Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! It's Another Graphics Error!

[KellyQ]

So I have haven't played TS2 in almost two weeks due to the game freezing with a blank blue screen. No error logs have been generated so I haven't had a clue (other then installing BV ) what might be causing it. Thanks to Hook's suggestion today, I tried playing tonight in windowed mode to see if I could see any kind of error message.

Within seconds of loading a lot, the screen turned blue and popped up this message: The graphics adapter in this system experienced an internal error. Please contact your graphics adapter manufacturer for technical support. The applicaiton will now terminate.

I googled the message but didn't find any help other then the ever-popular "Update your drivers". My drivers are up to date so this is non-helpful.

The other thing I noticed when I was searching through TS2 logs trying to find an error log was this puzzling bit of information in the config-log: Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT <<NOT FOUND IN DATABASE!>>

Any ideas?
 

[Khan of Wyrms]

The other thing I noticed when I was searching through TS2 logs trying to find an error log was this puzzling bit of information in the config-log: Name (database): NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT <<NOT FOUND IN DATABASE!>>

This is likely a dead end.  I have two 7600GT's running SLI mode with no current issues and I have exactly the same listing in my 'config-log'.  Current full-release driver is version 162.18, but there have been various rumblings here and elsewhere that BV broke the BSOD fixes featured in this release.  I have not and am not likely to install BV soon, if ever, so I don't know if I can help you further with this.

After attempting to make nearly 100% certain that CPU or RAM heat is not the issue, you might try acquiring your driver from the manufacturer of your card, rather from nVidia directly.  While nVidia is the chipset manufacturer of the GPU, the video card manufacturers will sometimes implement the GPU's in slightly different ways.  If your graphics card manufacturer is reputable, they will have the most up to date version of drivers recommended for your card available from their website.  My XFX-brand cards seem to run with less stability unless I install drivers acquired directly from XFX, for instance.  This may be somewhat of a superstition, but this issue is addressed directly on the nVidia website.  If you are having problems, it could not be any worse, surely.

Of course, if the true culprit is BV brokenness, this will not help at all. 

[KellyQ]

Per eevilcat's suggestion (during a conversation on #grah), I made a testhood this evening to see if I could play it. Worked perfectly (other then minor freeze ups) for hours. No blue screens, no error messages, no crashing. I also had downloaded the drivers from XFX's website and installed them. The only mods I had in my downloads folder were JM's and TJ's. I thought, at last, it works!

WRONG. The interesting discovery I made was that if I try to enter any other neighborhood but my new testhood, I got a blue screen, followed with the error message, Internal error blah blah blah. This is consistent with the fact that I hadn't played Strangetown prior to installing BV, was able to play it a five to ten times after installing BV, before it also started crashing.

I checked my character files and each neighborhood that crashes; I have between 300 to 400 character files. I don't know if that means anything. I use SarahMK's cleaned up templates but didn't update them for BV. I believe that's twice as many character files as what I had before installing BV.

Any (and I mean any) other ideas on why this is happening?

[bowrain]

Maybe the neighborhoods are corrupted or something? Or maybe they didn't get updated properly...

That's all I can think of...

[Giggy]

I had a similar problem to yours and it was because I downloaded a particular lot
My situation might be different from yours but do you crash to the desktop in a particular neighborhood? Lot? or a particular sim?

[Khaki]

How did you determine that your drivers are up to date?  Was it thru the 'check for updated driver' option, where it supposedly searches for it? 'Cause doing it that way is bullshit, and it always lies when it tells you you have the latest drivers. Video drivers are updated like every week, but you have to actually go to your graphics card's website to get it.

[Apsalar]

I agree with Khaki. go to nvidia's website and get the drivers. I too have nvidia geforce 7950 GT, and it runs perfectly. Also, remember to check in your graphical settings that vertical sync is on.

[eevilcat]

I checked my character files and each neighborhood that crashes; I have between 300 to 400 character files. I don't know if that means anything. I use SarahMK's cleaned up templates but didn't update them for BV. I believe that's twice as many character files as what I had before installing BV.

Any (and I mean any) other ideas on why this is happening?

You can get a good idea of when a character file was created or updated by checking the dates of the character files in the neighbourhood folder. Just look at them in explorer with the view details options. You can sort them by date.

