Sims 2 crash

[Tommypet]

Hey.

I have had the good fortune to get my hands om sims 2. However it doesnt run.
The game itself "The sims 2" without any expansion runs perfectly. But as soon as i add an expansion and update the game it fails.

Same fault every time. I see the intro movie then message box appears. "The application will now terminate". I have surfed forums for about 8 hour total - and while its not iregular that the game is faulty any solution suggested on any board hasnt solved my problem.
I decided to create a user on this board - as it seems this is the place that has the good solutions/ideas.
Refering to post http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=73718


Im running with:
AMD 4200+ x2
2048 mb ram
Geforce 6800gt
X-fi soundcard
Windows Xp Pro

All drivers are updated and i just reinstalled my computer as i though it might solve the problem (was due to reinstallation anyway). Even with newest drivers, regdirectx check and cccleaner and tons of other trys it hasnt worked. Changeing resolutions, turning off my 2nd monitor. MOst recently what caffinated.joy suggested.

Deleting
Accessory.cache
cigen.package
Groups.cache


Worth noteing is that i have no problem with other games. It spans from. Wow, the witcher, supreme commander to Crysis.

So sum up:
The sims 2 with patch update = Works perfect
The sims 2 with any of the expansions, BV, NL, Pets, Uni = Same crash after movie clip.

Id appriciate any solution you people might have - along with my eternal worship.

[Hokieman]

Okay.......I'll take a stab and probably suggest something you've heard or seen before but maybe not.

You've got plenty of machine to run the program and since the other games run as well as the base game, it's not likely that it's any type of memory or vid card problem.  Tho I will say that the Sims 2 is one of the most demanding games on your video that there is.  There have been problems with the Nvidea cards since the base game came out so you might not rule that out altogether and search for any threads on that to see if your card is known to have any problems with Sims 2 - probably not but might bear looking into.  

When you load the expansion packs, do you let the game install to the folders it wants to or do you redirect the load location path?  Each expansion has to be in it's own folder so you should let the game choose it's folders.  If you did try to put the expansion packs in the base game folders, then it will definitely wreck your game.

Did you change name of the default "EA GAMES" directory in your downloads folder or "The Sims" subdirectory in the EA Games folder when you loaded the expansions.  If you did, the program can't find it's video settings among other things.

Long shot, but have you run a full disk scan on your hard drive to see if you have any bad sectors?  It could be as simple as the game installing on a bad sector.  Disk scan will fix that.

Another long shot, but did you write protect any of the subdirectories so the game cannot create new files.  On first load after any install, the game will create a number of files and if it can't write them, then it would probably crash.

Now we get to more probable things.

Where you are crashing is is about where the game changes to it's video settings (as opposed to what you run your desktop at), begins to load custom content and the screen with the pack name comes up and blinks and scrolls the cute stuff at the bottom.

Check your video settings and then change to a lower resolution at the desktop if you are running above 1024x768.  I believe that's the original default for the game but it may be 800 by 600.  The idea is to match the game default to see if there's something that's not switching as it should since the game takes over the video.

If you reset the video mode within the game when you tried the base game, make sure you didn't set something to cause a mismatch with your vid card/monitor settings.  On initial load, the game will set to default to your scan rate from the desktop but not necessarily the resolution.

Do you have any custom content in your downloads folder?  If you do, just rename or move the downloads folder to another location and see if the game will boot then.  Don't go into any lots but see if you can get to the neighborhood screen.  It's almost guaranteed that you will get a conflict between new expansion packs and old hacks or mods.  That's usually what kills the game at that point in the load.  If the game boots up without the downloads folder, then you know that's the problem and will need to go through your downloads folder to find the troublemakers.

If you don't get the load screen with the pack name on it before the crash, then you may not even be getting to the point where the game loads the custom content.  That's another indication it may be video.

What order do you attempt to load the expansions?  While EA says they can be loaded in any order, my experience is that the only way I can get all of them loaded withoug a problem is load in the order in which they came out.  University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons and Bon Voyage.  If you have any of the other stuff packs, they are not as order sensative but load them all before the last expansion pack.  

One more issue with the order - BV and Teen Stuff have securom on them.  If either is the 1st expansion pack you loaded - Securom may have something to do with it.   Even removing the programs do not remove securom.  There are lots of threads on securom out there on lots of sites with all kinds of advice what to do about that.

For some reason, this sounds like a video problem to me, but it may not be.  Sims2 is a pretty complicated game and there are a ton of things that could cause what happening.  I hope I gave you some ideas on places to look for the problem.  Good luck.