How to get rid of SecuRom, NOW

[fantasy]

Okay, I did it or tried to anyway. If Securom is not off my computer after me going through a bunch of computer lingo I didn't understand for 2 days. So be it.I'm sleepy and frustrated and simply don't care anymore.If there was a way for me to sue EA for putting this BS on my computer without my consent I would. In any case Freetime is installed.I did not launch it so Securom should not be on my computer anymore right?I have downloaded the crack. It's waiting to be put in the right folder, however, that's the problem I can't find the folder.I went to MY Documents and the only thing that is there is the original Sims 2 folder and neither one of the folders in  it say Sims 2 Freetime/Ts Bin. So I can't change anything nor can I stick the crack in. In the My Computer folder there was an icon with the Sims 2 Freetime on in the devices with removable storage area. I clicked on it but it sounded like it was about to launch so I hurried up and ejected the CD before anything came up.

[WORF]

Okay, I did it or tried to anyway.  Iwent to MY Documents and the only thing that is there is the original Sims 2 folder and neither one of the folders in  it say Sims 2 Freetime/Ts Bin. So I can't change anything nor can I stick the crack in. In the My Computer folder there was an icon with the Sims 2 Freetime on in the devices with removable storage area. I clicked on it but it sounded like it was about to launch so I hurried up and ejected the CD before anything came up.

The correct location would be C:/Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2 FreeTime/TSBin not in the Documents folder.

[fantasy]

I clicked a lot of things until I found it. It was under Properties, but I am still loss. Under Properties the link says "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2Launcher.exe". I thought it was supposed to say Sims 2Ep7.exe. so I can change it to Sims 2Ep7.bak. and then install the crack. Also when I told the Properties bar to find target it took me to the TS bin,but I don't know which icon to drop the crack in.Also I took the disk out so I wouldn't accidentally launch it,but was I supposed to keep it in until  I installed the crack. I am so sorry for all these questions but being computer illiterate does that to a person,but thank-you.

[MrMugg]

I clicked a lot of things until I found it. It was under Properties, but I am still loss. Under Properties the link says "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2Launcher.exe". I thought it was supposed to say Sims 2Ep7.exe. so I can change it to Sims 2Ep7.bak. and then install the crack. Also when I told the Properties bar to find target it took me to the TS bin,but I don't know which icon to drop the crack in.Also I took the disk out so I wouldn't accidentally launch it,but was I supposed to keep it in until  I installed the crack. I am so sorry for all these questions but being computer illiterate does that to a person,but thank-you.

You've got the right folder.  It's the TSBin folder.  Just place the cracked exe file there.  You don't need to drop it on any icons at all.  Just place the exe file in the TSBin folder.

[morriganrant]

I clicked a lot of things until I found it. It was under Properties, but I am still loss. Under Properties the link says "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2Launcher.exe". I thought it was supposed to say Sims 2Ep7.exe. so I can change it to Sims 2Ep7.bak. and then install the crack. Also when I told the Properties bar to find target it took me to the TS bin,but I don't know which icon to drop the crack in.Also I took the disk out so I wouldn't accidentally launch it,but was I supposed to keep it in until  I installed the crack. I am so sorry for all these questions but being computer illiterate does that to a person,but thank-you.

Wait, you changed the location under "properties"? As in, you right clicked on the BV icon and clicked "properties". That's not the right thing to do.
Change the location under properties in your shortcut menu to Sims2ep7.exe. Then click "find target" then change the file there(in the folder that clicking find target brought you to) that says sims2ep7.exe to Sims2ep7.bak and drop the cd crack into that folder.

[fantasy]

I'm sorry, but I need complete layman's terms because I still don't quite understand.

Okay I right clicked the Freetime icon and went down to Properties. There's three tabs. General, Shortcut, and Compatibility. I clicked Shortcut. In that tab is
Target type: Application
Target Location: TS Bin
Target:C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2Launcher.exe
Start In:C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime
Shortcut Key : None
Run:Normal Window
Comment: Blank

Okay, Now clicking Find target with everything exactly like the above takes me to the TS Bin. In the Bin are 7 icons. The say GDF.ll, Sims2EP7, Sims 2 web,TS2UPD0,ijl15.dll, Sims 2 Launcher(I clicked this once and it took me to the Sims 2 website. It seems this icon makes it so you can play the game online but I don't want that.), and lastly TS2UPD. There are three boxes in this TSBin as well. They are called File and Folder Tasks, Other Places, and Details. Clicking a folder in the Other Places box called Sims 2 Freetime takes me to a place with 9 icons labeled. CS Bin, TS Bin( is now a folder icon) EA unistall,filelist Sims 2ep7unistall,Support,TS Data,EAunistall, Sims 2ep7.

