Problem with new vid card

[Ldyvamp]

I can only play my sims 2 game for so long before the monitor turns completely blue and the game stops responding. I got a geforce 6200 vid card today and don't know if the way that I have my color options set within it is causing this. Can someone help me figure out what settings are best?

[caffeinated.joy]

I'm not familiar with the card, but I would make sure you completely removed the drivers for your old card, and then make sure the drivers for your new card are updated...they aren't necessarily sold with the most updated versions.

[rwills]

Ah, the dreaded nVidia Blue Screen.

First the bad news: There is nothing yet available that will end or fix the problem altogether.

However, there are some steps you can take that will help prolong game play until the prob shows up.

I use the same card (GeForce 6200), and the steps outlined below have helped somewhat, especially in having the first instance of the blue screen be able to eventually reset itself and get back to the game long enough to Save and Quit.

First, get the latest driver for the card, uninstall the old driver and install the newest one. If you have WinXP, that is this one:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html

If not WinXP, go here:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

and look under your operating system for the latest drivers.

Periodically check in at nVidia to see if there are even newer drivers available.

Also follow the instructions in Solution A --Make It Permanent, here:

http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:nVidia_Blue_Screen_Issue

Also, in the graphic options, set some of the items from High to Medium. I've found that setting Textures to Medium does help a bit, but your mileage may vary dependent on your computer, your EPs and the sheer amount of stuff to be displayed in any house or lot. Turning off outside shadows has also helped, but even so the blue screen eventually occurs.

Last but not least, clean dust from your computer, both on the outside of the vents and inside the case. Heat build-up on the card as it is stressed by game play can trigger the blue screen as well.

I do not have Vista but if you do, setting the game's compatibility to XP should help a bit, too.

As well, in case you, for instance, have any Windows downloads pending, anti-virus updates to install, or anything else that will trigger a nag balloon in an icon in the system tray or a nag screen alert, take care of that before playing. Those ragga-fragga balloons alone can trigger the blue screen.

EDIT: Oh, two more things.

1) Try to remember to Save the game just after 6 p.m. in Sims time, as that is when scads of things are reset or updated by the game itself.

2) If a character has an age transition coming up shortly, Save, Quit and then after your hard drive has stopped doing its thing, start anew, as the age transitions do seem to stress the card as well.

[Ldyvamp]

That's weird when I went into update driver it said that it could not find any better than what I am using but the date on that driver said 4/19/2007 and the one you gave me for xp was july 2008. Thanks for that direct link. I am downloading it now. I also, just upgraded the memory to 2 gigs and got a 500watt power supply. So, the computer is very clean inside. Since you have the same card I was wondering if you could help me out with the vid cards options. I have no idea on what the best settings would be. In appearance & themes under display settings the screen res. is set to 1024x768 at 32 bit color. My only other options are: 800x600 or 960x600 for res. and if I choose one of these it distorts my desktop. My other color option is 16 bit mediem. Now when I go into settings advanced it pops up the options for the vid card itself. Here are my settings: In performance & quality the image settings are at high quality. In color correction they are: vibrance low, bright 98%, contrast 112%, gamma 0.97 and image sharp is at the halfway mark. In temprature I'm running at 42c and the threshold is 130c. In screen resolution tab it is 1024x768 color 32bit with 70 hertz refresh rate. What should I change these each of these settings to? I'd really appreciate some help with the settings. I thought this card was going to solve all my problems I had before...meh

[rwills]

I'd say keep it at 1024x768 and 32-bit, and keep the vid card settings as they are, that is to say at default. Changing any of those parameters will have no discernible affect one way or another insofar as the blue screen goes. That glitch is just an unofrtunate factor of Sims2 and many nVidia cards not playing well together (both EA/Maxis and nVidia have acknowledged the existence of the conflct, but neither has actually ever offered anything which fully resolves it). The only settings I'd recommend fiddling with are the in-game options - not the resolution but rather experimenting with setting some of the options that are set at High to Medium. Again, bumping down the Texture option a notch has helped out a little on my system.

