My Game Is Not Running Right

[PrincessIsabelle]

I am having touble running my game. When i load the game and go into a town everything thing is find. When i go to create a family things don't go well it sometimes works other times it freezes. My notebook is dell inspiron 1525. Memory and hard drive space is not a issue. I have alot of both. I just don't get it. I have no hacks in my game. Just custom content with clothes, eyes, skintones, brows and makeup all of witch works with all eps. My notebook is 3 weeks old. I am really confused. My other notebook runs it just fine. My 1525 was custom build for my sims. Here is my current system configuration

General Information
Computer Model Inspiron 1525
BIOS Vendor Dell Inc.
BIOS Version A11
BIOS Date 03-10-08
Windows Version Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium

Processor
Manufacturer Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual  CPU  T2370  @ 1.73GHz
Clock Speed 1.8GHz
L2 Cache Size 1024

Storage
Drive Type Drive Size Total Available Space Used Space
C: NTFS 285.7Gb 222.8Gb 62.97Gb
D: NTFS 9.765Gb 5.289Gb 4.475Gb

Hopefully that will help. Every else you need just ask me. Oh yeah i only gave you what i think you needed. Hopefully someone can help me

[Theraven]

sure you don't have a download that is messing with your game? that's the number one problem when it comes to game troubles (and yes, that goes for clothing/meshes/hairs too). try seeing if CAS works correctly if you take out all your downloads.

[PrincessIsabelle]

i will try that raven

[PrincessIsabelle]

i tried it raven and it still does the same thing

[Prudensh]

Which Eps do you have?

And very important- what video card?

[PrincessIsabelle]

I have all of the eps and where do i find my video card

[Prudensh]

Open display settings by clicking the Start button , click Control Panel, click Appearance and Personalization, click Personalization, and then click Display Settings.


Supported video cards for Freetime and Vista are:

ATI Radeon(TM) series 8500 or better (9600 or greater required for Vista)

NVIDIA GeForce series GeForce2 GTS and better (GeForce 6200 or greater required for Vista)
 

GeForce 2, 2 GTS
GeForce 3, 3 Ti
GeForce 4, 4 Ti, 4200, 4600, 4800, MX 420, 440, 460
GeForce FX 5200, 5500, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
GeForce PCX 5300, 5900
GeForce 6200, 6600, 6800
GeForce 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
S3 GammaChrome
S18 Pro
S18 Ultra
Intel(R) Extreme Graphics (see note below)
82865, 82915 and above

NOTE: If you have a non-T&L capable video card, such as Intel Extreme Graphics, then you need at least a 2.4 GHz processor.

According to the official site you also need a 2.0 Ghz processor if running Vista+Freetime.

[PrincessIsabelle]

mobile intel 965 express chipset family

This is a notebook computer

[Prudensh]

Okay so the bottom line is your processor is a bit below the minimum requirements for Freetime and you have onboard graphics, which isn't really designed for gaming. You might find help regarding your graphics here: http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Onboard_Graphics

I hope that helps but inevitably unless you upgrade (don't know if that's possible with a notebook) you will probably have issues with Freetime.  

[PrincessIsabelle]

This notebook is 3 weeks old. I spend good money on it

[Prudensh]

You have my sympathy. But if your Notebook was sold to you on the premise that it would be able to play the Sims 2 & expansions with no problems, and if it was 'custom built' to do just that, I'd think you'd have a good argument for a refund.

[crandor123]

mobile intel 965 express chipset family

This is a notebook computer

Your core duo processor is fine (even if its specs are a bit low) for the sims + all the expansions (I play the sims and all expansions including FT on my sony VIAO which has the exact same processor, but I have a real separate video chipset), but the on board video might pose a problem because the on board video depends heavily on your CPU to help it render graphics.

According to the dell web site, if you have a brand new 1525 you have a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 which is not directly listed so it might not have enough power to run the sims and all the expansions with even the basic standard settings enabled (like reflections and shadows, etc).  I see there is a brand new driver from 5/12/08. Have you installed that?  Also I see that the notebook displays 1280x800 but since its a built in video processor you should first try to play without all the bells and whistles turned on.  Try turning off shadows, etc to get reduce the load on your video card and see if that makes a difference in the playing speed.  If it does then you know you're on the right track.