the game keeps minimizing to the desktop and it won't stay up

[nekotlc]

every time I try to load the Sims 2 it keeps minimizing to the desktop and it won't stay up. Now I can't play the sims 2!It gos right back down to the desktop. I tried going to properties and press -w I press - up pops ctrl+alt+- even though I did not press ctrl+alt+- that appears no matter what I pressed as if I typed in myself. I think the ctrl and alt keys are stuck on my laptop.  I would not know how to fix it or why it would stuck. I'm at the end of my rope please help!

[Chaavik]

It might help us if you told us what your basic system specs are and what Windows OS you're using.

For example, my system specs are:

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (2.4Ghz)
2 GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4350
250 HDD
Windows XP Pro

I believe there are reasons for your game crashing to the desktop, but first, list your system specs for us so we can see if someone here who uses the same OS as you do will be able to help you.

[caffeinated.joy]

Is it minimizing or crashing? If it's crashing, it could be because of a few things, ranging from a conflict in your mods, a bad file in your cc, to any numbers of of problems with your computer (RAM, not enough hard drive space, spyware etc). If it's minimizing, there is something running in the background interrupting your game. My suspicion would be an anti virus program or your firewall.

[nekotlc]

it's minimizing not crashing to the desktop. It might be my anti virus it runs background scans on its own but normally it dose not cause my game to minimize to the desktop. Also it's strange that everytime I try to fix it to play in a window I press a button its followed by alt+ctrl+ then whatever  button I've pressed. somehow those keys must be jammed or stuck.

[Engram]

If it's minimising, it could be that the laptop is trying to call your attention to something. Most Windows programs are attention seekers and will throw you out of full screen programs just because they want you to look at some useless message. A good rule of thumb when playing TS2 is to close out of most tasks that run in the background and that are not absolutely necessary for the running of the computer so they won't run while you're trying to play. Frees up memory and processing power plus it stops the attention seeking.

My game keeps minimising to the desktop too and I finally figured out why. During gameplay I often hit the Tab key to go into cameraman mode. Because I'm playing on a laptop, the Tab and Caps Lock keys are really close together and I sometimes hit the Caps Lock key while trying to hit Tab when not looking at the keyboard. And Windows 7 thinks that it is absolutely vital that I see a popup on the desktop that tells me that I put Caps Lock on, so it minimises TS2.

So it could be something serious or it could also be something absolutely frigging imbecilic that keeps minimising the game.

Also, I have absolutely no idea what you are trying to do by hitting -w on the keyboard. To get the game to play windowed, you need to edit the game shortcut properties by adding -w to the end of the filepath that launches the game for you. Additionally, for this to work, you would probably need to use the game exe and not the Launcher, which is useless and the spawn of evil. I don't use the Launcher but suspect that adding -w to the Launcher filepath will do nothing towards running the game windowed. Example from the Cnet help forums:

"If you have a desktop shortcut to a program, you can put the target in Quotation marks, followed by -w like so:

"C:\programfiles\muonline.exe" -w

This works for any program, but may slow down your computer."

You need to do this for the game exe. The above is just an example given for another program but the principles are the same. Right click on the shortcut icon, select properties, then edit the filepath so it mirrors the example, ie. add space-w to the end, after the quotation marks. And if it says "Launcher" in the filepath - that is NOT the right file to add the -w switch to and you need to point the shortcut at the game exe.

So, in addition to stating your specs and the EPs and SPs you are running, can you also tell us whether you launch the game using the Launcher and if you know how to change the filepath to point to the game exe?

[EKozski]

My computer came with this program called, HP Media Smart. Everytime it ran, my game minimized. I had to change the settings on it so it wouldn't interfear with my game.

[Ruffnut]

Mine did that the other day. Turns out windows said it is an important update. Like srsly?!

[ancienthighway]

srsly? 

[Theraven]

My laptop had some windows issues, too. Updates and whenever I stepped over the memory limit. If I clicked where the info box was, the game would minimize (and use ages getting back up again).
Nowadays it's not that bad, since system scans don't usually show up when I'm playing, and since getting the game up/down rarely takes more than a minute.

[Jenna]

srsly?

Heh. Let's not go around leaving snarky replies, mmmk?

...seriously. *grins*

Getting back on topic: my own game-minimizing issues were usually related to something trying to update itself as well. Ad-aware, AVG, and Windows Automatic Update were always the culprits.

[ancienthighway]

Snarky?  I had no idea what it means.

[caffeinated.joy]

When I was using AVG and Zone Alarm, they were the culprits for my minimizing woes. I've moved on to another program and have had no problems.

Kyletheartist, we ask in our rules that people avoid using text/chat/leet speak (LOL and the like are the obvious exception since everyone knows what they are) in an effort to make sure everyone's posts are understandable to everyone (since we have a lot of ESL members and not everyone will understand chatspeak).

Ancienthighway, I, personally, know you weren't being snarky, but it wasn't necessarily clear to others you were asking for clarification, whereas "What does 'srsly' mean?" is.  

[Chaavik]

At least there aren't pics with Orly and Srsly captions plastered across the images. 

The only time my games (not just Sims 2) minimizes to the desktop is when Windows finds live updates and downloads them to install. I disabled the feature in Windows to update Windows manually as well setting my anti-virus program to update manually. I hate nasty surprises when I'm in the middle of a raid only to get yanked out of the game because Windows kicked in to search for and install updates.