Crashing on Startup Take Two

[akatonbo]

I've had this problem a couple of times, and I'm not actually sure how I solved in the first time.

When I start up Body Shop, sometimes it doesn't come up. Usually I've killed the process because it obviously wasn't working, but the most recent time I've waited and eventually it came up with a "The application has crashed. The application will now terminate." error message.

I've tried deleting groups.cache. I've also deleted cigen.package, and last time that MIGHT have been the thing that worked, but this time it didn't help.

Last time around, I tried pulling all my custom content and it worked, but the standard trick for putting in some of it, then if that batch works taking it out and putting in a different batch, etc. etc., didn't isolate any culprit, and eventually it just started working again.

I have rebooted.

It was working just fine yesterday (I downloaded a couple of new hairstyles and checked them out in Body Shop. I have just removed the couple of things I could find that I downloaded since the last time it was working, and that hasn't helped.

The error log is attached, if that helps at all.

ETA: I just pulled all my downloads again, and all that happened this time was that it crashed much faster since it didn't have to try to load all that stuff first.

ETA2: Ok, NOT cool, the game is doing the same thing. It brings up the OFB splash screen and then immediately gives the same error message instead of going to the EA/Maxis logos.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[akatonbo]

And now I'm really mystified, because later I tried the game again (after reading my prior thread on the subject, and being completely unable to find any sign of the autorun file that MxxPwr mentioned, but figuring that maybe there was something to Pescado's percussive maintainence technique) and the damn thing started (and I had to wait for it to load).

What the heck?

[DrBeast]

Can you provide us with some computer specs? I'm mainly interested in CPU, amount of RAM, graphics card, and power supply wattage (though other info such as number of hard drives/CD-DVD media would be appreciated as well). Also, have you tried running any other demanding application?

[akatonbo]

3.0GHz processor, 1MB RAM (had killed off almost all non-essential processes, though was running a couple of additional programs, which is almost always the case when I use the game and was also the case -- in fact I was running MORE additional programs -- when it did work), ATI Radeon X300 (128MB video ram). I don't know the power supply wattage; this is a pre-built computer (Dell Dimension 8400) and the video card was included. I've had it over a year now and been playing TS2 about half of that time. One hard drive (160GB with 21GB free), one CD/DVD-RW. I don't believe I own any other software that is even close to as demanding as TS2.

[DrBeast]

Any anti-virus software running in the background?

[jsalemi]

I had the crash on startup happen recently, and it happened even though I moved my downloads folder out of the sims 2 directory.  I looked at the error logs, and it turned out that something in the actual game files themselves got corrupted, and the only fix was to reinstall the most recent episode (which in my case was FFS). That solved the problem.

[akatonbo]

Any anti-virus software running in the background?

Might be some piece of some MacAfee product still running in the background, but that hasn't changed at all recently.

[DrBeast]

Hm. Anything new you installed prior to this behavior? Drivers, for example.

[akatonbo]

Nope. The only change I've made recently (and you are probably entitled to smack me for not mentioning it sooner, but like everything else it has no identifiable correlation to the problem) is messing with the memory paging settings a little as per Hegelian's comments in the PC upgrade thread.

The first time I made any changes was approximately around the same time as I first had trouble with Body Shop, but changing the settings again never affected that problem; even after I put them back to close to what they were originally, the problem continued for quite some time afterward, and then eventually went away on its own (about the same time I tried deleting cigen.package, but since that didn't help at all this time it was probably just coincidence). I never tried the game that time around, just Body Shop.

This time around I haven't touched the paging settings since the last time.

jsalemi, I'd be tempted to reinstall if I were still having the problem, but the maddening thing is that it keeps going away on its own, with no apparent connection to anything I have done. I did post my error log, though, and if it happens again I can post the one from the game itself as well.

[jrd]

Looks like it's crashing when it tries to build the shaders. Try installing a different videocard driver, and before launching TS2 again first delete your MyDocs\Ea Games'\The Sims2'\config folder to force a re-evaluation of your hardware.

[akatonbo]

I can try that when I get home again, but do you have any idea why it would start doing that both out of the blue and inconsistently?

[jrd]

Could be something as simple as overheating. Last summer my system started consistently crashing after months of smooth running, the culprit turned out to be the temperature. Moving my PC one centimetre away from the wall allowed the fan to work better, and my crashes were gone.

In 2004 one of the Windows updates also caused a crash for me, it somehow updated a part of DirectX and I had to update my vidcard driver to cope.

I've also had cases where out of the blue my vidcard driver wasn't recognised any longer. I had to downgrade it and upgrade back to fix it. In this case I got the infamous 'page fault in a nonpaged area' BSODs.

[Hegelian]

Body Shop is notoriously buggy. I haven't had the problem you describe myself (although I have had it crash when closing), but my partner has been getting it recently. She also went through a brief period where the game would start to load and then just unload itself without completing (I watched this happen using Task Manager). In fairness, her WinXP installation is not healthy, and we will be doing a reformat/clean install in the near future.

In the end, it turned out to be something in one of her custom neighborhoods that was causing the game to fail. I don't know that she's tried Body Shop since she made that discovery.

Some problems are just the result of poorly-programmed applications, and this may be the case with Body Shop. I would be hesitant to attribute it to a hardware problem if this is the only app you're having a problem with. However, if you start to get crashes and/or system lockups with other apps, then you might be facing a failing component, like a RAM module or the motherboard itself. Of course, such things are impossible to diagnose without access to the machine.   

BTW, although popular, McAfee products are crap. The anti-virus app is unecessarily intrusive and can really interfere with whatever it is you are doing at the time. FWIW, I recommend AVG Free from Grisoft for an AV program; it's free and updates itself daily. In comparison tests, it does better than McAfee, on a par with Norton AV (but without the subscription).
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

[akatonbo]

Well, it wasn't just Body Shop -- this time around it was also the game, and last time around I didn't try the game until Body Shop was behaving again. If it happens again I'll certainly test both as much as possible and post the error log from the game.

And yeah, I only have the McAfee stuff because it came with the machine (including a few months' free subscription, long since expired), and I know I should ditch it and replace it with something that doesn't suck or require a ridiculous monthly charge. My internet habits are a little less safe than they were during that 2 year stretch where I had no AV software at all and then later scanned the machine and came up 100% clean. (Not much, but a little.) I'll check out AVG. I already close most parts of the McAfee stuff all the time anyway since the subscription is long-dead.

Meh. I suppose I'll leave it mostly alone until I have problem again, if I do, so that I have some chance of figuring out what actually fixes it. (Pretty sure it's not temperature -- my room is cooler in the summer than the winter -- but I should probably open the case and blow the dust out regardless.)