I found some interesting things out from my game data:

I have an unplayed Veronaville with ~200 character files that include all the original EAxis playables and townies. Interestingly three of those files (36, 58 and 70) were modified on installing BV - 36 is the roach exterminator, 58 is the delivery person and 70 is the papergirl so I assume that those NPCs had their functionality updated in some way. The neighbourhood package file has also been updated with a timestamp corresponding to when I last played the game so I assume that is updated every time.

My Pleasantview 'hood has all the original EAxis playables/townies and has only been used to playtest Ellatrue's Ghetto Superstar Challenge before installing BV. Some of my newly created playables have timestamps corresponding to BV install as have some of the original characters including Mortimer Goth, Cassandra Goth, Daniel Pleasant, Mary-Sue Pleasant, Brandi Broke, Don Lothario, Nina Caliente, Darren Dreamer, Dirk Dreamer, Russ Bear (burglar), Amber Hiatt (shop assistant?), Mitch Lawson (fireman), Brandi LeTourneau, Joe Carr, Sandy Bruty, Melissa Fancey, Komei Tellerman, Meadow Thayer, Orlando Centowski, Ricky Cormier. I can't see any obvious reason as to why those sims have been updated though I do believe that most of them have directly interacted with my sims. As with Veronaville the neighbourhood package file has a timestamp corresponding to the last time I played.

Strangetown which hasn't been played for over a year also has updated timestamps on a handful of character files, mostly dead ancestors of EAxis sims. Its neighbourhood.package file has also been updated with time of last gameplay.

Other custom hoods have had a similar seemingly random assortment of character files updated and all the neighbourhood.package file timestamps correspond to the last time I played. I think the game is writing to them on exiting.



If you have acquired a lot of new sims then I suggest replacing your 'hoods with backed up versions and trying again, making sure you have the necessary awesome mods in place. The fact that the game updates/writes all your neighbourhood.package files out every time you play the game would suggest they might already be corrupted in some way.

My guess would be that you have got some custom content in there that the BV game code has a problem with. Perhaps something with functionality that was changed in BV. That said, it would have to be something that is used in every hood, or available to every hood so it could be a downloaded lot available from the lot catalog.

[jsalemi]

The Delivery Person also delivers the photo albums you buy in BV, so that's probably why the character was modified.  And the paper girl/boy also delivers the paper to owned vacation lots, so that probably explains that.

Haven't seen the roach exterminator anywhere else yet, so I can's say why that one was modified.  Maybe to also be able to come to hotels or owned vacation lots?

[KellyQ]

I had a similar problem to yours and it was because I downloaded a particular lot
My situation might be different from yours but do you crash to the desktop in a particular neighborhood? Lot? or a particular sim?

I wish that was the case, then at least I could pinpoint the problem, but no, it appears totally random. Any neighborhood, any lot, any sim (if I even make it far enough to be able to click on a sim).

Khaki, I'll ignore the condescending tone of your post to say that, yes, I know I have the latest drivers because I did check both Nvidia and XFX's website to be sure. In my reply to KhanofWorms, I specifically stated that I had gone to XFX's website and downloaded drivers per his suggestion rather then Nvidia's because that seems to work for him. I have even downloaded beta drivers from Nvidia to see if that might work, no joy there either.

eevilcat, if a specific lot was the cause of this, would the lot have to actually be placed in every neighborhood or would just being in the lot catalog be enough to cause the game to crash?

[eevilcat]

eevilcat, if a specific lot was the cause of this, would the lot have to actually be placed in every neighborhood or would just being in the lot catalog be enough to cause the game to crash?

If data is corrupted and the game code isn't written in such a way as to handle bad data then it could cause a crash simply on loading the data. It's not unusual to check a value isn't NULL in code, but that isn't the same as checking that the non-NULL value is valid and doesn't contain garbage. Garbage data may cause an immediate crash or it can cause problems somewhere down the line with often seemingly unrelated random crashes.

Sorry to ask the obvious, but did/have you definitely enabled custom content? I've found that although you check the enable custom content box the first time after installing a new EP, the game doesn't actually think the it's been checked until next time you load. If it's not checked, load the game and check the box then immediately exit from the neighbourhood screen and run the game again (the enable cc box should now be set).