As mentioned before, there are some things you can do to help get more game play in before the blue screen shows up, but there is nothing whatsoever that will stop it from happening now and again regardless.

Admittedly the blue screen (especially when it doesn't eventually pop back to the game but rather just crashes) is an annoyance, but one many nVidia card users just have to become resigned to. Sometimes I get no more than 10 or 15 minutes of game play in; sometimes it runs smoothly for hours and hours, but happen it eventually does.

The only other advice I can readily offer is to shut down your anti-virus program before playing -- especially if you are using Norton, as Norton anti-virus has been demonstrated to accelerate the occurrence of the blue screen. (I use AVG free version slightly modified with a custom install for anti-virus and whether on or off, it doesn't seem to matter insofar as the blue screen goes.)

If it'll help, here's a link to a Google search on the situation -- likely, you'll get the same recommendations already outlined here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sims2+nvidia+%22blue+screen%22&btnG=Google+Search

For whatever consolation it may be, you're not alone:

http://sumomo.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:nVidia_Blue_Screen_Issue/Cards

[Ldyvamp]

Thanks so much for all this info. you don't know how much I appreciate it.I got more help here then Nvidia's own forum. You guys are the best! Yes, that is one thing I always do is shut down my virus protection. If I don't my game won't even load. Thanks again

[Ldyvamp]

I updated to that new driver you suggested and used the use shader cheat for the game. I was able to play for about two hours but all thw while I was experiencing a flashing. It would go black and come back. This happened the whole time I was playing. I have all the graphics setting to low expect sim/object detail & texture is at medium. I decided to see if it would work with the shaders on again and it crashed, so i definitly have to have that turned off to play. Now, to get rid of this flashing?

[rwills]

You can safely bump up what is now set to Low to Medium. Did neglect to mention that there is also a setting with a vertical slider control as well. Keep that one all the way up at the top (or else very, very near to the top). See if that alleviates the flashing you're experiencing. If not, look for the 'Outside Shadows' setting (I think that's what it is called - don't have the game running here at the moment - it isn't he one labeled 'Sim Shadows' it is whichever other setting has the word Shadows in it - it may be in game options rather than graphic options - I simply don't recall without looking at the game in action) and set that to Off. That will almost surely fix the dark flashing right up.

My settings: Texture at Medium, everything else at High, vertical slider all the way at the top, whatver theat other Shadows setting is called set to Off, everything else with an On/Off setting set to default, Lot Fade set to the middle setting.

Sorry if I seem unclear about what each setting is actually named, but my  memory isn't what it used to be.

[Ldyvamp]

Thanks very much and don't worry mine isn't either..it's hell to get old I found out it was that driver that was causing the flashing. I had to go back to the original one to get it to stop. Next mystery... I am trying to find the exact driver I need cause in reading this thread: http://www.sims2community.com/2007/0...driver-update/ "There is a new set of drivers from nVidia which seem to address the blue screen of death crashing problems that some folks have had. If you’ve been experiencing such problems go read more here" and it won't take me to the link. I am running windows xp & it is the PCI bus 1, device 4, function 0. Can someone please save my sanity and help me get an exact link to the driver I need? I have been at this since 8am!

[SimBud]

I don't know what kind of computer you use, but I'm assuming you have a similar setup to my Dell Dimension E521 which came with a nVidia (6200, I believe, not sure) and only provides a single PCI slot for additional video cards. I run XP on 32-bit setting, with the same resolution and other settings you do. I immediately knew that I wanted a driver that gave me optimal video performance and have installed the best single-slot PCI card and driver available for my unit, so I installed an ATI Radeon x1650 PRO, which runs on 512 MB DDR2 memory (most single-slot offerings seem to run on 264 MB that I found compatible with my machine). Most of the other 512MB cards I checked out needed two PCI slots with a vent on the upper slot, a slot which does not exist on my processor.
My suggestion is to check with your computer manufacturer on card compatibility and go with the best 512 MB PCI video card and newest driver for the card that is available for your particular processor. If you do decide to get something similar to mine, my only other suggestion is to keep the processor cool and well ventilated to prolong the card's life.

