Major Tech Issue: Comp reboots when I scroll in NH view

[Braveheart]

This has happened twice to me now and and its a bit disconcerting to say the least. I have installed Nightlife and all else seems to be okay to this point. The problem is when I use the arrow keys to scroll around my neighborhood while in the neighborhood view, my graphics suddenly garble and then my computer reboots. I have NEVER had this issue happen with Sims2 before or with anything else for that matter. Last night I ran a complete virus check, I cleaned up all files and ran a defragmentation. It rebooted again this morning. I went to PC Pitstop and ran a test and all systems pass with no issues at all. I went into setup and checked my CPU temperature and its running at 43 degrees celcius which is usual for my comp. All fans are working fine. I have updated my video driver. Any help or advice with this would be greatly appreciated. My system specs are as follows:
Pentium4 2200mhz
Windows Xp Home SP2
1024 mb ram
80gb hard drive 50% free space
GeForce FX 5200 128mb AGP video card

[sara_dippity]

I had that before and I have the same vid card you do, the exact same. I updated my drivers and it went away.

[Braveheart]

Sara?...Could you tell me what driver version you now have and where you got it? I am assuming you are using the same Operating System as I am. That would be a great help. Thanks

[sara_dippity]

I am using the 71.89 drivers, you can find them here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html
There are newer drivers here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_78.01.html
but I never download the newest drivers unless I have to or if I hear it fixes a bug I have. I've had problems in the past of updating drivers causing new problems that never get fixed, like bad artifacting and crashing in Sim City. I have to roll my stupid drivers back every time I play that game. Anyway, mine work with TS2 just fine. Oh, and I am on XP home edition.

[sanmonroe]

I am having the same problem with both a 6800 and 7800 with the newest and the beta drivers. I am not crashing though. The game is also telling me that default/recommended graphics levels are all med or below!!! Major hit to performance since NL installation. Done everything froma  clean boot to checking out Hijack this and doing FPS tests on other games.

Will try the 71 drivers.
 
If the new build and the beta build screw up TS2 I am going to be pissed since they finally fixed quite a bit of the problems and artifacts from shadows in other games.

[Braveheart]

Thanks for the info Sara, but it didn't make a difference for me. I installed the 71.89 version that you are using and I had a spontaneous reboot reboot again while scrolling the NH. Any other info, help, advice.......anything? This is a real show stopper. Certainly no fun playing like this. 

[sanmonroe]

The old drivers made a difference for me, it isn't as clean as preNL, but the neighboorhood I am playing is is pretty big and complex, it is at least playable.

My suggestion for you, do a complete clean boot and see if anything else is conflicting.

Assuming you aren't an evil mac user,

1.   Click Start, and then click Run.
2.   In the Open box, type msconfig, and then click OK.
3.   On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
4.   Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check boxes:
•   Process SYSTEM.INI File
•   Process WIN.INI File
•   Load Startup Items
5.   On the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
6.   Click OK, and then click Restart.

Then everything should be off other than MS vitals. CRTL-ALT-DEL and check to make sure, if you have a few things running check them out, it may be viruses/malware.

Then load the game. If it runs well then you are getting some conflict with anopther program.

If it doesn't work, you have something wrong with the card, driver, etc.

[Braveheart]

Thanks for replying Sanmonroe. I have been looking at all background processes and at this point it doesn't seem to be a conflict. I had failed to do a spyware check in all my effort, so I did run that thanks to your reminder. Only a few minor annoyances turned up.  I realize that the card I have is a lower end card for Sims2 but up until Nightlife I have had no trouble at all. My hope is that either Maxis or Nvidia will look into my issue and hopefully give me some help. Maybe I just need to wait for a new version of the driver to be released. Will keep trying and in the meantime, I will have to keep scrolling in NH view to a minimum.

[SJActress]

The problem is when I use the arrow keys to scroll around my neighborhood while in the neighborhood view, my graphics suddenly garble and then my computer reboots.

You should ask Maxis about this.  They'll probably tell you not to use the arrow keys, because it's probably a problem with your keyboard.  Those morons!  Hee hee hee.

Good luck, Braveheart!