Also for the crack itself I had to download something called a WinRar. After that I downloaded what I hope is the crack(vty0163.rar). Three things came from doing that. In this WinRar are the three things labled. ... and it has a folder icon by it. The second one is Sims 2 ep7.exe, and the third one says Vitality.nfo. I assume that the one labled Sims2ep7.exe is the crack correct? However if it is I do not know how to insert it in whatever it is suppose to go in(don't even know how to get to what it is supposed to go in as you can see from above). I am so sorry,but again thanks. Remember step by step Laymans terms.

[mildlydisguised]

1.  In your current TSBin folder rename the Sims2EP7.exe to Sims2EP7.bak

2.  Take the Sims2EP7.exe from the crack folder and drag it to your TSBin folder (It will not override your previous Sims2EP7.exe as you have already renamed this to .bak).

3.  Right click on your desktop shortcut and chose properties, under the shortcut tab, replace whatever you have in the target line with "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2EP7.exe" -w (This will prevent the game from loading using the launcher which is bad)

Also the -w on the end of the shortcut will load your game in windowed mode so if you don't want that, leave it off.

[fantasy]

God, I'm so sleepy. Anyway, thanks. Was there anything  special that was supposed to happen when I dragged the crack in to the TS bin? Also there was already an icon on my desktop for Free Time. It now says C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2EP7.exe. Is that where I load the game from to play, and can I play on guest like this since that's where I usually played the Sims from(I did all this crack stuff on administrator though.)?

[mildlydisguised]

Nope nothing special should have happened, you were just basically moving a file.  The only reason we got you to rename the original Sims2EP7.exe was so the crack version you moved into the folder didn't override and replace it.

Provided there is a Sims2EP7.bak file in your TSBin folder along with the Sims2EP7.exe (crack version) on your Guest account.  And providing that the shortcut's target is pointing to the same "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSBin\Sims2EP7.exe" that your admin account does then you should be fine.  I always use my admin account so have no idea whether the changes that you've made will flow through to the guest account.  I would think that you will need to repeat the steps above on the guest account but I am not sure.

[fantasy]

Thank-you all so much!!   I know I was a pain with all my newb questions. It worked!! It loaded perfectly, without the Securom infested CD!! If I hear of anybody having problems with Securom I will definitely be recommending this site. SCREW YOU EA!!!!!!! I'll have to check and see if it works in Guest in the morning. Right now my bed is calling my name...


One more newbish question though. I know the booklet says close all background task using task manager, and anti virus/malware software( I have 3 running on my computer) but does that really matter?I feel my computer is nude with my protection being off, and I'm scared of deleting anything from task manager and then I'll have to constantly keep enabling everything every time I stop playing the Sims and disabling everything when I want to play. Seems tedious. However, even though my gaming computer can take all the expansions, since Bon voyage I have noticed a slowness in the loading screen and just now when I launched FreeTime it was like a minute slow and black screened for a few seconds before going to the neighborhood. So if disabling everything will make it run a bit faster,if not...

[mildlydisguised]

Well you may be able to free up a bit of RAM by closing background tasks but I can't imagine it would make much difference.  You might want to look into getting more RAM for your computer, if you are having a lot of problems with slow gameplay.

Personally I wouldn't advise turning off your virus protection in case you want to browse the internet whilst playing the game or in case you forget to turn it back on after playing.

[morriganrant]

It depends on your virus scan, your computer and the other programs running if closing them would help you any.
I close down anything I can get away with, including explorer.exe, but leave my virus scan on as well as my browser. Some virus scans are hogs though. Like Norton and it may help your game play to close that as well, but you should disconnect from the net before you do so and remember to turn it back on before you connect to the net again.

[witch]

*witch bestows Reading Comprehension 101 on naravyn

You might find this handy if you wish to type like a grownup.



Is it school holidays again? They seem to come round so fast.

[Lum]

ok.. curious on something.. i have avoided buying any of the EPs/SPs with SecuRom on them so as to not get it on my comp, but if i am reading this post right, if i install the game but don't use the exe file that comes with it, securom won't get installed.. is that right? so basically, if i buy the games, get the no cd patch from the internet and use that instead from the very beginning, i won't have to deal with it. if its that easy, then i can begin to jump for joy and get more of my games. if not, please tell me.

