Game crashing at loading screen

[Aquarius]

Ok, so I've been playing the sims 2 on my dad's computer ever since my laptop broke...so about a few months and it's been working fine(though it is REALLY slow) but recently it's been crashing at the first loading screen. Like right when the little yellow bar at the top is like a second away from being filled, it just crashes. I thought it was a custom content problem so I took the downloads folder out and tried it again. same problem. Then I installed a Freetime patch, didn't work. THEN I thought installing another expansion pack in there will solve it cuz that's what happened a few years ago when I was having a crashing problem so I installed the Apartment life that I never got around to installing and ran it without the any Custom Content. The game is still crashing. Can anyone help me, PLEASE!!!!

[Theraven]

Have you tried to delete the 2-4 cache files? Usually helps me...

Or have you tried to reinstall everything? Uninstalling and installing can sometimes cause things to go messy. Could be some corrupted gamefiles, which re-installing usually will fix.

If it has been running really slow, then it could be that installing one more EP was just over the limit of what the computer could manage. I gave up after Freetime on my laptop...

And, of course, if the computer is running Vista (maybe also Win7), and you have between 1-3 GB of memory on the computer, it could be the really annoying 2GB memory crashing.

[Aquarius]

where are the cache files located?

[Theraven]

Same (The Sims 2) folder where you find the Downloads folder. Accessory.cache, groups.cache, cigen.package and contentregistry. You may or may not find all. Some generate when you run the game, others generate when you do various things with Bodyshop.

I have to delete them every time I play, because otherwise my game usually decides it won't start at all...

[Aquarius]

Ok so the only one I found was Accesary cache. If the others come up when I start the game do I just do a ctrl-alt-esc, delete the files and go back into the game before it finishes loading?

[Theraven]

You have to delete them before starting the game. After the game is started, they're regenerated, and there will probably be at least one you can't delete before closing the game again. The game needs the files while you're playing.

[Aquarius]

...how do I delete them before starting the game if they don't even show up until I start the game

[BlooM]

Delete the whole folder(sims 2) with everything in it.
Backup your CC and neighborhoods if you want to keep them.

If this doesn't do the trick it is prolly related to your comp.
You also could make a new useraccount on that pc and start the game from that one.

[Aquarius]

Will the sims 2 folder regenerate once I start the game up again?

[caffeinated.joy]

Yes, but if you want to preserve your Downloads, pull them out first. You could alternatively try renaming your Sims 2 folder to Sims 2 Backup or something. This will do the same thing as deleting it.

[Aquarius]

Well I deleted my sims 2 folder, started the game up without my neighborhood or downloads folder. No problem. I put the folders back, it crashed, I took the Neighborhood folder out, the game works fine now. I guess there's somethin wrong with my neighborhood folder. No biggie, I'd been plannin to start my game over anyway. Thanks guys

[ancienthighway]

A crash like you're having can happen because of meshes that are not compatible with your game.  This may be what's happening in your game. 

Unfortunately, many creators don't identify EP/SP requirements and the HCDU can't check meshes, so it's a trial and error process to find these meshes that are incompatible.  Binary searches work best.  Organized folders, to include a place where you put new downloads really help too.

[Aquarius]

You sure it's a mesh problem? Cuz the game worked just fine with my downloads folder. The problem is something in my Neighborhoods

[ancienthighway]

This may be what's happening in your game.

Meshes are a different kind of animal.   I've had a mesh in my game for months, maybe even years, that never caused problems because if was never used.  I never scrolled far enough in CAS/BS for the thumbnail to be generated.  The outfit was assigned to a townie, who never visited community lots.  Then the game started to send this NPC with the incompatible mesh to the comm lots when I visited them and the lot would crash when loading.

Then I decided to scroll through all the CC in CAS, and when I got to the page that contained this outfut, the game would crash.  It could have been custom hair, build mode item, or buy mode item, but I have already scrolled though all the CC there that have custom meshes.

So an incompatible mesh is always a possibility.  One way to tell if it is a problem is to open up CAS and scroll though all the clothing and all the hair for all the genders and age groups.  If the game crashes, you've got a bad mesh in that area.  Open up Buy mode and scroll through everything, especially all the Decoration items.  If the game  crashes, again, you have a bad mesh.  Same with the Build mode, especially the trees, and bushes.

Yes, a bad mesh is always a possibility, even if the game worked fine for as long as you remember.  Yes, a bad Neighborhood is a possibility as you suspect.

[Aquarius]

Ok, I got another question and thought it'd be a waste to make a new thread for it. I just used a flash drive to transfer my sims 2 files to anoter compuiter, I put all the folders for each expansion into the Program Files section of "My computer" but the game and all the epxansions still aren't installed. What do I do? Do I need the disks? If so then it's a lost cause PLEEEASE TELL ME I DONT NEED THE DISKS!

EDIT: Bodyshop seems to work....