end of all my cleaning up and going back for more redownloads because I'm an addict (fersure).. I discovered it wasn't at all the amount of downloads I had. It was 1 object.

I'm back up to over 5K downloads again and still running smooth as owl-poo.

So it likely is just some bad downloads flowerchile. Best of luck finding it.

[MokeyHokey]

I'm getting the blue "this re-color doesn't work" on custom objects that are no longer delete-able from the catalog, even though they were delete-able before I deleted another recolor for it.

...Just for future reference, that seems to happen when textures are linked together somehow like counter recolors that come with a countertop--delete the counter texture and you lose the top texture as well.  The top will still look like it's still there, but once you restart the game it will be gone. That's why it looked like deleting the cache file fixed it.   I must say that deleting the cache is still a great quick fix-it for a lot of stuff for some reason though.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I still have three sets of bedding that are blue and don't exist.  every one that has actually appeared in my game has been replaced so it's not for that reason the game is hanging on to them!  There's also one counter top, and as I remember, as set of plants!  And there is no copy of the files that I can find!  wierd.

[MokeyHokey]

Really? That is weird. I guess I should have had it read in my earlier statement that it's been my experience with tons of deletions that the extra file is gone when I restart.  I know nothing about the way the files actually work.   

[ZephyrZodiac]

Nor me!  And this Downloads folder was removed prior to installing NL, and only replaced a bit at a time!  And I've been into every single house that's been played!  However, there are one or two downloaded houses not in use, so maybe they came with them, so I'll probably delete them and see if those files go!