Game freezes at loading screen? help please

[jubjubtheiguana]

I went to open my sims game to play and it works fine up until the loading screen where it says 'replacing wheel bearings' and it freezes and begins 'not responding' on the task menu. any idea what's going on or how to fix it? thanks

[chocolatedalek]

I have just recovered from this EXACT problem. Only difference is I had a different EP so the loading words it froze on where different.
Your problem is you have a dodgy download. It could be anything you've downloaded, or it could be two downloads, that work fine seperatly but can't have them both in your game. (The thing that froze my game was Sim lasagne combined with bodymeshes...)
I hope you find which is the dodgy download so your game works agian!!

[jubjubtheiguana]

thanks! now, to start going through that folder...

[caffeinated.joy]

Best way to do it (as many other will attest to), is to take your downloads folder out and divide it in half. Put one half in and start your game. If your game doesn't load we know it's in there. Close the game and do the same with the second half, because you could have more than one problem file. Next, take whichever half gives you the problem, divide it in half again and repeat the whole process. Keep going until you find the culprit. It's a bit of a process, but shorter than going through them one by one.

[miros1]

Or your cache file could be fried.  In My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/, there are just a few files (and a whole bunch of folders, leave those alone).  One file is groups.cache.  Drag that out and see if it improves your game's behavior.

[jubjubtheiguana]

okay, so i went through and found what was crashing my game, but now whenever i open the game it loads to the same 'replacing wheel bearings' and a box pops up and says 'the application has crashed. the application will now terminate.' any ideas?

[miros1]

That's most likely the groups.cache file.

[caffeinated.joy]

The game should have logged an error file. If you attach it here someone tech minded could take a look at it. It can be anything from yet another botched download, to a corrupt game file, to something in your computer, like insufficient memory.

Edit: You should find the logfile in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Logs