Installed Celebration, Now Game Loads 50% of the time

[m_evergreen]

I have all of the expansions and they were installed in the order of release. 

After buying Seasons and turning off all of my hacks my game ran fine.

I added the InSIMenator v2.6b SIM Edition and noticed that a bunch on new objects appeared in my menu.  It was like every spawnable object was available seperately in buy mode.  I've read that this is not normal.  The game still ran normally.

I added Celebration.  Now the splash screen will come up and stay up for several minutes at a time.  Sometimes it will go away and 30 seconds later the game will start with very long load times (maybe all the extra content?).  Other times it will disappear and nothing further will happen.  When I check task manager it's as if I never began loading the sims at all.  Still other times the screen disappears and I get a massage that the application has crashed.  Do I wish to notify microsoft...

Can anyone give me any words of wisdom?  I have a 1-2 year old computer with greater than preferred hardware.  My hard drive only has 5 gigs space left, could that be a problem?

Thank you,
-M

[ZiggyDoodle]

I get a massage that the application has crashed

Can't resist asking if that massage feels good.   

[m_evergreen]

Aw, my own personal spell checker!  Do you do short stories too?  You're better than my usual...

[Skadi]

Normally maxis objects won't totally furbar the load times.
Have you got as far as re-enabling the custom content?

-Skadi

[m_evergreen]

I left everything disabled with the exception of the InSIMenator.  I have not tried removing the download folder.  Do you think the downloads could cause problems as early as the splash screen?  I've wondered about that.

[ZiggyDoodle]

It would be nice if a massage came with a game crash.

Have you tried removing the kitten killer (InSIMenator)?

[m_evergreen]

  Because when it crashes I need a massage every time!  At least one.

I haven't, but I'll give it a try tonight and get back to you.  In fact, I'll just take the download folder out entirely and see if it makes any difference.  I should have tried that by now.

[prattle]

I use Insimenator OBJ edition, and I have all the sectionals available in the catalog. There's a Insim pie menu option to hide them from buy mode, but I like being able to put the sectional I need on my lot without having to spawn it in live mode. I've never used the SIM version, though,  so I don't know if it's supposed to work like that or not.

Have you tried deleting groups.cache?

[Li'l Brudder]

ZiggyDoodle, you're getting your In mixed up.

Inteenimator kills kittens.
Insimenator kills puppies.

[ZiggyDoodle]

ZiggyDoodle, you're getting your In mixed up.

Yup, got my "ators" skewed.  Poor puppies are screwed, not the kitties. 

[angelyne]

delete the two *.cache files and call us in the morning

[ElfPuddle]

I'd also check to see if the computer/memory/video/etc. specs changed with Celebrations. I don't know; I'm just asking.

[Weaver]

I find the graphics sharper between Celebrations and Seasons. I'd guess the specs have upped slightly from Seasons requirements.

[m_evergreen]

I tried everything suggested and the more I worked on it the more suspicious I became of the noises my computer was making.  After starting the program several times and opening the disk drive I've concluded that my drive is sticking, and the program can't run the disk properly.  I suppose it's getting just enough information to expect more, than the disk sticks and it waits for it to send more data.  It works best when I remove the disk and start the game by closing the drive with the disk in it.

I suppose this means a new drive, or an iso for my daemon tools.  Thank you all for your attempts at helping me solve this.

-M

[Tamha]

I prefer to run my games with a cracked .exe so I don't ever have to disc dance after initial installation. I am running one for Seasons now (post-patch and post-Celebrations), works wonderfully and keeps your original discs in better quality.