I would be inclined to uninstall BV, restore your backed up game folder then reinstall BV and make sure that the custom content is definitely enabled before entering a neighbourhood (see above). You could spend some time tracking down the bug, but if data is already corrupted that might be a hard one. I would like an idea of what you're running with or might have done:

How many neighbourhoods do you have? Both EAxis original and custom.
What sort of custom content were you running with before? Hacks/mods, build mode items, objects and recolours.
What sort of default replacements are you using e.g. hood templates, skins, NPCs etc?
Have you either Insim or the kitten killer installed?
Have you done any editing/saving with the Seasons version of SimPE?

(I'll try to check into #grah later, it may be easier to resolve some of this in conversation.)

[KellyQ]

eevilcat, if a specific lot was the cause of this, would the lot have to actually be placed in every neighborhood or would just being in the lot catalog be enough to cause the game to crash?

If data is corrupted and the game code isn't written in such a way as to handle bad data then it could cause a crash simply on loading the data. It's not unusual to check a value isn't NULL in code, but that isn't the same as checking that the non-NULL value is valid and doesn't contain garbage. Garbage data may cause an immediate crash or it can cause problems somewhere down the line with often seemingly unrelated random crashes.

Sorry to ask the obvious, but did/have you definitely enabled custom content? I've found that although you check the enable custom content box the first time after installing a new EP, the game doesn't actually think the it's been checked until next time you load. If it's not checked, load the game and check the box then immediately exit from the neighbourhood screen and run the game again (the enable cc box should now be set).

I would be inclined to uninstall BV, restore your backed up game folder then reinstall BV and make sure that the custom content is definitely enabled before entering a neighbourhood (see above). You could spend some time tracking down the bug, but if data is already corrupted that might be a hard one. I would like an idea of what you're running with or might have done:

How many neighbourhoods do you have? Both EAxis original and custom.
What sort of custom content were you running with before? Hacks/mods, build mode items, objects and recolours.
What sort of default replacements are you using e.g. hood templates, skins, NPCs etc?
Have you either Insim or the kitten killer installed?
Have you done any editing/saving with the Seasons version of SimPE?

(I'll try to check into #grah later, it may be easier to resolve some of this in conversation.)

The bolded part of your post is what I'm really considering doing. I'm so frustrated with this whole thing although I really can't put the blame squarely on BV as I started having oddities (blue screen, monitor going to sleep during gameplay) prior to installing BV.

I'm sure I enabled custom content. I recall checking the box to enable it and then exiting the game. All of my CC shows up just fine. I have mainly hair and clothes but yes, skins, objects, recolors, building items, etc., You name it, I probably have at least a recolor of it.

I have the  4 EA neighborhoods (never have played Veronaville), 1 custom neighborhood and now a new test neighborhood. I cannot even enter a lot in Pleasantview before the game crashes and I believe it has the most character files. In Strangetown I can enter and play a lot, if it's a lot I have not played before, a few times before the game starts crashing. I haven't played RiverBlossom in a month or so. My favorite hood, the custom one, I can enter the neighborhood, enter a lot but it crashes within seconds of a selecting a sim (any sim, any lot). As I said earlier, the new testhood played fine last night, no crashing.

For mods I have all of JM's, a lot of TJ's (took out ACR last night though, just to check if it might be having some kind of problem), a few of Inge's, a few of Squinge's (antiprank, wear any clothes pregnancy mod thing), Monique (visitors stay later and fastershopping), Ste's apologize mod, and Crammyboy's portal monitor. I did have Inteen and Insim but of course I took those out before installing BV. I reinstalled Insim when it was updated for BV. When I played last night the only mods I had in were JM's, TJ's (minus ACR) and Inge's.

Default replacements are eyes only and I'm using SarahMK's hood templates.

I have all EPs and all stuff packs except for the Holidays/Christmas one.

The only editing I have done in SimPe was to clone some sims and to change the skintone of one sim (that was prior to installing BV though). I really don't know how to do more then that in SimPe.

I hope this wasn't TL;DR.

[eevilcat]

Looking at the list of hacks you have, I think you need to check them all for BV compatibility and bite the bullet and remove any that are not compatible. For JM's I'd remove the old set completely and replace with the BV director's cut as you are using them all. TJ has a a compatibility thread on his section of Inteen - ACR has been playing fine for me. I know for a start that the Squinge pregnancy wear all isn't compatible as the various BHAVs it replaces have been updated in BV, any other mods you'll need to check individually - see the thread in Podium for details on unsupported mods. (I've created a new BV version of the preg wear all mod for my own use but would like to do a lot more testing before I'd even considering releasing it, and I suspect that someone else with more experience will beat me to it if they haven't already.)

