Insimenator.org

I've seen a couple of threads here that are similar to my problems, but I thought I'd go ahead and make a new one. Sorry for that if it turns out to be the same thing.

My problem is that I start up the game, load a household and play for a few minutes (sometimes 5 minutes or so, but the last time was about 20-30 minutes), and then the computer reboots itself. I log back in, and an error message pops up telling me there was a serious error. These are screenshots of the error message.

(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=51267&stc=1&d=1167554732)
(http://www.insimenator.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=51268&stc=1&d=1167554732)

The first pic...I found the file and moved it to my desktop (didn't delete it out of fear of messing something up). Second one I didn't even try.

Any ideas? This is a brand spanking new gaming computer. I don't know all the specs, but I can find that out tomorrow (later today I guess lol) when my husband is awake. He knows that stuff, and I'm just a dumb chick. ;) I really hope I can get this fixed because the main reason he bought me this new computer is to play the Sims. Please help! I'll bake you some cookies! lol

**see my last post

*attached image removed*

Kari,

When I rebuilt my computer a few months ago I had the exact same problem.  I could play for seconds or hours and *wham!* reboot.  The problem persisted for several days and then went away and never came back.

I'm trying to think. I thought it was the video cards doing it. I have dual BFG Geforce cards (256MB RAM each) and one was bad when I got it and I had all sorts of problems getting them to work in tandem, but I think that ultimately it was a bad USB port that was causing it (short maybe?).  I got a 1.1 usb light on a flexible cord a job expo and it worked great, but when I filled up the other 3 usb ports with flash drives and my dvd burner the computer went berzerk.  When I removed the light and only used certain ports the problem stopped.

It may have been purely coincidental that it behaved at the same time I removed it, but check your USB ports and remove everything and see if the problem persists.  If not, then add them back until it comes back and you'll know where the problem is.  If it persists without anything in the usb ports, then i don't think I can help you on this Kari.

Good luck.

The good old spontaneous reboot :D  I'm sure you've got the latest video drivers installed.  Have you run Chkdsk to make sure all files are present and correct?  And you could try downloading CrapCleaner from here (http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/) - the issues section finds anything causing problems but it's wise to make a backup before dealing with the issues.

Hehe Jay :)

I had similar problem and running that issues thingie that Jay recommends seems to help,

I still wonder though why was it happening - my compie was rebooting when I put any cd in the cd-rom...

I'll check and make sure my video drivers are the latest, and check the other stuff. It was custom built though, and brand new so there shouldn't be any errors.
Here's the specs

graphics- dual nVidia 7600 GT, SLI mode 512MB each

Ok silly suggestion maybe but did you made sure your power supply is powerful enough for all the stuff you have?

MisDoh,  I got a 550w to power everything and then bought a 350w UPS. D'oh!

Kari, I built my computer from scratch with all new parts, and I had the same problem.  Custom built new is only as good as the hardware, software, and builder. And the fickle-finger-of-fate of course. Since you went the SLI route same as me, are there any parts that are NOT SLI compatible?  I got the MB, video cards, case, and power supply all SLI compliant.  I don't think I got the RAM compliant because it was twice the cost. MisDoh makes a valid point though. SLI requires more power (so they say) and you have very powerful video cards, requiring lots of power.

I'm pretty sure my husband bought a new power supply thing, but not positive. I'll ask him later. He had a headache caused by our monster children LOL and went to bed. I do know he was talking up getting an UPS too, but he hasn't done that yet.

But that makes me wonder. I have most of the graphics settings in the game turned up higher now since I figured the new 'puter could handle it. Could that cause this problem? The refresh setting in the game is still set at 60 too.

BTW, I started the game up again just a little while ago, and it did the same thing. I have no problems in the neighborhood screen, or in CAS. Just while actually playing. At least I can still make clothes and test them. LOL

Update. I ran the crap cleaner, but still having the same problem. So, I'll keep trying stuff. I'm starting to get really bummed. The whole purpose of this new computer is my game.

When I first got my new computer, I had a problem with the game stopping at random points when running Pets.  It was some built in nVidia board;  I can't remember the model now but it had 256 mb memory.  I then pulled my ATI card from the computer that stopped on me, installed it and have had no problems since.

Assuming you can't exchange the vid cards, I'd try stepping back a driver or two rather than the lastest.  You might lose some whistles and bells, but you didn't buy that computer to hear a band, but play the game :D

Thank ancient. Husband is awake now, and he's going to install earlier drivers now. We'll see.

