My game erased my neighborhood.

[Mandie]

I really did look for a solution before writing, so I hope I'm not repeating a question, but I'm totally stuck.  My game has been acting up for a while, I still don't know why, I think it may be a bad something.  Anyway, I was taking pictures for a contest, and I exited the lot without saving.  The game glitched (went to the blue screen of death) and when it came back, every sim in my neighborhood was gone.  What would cause that to happen, and can I do anything to get them back?  I have loads of CC, but I've tried to do my research as far as that's concerned as well.  I'm fairly sure there's something bad in there, but I have yet to find it.

As far as hacks go, I have the insim, inteen, ACR, triplets/quads, no friends needed, MQ talk to many, crib sleep night and elder sleep night.  (Those last two are out of date, but I can't imagine that would cause this kind of problem.)

[ancienthighway]

I had that happen as well when I first put Seasons on my computer before I changed my video card.  Made it really difficult to have any continuity in testing InSim and InTeen.  Unfortunately I don't think there is a solution.  As far as I could find those sims are gone.

[Mandie]

So, you think it's a video card issue?  We've got a pretty good one... Radionx1300.  We need a new power supply to get the full benefit, and to get a new power supply we need a new tower, so it'll be a while before I can take advantage of the full graphics.

[ancienthighway]

In my case it may have been mere coincidence that I stopped losing sims after changing video cards.  Your's should be fine.

[Mandie]

Does it sound like a bad download, perhaps?  I've got over 6 gigs to go through.. (insert groan here.)

[ancienthighway]

My gut feeling is it's hardware related.  The BSD points that direction, too.

[Mandie]

Meaning a reinstall might help?  What's the BSD?

[Mi-chii]

Blue Screen of Death, maybe?

[ancienthighway]

Yeah, that's the BSD.

As far as a reinstall, the only way that could help is if you stop before you install Seasons, i.e. uninstall Seasons.  If your computer meets the minimum or better on hardware requirements, you shouldn't need to do the reinstall.
-- How fast is the processor?
-- How much RAM do you have?
-- How is that video card crimped because of the power supply and have you adjusted in game graphics to be not so demanding when you aren't taking contest pictures?

You may consider backing up your neighborhood every time you exit the game until you are confident the system is stable.

[Mandie]

The processor is a 2.53ghz Pentium4.  We have a gig of RAM.  The video card is most likely the reason for all of this.  I haven't adjusted the graphics, only because I basically don't do anything but pictures anymore.  The video card is restricted because our power supply isn't strong enough to put full power to both the computer and to the card.  We have a generic 200something microATX right now.  Our entire tower is a microATX HP.  Chris wants to get an replacement tower, one that supports standard ATX.  That way we can fit a bigger supply in there.

[ancienthighway]

I was just answering another question and thought of this.  Have you looked in SimPE to see if your sims are still around?  If so you may be able to edit some data and bring them back.

[Mandie]

Yeah, they can all be found with simPE.  How would I go about using it to bring them back?  Another issue (which points back to a bad download) is that with my download folder in, simPE stops responding when I try to do anything.

[ancienthighway]

If nothing else, you could export them, package them, then put them back into the game.  Since I didn't think of this when I lost my sims as you did, I didn't try it then or else I could offer some suggestions for restoring them in game with SimPE.

[Mandie]

Blast, I was afraid you were going to say that.  I'll save a few select then, and restart.  Blah...

P.S.  Thanks so much for all your help.