Given that you mentioned having some problems pre-BV it's probably also worth running the hack conflict detection tool from simwardrobe on the complete set of hacks you were using.

I also erred on the side of caution and removed any CC accessories as they were pretty problematic with Seasons and figured they might cause even more trouble with BV given the expanded categories and UI.

[KellyQ]

I did download JM's BV director's cut as well as TJ'S. I never really worry about their mods truthfully as they both are so good about updating them and giving a list of what isn't compatible. I also went to Inge's site and updated her mods as well. Basically that's why I chose to leave in their hacks when playing the test hood last night.

I will download (if I haven't already done so and tucked it away somewhere) the hack conflict tool and run it tonight. I think I will also just pull all CC (clothes, hair, furniture, etc.,) out of my Sims file and see if I can enter any other neighborhoods beside the test one. If that fails, I will have to uninstall BV (possibly H&M as well) and see what happens.

[squish]

I've found that although you check the enable custom content box the first time after installing a new EP, the game doesn't actually think the it's been checked until next time you load. If it's not checked, load the game and check the box then immediately exit from the neighbourhood screen and run the game again (the enable cc box should now be set).

The popup that tells you to enable CC does also tell you to restart the game for it to work...

[eevilcat]

I've found that although you check the enable custom content box the first time after installing a new EP, the game doesn't actually think the it's been checked until next time you load. If it's not checked, load the game and check the box then immediately exit from the neighbourhood screen and run the game again (the enable cc box should now be set).

The popup that tells you to enable CC does also tell you to restart the game for it to work...

You learn something new every day.  This was something I figured out the hard way rather than the by reading what was in front of me. It's shitty coding anyway... if you change a checkbox it should take effect straight away especially as the game has just spent the previous X minutes loading the damned stuff.

[squish]

It's the very last sentence, after the description of the difference between enabling and disabling content. It does read as just an offhand remark though, like they forgot to add it and put it in at the last minute.

[KellyQ]

Okay, so yesterday I took out all my CC except for JM's hacks and tried to play again. Playing Pleasantview, all went well (except for all the butt-ugly Maxis crap my poor sims reverted into ), no crashing, no errors. That is until I tried to enter the Pleasant's lot, loading screen  for forever, game crash. Tried again, again and again. Gave up, moved the Pleasants into the family bin and tried to enter to the lot in build mode. No dice, game crashes again. Moved the Pleasants into a different vacant (and never used) lot, no problem with loading that lot and playing it, which leads me to believe the problem is obviously with the lot and not the sims.

Moving onto the Calliente's house, same exact thing. Lot crashes the game upon loading. Same with the Dreamer household. These are all the original lots that the sims come with in the base game. No custom lots at all.

While I am looking through the lot catalog I start noticing that I have 2, 3, sometimes more then 4 duplicates of the same Eaxis lots. This includes the occupied lots that came with Pets, I actually had 3 of each one of those.

I'm kind of baffled on why I would have so many duplicates of premade lots and some of the lots would be crashing the game w/out any CC being in the game but others (Goth, Lothario) don't.

Once again, any ideas?

[Khaki]

Khaki, I'll ignore the condescending tone of your post...

What about my post was condescending? I certainly didn't mean to sound condescending, but I will admit to not paying enough attention to the XFX bit.  Either way, by mentioning it, you didn't ignore it, now did you? 

[KellyQ]

Khaki, I'll ignore the condescending tone of your post...

What about my post was condescending? I certainly didn't mean to sound condescending, but I will admit to not paying enough attention to the XFX bit.  Either way, by mentioning it, you didn't ignore it, now did you? 

I found it condescending because apparently you didn't read my post very closely (which you admit) and were working off of your own assumptions, which seemed to be that I am an idiot. I did mention the tone but ignored it by way of giving a civil answer instead of just telling you to fuck off. I will also admit (this thread seems to be turning into a confessional ) that I was in an extremely foul mood when I read your post and more then likely took it much more personally then I should have.