I am having the same problem. I have a good system and just recently completely formatted and reinstalled my OS. After doing so I made sure to get all my updated drivers for all my hardware. I was having the issue prior to the format and was hoping that a clean system with all updated drivers would help. It didn't. Whats really depressing is I inevitably lose time when it happens. I save once maybe twice and then it will happen. Once it happend while I was saving. Anyway I am trying to clear out my downloads folder some in the hopes that that will help. I am thinking perhaps the shear size of it might be contributing to the problem.
Just a question but is your downloads folder large? Mine is huge...I am actually a bit embarrassed to admit how huge. I am such an addict.
Speaking of cleaning my downloads folder out does anyone know if there is an app out there for the sims2 that you can run and delete files in that will tell you if those files are being used in your game or not? Basically thats my biggest problem with trying to get rid of some of my extraneous crap. I am afraid that the objects/hairs/eyes/skins/ etc... might be being used by someone or some thingand that when I delete them it will mess up a lot or a sim. Generally when I make custom sims I lik them and would not like to have them inadvertantly altered by a deletion of some genetic they were using. So an app that would warn me I was about to get rid of something that was being used would be really nice.
Back to the issue at hand I really do think my problem stems at least partially from my giant downloads folder(okay, okay it is currently like 10.4 gigs I am so ashamed). I think it just bogs down my system when I run the game and eventually due to lack of system resources wham spontaneous reboot. Of course i definately could be(and probably am) wrong but it is my current theory none the less. Oh I have over 300 gigs of harddrive space my OS drive is partitioned and is only like 42 gigs. I have a 2.5 gigahertz processor, ati radeon pro 9800 with 256 vid ram, 1 gig(yes two matched sticks) of dual channel ram. So my system while not top of the line does not suck.

It has happened to me while saving too. In fact it did the last time, but I haven't loaded the game again yet to see if it actually DID save. My download folder is close to 7gig I think, but I'm sure there are plenty of people with alot more than you and I have. I'm a download addict too!

Love your idea for a program! That would be great! I've got a lot of stuff I could easily get rid of, but I'm afraid to do it. And I can't always tell what is what with clean installer.

Wicca, I think you're on your own as far as determining what you are using or not.  I've heard of no program that can tell you.

In your case, the size of the downloads could be the problem.  In addition to weeding out some of that unused stuff, you might consider adding more RAM to your system.  I just recently picked up 2 gb for $99 a gig, so it's really not outrageous.  If fact I think that's a damn good price :D

maybe someone will make such a program...just for download addicts who are afraid to delete content for fear of messing with in game sims and lots.
One can dream cant one?

well if you both want to see if the problem is caused by your huge Downloads folders (I have a kick @ss computer and I wouldn't play with that much custom content)

Just move your Downloads folder to your desktop and load the game, start a new hood (that way you won't mess up your main hoods) and play for a while see if you still have the rebooting problem.

usually this is caused by a fan dying or in the process of dying on the video card or the CPU.  Check both with the bonnet of the case if it is a tower system - if they both turn freely and are spic-and-span clean -- then it may be something far darker (like a heat fractured motherboard, dying hard drive, bad RAM, etc.

Oh crap, that sounds scary. But I will check it out.

btw, I just tried running the game again, and still the same crapola. It just gives different numbers or whatnot.

*well, I got the idea to try it in a different drive.......and thought for a little while that it fixed the problem. I played for maybe 20-30 minutes, but then it rebooted on me. Gawd I want to cry and scream and throw things. I'm ready to sell my darn soul here.

It seems as though the problem is somewhere in my files, because the problem didn't happen playing on a totally clean (no custom content whatsoever) game. So now I just have to search the problem out.

*edit. Ok, that isn't the problem. It is a device driver error. So hopefully I can get it fixed now.

Well it seems that the problem IS somewhere in my downloads. I uninstalled and reinstalled the game today, and then played for a little while before putting any custom stuff in. No problems. So I began adding a little at a time and testing. I'm not exactly sure yet where the problem is, but I have found a few probabilities. It has only crashed twice today, and the first time I seem to have gotten rid of whatever was causing it. The second time I'm not sure yet. I haven't tested again yet after removing a few things. Time to come back to it tomorrow refreshed. LOL

Just a few minutes ago though, it occured to me to get the updated CEP. So maybe that will help too. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will have it fixed and can at least give a general idea of how or why.

My problem is possibly resolved, but more likely just a temp fix. Anyway, I added 1.5GB of ram to my computer, and was able to play yesterday for 5 hours without crashing.

Karial - this is going to sound a little stupid, but I assume you have all the EPs, Stuff Packs, and a bunch of gigabytes of downloads, right?  EVerything I read on the Maxis/EA site says 512 MB of RAM should be sufficient, but I have never been able to get the game to do little better than crawl with 256-512 MB of RAM.  The install of base game with all eps and stuff packs  is close to 7 gigabytes, and that seems like a LOT to be riding on 512 MB of RAM, so I really don't know where Maxis/EA is buying their test computers, but I sure want one.

Thats really good news for you Karial, and I think I fixed my problem the same way. Well sorta anyway. My husband got me new comp parts for both Christmas and then my birthday(which isnt quite here yet but I couldn't wait to put my new system together until the 10th) so I just upgraded my entire system. Besides having 2 gigs of dual channel ddr2 ram I am also running an AMD dual core 4600+ processor and an ATI radeon x1300 XGE vid card with 512 ram all sitting pretty on an MSI K9A platinum mainboard. My game runs without a hitch now. Still a bit slow to load but game play is smooth and fast. Once past the initial loading of the game neighborhoods, CAS, and lots all load pretty quickly and best of all no crashes since the upgrade. Currently I have been going through my content and trying to delete stuff just because there is new stuff I want to put in and I am forcing myself to get rid of at least a gig of content before I am allowed.