I think I tracked down the cause of my problem and my mother's. It's actually the latest drivers version that's conflicting. It's the only thing I can come up with. Here's the story: my mother has a new windows installation. She installed the sims 2 and university. They ran perfectly apart from a few graphic glitches that should be solved by updating the drivers.

I updated the drivers and promptly Sims 2 refuses to function at all. The new drivers are the only thing that changed so it's got to be that. I already submitted a question to NVidia, so here's hoping.

More proof that the drivers caused the problem: removed the new drivers, installed the old ones from the disc that came with the card and miracle of miracles, it works! So I think this problem is now solved 

I'm afraid so. Luckily we have a friendly geek (my dad) and he's wiped my mother's entire computer clean as she has the same problem but not nearly as much documents that need to be saved as I do. Her sims is running again now. What might be interesting to note is that the hard drive used solely for the Sims 2 games, as it wasn't such a big one, appeared to have some hidden files stuck on it that could only be removed by erasing the partitions on the drive all together. I don't know if it was the sims or something else, but I thought it was interesting.

Thank you for all the trouble you've gone through, I really appreciate it. I did everything you said (I really like that Wise Registry Cleaner, by the way) but it still didn't work. I installed the base game and it is still not starting. I get the splash screen and it tries to connect to the internet, which I denied, and absolutely nothing happens afterward.

I am well and truly stumped. Thank you for all your help. I must be quite annoying with the constant 'I tried is but it didn't work' routine. I'm sorry for that.

Thank you. I already had CCleaner but I usually use EasyClean to keep my registry in check. It did find some things, but unfortunately when I tried to re install (which worked) the base game, I tried to start it and unfortunately I had no luck. But thank you for your suggestion!

I think that I'll go try and install it on a my E instead of G drive and see if that makes any difference. This is all very weird.

ETA: Just tried it, didn't work. I think that that narrows my problem down to the C drive itself.

That was one of the first things I actually did, inspect the disks, clean them if they needed it. There were not cracks or anything.

I have noticed something when I tried reinstalling (again) the sims 2 just now, actually: http://i34.tinypic.com/30mpdgy.jpg While I do have Ikea, I removed it when I uninstalled all my games. I also followed the tutorial on removing the infernal DRM from my computer. I can't find any of the files on my computer so I'm beginning to suspect there are some hidden files I didn't find.

There is also now a problem with my mother's sims game. The same I experienced, actually. She tries to start her game (FreeTime) and all she gets is an error sound with nothing else happening. We have separate computers but we do have a network connecting each other in the home.

So I'm begging. Anyone who might know how to fix this, please help. My mother scares me when she can't get her daily sims dose (okay, maybe not, but she gets very cranky when things don't go her way).

Thank you for your reply. I did what you suggested but unfortunately it didn't work. I still can't start my game up. I get the initial Sims 2 logo - it flashes by too quickly to get a proper screencap - but then it does absolutely nothing. At least I can uninstall the game again so I guess that's one bit of progress so far.

But thank you for your help.

After not playing the Sims 2 for a long time, I decided to start it up again. Unfortunately, my game seemed to decide otherwise. I got the error sound, but no message ever popped up and it simply did nothing afterward. I followed the provided tutorial on fixing the problem but it did nothing. I removed all my custom content. I removed my saved sims folder. I even removed all the userfiles as suggested and still to the same effect.

Left with no other option, I tried unstalling the game and discovered that that function also no longer worked. In order to still remove the game, I did it manually through a tutorial and then went about installing it again after defragmenting my drive.

Installing the base game went like a dream, but when trying to install University this happened: http://i34.tinypic.com/hskxtz.jpg

The same happened with Nightlife, H&M Fashion Stuff and Celebration Stuff. Not only that, but the game will not start. Not even after a fresh re-install and no alterations to the game file itself. I am well and truly stumped. Can someone help me on this one? It's not gone beyond just wanting to play the sims. It's a matter of pride!  

My system specifications:
AMD Sempron Processor LE-1250 (2.2 GHz)
2,0 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Windows XP

Hale looks so sweet, xangelx

It doesn't happen outside of the game, not even when I'm rendering a big 3d scene. I replaced my power supply half a year ago with a newer one. I'm not quite certain what it is. I played for about three hours yesterday and it didn't happen and this included going to community lots and playing at a university dorm.

It's... weird.

I have Windows XP.
I have University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time and Appartmentlife. I think that the problems started after I patched Appartmentlife.
I have at the moment 1 GB of Ram, on the back of the Appartment Life box said that that was needed.
DirectX has been updated.
My videocard has 512 MB memory.

Hi,

It appears I've got a slight issue with my sims game. Don't bite my head off if it's already dealt with on another site because I tried googling it but came up with zilch. Basically, after a random amount of time, not even all the times that I play, my screen will flash to black for less than a second and then come back, which is slightly disturbing. Without fail, after this, half the textures in my game decide that they don't need to be fixed to one spot. I've had textures for maxis beds turn up on custom hair. I've had sims suddenly get wood textures and even the control panel gets patches of other textures spread out over it.

I have re-installed my game and it happens all the same. I've checked all my hacks but they're all up to date. It's happened on university dorms but also in a private home with just two sims living there. My game is fully patched and my graphics card is an NVidia GeForse 8600 GT with up-to-date drivers.

Does anyone have an idea? Because it's kinda weirding me out here.

Thanks,

Hag.

The fact that one of my couples has now had five sons, even with rolling the dice, even with twins and even an adoption did not bring any girls.

Or how every time I want to start the game it decides that there is a conflict with emulation software the first time around but when I start again it's all peachy and dandy. EVERY SINGLE TIME. 

vickylougrl, I love Sela. She has such a wonderful round face and innocent look about her.


She's always pulling one face or another. 

Hello,

I would be Hag. I earned the nickname during the very, very short time that I taught a high school class as part of a course and it stuck. I'm a soon-to-be 22 sims player. I'm not much when it comes to creation. I like to play around a little with my DazStudio and make 3d pictures.

English is my second language so if I make grammatical mistakes or spelling errors please point them out to me so I can improve my grasp of the language.

If there is anything you'd like to know, just ask and you might get an answer 

Hag.