Basically, that's it. Good summary of the whole situation, actually.

[Kyna]

As long as you're installing it on the administrator account on your PC.

If you install it using a non-admin account then the process is
- install from disc
- remove securom
- run from no-CD exe

[fantasy]

My praise for No CD cracks has dwindled some. I installed Freetime on my Admin. account, used the no CD crack and played for a few minutes to see if anything was working right. It was so I went to bed and haven't  been on for two days, but my sisters have. On Guest it crashes right at the load screen when it says Breaking Down Restorable Cars. I have tried 5 times and it always crashes at that exact moment. I wouldn't really care it's just that my sisters and I saved games are on Guest. We don't play on Admin. because we want all our Sims to meet each other and they can't do that on our different Admin. accounts. Secondly they tell me that not only does it crash on Guest but also  on their Admin accounts as well. So I made a new account just for Sims play with administrator access but not password protected so we can start from scratch. It worked find on there until you try to create a sim. You can stay on the create a sim screen for a few minutes then after that the whole thing crashes and I mean severely. Computer completely shuts down and I have to reboot. What is going on and how can I fix this? Also my sister's, well there's no other way of putting this, bootleg PC version of Final Fantasy 7 is messed up as well.  It's just like the no crack CD. She doesn't have to use a disk. She downloaded it from some website is all I know and it was working perfectly until I installed the no crack for Freetime. It now loads really small and when she tries to play the whole computer shuts down. Needless to say she's not that happy with me at the moment.  I want to free up some disk space by defraging but I'm worried it'll mess up the no crack(seems like the crack is messed up anyway but still...)

[jolrei]

We don't play on Admin. because we want all our Sims to meet each other and they can't do that on our different Admin. accounts. Secondly they tell me that not only does it crash on Guest but also  on their Admin accounts as well.

So, what's going on here?  You all play from different admin accounts, but the 'hoods and saved stuff is stored on a different "guest" account?  Or are you transferring 'hoods between computers/accounts?  How do your sims all "meet" each other?  I'm assuming you are not transferring sims between neighbourhoods.

[fantasy]

We all have different Admin accounts to surf the net and save things that only we want to see and that's it. We play the Sims on Guest and always have. When I say our Sims can only meet on Guest that's exactly what I mean. I don't know any other way to put it. If we play on our different Admin accounts, and we did once when the base game first came out, we noticed that only the Sims we made where on it. Example if my sister made a Sim family on her Admin account they did not show up on mine or my other sister's, but when we make Sims on Guest we can see each other Sims and make our sims be friends with each other etc. I can't make it any clearer than that. Anyway that's not what I was asking. I just want to know why the no crack Is making my computer crash and how do I fix it.

[jsalemi]

Sounds like you have a bad no-cd.exe.  Go to gamecopyworld, and download it again; make sure you get the right one for your EP and whatever patch level you're at.

[Insanity Prelude]

Okay, did the regdelnull part and ran CureSecuROM. UAService7 doesn't exist, this being an admin account, and there's no "cmddlineext.dll" in the System32 folder either. Got the no-CD crack in (FT-patch 3 is 1.3somethingorother, right? It's working smoothly anyway.) Couldn't find a SecuROM folder anywhere in my documents (or, you know, anywhere, when running a search of the computer with hidden files viewable.) Am I done?

(Note: I'm on Vista. Not by choice, I assure you.)

Ugh. If I hadn't heard about false torrents and all this other crap, I'd seriously consider ARR-ing Apartment Life when it comes out. As it is, I may just ignore that EP entirely.

[J. M. Pescado]

There isn't really a "False torrent" problem with high-profile items. That's just lies and propaganda sown by EAxis spies to scare people.

[Solowren]

There isn't really a "False torrent" problem with high-profile items. That's just lies and propaganda sown by EAxis spies to scare people.

Exactly. Anything done by Vitality is safe to download- I think they've done pretty much every expansion pack.

[Insanity Prelude]

Vitality. I'll keep that in mind.

[witch]

Reloaded, is another name I've found reliable.

[jungant]

In step 2, after I changed the directory to c:\windows\system32 using cd command and typed 'uaservice7/remove' I get a message saying 'uaservice7 is not recognized as an internal or external command, operatable program or batch file.' Did I do something wrong?