red X popup when trying to start the sims 2?

[JacobM]

when i try to start the sims 2, with all expansions. everything up to mansion & garden stuff, i get a red x popup box, with no text. what is this error, and how do i get my game to start?

what i did was i installed direct x 10 last night, but i think i already had that installed so it should not have messed up my game. i then installed the latest drivers for my video card and my game wouldn't start at all.

now i've done a system restore, and i get a red x popup box when trying to load the game.

i uninstalled mansion and garden stuff, and apartment life and reinstalled but i kept getting the same error. since the system restore didn't do anything, i've restored my computer back to its original state.

with the error still occurring.

help?

[Tenshii~Akari]

Did you try deleting your cache files from your My Document's "The Sims 2" folder?  Normally deleting the following files would solve the red "X" problem:

Groups.cache
Accessory.cache
cigen.package
ContentRegistry

If that doesn't work, what are your graphics specs?  It's possible that if you were installing DirectX 10 for the first time, there may be a compatibility issue.

[ladymiriam]

Totally agree with the above, whenever my game hasn't started or thrown an error on start up it has always been the cache files.

[amc462000]

you're using the M&G disc right?

[JacobM]

yes, i'm using the mansion and gardens disk.

there's no problems with cache files because i completely removed the sims  2 folder before starting the game. the game is supposed to open and generate new files in it's spot, but it won't.


i actually did install direct x 10 recently.. i'll try uninstalling and see what happens.

[RuthStar]

Strangly enough, i've had this same problem this morning. Odd.

[ancienthighway]

You shouldn't have to uninstall DirectX 10.  I'm guessing you are running Vista.  If so and you are running TS2 in XP compatibility mode, don't.  It will run fine without the compatibility mode and use DirectX 10.  On the other hand, if you are using XP, yeah, DirectX 10 won't work properly with TS2.