Families taking an age to load

[simpleprincess]

Up until today my sims game was running ok, but now when I load a family, its taking ages and ages to go into it. Is it a memory problem, on wednesday I was thinking about visting my local computer store to maybe upgrade? I hope its nothing more serious, I have also got alot of downloads, would it help if I deleted unused neighbourhoods and unused sims in the sims bin?

[Theraven]

well, it could be a memory problem.

but the obvious question: did you download a lot lately? the more downloads you've got, the longer the loading takes. (I've got 6 GB of downloads right now, and last time I loaded the entire game + the family, it took me around one and a half hour.)

also - the bigger lot/the more downloaded items on the lot/the more sims on the lot, the longer it takes. the first time you load the lot (like when you move the family in) it also takes longer time.

and yes, deleting unused lots/sims (maybe except the maxis ones) and downloads helps a lot. I deleted two downloaded lots, and all of a sudden, the game ran a bit faster.

[simpleprincess]

An hour?  o.o Was this every time you entered that lot? or just the first time? I deleted strangetown since i never use it. I deleted a few recently installed lots,maybe I should delete a few downloaded sims? its going to annoy me if I have to wait an hour every time I want to play that family. The little loading bar at the top of the loading screen isnt showing,but the hourglass is going round and round and task manager says the game is running.

[MaryH]

I find that if my family doesn't load in 5 minutes or so, I've got a problem with a particular download. I'll crash shut the computer off (don't do this often, it's not good for the computer..) and remove the offending article.
It might be a download, it might be the amount of your downloads. Have you done any care-taking of your computer lately, like defragging it or cleaning it up?
You might want to get Delphy's Download organizer and do a thorough scan of your computer-that way you can find empty files, orphans, and duplicate files.
Deleting unused files is a good start. I'm about to dump Strangetown and Veronaville out of my game to speed it up on loading. I never play them, so I won't miss them, either.

[dynasty]

well, I thought about deleting neighbourhoods as well, and I will do that now. I also recently deleted sims, clothing, hair etc which I wasnt using. I relized I had a lot of unused downloads, basically due to seeing one i liked, having to get the mesh elsewhere, getting the download that came with the mesh as well. that's how little by little, my downloads folder got way cluttered.
i'd also suggest you delete all the families you do not play. Maxis put a lot of families into the neighbourhoods as well as into the family bin and honestly I never play them so why not get rid of them?

[simpleprincess]

Im big time frustrated now,ive tried everything and none of my familes will load now. even maxis created ones " cries" ive wasted about 4 hours now, all the families do is just load. when i went managed to finally get into one they were frozen?? you could diect them to do something but they were frozen like statues. " begins to wail" I hope I havent killed my game......

[Theraven]

don't complain about 5 minutes!!!

my game takes about 20 min from putting in the cd to get into a lot to play WITHOUT CC. with CC (depends on how much) it can take everything from 5 minutes to an hour just to load a family (I've learned to be patient...).

my comp has got little memory, though. so that might be one of the reasons it takes so long. I also have all the EPs and SPs installed.

[AxelVal]

I almost have this problem right now as well.
But it's my neighborhoods that won't load.
I let an empty town load for almost half an hour with the same downloads and (hopefully) package-installed houses in the neighborhood but it didn't get past the second loading bar.

I'm going to try removing my newest hacks (which are updates of ones I had before) and load up again.

Edit:
I took out my hacks and my neighborhood loaded!  Yay.

[__medicinemanx]

It's probably memory.

My one family used to take like a half hour or more to go up to 4 or 5 loading bars and then just close down with a window that says, "Windows is low on memory. The system may close various applications to get more," or something like that. How many families are slow for you?

[ancienthighway]

Im big time frustrated now,ive tried everything and none of my familes will load now. even maxis created ones " cries" ive wasted about 4 hours now, all the families do is just load. when i went managed to finally get into one they were frozen?? you could diect them to do something but they were frozen like statues. " begins to wail" I hope I havent killed my game......

Try deleting groups.cache and accessories.cache.  Any time you have major changes in CC, these files are likely to become corrupted.  When you start the game again, these files will be recreated.  While you're there, delete cigen.package also.  It's similar to the other two files but used by Bodyshop.  

It will take a bit longer to start the game right after deleting the cache files, but once the game is started, entering lots and creating sims in CAS should go faster.

If you have less than 1 mb memory, you should take a look at getting more.  Get as much as you can afford and your computer will hold.  All the CC is loaded into memory when you start the game.  If you don't have enough memory, it starts using the hard drive memory to hold it in virtual memory.  Then when something is needed from the virtual memory, it reads it again from the disk.  Those disk reads and writes add more time to loading the game, neighborhoods, and lots.

[simpleprincess]

Thank you everyone, ill definatly be paying a vist to my local computer store. I have only 512 ram. 1.9 ghz cpu. almost 2 gigs. decent graphics card, I wonder if its also my downloaded dvd players? I recently downloaded veoh amongst one other one. Ok I deleted the caches except the body shop one I dont know where it is. im wondering about deleting all my downloads and starting again. Is it possible to save the downloads that I really want? and get rid of the rest?

EDIT: I deleted all my downloads except for a few plus the insimenator and stuff,its working again. so I think I just had too many downloads, I do have a question and thats if I download this cool barbie house that some very talented person created, even though it says you need ofb, would it hurt my game if i installed it anyway? im hoping they only used a bit of it, I dont want to crash my game or anything. Here is a link to the said house.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=191458

[MaryH]

It may crash your game, if you don't have the EP to use it with. I've read where the lot will not even load into your game if this is the case. I'd not risk it. I don't know if you can use "Clean Install" to remove those parts that won't work in your game-probably not. I've never tried to do this-only lots with sims that I can separate from the house.
If  you have an external drive or a secondary drive you can save your downloads-simply copy them into one of those sources. If you have a CD burner and hardware to use, you can burn them onto a CD and save them that way.

[Theraven]

It's probably memory.

My one family used to take like a half hour or more to go up to 4 or 5 loading bars and then just close down with a window that says, "Windows is low on memory. The system may close various applications to get more," or something like that. How many families are slow for you?

my computer does that nearly every time I play sims. it does not close down my game, though. I have to put down the game, unclick the message, and then I can play again (after waiting for the ¤&%&% blue screen/hour glass to go away). sometimes the game actually runs a bit faster after doing it.

I usually delete the groups /accessory files everytime I play.

[MaryH]

I have that message pop up every so often-and because I have the game in windowed mode, it doesn't shut it down-I just click the message to fade out. It is not just the extra files that have been created-it is the basic memory your computer has-I have only the bare minimum to actually run the game (and I am getting more, eventually) that slows it down.
As they say, more is better. Eliminating groups cache and accessory cache is some help, but the basic memory has to be larger to have those messages stop.

[playerbilly2000]

it took me 45 minutes to load with 5 people
and i have freetime and uninstalled it
even i have no cc