Here is a link to the card I have installed:

<http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1650/radeonX1650pro/index.html

[Trepie22]

It might be this link Ldyvamp:
http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:nVidia_Blue_Screen_Issue

[Around solution B]

[rwills]

I don't know what kind of computer you use, but I'm assuming you have a similar setup to my Dell Dimension E521 which came with a nVidia (6200, I believe, not sure) and only provides a single PCI slot for additional video cards. I run XP on 32-bit setting, with the same resolution and other settings you do. I immediately knew that I wanted a driver that gave me optimal video performance and have installed the best single-slot PCI card and driver available for my unit, so I installed an ATI Radeon x1650 PRO, which runs on 512 MB DDR2 memory (most single-slot offerings seem to run on 264 MB that I found compatible with my machine). Most of the other 512MB cards I checked out needed two PCI slots with a vent on the upper slot, a slot which does not exist on my processor.
My suggestion is to check with your computer manufacturer on card compatibility and go with the best 512 MB PCI video card and newest driver for the card that is available for your particular processor. If you do decide to get something similar to mine, my only other suggestion is to keep the processor cool and well ventilated to prolong the card's life.

Here is a link to the card I have installed:

<http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1650/radeonX1650pro/index.html

Fine and dandy if one's computer can handle it. Way beyond mine's specs. Highest level it can carry is a 256 card into an AGP 8x slot. The 6200 is actually an upgrade from the factory chipset which I installed about 6 months ago, and for 99% of uses it operates like a dream - the only discrepancy is with Sims2 (in fact, was aware of the potential prob before purchasing it), and I can readily live with that.

[rwills]

Thanks very much and don't worry mine isn't either..it's hell to get old I found out it was that driver that was causing the flashing. I had to go back to the original one to get it to stop. Next mystery... I am trying to find the exact driver I need cause in reading this thread: http://www.sims2community.com/2007/0...driver-update/ "There is a new set of drivers from nVidia which seem to address the blue screen of death crashing problems that some folks have had. If you’ve been experiencing such problems go read more here" and it won't take me to the link. I am running windows xp & it is the PCI bus 1, device 4, function 0. Can someone please save my sanity and help me get an exact link to the driver I need? I have been at this since 8am!

Note the words "seems to"- there isn't a driver which solves it, period. Any newer driver will also incorporate improvements or additions from earlier versions, so the latest one is the way to go.

Sorry to hear the newest one didn't work out for you -- did you completely uninstall the old one first? And also, did you turn off running processes such as anti-virus before uninstalling the old and installing the new one?

Try installing the new one while in Safe Mode as opposed to regular start-up (keep tapping the F8 key during start-up or else choose Safe Mode from the options screen - don't be shocked stat-up takes longer than usual and also if your screen looks odd while in Safe Mode, that is normal and expected), then Restart back to a normal start-up and see if that helps.

One other thing comes to  mind and that is if you have Gunmod's Radiance Lighting mod or the Scriptorium or any other lighting mods, remove them and check the gameplay then.

[rwills]

Must have been having an extended senior moment.

Just fired up my game for the first time in about three weeks and realized that the instructions I'd offered regarding Shadows are not in the in-game options, but rather something I'd added to the userstartup.cheat file.

Besides the boolprop useShaders false in that file as recommended, add an additional line to the userstartup.cheat file:

boolprop objectShadows false

THAT is what fixed the black/gray flashing which I was experiencing, the same symptom as you reported.

Profuse apologies for not remembering precisely where that fix was. That is the boolprop cheat which removes the shadows on objects outside the house.

Also checked my in-game settings and realized the Graphic Effects is also set to Medium.

[Ldyvamp]

Thanks very much for the tips everyone! It's much appreciated! turning the shaders off on the original driver I had works. I will download the updated one and use your suggestion about the objects shadows, and see if that works also. BTW is there a program that cleans the remenents of old drivers off? I think I got everything off but, I'd like to be 100% sure. Thanks!